Cabinet Dimensions - to doors, partitions?

[dwelldesign 0]

Hi All, wondering if anyone can tell me if you can dimension to partitions, doors/drawers in cabinet elevations.  Rather than just toe, moldings and edges.  Need a way to inform cabinetmaker on heights of these and or height of openings in the cabinet (ie, for build in appliances).

 

Ewa

Dwell Design, Peterborough On Canada

X8 Premier 

[MarkMc 532]

Unfortunately, you can't snap dimensions to those things.

 

There are two ways to get there.

1-If you have the cabinet configured correctly you can use a CAD detail from view. I usually copy the cabinets in question to another room, remove the doors and then do a detail from view-you can snap to the openings there. To simplify the view I have a layerset with everything but cabinets turned off.

 

2-If you need to get the opening right in the first place. For horizontals-in an elvation-draw a line, open it and check lock, length angle. Go down to Start point y position and set that to a know height.

Don't forget to add in for the floor since this doesn't measure from the finished floor but from the sub floor (to make life simple I have my floor structure set to 1" for all room types-at the very least change Kitchen and Bath type rooms to match the rest- OOB default is 7/8")

Once you have the line set at a know height use transform replicate/copy to create lines at the openings. You can snap to these.

Vertical lines are a little harder since they don't want to snap to the cabinets in elevation?(thought they used to?) Easiest way to get a starting line is just draw a vertical, do an end to end dimension, select the line, click the dimension when cursor changes to a hand and set to "0". Now use transform replicate/copy to add lines to snap to.

[Alaskan_Son 2458]

This is one of the few remaining things I have on my cabinet wish list.  What I currently do is one of a few things depending on the situation...

 

For cabinet openings or face frame measurement details I usually do one of the following:

-Make a copy of the cabinet and either drag it off to the side or paste it into a new plan, remove all the doors (make them "openings"), remove the shelves, create a CAD Detail from View and then detail accordingly.

 

-Place a cross section/elevation camera perfectly flush with the face of your cabinet(s) which will essentially delete the door and drawer fronts, give it a very short back clip distance, and detail accordingly.  You will have to use point to point dimensions but they will actually snap to the openings.  I usually just set the marker radius to zero but you can also place cad lines or put the point markers on the own unique layer and turn them off. 

 

-You can also place the elevation camera as noted above and then create a CAD Detail From View to further clean it up and make dimensioning a lot easier.

 

-You can do a combination of the above methods even copying lines from a CAD Detail From View and then Copy/Paste Hold Position back into the live view for better snaps.

 

 

For measuring to doors/drawers:

-I think the fastest and easiest is probably to either create a CAD Detail From View and just use that, OR Copy/Paste Hold Position any or all lines from that back into the live view.  I personally have never found the need to dimension to door or drawer fronts though as I always just dimension the face frames and then we decide on an overlay.

 

 

For easier snaps you can also create a CAD Detail From View at any time, dimension it with Point to Point Dimensions, group select those, Cut/Paste Hold Position back into your live view, and then either make the marker radii zero or put the markers on their own layer and turn that layer off. 

[Alaskan_Son 2458]

...2-If you need to get the opening right in the first place. For horizontals-in an elvation-draw a line, open it and check lock, length angle. Go down to Start point y position and set that to a know height.

Don't forget to add in for the floor since this doesn't measure from the finished floor but from the sub floor (to make life simple I have my floor structure set to 1" for all room types-at the very least change Kitchen and Bath type rooms to match the rest- OOB default is 7/8")

Once you have the line set at a know height use transform replicate/copy to create lines at the openings. You can snap to these.

Vertical lines are a little harder since they don't want to snap to the cabinets in elevation?(thought they used to?) Easiest way to get a starting line is just draw a vertical, do an end to end dimension, select the line, click the dimension when cursor changes to a hand and set to "0". Now use transform replicate/copy to add lines to snap to.

 

Mark, 

 

I think you could make your life a lot easier in this particular area by simply creating a CDFV and Copy/Paste Hold Positioning lines from that back into your live view. 

[dwelldesign 0]

Thanks for the reply - guess it confirms that we've all be using work arounds to get this to happen.  I certainly feel like this needs to be added into the dimension defaults to be able to pick up on doors or openings of cabinets.  Necessary to produce proper casework drawings.   Guess we all vote for that added feature in X9!

[Alaskan_Son 2458]

...Guess we all vote for that added feature in X9!

Yes to the added feature, although I also believe we need a toggle for those extra snaps (maybe as you suggested through the dimension tool defaults). They could get to be a huge pain really fast. I personally almost prefer to just cut/copy and paste lines from a CDFV over the problems that could arise with excessive snaps. When you need one...great, but when you don't need them...you're gonna be hating it when your dimension keeps snapping to the wrong place or when you think you had the right spot but it turns out you didn't.

The ability to snap to door and drawer fronts, the ability to snap to cabinet openings, and the ability to remove door and drawer fronts as well as shelves and/or drawer boxes via toggles would probably top my wish list for cabinetry tools.

[MarkMc 532]

I used to really want snaps to openings, now not so much. The only advantage I see to the snaps now would be that they would be live. That is taken into account in the workflow now though.

I really don't think I will give up how I use the details even if it is implementd. I prefer working in the detail to pasting it back. If I need to make changes I can have each, detail and elevation open on different monitors.

 

 I mostly use the second method with the lines only when first setting up manufacturer templates so we can check them live, and once in a while I use a couple of lines on an elevation to check and quickly adjust an odd cabinet.

In both cases I'm often up against the way Cheif does reveals as opposed to manufacturers. If I want it elevation/3D in Chief to match what will be built I often have to switch to traditional overlay and fudge separations. That means that when it comes time the openings will need some work anyway.