Joe_Carrick Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Take a look at the pic. This shows in a Schedule as a Single Unit. In Plan it has a Single Label. It's not an Architectural Block. How did I accomplish this? I'm off to bed for the night - I'll be back in the morning to see if anyone has the right answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Is it a symbol? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARCHIJEF2000 Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Hi Joe, hope you slept well, now you can work on those floating knobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcaffee Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 I'll go with symbol as well. jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_Gavin Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 I'm with the obvious as well.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 Yes, it's a symbol, but how was it created as a Cabinet? It can be stretched, without affecting the hardware. It can have a Sink placed in it. The Counter Top can be changed (edge moldings, material, etc) The Cabinet Materials (Cabinet, Doors, Drawers, Hardware can all be edited in the dbx) In short, it's a Cabinet.- how did I create as a single unit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Did you start with 3 cabinets or only 1 cabinet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Maybe the drawers and doors are one symbol. Can you change the number of drawers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution glennw Posted June 22, 2014 Solution Share Posted June 22, 2014 I think you exported it as probably a .3ds model and then imported it back into Chief. This allows you to save it as a cabinet symbol (base, wall or full height) where it has all the typical cabinet parameters and it acts just like a Chief typical cabinet.. You don't get all these choices if you try and save it as a straight symbol directly in Chief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 I started with 3 cabinets The number of drawers are fixed. There are 3 ways to accomplish this: 1. Configure it from 3 Cabinets (actually, 2,3,4,..... will work) and then Convert it to a Furniture Symbol. That will show up in the Furniture Schedule. 2. Same as above but suppress the Countertop - export to 3Ds - Import as a Cabinet Symbol 3. Create the Geometry (3D Planes) for all the Cabinet Elements (Cab Box, Doors, Drawers, Toe Kick) - export to 3Ds - Import as Cabinet Symbol. The last is the most comprehensive but also the most difficult to achieve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Yes, really, I was going to say all that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 And what is the advantage of doing this vs 3 cabinets? Is it so it is listed only once in cabinet schedule? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 And what is the advantage of doing this vs 3 cabinets? Is it so it is listed only once in cabinet schedule? Yep! Most Cabinet Mfr provide such cabinets as single units. Even vanity units purchased at the big box stores can have such unique configurations - and more. Chief allows us to do 1,2 & 3 column faces but doesn't allow different things within those columns - nor does it allow the columns to be different widths - all of which is available from the Cabinet Mfrs. I can order from my supplier virtually any combination of doors, drawers and openings - but Chief can't match what I can order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryT Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Hmmm -- Soooo - What's the advantage of making a symbol over a architectural block which can also be listed as single item in a schedule and can also have all components listed ( for ordering info) in the component DBX and in the material list? What did I miss?/ -- Again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryT Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Yeks-- Just found out what I missed!! Wondering if we can get this bug fixed in less than the standard 10 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 Gerry, I assume that you just found out that an Architectural Block doesn't show up in the Schedule as a single Cabinet. I'm actually surprised that you didn't know that - it's always been that way. Here's an example of a Front Frame that I can order from my supplier (custom) but only slightly more than a stock cabinet of the same size. If the Cabinet Companies can make it - Chief should be able to draw it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryT Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Don't use arch blocks in schedules. Actually the problem is that it does show up as a single cabinet in schedules and but then loses all its components for the material/component list. I said Yeeks because individual components can be easily turned off if one doesn't want them to show up in ML. Makes no sense to me except another dumb limitation which prevents huge possibilities. Seems like another easy fix that won't happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennw Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 In relation to cabinets specifically, we have a lot more flexibility when importing a .3ds than when creating a symbol directly in Chief. Why is it so? We should have the same options when creating a cabinet symbol directly in Chief as we do when importing a .3ds - that was probably created in Chief anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Glenn, There are some problems when importing 3DS Cabinets. The way the import works is that it analyzes different material objects and allows you to assign them as: Cabinet Box Door Drawer Toe Kick I've yet to figure out exactly how to define the Toe Kick so that it works. Additionally, if you simply use an Exported Cabinet to import the Doors and Drawers wind up being perpendicular to the face of the cabinet. The Doors and Drawers need to be 3D Faces in order to be properly shown as Doors or Drawers in the imported Cabinet - and you better have those Faces oriented in the proper direction or the cabinet hardware will be inside the cabinet instead of outside. In short, creating Cabinet Symbols in Chief is extremely difficult to get right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KilgoreTrout Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 I would use an arch block. It's trivial to make it have one label and show up in the cabinet schedule and I don't often use the material list. I can then explode it, make changes, and re-block it whenever needed. I have played around with cabinet symbols in the past and found that they are way more work then I want to do. They are also very difficult to setup and unless you do everything just right you will have problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJSpud Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Joe: Thanks for all your time and effort on sorting this out. I hope the Chief programmers do something about this as it would be a lot easier for us to be able to create cabinets within Chief such as the one you show. After reading all this, I think I am going to keep on using separate cabinets as I have been doing all along, but add a footnote below the schedule to put the Owners, GC and/or cabinet builder on notice that combining individual cabinets into one cabinet may be possible/acceptable with Owners' approval. Great thread ... and good comments from others as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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