Category: Version 4 Video

This is an introduction to holes and hole cloning in SketchList 3D cabinet design software.

This is a very useful feature if you are using shelf pins in your cabinetry. The basic process is to take a board and insert a hole at your first location.

When the hole is set up the way you want exit the form.  Next click on the edit holes button.  When the hole spreadsheet opens right-click on the row containing information about the hole you want to clone.  Pick clone and space from the menu list that opens.

Enter the number of holes you want to insert and the space between the holes.  Select if you want to clone horizontally or vertically.  You will see that SketchList 3D equally spaces those holes on the center line of the holes.   Exit the form.

At this point you might clone the existing holes but sometimes it is just easier to create another new hole for second line of shelf pin holes.

This basically involves repeating the process described above.

When finished do a ‘clone and mirror’ to make a mirror image copy with the shelf pin holes on the inside surface of the board.

Not limited to cabinet design software.  How Would You Like a TV, Painting,  or Fireplace..in your design?

Since I published the blog post showing and telling about William LaRue’s  built-in bookcases I’ve gotten several e-mails asking:  “Well how did he do that”?  First answer – he’s real smart.  Second answer – smart enough to buy SketchList 3D.

Well today I put together a video to show you at least in part how he did that.   His proposal to his client was very detail and very complex. The attached video shows how I took an image of a television and imported that image into SketchList 3D as a new material.

Then I took that material and set  its size  to 30 inches wide by 20 inches tall both in the horizontal and vertical scale section of the new material dialogue, and in the material size window.

Inserting a board into an assembly I picked the material called  TV for that board.  Using the flat orientation with the grain direction running top to bottom I size that board to be 20 inches tall and 30 inches deep.

You can see the result of the board in the image the top of this blog post.  The next steps had to do with putting on a black material as sides and back onto the television.

It’s really not that difficult and if you tried a few times you will get it.  When I first started this I had some of the grain directions incorrect and maybe the scaling factors were off a bit.  As I learned and adjusted it became almost trivial to create these objects.
It seems that you can do just about anything that has flat surface.   In fact for the stove that I have in my appliance library I used an image of the front of the stove for the front, and I took an image of a top of the stove with the burners and use that as the top of the stove.   Sandwiched between two base cabinets it looks very realistic.  So I guess like the headline says – SketchList 3D is really more than cabinet building software.  But of course it does that very well also.

When I get a bit more time I’m going to experiment taking some photos of objects with a green background.   My editing software allows me to then drop that green off so the image will stay with no background. I’m thinking of something like a trophy that you might put on the mantle or a mantle clock.

As we start planning for version 5 of SketchList 3D  it may very well be that we can have the ability to import real CAD files and create real 3-D objects in your cabinet design software.  The development jury is still debating that one.

Send me an e-mail and let me know how it goes.   Anyone else up for pasting a blog / story about SketchList 3D?