Accurate Pricing for Certain Manufacturer's Cabinets

[DB-Designs]

Hello Everybody! I am trying to use the material list and more importantly, the "price" column. I design a lot with Medallion cabinets. Chief Architect does not automatically generate a price for Medallion cabinets, correct? If I'm understanding this correctly, I have to send my cabinet plans to Medallion Cabinets and they have to turn around and give me pricing for all the cabinets and components within the cabinet plan. And then I have to input the pricing for each cabinet and component into CA's material list. Am I accurate with what I'm saying? Thanks for all your help!

[MarkMc]

10 hours ago, DB-Designs said:

Chief Architect does not automatically generate a price for Medallion cabinets, correct?

Yes correct. You could do that, send plans in etc. Is there a reason you want to use the material list? Are you using it for other parts of the job like construction? Even if you are there are other options to get pricing. 

I worked from schedules to get to pricing. At first (X4 to X6) I would copy the information into an item list in 2020 so long as the brand supported that.

From X6 on, depending on brand I would either take the information from the schedule and drag and drop it into the brands online ordering system (one at a time) OR if the was not available into a spreadsheet template formatted to look like the brands order form once printed. With the second method I would usually add the prices from a pdf catalog. Occasionally I would send it in for pricing along with a plan if that was faster working with that particular brand (rarely) 

1. To use either method it is important to have everything match the brands nomenclature for the cabinet, accessories, or modifications.
2. Per brand I would have a few simple macros that generated nomenclature: one for wall cabinets, one for base, and one for tall.  NOTE I have gone down the road of one big complicated macro that does most cabinets; all I can say is DON'T. Macros were only for the most basic cabinets and were placed in a custom OIP field. The default label used a very simple macro that pointed to that field.
3. For special cabinets that I used often, such as trash po, blind cabinets, some oven cabinets I had style palettes. The SPs would include cabinet configuration, nomenclature and any modifications.
4. Use custom OIP fields for modifications, finished sides (never found Chief to be accurate enough for that)
5. The Mod field always had a few entries to begin with such as all options for flush finished sides (L, R, and Both as it's easier to delete than to add and I'd rather pay for an extra one if wrong than to mis-order a cabinet missing one) ALL mods listed were separated by a colon; Important when it came time to export the schedule.

The base schedule looks like this for use in final print.

But when it was time to export it to get pricing, I would temporarily remove any unwanted columns The one pictured below was set up to use an order form. IF using an online order form I would keep hinging and finished sides for reference.

Then copy and paste into a spreadsheet. Looked like this before copy

And in the spreadsheet using PASTE SPECIAL dialog with

Then go back to Chief and UNDO so that the schedule is back to what needs to be printed for the plans.

 

That would be sufficient to drag and drop into an online form. Lock the sheet and you can still copy but won't delete anything when doing it. The drag and drop process took between 15 minutes and half an hour to spit out a price in most cases. If in the process you drag a label in that does not register with the system use the look up to find the correct nomenclature and make a note of it to change it in Chief for the future.

IF I needed to put it into an order form template then I would select all the columns from the sheet, copy, and paste special into a blank section (or another sheet) using transpose. That would move the mods below each item so that they could be pasted into the order form in the proper order (at least for the brands I used that for)

For the brands I needed the order form method I would have to add info to the Hinge, Side, and number of doors/drawers columns manually. Not terribly time consuming but I could never work out a more automatic method of getting that into my sheets that was not overly complicated. The order form method takes longer than the online system if you are going to go in and add pricing to it. If you are sending it in without pricing it is about the same, a tad slower. Adding in the pricing from a PDF catalog takes longer but you get the results immediately.

NOTE-

At one point I tried putting together a macro that could lookup pricing in a csv file. A- too complicated and not worth the time unless you are doing dozens of orders every week; B more importantly it's impossible to get Mfg to supply that information and getting it formatted from a PDF takes too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GeneDavis]

14 hours ago, DB-Designs said:

Hello Everybody! I am trying to use the material list and more importantly, the "price" column. I design a lot with Medallion cabinets. Chief Architect does not automatically generate a price for Medallion cabinets, correct? If I'm understanding this correctly, I have to send my cabinet plans to Medallion Cabinets and they have to turn around and give me pricing for all the cabinets and components within the cabinet plan. And then I have to input the pricing for each cabinet and component into CA's material list. Am I accurate with what I'm saying? Thanks for all your help!

As you can see from Mark's reply, there is a lot to do to get to where the Chief documents can get used to build a cabinet order that is exactly right for the job, with everything built and arriving ready to install without errors.

 

Are you the one placing orders for the Medallion cabinets?  Can you describe how it's done now?  Examine Mark's schedule, the second one, and the level of detail he's added in the remarks column.  Are you doing this now for your projects?

[DB-Designs]

Thank you both for your help!! This is very, very helpful!!

 

A builder and I are in very early stages of this process, but the builder bought his own cabinet shop, and we are trying to figure what is the most efficient way to go about pricing the cabinet package. It sounds like it's best if we just do the cabinet plans with as much detail as possible and let the cabinet manufacturer put together the pricing. Like Gene said, it will help eliminate mistakes and missing parts. Thanks again!! 

[MarkMc]

5 hours ago, DB-Designs said:

et the cabinet manufacturer put together the pricing. Like Gene said, it will help eliminate mistakes and missing parts.

It may help but if it is not on the drawing, and then if you are not careful going over the list they send it won't help. As a rule what is written on an order then in the acknowledgement takes precedence, not what is drawn. If they price they will make corrections based on your input after you receive and ack. From that point on only what is written down counts, they will never take responsibility for what is drawn. That even goes for higher end brands that require plans and elevations. OTOH the drawings you give to a client IS are legal documents in most states - go figger.

Point is you still have to know what you are doing so be careful, thorough, and have a system for double or triple checks to orders.