Drawing in Chief and Pricing in 2020

[Gravity58]

hi,

Does anyone know how to easily price out cabinets in 2020 after designing in chief architect? Currently, I have to physically list all of the cabinet parts into 2020 after spending hrs sometimes days drawing it in chief architect. A lot of room for errors there. There must be a better way to this so I figured i'll reach out to see if anyone ran into this issue and how they dealt with it. Perhaps there is way to import or export or a plug in or something which would make this process easier or seamless.. HELP!!!!!

[MarkMc]

@Gravity58

When I used 2020 for pricing, which was pretty rare-

In Chief:

1. have a library of cabinets for each brand that used the correct nomenclature. I would design with the generic cabinets from the build menu to get sizes only. Then used "replace B 16 1/2from library" to place the brand specific cabinets. You could also use drag and drop from the library if you prefer, just a bit more time consuming (I use hotkeys for the generic cabinets.
2. Your library of cabinets does not need to include every size if you set the labels to read the cabinet sizes with built in macros. Nor does it need to include the entire catalog. Just the most common and time consuming to configure-drawer bases, trash PO, other PO, micro cabinet, oven, fridge cabinet, side & end panels, oven cabinets, pantries, sink bases.... I set many at 15" wide since I rarely use anything narrower. Ovens, large drawer bases with mods, etc are set to the narrowest size I commonly use.
3. For those cabinets where I typically have modifications I include those in Custom Object Information fields.
4. For any mods that are common to ANY cabinet those are also in the OIP field and deleted if not needed. For instance I always use Flush Finished sides on exposed ends. So every cabinet in my library includes that mod for BOTH sides of the cabinet. I just go around and delete it where not needed. (Better to have an extra than to miss one, faster to delete than type)
5. Use a cabinet schedule kept in a CAD detail (not in the  plan) with appropriate columns to be printed.

When it comes time to use the info in 2020:

1. Go to the schedule and remove all the columns that are not needed. Typically you end up with number, label, mod, side finish (use a custom OIP for that), sometimes hinge though I rarely use that.
2. After removing un-needed fields select the schedule, copy. Go to a spreadsheet and use paste special. Go back to Chief and Undo to restore all fields.
3. It will take a bit of fiddling to figure out how best to use paste special in the spread sheet-there are posts by me back a ways in either Tips or Symbols on how to set that up.
4. NOTE you can use a simpler version and just grab the labels without the mods-that makes pasting a no brainer.

Now in 2020

1. Open an "Item list" (having set all your design pricing parameters already)
2. Lock (protect) the spreadsheet page
3. Place the spreadsheet either on a separate monitor or on right side of your screen, and 2020 on the primary monitor or the Left side of the screen.
4. Click a cell in the spreadsheet to highlight the label, drag over to the item list- Not the plan view-2020 will look up the price if you have the correct nomenclature IF it is off it won't. Extra spaces and such create problems.
5. If you have mods in columns you can crag those onto the selected cabinet. Editing quantities in the item list is easy enough so do that there rather than trying to move it over
6. Some things you just have to add manually or go through some other hoops -i.e modlings don't appear in schedules in a format that works (solution is a longer story-for now figure it out and add them)

In at least one of the posts I made in the past there is a video on doing this. Few years ago and I'm not much for doing vids so YMMV but worth a look.

 

Finally- I said that I rarely used 2020 for pricing. IF your brand has an online ordering system AND that system supports drag and drop (most do) you can use the same method to enter into that which is far more accurate and saves a step in the long run.

 

All this may sound a bit daunting but to encourage you. I can design faster, better, more accurately, with far better finished drawings and renderings in Chief than in 2020. Once you have cabinet libraries set up getting the pricing is very quick I could move a typical kitchen from Chief to an on line ordering system in between 15 minutes and half an hour. I had one hi-end brand who's on line system was more complicated where this did not work as well but then again they stopped supporting 2020 years ago.

[MarkMc]

1 hour ago, Gravity58 said:

easily price out cabinets in 2020 after designing in chief architec

I should mention an alternative that I've used with a brand that does not support 2020 and doesn't have an online ordering system. I first used this method when I was using 2020 for a brand that had an awful online system and where I could not trust 2020's pricing.

1. Set up a spreadsheet template to look like the companies order form-include formulas to multiply price per quantity and to total columns across sheets. Then just uUse the schedule, copy, paste special method to enter into that sheet (or drag and drop if you can't figure out paste special)
2. Get all info into the spreadsheet template
3. then just look up prices in the brands PDF catalog. It helps if either that catalog has really good bookmarks or you have a way to add your own.

There is a variation where you paste into a blank spreadsheet as an intermediate-sort by label, look up pricing and enter it into an appropriate column then sort by number and copy and paste into the spreadsheet order form. This allows you to look up prices by group-base, wall etc. but I rarely bothered using it. I used this for the brand that I sold the most over the last few years, was quick enough to keep me happy-30-60 minutes per order with LOTS of mods.

With any of these multiple monitors helps.