Best process to create cabinetry drawings based on site measurements

[EngelsmaHomes]

Hello everyone,

 

We're a custom home builder and cabinet shop, and we recently switched our cabinetry department to using Chief architect for their drawings (formally AutoCAD).

 

Does anyone else update cabinetry drawings after drywall based on someone going out and doing site measurements? We struggle with getting a fully-modeled perfectly square house in Chief to conform to a less-then-perfect house in reality. We've been messing with wall thicknesses and shaving off floor system thicknesses to get them to match actual measurements while still keeping the 3d renders presentable. At the end of the day, we would like our cabinet shop guys and our install guys to have an accurately dimensioned set of elevations, including plumbing rough-in locations etc.

 

Anyone have hints or tips for this? Should we use the "CAD Detail from View" tool for our elevations? Should we notate actual site measurements as text following the Chief dimensions? Should we use separate .plan files for blueprints and cabinet drawings?

 

Thanks,

Tom E.

 

 

[Renerabbitt]

On 3/28/2022 at 1:24 PM, EngelsmaHomes said:

 

Hello everyone,

 

We're a custom home builder and cabinet shop, and we recently switched our cabinetry department to using Chief architect for their drawings (formally AutoCAD).

 

Does anyone else update cabinetry drawings after drywall based on someone going out and doing site measurements? We struggle with getting a fully-modeled perfectly square house in Chief to conform to a less-then-perfect house in reality. We've been messing with wall thicknesses and shaving off floor system thicknesses to get them to match actual measurements while still keeping the 3d renders presentable. At the end of the day, we would like our cabinet shop guys and our install guys to have an accurately dimensioned set of elevations, including plumbing rough-in locations etc.

 

Anyone have hints or tips for this? Should we use the "CAD Detail from View" tool for our elevations? Should we notate actual site measurements as text following the Chief dimensions? Should we use separate .plan files for blueprints and cabinet drawings?

 

Thanks,

Tom E.

 

 

Where walls are out of square a simple and common practice would be to either have a scribe stile or add a filler so that the final end dimension reads VIF and scribe to wall. 
additionally, any good cabinet guy should be checking the high point in the existing floor condition before install regardless of what documents say. Seems you may be spending excess time to prevent something that could easily be circumvented by creating a process document for your installers instead of spending “x” on every next plan trying to recreate precision. Chief is a parametric BIM based modeler and provides a wealth of powerful tools that I would consider “smart.” As soon as we create a CAD detail from view then we have created a document that is no longer “smart” and will need to be modified for any new iteration/revision. 

 

[HDbyJustin]

I have been a draftsman for 16 years and ran a home design business for the last 8. I also just opened my own cabinet shop where I handle the design work. I can tell you there are better options for cabinet drawings. Mozaik, KCD, eCabinets, Cabinet Vision. These will give you cut lists and door/drawer sizes for production or ordering. I used Chief momentarily to knock out some renderings fast, but it is definitely not a long term solution. I have run eCabinets for 4 years for production cabinetry and am in the process of switching to KCD. I would definitely look in to some of the options I mentioned above to help improve effeciency.

[EngelsmaHomes]

2 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Where walls are out of square a simple and common practice would be to either have a scribe stile or add a filler so that the final end dimension reads VIF and scribe to wall. 
additionally, any good cabinet guy should be checking the high point in the existing floor condition before install regardless of what documents say.

 

I'm sure our guys do those things. I think the installers like to have the nice clean dimensions with accurate dimensions to double check themselves, but the main thing is that these are also the elevations the cabinet engineers and shop guys look at when they are programming all the parts and pieces for the CNC and building the cabinets.

 

3 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Seems you may be spending excess time to prevent something that could easily be circumvented by creating a process document for your installers instead of spending “x” on every next plan trying to recreate precision.

 

What do you mean by process document?

 

4 hours ago, HDbyJustin said:

I can tell you there are better options for cabinet drawings

 

We currently use Chief to visualize and design, then update with field measurements so that we can get the exact height and width of each cabinet. From there it goes on to the cabinet engineers who use Microvellum. I don't know anything about Microvellum, but if it could auto generate elevation views that would be ideal. I'll have to look into that more.