Creating Assemblies

The Assembly Creation screen may look complex at first, but it becomes intuitive quickly—especially for smart woodworkers like yourself. 

Assemblies are the core building blocks in SketchList. Once you fill them up with boards, they can be cloned, resized, moved around, and saved to your library for future projects.

Also, the same logic is used in the spreadsheet function for boards at the bottom of the screen. 

The Assembly Calculator defines three dimensions: Width, Height, and Depth. Each dimension is further defined by three numbers.

All three numbers are distances measured from the same origin — the left side (for width), the bottom side (for height), or the front side (for depth).

For example, for Width, the three boxes refer to:

• Left = distance from the assembly’s left edge to the board’s left edge.
• Width = how wide the board is.
• Right = distance from the assembly’s left edge to the board’s right edge.

So Left + Width = Right. 

Equivalent rules apply for:

Height: Bottom + Height = Top  

Depth: Front + Depth = Back

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When you change Width, Height, or Depth, SketchList needs to know which side of the object should move. The Assembly Calculator shows this by turning the affected dimensions into green buttons. Clicking one tells SketchList where the adjustment should come from.

Example: Your assembly has Bottom: 10 Height: 20 Top: 30

You change Height from 20 → 30.

Now Bottom and Top turn green—because either the bottom or top must shift to accommodate the new height.

• Click Bottom → SketchList lowers the object:
  Bottom: 0 Height: 30 Top: 30
• Click Top → SketchList raises the top:
  Bottom: 10 Height: 30 Top: 40