Overview: Cabinet planner is an easy to use program for designing, selling and building custom cabinets. With it you create shop drawings, proposals & contracts, cutlists, elevations and floor plans for many types of cabinets frame or frameless. It is set to be very user friendly and requires no previous cad experience. What's new in version 4: Vista compatibility: Cabinet Planner is now 100 percent Vista compatible. Unfortunately this means you will need to re-register your copies of the program. With the previous version there was a problem when the program tried to read from and write to the registration file because of where it was located. This is no longer an issue. Panel optimizer: A panel optimizer has been added with this version. See the related help topic for instructions. New file system: The file system used by the program has been significantly changed. Jobs are now opened with a standard Windows file dialog. Also, there is now just one file for each job; the cabinets and walls are included in the same file. With this change there is a limit of 200 objects in each job which shouldn't be a problem. Any jobs created with earlier versions will not work with this version. Along with the new file system comes the ability to have a 'Save as' function. This lets you save a job under a different name or to a different location, including CD's. If saving a job under a new name you will probably need to change the Page Heading for the job as it is a separate function. Note: CD's created on an XP machine can be transferred to a Vista machine without problem, but CD's created with a Vista machine must use the "Mastered format" to work on an XP machine. Read this Microsoft webpage for more info or check your computer's manual. Job name: You are now required to enter a job name before creating anything with the program. This was done to streamline the flow of the code of the program and has no real affect on the overall use. Doors and windows: Door openings and windows are now shown on the floor plans. Windows are shown as a rectangle in the wall and doors are shown as a break in the wall. Glossary: A glossary has been added to the help system. For the most part it only includes terms used in the program and is by no means a complete collection of woodworking terms. However, if you think of something that should be included, please let me know. Quick start guide: This topic will describe the basics of how to get started with the program. For information about specific functions please refer to the rest of the help topics. 1. Click the New job button and enter a name. The name entered in line one will be the name the file is saved as. The next two lines can be used for the address of the job or any other relevant info. These three lines will be printed on the top right of everything that is printed. Press Continue. 2. At the top of the main window there are 12 menus, click on Walls and select Setup walls. A new window will open. Place your mouse near the top left of the white area of the window and press and hold down the left mouse button. Now slide your mouse to the right and a box will be expanded from where you started. As you move the mouse the length and angle of the wall will be updated in the text boxes at the top of the window. Release the left mouse button when you have your wall close to the length and angle needed. You will notice that the walls have an arrow on one side of then. This points to the front of the wall, which is important since cabinets can only be placed on the front of them. Now go up to the top of the window and check the box labeled Start from end of previous wall. Your next wall will automatically start from the end the last wall created. Pressing the Delete button will delete the last wall that was created. Once you have your walls setup, press the Save and Close button. 3. Press the Elevation view button. If you created more than one wall a small window will open for you to select which wall you want to work on, select one. Select a cabinet or other object from one of the seven menus, Upper, Base, Tall, Vanities, Miscellaneous, Raised Panels or Appliances. Place your mouse on the wall where you want the unit to start and hold down the left mouse button. Move the mouse and an outline of the unit will be expanded from where you started, similar to the way walls are created. (Note: if this feature doesn't work, open the General Standards window and place a check in the box labeled Click and Drag). Lift the left mouse button when you have the width where you need it. The cabinet editing window will open on the right side of the main window. If any changes are needed, enter them and press the OK button. When you have the cabinet how you want it, press the Save button. The wall will be redrawn with the cabinet now in color. Continue adding cabinets and objects till you have what you want for now. You can click on any of the cabinets in the right window, or double click on them in the elevation view to open the editing window for them. At this point you should have a few cabinets placed on your walls along with any countertops or appliances you may need for the job. The following can be done in any order, depending on what you need. * Press the 3D button and you will be able to see the entire job in 3D. You can zoom in or out, remove walls that are blocking a view, rotate the model, and adjust the camera height and angle. Play around with all the controls and you will soon have a feel for them. * On the Tool Bar there is a button labeled CALC. Press it and a window will open where you can calculate the various materials for the job. Each type of material has at least two buttons for it. The box material for example has one labeled Box material and master list and one labeled Box material panel layout. Pressing the top one of these will give you the total sheets of materials needed for the boxes along with a master list of the parts. The second button will start the Panel optimizer. Enter any changes to the length or width of your sheet goods and your saw kerf and press the OK button. Another window will open where you can make any changes to the parts or add additional parts if needed. Towards the bottom of this window there are two buttons, Method One and Method Two. Method one is a quick and dirty layout of the parts. Method Two is a much more thorough way. You can try both to see which way works best. * The Tool Bar button with the two $$ will give you a price for the entire job. Under the Set Standards menu you can set the lineal foot price for each cabinet type. This is something you will more than likely need to adjust for your own area and pricing. * Under the File menu there are selections for setting up the program and working with files. * The Set Standards menu has several selections for customizing how the program designs your cabinets, please refer to the help topic for each of these. Tool bar: Start new job button-opens the job name window Open existing job button-opens a list of saved jobs to choose from Print SP button-prints all shop plans for the currently open job Print LIST button- prints all text that is in the left pain of the main window Floor plan button- opens the floor plan window Elevation button- opens a list of walls to view the elevation of Calc button- opens a window to choose what you need to calculate $$ button- calculates the price of the current job 3D button- creates a 3D model of the current job Menu items: File menu: * New- opens a window to enter the name of the new job * Open- opens a file dialog of saved jobs to choose a job to open * Save as- opens a file dialog of saved jobs to choose a job to delete * Delete- opens a file dialog of saved jobs to choose from * Import cabinet- lets you take a cabinet from another job file and insert it into the current job * Elevation colors-opens a window from which you select the objects you need to change the color of * Select 3D images- opens a window where you can select the bitmap images that are applied to the 3d objects * Print proposal-calculates and prints a proposal for the currently open job * Print contract- calculates and prints a contract for the currently open job * Proposal editor- allows you to change the text for proposals * Contract editor- allows you to change the text for contracts * Print labels- lets you print parts lists on Avery 30 or 80 label sheets * Page heading-opens a window for editing the page heading * Select printer- opens a window where you can select a printer for program to use * Exit- closes the program Wall menu: * Setup walls-opens the wall edit window Set Standards: * Upper standards- opens the upper cabinets standards window * Base standards- opens the base cabinets standards window * Tall standards- opens the tall cabinets standards window * General standards- opens the window for setting standards that apply to all cabinets * Drawer standards- opens the drawer standards window * Door standards- opens the baseline pricing window * Prices- opens the baseline pricing window * Company name- opens a window for entering your company name, this will appear on all printouts View: * Floor plan- opens the floor plan window * Elevation- opens a list of walls to view the elevation of Uppers-opens the selected type of upper cabinet edit window Base-opens the selected type of base cabinet edit window Tall-opens the selected type of tall cabinet edit window Vanities-opens the selected type of vanity edit window Miscellaneous-opens the selected type of misc edit window Raised panels-opens the selected door or raised panel edit window Appliances-opens the selected appliance edit window Help: * Help-opens this help window * About- opens the about window which gives the product number and date of last upgrade * Decimal conversion chart-prints a list of common fractions converted to decimal * Door types- opens a window showing the available door types * Cabinetplanner.com- opens your default web browser and goes to the Cabinet planner website * Contact me-opens your default email program and starts an email to me Setting Standards: Click on the Set Standards menu at the top of the main window. Select each of the standards menus and fill in your building preferences. These sizes can be changed at any time. Click on Company Name and enter the name of your company. This will be put on the page heading of everything you print. Specific settings Upper cabinet type: Entering 1 in this box will plan upper cabinets with the top and bottom of equal lengths. If you set scribe to a side of the cabinet, the program will only shorten the box by that amount. Entering 2 will run the bottom through on sides with scribe applied to them and shorten that side’s length by the amount of the bottom rail minus the bottom lip size. Bottom lip: The size you enter in this box is the amount that the bottom rail sticks up above the bottom of the cabinet. The size entered in this box on the upper cabinet standards windows will be applied to all upper cabinets. The size entered in this box on the base cabinet standards window will be applied to all base cabinets, vanities, and tall cabinets. Deduct for partition height: This setting will let you adjust the height of base cabinet partitions to allow for stretchers to run above them without having to cut a notch for them. Drawer box settings: * Deduct for width-This is how much to deduct from the drawer opening for figuring the overall width of the drawer box * Deduct for height-This is how much to deduct from the drawer opening for figuring the height of the drawer box * Deduct for depth-This is how much is deducted from the cabinet depth for figuring drawer box depth * Rabbet depth for sides-This is how much the front and back is rabbeted into the sides of the drawer box * Dado depth for bottoms-This is how much the bottoms are dadoed into the sides, fronts and backs of the drawer boxes General standards: * Location assist-Checking this box will fill in the location box with the location + the width of the last saved cabinet in a job. This works only when planning a lob from left to right * Shelf edge thickness- amount to deduct from overall shelf depth * Deduct for shelf length- lets you set how much is deducted from adjustable shelf's length * Deduct for shelf depth- lets you set how much is deducted from adjustable shelf's depth * Door stile and rail cutter depth- This size is used to figure how much to add to the rails of doors * Tenon length for doors-The size entered in this box is doubled and added to all door and raised panel rails and middle rails or stiles where appropriate * Round to nearest 1/16- Entering 'Y' will tell the program to trim sizes to the nearest 1/16. Entering 'N' will have the program give exact sizes. If they are an exact fraction, then that fraction will be given down to 1/32. Entering 'X' will give you decimals only * Tenon length for face frames- The size entered in this box will be doubled and add to all appropriate face frame sizes * When calculating Master lists- These two check boxes tell the program what to do with the master lists when calculating them. If you wish to edit a list before printing it, send it to the main window then when done editing it, press the print list button * Arched doors-The top box is for the width of the top rail and the second box is for the height of the arch * Side to face frame dado depth-This is for people who dado their face frames to the cabinet box. The size entered here will be added the depth of the cabinet sides. Leaving this box blank will plan the cabinets normally * Raised panel adjustment-These two boxes allow you to fine tune the height and width of the panel in doors and raised panel backs. You can enter either a positive or negative value. The amount entered will be added or deducted from the size of all panels. When set to zero, the program figures for a 1/8" gap around the panel. Inset Back Depth: Entering Zero in this box will make the program deduct the thickness of the backs from the side, tops, bottoms and partitions. Entering a value greater than Zero will make the program deduct that amount from the tops, bottoms and partitions. Sides will be kept full depth. Box material names: For each cabinet, you can specify different material names for each box part. The names for these are entered in the General standards window. Press the Add button next to 'Box material names'. Another window will open with five text boxes. The top box is for your default name for all materials. The default name is used for all shelves and partitions. The other four are for any other material types you may use. The material names can not contain an asterisk and any spaces in the name will be replaced with an underscore character. Once you have entered your material names you can then select them when editing a cabinet by pressing the MORE button in the edit window. This will open a window with six dropdown boxes. From these dropdown boxes you can choose the material type for the left side, right side, top, bottom, toekick, and you may also change the default material for that cabinet. For combined cabinets, the material names entered for the leftmost cabinet are used for all the other cabinets with a few exceptions: The rightmost cabinet's right side needs to be set individually. On combined uppers, if you have a revealed side, such as when there are two different cabinet heights, you can specify the name of the revealed side. The shop plans and the box parts master list will list each part individually with it's material name and whether it is a top, bottom, left side... Setting baseline prices: Before you can price a job, you need to enter your base price figures in the Set Prices window which can be found under the Set Standards menu. For each cabinet type, enter a price per lineal foot. The price you enter for the individual doors, raised panels and valance are per square foot. There are also price boxes for hinges, drawer guides, handles, crown and tax. If you would like to add any other items to your price, check the box labeled "Add misc. items when calculating prices". A window will open each time you price a job with three text boxes, one for the quantity, one for the item name or description and the other for the price of it. If you need to enter more than one item click the 'add another' button. Once you have established your base prices, press the button with "$$" on it and the program will compute a price for each cabinet according to the height, width and depth. These prices are based on your standard setting for each cabinet type. For instance, your standard upper cabinet height is 30, your standard depth is 12 and your base price is $40 per foot. If you plan a 12w x 30h x 12d upper, the price will be $40. If you increase any of the sizes by 23% the price will also increase by 23%. With a little experimenting you will have your job pricing done with the click of one button. Drawing colors: Click the file menu and select Drawing Colors. A selection window will open, click the OK button next to the item you wish to adjust the color for. A basic color dialog window will open. You may choose one of these basic colors or press the Define Custom Colors>> button to fine tune your color. To adjust the colors in the custom color window, left click on the large color box and slide your mouse around until you find a color close to what you want. Then click on the arrow on the right to adjust the color further. Also, you may type the values you want in the six number boxes on the right. Click the OK button and your color will be saved. * Darker colors will use more ink when printing. Try using lighter colors instead. If you wish to print your drawings in black and white, uncheck one or both of the 'Color On' boxes in the selection window. The 'Add to Custom Colors' button is not supported by the program. Proposals and Contracts: Select Open Proposal Editor and a window will open with two text boxes and two check boxes. The text in these boxes can be changed to any thing you want. The 'characters left' boxes are only there for a general guideline. The text can be a little longer, but if it is too long it will interfere with the signature line on larger jobs. Also, it is set up for normal text, if you use all uppercase letters the text will not print correctly. If you check the box next to 'Make checks payable to your company', the program will automatically add "Please make checks payable to;" followed by your company name. If you check the box next to 'Open proposal editor before printing' the program will open this editor each time you print a proposal so you may make any changes that apply to the job. Once you have the text set the way you want, click the file menu and select Print Proposal. If you have selected the 'Add misc. items when calculating prices" in the pricing window, the add items window will open before the proposal is printed. Contracts are created and edit in the exact same manner as proposals only they have separate text files saved for them. Setting up walls: Click on the Walls menu at the top of the main window and select 'Setup walls'. If you haven't opened a job, you will be promted to do so first, or you can start a new one. The Wall Setup window will open. Place your mouse anywhere in the white box, press and hold the left mouse button. While the left button is down, move the mouse and a wall will be expanded from where you started. Lift the mouse button and the text boxes along the top of the window will be filled in with the information about the wall. The program will adjust the scale no matter what sizes you enter. To edit this wall simply enter any sizes or angle and press the Update button. Once you have more than one wall you can edit any wall by selecting it from the dropdown box on the right top of the window. When a wall is selected, it's sizes will be placed in the text boxes and the wall will temporarily colored red. Make any needed changes and press the Update button. The walls will be redrawn. Pressing the Delete button will delete the last wall. Putting a check in the checkbox at the top of the window will automatically start the next wall from the left end of the previous wall. The walls will have a small arrow indicating the front of them. These will not show on the floor plan view. When you have your walls set the way you need them press the Save and Close button. To exit the wall setup window without saving the changes, click the Cancel button or the X in the upper right corner of the window. To create an island wall, set the wall depth and height to zero. Adding cabinets: Choose one of the cabinet types from the menus at the top of the main window. A cabinet edit window will open. Enter the width for the cabinet and make any other changes you need. After clicking OK a shop drawing review window will open. You will need to scroll down to see the picture of the face frame front view. If everything looks OK press the Print or Save buttons. If something needs to be changed press the Edit button and the edit window will re-open. If you have an elevation view open while adding a cabinet the cabinet review window will not open. Instead, when you press the OK button an outlined image of the cabinet will be drawn on the elevation and the edit window will stay open. If something doesn't look right simply make a change and press the OK button again. The cabinet will then be redrawn with the changes. Pressing the save button will save the cabinet and the elevation will be redrawn with the new cabinet added in color. Adding Hardware: To add hardware to the elevation view of the cabinets a few standards must first be set. In the General standards window enter the Knob diameter, Pull size and length and whether you want knobs or pulls on the doors and drawers. The Pull size is the diameter of the pull. In each of the Upper, Base and Tall standards windows, enter the location the hardware should be placed on the doors. This can be individually adjusted for each cabinet. The cabinet editing window has a Door Hardware button for cabinet with doors. Clicking this button will open another window where you can change the locations for the hardware if needed. In this window you can change from a knob, pull or no hardware. For each level of doors you can set whether the hardware is on the top, middle or bottom. When the cabinet is set to have one door per opening there will be two boxes for each door to specify putting the hardware on the left or right side of the door. If the opening is set for two doors the hardware will automatically put on the inner sides of the doors. Drawer hardware can be changed from a knob, pull or no hardware in the cabinet editing window. The drawer hardware is applied to the center of all drawers. It is not applied to false fronts with the exception of the sink base to allow for tip-out trays. Viewing floor plans: Click the floor plan button and a window will open with all walls and cabinets drawn on them. The program will draw the floorplan at a large scale, then start redrawing it until it fits the screen width. The image may go off the screen on the bottom, but it will still print ok. You can use the scroll bar on the left if you need to see the whole floorplan. Press the "Cab#" button to redraw the elevation without the cabinet numbers. Press it again to draw it with the numbers. Elevation text: To add your own text to elevations select 'Elevation text' under the Miscellaneous menu. If you have the Click & Drag enabled you can click on the drawing where you want the text to begin. The Off Floor value will be filled in as your standard base cabinet height multiplied by 1.3 and round to the nearest whole number. If Click & Drag is not enabled you will need to manually enter the location and off floor values. After filling in the text you want, press the OK button in the editing window and the text will be drawn on the elevation. Press save when you have it where you want it. The text is limited to 40 characters and will be printed all on one line. Edit page heading: To change line 2 and 3 of a job's page heading, click the file menu and select Page heading. If you have a job open at the time, a window will open with the feilds filled in. If you do not have a job open, a file dialog will open for you to choose the job from. Make the necessary changes and press the continue button. There will be a slight delay as the program updates the file. Editing cabinets: To edit a cabinet, click on a cabinet in the right pane on the main window or double click on it in the elevation view. The edit window for that cabinet will open. Make any desired changes and click OK. * If you have an elevation view open, the cabinet will be redrawn over the existing. When it looks ok, press the save button. A window will open asking if you want to replace the existing cabinet. Press Yes and the cabinet will be saved and the elevation will be redrawn with the changes applied. * If you do not have an elevation view open, the cabinet review window will open. If everything looks ok, press the save button. A window will open asking if you want to replace the existing cabinet. Press Yes and the cabinet will be saved. Viewing elevations: Click the elevation button and a list of walls will open if you have more than one wall in the job. Click a wall and a window will open with that wall and all cabinets drawn on it. If there is only one wall in the job, that wall elevation will open without having to pick it from the list. Press the In or Out buttons to make the view bigger or smaller. The Up, Down, Left and Right buttons can be used to move the image around the screen. If you have more than one wall you can press the "<< prev" or "next >>" button to scroll through the walls. Press the "Cab#" button to redraw the elevation without the cabinet numbers. Press it again to draw it with the numbers. Selecting a printer: Press the Select printer option under the File menu. A window will opening with a list of printers installed on your computer to choose from. Select the printer you wish to use for the program and then press the Apply button. All documents will then be printed with that printer. This feature is only available on computers running Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Printing shop plans: Click the Print SP button. A confirmation window will open. Click yes and all shop plans will be sent to the printer. To print the shop plan for only one cabinet, close the elevation window if it is open. Click on the cabinet to open the edit window. Click OK to open the review window, and then click the print button. To print the shop plan for only one set of combined cabinets in a job, close the elevation window if it is open. Open the leftmost cabinet and click the print button on its review window. Email drawings to a customer: There are a few ways to create a document to send to a customer for approval before you start building a job. You can use a Print Screen program, PDF creator or other image writer. Print screen program: There are many free downloads available for using the Prt Scr button on your keyboard. One of them can be found here ScreenPrint32 (http://www.provtech.co.uk/software/screenprint32.asp). With one of these you can capture several images and combine them together into one document. You will need some type of photo editor to manipulate your images. PDF creator: Using a PDF creator you can save a document just as it would print from the program. One of the benefits of using a PDF is that they can't be changed by the recipient, a good thing when it comes to sending a contract to be signed. A free one can be downloaded from this site PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com). It will install as a printer and can then be selected from the Select Printer window. Raised panel sides: Adding raised panels to the sides of a cabinet is very easy. The first thing you need to do is create the panel or panels to apply. Then either create a new cabinet or open an existing one and press the 'More' button in the editing window. At the top of the 'More' window press the 'Panel sides' button. A small window will open with two list boxes to select the panels from. Select your panels and then press the 'Continue' button. When a cabinet has panels applied to it the normal sides will not be figured and the shop plans will instead give you the panel # to use instead. Also, make sure you enter the total amount of panels you need of each size panel of panel you create. If you apply the same panel to both side of three cabinets but only specify 1, that's all the program will figure. Applying custom trim: Press the 'More' button in the cabinet editing window and then press the 'Add trim' button. Each cabinet can have up to 5 moldings applied to it. Select the trim type for each one you want to add, the height from the bottom of the cabinet to the bottom of the molding and where on the cabinet to apply it, left, front or center. If you need to apply trim to a wall or anywhere for that mater, use an Upper Filler with its height set to .001. The depth can be whatever you want, for instance if you need returns. The program will ignore the Upper Filler in the parts lists when it is set to .001. On desks you can apply one molding to the top section and two to each lower section. Custom trim editor: Select the trim you want to edit from the dropdown list. Entering the actual height and width is very important; don't just go by what it looks like according to the grid. The program uses these sizes to determine the size and scale of the molding. If you want to add a vector point, click on a line to highlight it and then press the 'Split line' button. A new point will be added to the middle of that line. To remove a point, press the 'Remove point' button and then click on the point you want removed. The 'Extrude trim' button will give a 3d like view of the trim to help visualize it. The grid can be turned on or off and made bigger or smaller as needed. It is only for a reference and has no bearing on the actual size of the trim. Viewing 3d models: Any job that has cabinets placed on walls can be viewed in 3d with the program. You can select from various images of wood grain to apply to the cabinets and several different images to apply to countertops. There is also a separate download to add more images to choose from. Selecting images: Under the File menu there is a selection called 'Select 3d images'. This will open a window where you can pick which images to apply to the current job or to set as your default for the cabinets and countertops. When you select an image from the list and press either of the buttons, text below the buttons will confirm your selection. Viewing the model: With a job open press the '3d' button on the toolbar and the program will begin creating the 3d model. The amount of time it takes to generate the model will depend on your systems speed and the size of the job. Most average kitchens should take only about 5-10 seconds. There are 14 buttons and two listboxes in the 3d window: * Zoom in- enlarges the current view. * Zoom out- shrinks the current view. * Move Camera buttons-moves the camera up, down left or right. * Aim Camera-points the camera up, down, left or right. * << Rotate-rotates the model to the left. * Rotate>>-rotates the model to the right. * Remove wall listbox-selecting a wall in this box will remove it and all of the cabinets on it from the model. This is very handy when a wall is blocking the scene. * Add wall-adds any removed walls back to the model. * Print-Prints the current view. * Reset view-resets the model to the original angle, zoom factor and re-adds any removed walls. Adding additional images: There is a download on the Cabinet planner website which will add more images to choose from. These are keep separate to keep the download size of the main program from being to large. Adding your own images: If you would like to add your own images they need to be 24 bit bitmaps, resized to 256x256 and with the grain going up & down. Simply place the image in the '3d textures' folder which can be found in the Cabinet Planner folder in your Program files. In doing this you may notice that the appliance images all begin with 'xxx '. This is to keep the from showing along with the standard images. Appliance images: For now only basic white appliances are available but in a future release there will also be a choice of black, stainless and almond. If you have any images which you think should to the separate download please forward then to me. It doesn't matter what format they are, I can convert them the 24 bit bitmaps. Windows Vista and 3d: If you are running Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate and have Aero windows enabled you will not be able to print the 3d models. Cabinet Planner will attempt to detect if Aero is turned on when you view the 3d and give you an option to temporarily turn it off until the 3d is closed. To permanently turn off Aero, follow the steps below: 1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. 2. Click Appearance and Personalization. 3. Under Personalization, click Change the color scheme. 4. In the Appearance Settings dialog, click Windows Vista Basic, and then click OK. This will affect the overall appearance of your computer and you will need to decide whether to leave aero off permanently or just when working with the 3d models. Calculating materials: Calculating faceframe material: Click the 'CALC' tool bar button and then click the button next to "Face frame material and master list" . The program will cycle through each saved cabinet and add up the total length of each width of faceframe material for the entire job and give you the total board feet and the list of parts. Calculating cabinet box material: Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Box material and master list". The program will add up the total of each Box material type in the job and give the master list of parts. This is the total that will be used for the job and does not compensate for waste or odd sized parts. Even if it says you will use 4 sheets, you may actually need 5 or 6 sheets if the job has over sized cabinets. This figure is the total square inches divided by 4608 to convert it to 4 x 8 sheets. Calculating door material: Once you have cabinets with doors, individual doors or raised panels saved you can then figure the total amount of material needed for them. You will be given the total length for each width of stiles and rails as well as the total board feet for the panels. Calculating a door size list: Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Master door size list". This will give you a list of all doors in the job, sorted by type. Calculating drawer fronts: Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Drawer front material and master list". This will give you the total length for each width of drawer fronts, the total board feet needed for them and the master list of drawer fronts. If you have both slab and five piece drawer fronts in the job they will be listed separately. Calculating drawer box material: Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Drawer box material and master list". This will give you the total material needed and the master list of drawer box parts. Calculating back material: Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Back material and master list". This will give you the total material needed and the master list of back sizes sorted by material name. Panel optimizer: To begin the panel optimizer, press the CALC button and select the OK button next to the material you want to figure. The program will calculate the parts sizes and then prompt you to enter the size of your source panels and the width of the saw kerf. After you enter your source sizes and press the OK button and another window will open with the list of parts. In this window you may add, edit or delete parts from the list. There are two buttons at the bottom of the optimizer window, Method one and Method two. Pressing one of these will begin the layout of the parts on the panels. Method one is a very fast way of laying out the parts and is a better choice if you have a very slow machine or more the 100 parts in the job. Method two is a more accurate way of laying out the parts, but takes a little longer to figure. You will have to be the judge of which one will work best for you after a little experimenting. Once one of the methods buttons has been pressed, the program will draw the parts on the first two panels of the job and wait for your input. You can print each page or just press the Next button to cycle through them to see how the layouts look first, then go through it again to if you want to print them. If there are any oversized parts, they will be listed on the last page. One of the advantages is that you can see how the panels layout and make any adjustments to the cabinets that might make the layout better. For instance, if you have your upper cabinets set at 32 inches high, reducing their height to 31 1/2 will probably give a better yield. Again, this will take a little experimenting. To edit a part, click on it in the list and then make any changes to the width or length and press the Update button. The list of parts will be updated. To add a part to the list, press the Add button. Another window will open. Enter the amount, width and length. The material and description boxes will be disabled for certain material types. If they are enabled, you must make a selection. After you have entered the appropriate information, press either the 'Add part and close' button, the 'Add another part' button or the 'Cancel" button. The list of parts will be updated. To delete a part, select it from the list and then press the delete button. The list of parts will be updated. Printing labels: You can print parts labels for the face frames, cabinet box parts, door parts, drawer fronts, drawer boxes, shelves and backs. Click on the File menu and select "Print labels". A window will open with a button for each material type. There are also two checkboxes for the style of labels to use. These are for readily available Avery labels in either 30 or 80 labels per sheet. The label is printed with the job name on the first line. The part size and material type is on the second line. The unit number and part description is on the third line. All cabinets: The width, height, depth and all stile & rails can be edited for each cabinet. If there is a box for a partition, you can just leave it blank if you do not want a partition. Scribe left and scribe right is the amount that you want the face frame to overhang on that side of the cabinet. If you leave these fields blank, you will see an 'F' (for finished) on the corresponding bottom corner of the drawing. Entering a value in these fields will adjust the cabinet box sizes so that the face frame overhangs. The program will then place a 'U' (for unfinished) on the corresponding bottom corner of the drawing and below that the amount to overhang the face frame will be printed. Each opening with doors can be set to have 0, 1 or 2 doors. The overall door size is figured by adding twice the door overlay to the opening width and height. If the opening is set for two doors, the door width is figured as 1/2 the opening width minus 1/2 the Door Gap for paired doors plus the door overlay. Upper 1, 2, 3&4 openings: All settings for these cabinets are pretty standard. If you are placing two of the next to each other in order to combine them you can set one of them to have a partition if needed. The bottom rail can bet set to zero if the cabinet will be sitting on a countertop and you do not want a bottom or bottom rail, such as in a bookcase. Doing this, the door height will be the height of the opening plus the door overlay minus the value of the door gap for paired doors, to keep the door from dragging on the countertop. Also, if there are partitions their height will be adjusted accordingly. Upper Open Below: If you want 2 upper openings, enter a value in the middle stile box. The lower opening will still be just 1 opening. You can add doors to the lower opening by entering 1 or 2 in the box for lower doors. The bottom rail can bet set to zero if the cabinet will be sitting on a countertop and you do not want a bottom or bottom rail, such as in a bookcase. Doing this, the lower door height will be the height of the opening plus the door overlay minus the value of the door gap for paired doors, to keep the door from dragging on the countertop. Also, if there are partitions their height will be adjusted accordingly. Angled Upper: Left and Right side depths are the overall depths of each side. The angled Right or Left box is for the side that the angled face is on. Flat front width is width of the front of the cabinet. When adding these to an elevation view using the Click & Drag feature the angled side will be applied to where you lift the mouse. With this and all other angled cabinets it is best to do a little experimenting with the sizes to see how they work. Upper Blind Cabinets: Entering a size in the middle stile box will give you a cabinet with 2 openings. The blind end width is automatically set to the depth of the upper cabinets. If you choose a left blind cabinet, the left scribe box will be disabled. Same for right blind cabinets. Upper Corner Cabinet: Left and right back widths are the overall widths of the back of the cabinet. Left and right side depths are the depths of the individual sides. Left or right corner is the orientation that the cabinet is drawn in the floor plan and elevation views. There is a box labeled 'Face frame width'. This is optional, if the box is left blank, the program will figure the face frame as it normally does. If a width is entered, the program will use that number instead. When adding these to elevations using the Click & Drag feature, starting from the corner and working out will place the cabinet with the correct orientation The cabinet below has 1/2" scribe applied to the right side and none on the left. It's size is 22" x 22" overall. When no scribe is applied to a side of the cabinet, that sides depth is only deducted by the thickness of the back. If scribe is applied, the depth of that side is calculated much differently. The depth of either type of side is to the long point of the angle. As long as both back dimensions are equal, these sizes will be correct. If scribe is applied to a side of a cabinet that does not have equal back sizes, the depth of the side with the scribe will be off, but the everything else will be OK. The amount it is off will depend on the ratio of the back sizes. If you need a cabinet with unequal back sizes, try using an angled upper. They are more suited to these circumstances. The backs are made from your standard back material and the corner shelf cleat is the same as your box material. Fridge with legs: Placing a Y in one of the 'Leg' boxes will create an upper cabinet with an extended leg on the indicated side or both if both are chosen. A middle stile is automatically given, but you can set its size to zero to have only 1 door opening. Base Cabinet: Entering a size for the middle stile will give you a cabinet with 2 drawers and door openings when the number of drawers is set to 1. Setting the number of drawers to 2 will give you 2 drawers above each door opening. Setting the number of drawers to zero will automatically set the middle rail and drawer opening to zero when the OK button is pressed. Adjusting the size of the drawer opening will change the height of the door opening. Can be combined with other base cabinets, see Combining cabinets> combining bases and tall One drawer and two door opening: Creates a base cabinet with one drawer opening and two door openings below. The door openings can be set to have 0 1 or 2 doors each. Sink Base: Entering 'Y' in the box for inset will plan the cabinet with an inset face frame. This is a nice feature for kitchen sinks. The face frame will be set in 2 inches regardless of the face frame thickness. Selecting 2 drawer fronts will automatically give you a middle stile. Tray Cabinet: A tray cabinet is a base cabinet with no drawer and a tray divider made of the same material as your drawer boxes. 2, 3 & 4 Drawer Bases: The sizes you enter for the upper drawer openings will determine what is left over for the bottom drawer. Can be combined with other base cabinets, see Combining cabinets> combining bases and tall 2+2 Drawer Base: Creates a base cabinet with two full width drawers on the bottom and two narrower drawers above. Works well for dressers and buffets. Blind Bases: Blind bases are basically treated the same as blind uppers. Entering a size for the middle stile will give a cabinet with 2 openings. If you do not want a drawer, enter zero for the drawer opening height and zero for the middle stile. Lazy Susan Base: Creates a cabinet for use with a lazy susan, though a shelf can be installed instead. It plans the face frames to be mitered where they meet in the middle. There are two setting in the Set Standards window for adjusting the widths of each door. Since there are many way to attach doors to a Lazy Susan cabinet, you will need to experiment with these setting to get the door sizes right for you. When adding these to an elevation using the Click & Drag feature, starting from the corner and working out will place it with the correct orientation. Angled Base: Left and Right side depths are the overall depths of each side. The angled Right or Left box is for the side that the angled face is on. Flat front width is width of the front of the cabinet. When adding these to an elevation view using the Click & Drag feature the angled side will be applied to where you lift the mouse. With this and all other angled cabinets it is best to do a little experimenting with the sizes to see how they work. Desk: Creates a desk with a choice of 5 door and drawer combinations on either side and a center drawer. Each side can be set to have a single door opening, a drawer with a door below, or 2, 3 or 4 drawers. Each of the drawer openings can be adjusted individually. The door and drawer parts are only available in the master lists. With 9 possible drawer sizes there isn't enough room to print them on the shop plan. The left outside, left inside, right outside, right inside and toekick materials can be specified individually. The top and bottom are whatever you have set for the default materials. To remove the center drawer, set the center drawer opening and center rail to zero. Scribe can be applied to the outside of each of the base units only, not the inside of them. If you do not want a toekick, set the toekick height to zero and adjust your bottom rail size. You can select whether you want just one full back or two separate ones. The desk height, depth, number of backs, left and right widths, and the type for each side can be preset in the Base Standards. Angled Corner base: Creates a corner base cabinet with two finished sides and an angled face. The back corner has a 4 inch clip. There is a box labeled 'Face frame width'. This is optional, if the box is left blank, the program will figure the face frame as it normally does. If a width is entered, the program will use that number instead. Can be planned with or without a drawer. To add a drawer just enter the middle rail width and the height of the drawer opening. The depth of drawer box must also be entered. When adding these to an elevation view using the Click & Drag feature, starting in the corner with the mouse and working out from there will place the cabinet with it's orientation correct. Tall 1, 2 & 3 Opening: The upper opening sizes will determine what is left over for the lower opening. The top and middle opening boxes will be disabled according to which cabinet you are planning. Entering a size for the middle stile will plan a cabinet with 2 openings. Tall 1, 2 & 3 Opening Corner: These are basically the same as the upper corner and tall cabinets. Entering a size for the middle stile will plan a cabinet with 2 vertical openings. Tall Custom: Creates a cabinet that can be up to 7 openings high. Each opening can have 0, 1 or 2 doors or a drawer. Also, each opening can have a middle stile to divide the opening in half. Each door opening can have any of the 16 available door types applied to it. Each drawer opening can have any of the 3 drawer front types applied to it. The door and drawer parts are only available in the Master door or drawer parts lists, there are just too many options to be able to add them to the shop plans. The hardware applied to the doors and drawers is whatever you have set in your standards for them and must be set before planning the cabinet. The hardware on the doors will automatically be applied to the middle right side of side of single doors and to the center middle of paired doors; no option is given for this. The amount of shelves is filled in with the amount you have set for normal Tall cabinets, though there is not a way to specify how many are in each opening. This means that no shelves will be shown in the elevation or 3D model. Can not be automatically combined with other Tall cabinets. All other settings are the same as for normal Tall cabinets. This is without a doubt the most flexible cabinet in the program. Not counting all the different types of doors or drawer fronts that can be applied to each opening; there are well over 5000 possible configurations that can be designed with it. Need an upper cabinet that is three openings high, set the toe kick height to zero and the off floor height to what you need. Need a sink base with the drawer on the bottom, no problem, though it will give you a full size top. Dressers, buffets, linen cabs, entertainment centers or even custom oven cabinets, almost anything can be designed with this cabinet. Tall Wall Oven Cabinet: Entering a size for the middle stile will plan the cabinet with 2 upper openings. The upper opening and oven openings will determine what is left for the drawer opening. If you only want one oven opening, enter the size for it in the top oven opening size box. Offset Vanities: Plans a vanity with two drawers on one side, doors on the other side and one false front at the top . Drawer left or right will place the drawers on the side chosen. When adding these to the elevation using the Click & Drag feature, the drawers will be applied to the side where you lift the mouse. Vanity Drawers left, Drawers Right: Plans a cabinet with drawers on the chosen side and doors on the other side. The side door opening can have either 1 or 2 doors. Vanity Drawers on Sides: Plans a cabinet with doors on both sides of the sink opening. Vanity Drawers L & R: Plans a cabinet with two sets of drawers, one on each side of the sink opening. Vanity Two Drawer Two Doors: Creates a vanity with one bottom opening and a drawer on both sides of the false sink front. Individual doors: Lets you plan any of the 16 available door types. The height and width boxes are for the size of the opening the doors will be going on. You can select either one or two doors and the program will adjust the sizes according to the values entered in the Door Overlay and Door Gap boxes. Raised Panels: Plans a raised panel back or wainscoting, depending on what you use it for. Can be any amount of panels wide and up to 5 panels high. When planning a panel that is more than one panel high, enter the amount of panels how high it will be and then enter the opening heights for the top panels. The height of the bottom panel will be whatever is left over. When adding these to the elevation using the Click & Drag feature, the amount of panels will be filled in so that the panels have approximately a 1.6/1 (creating a Golden Rectangle) ratio in height and width. Combined uppers: The program will automatically combine multiple 1, 2, 3 & 4 Opening Upper cabinets, Upper Blind cabinets and Open Below cabinets into one single unit when the following conditions are met: * The cabinets must be placed on the same wall * The cabinets must be the same depth * The top rails must be the same size * The cabinets must be located exactly next to each other * The right stile on the left cabinet or the left stile on the right cabinet must be set to zero, but not both * The tops of the cabinets must be the same height off the floor, regardless of each cabinet's height When all of the above conditions are present, a plus sign(+) will be displayed (in the list of cabinets in the main window) next to each of the cabinets which are going to be combined. Also, the leftmost cabinet will have a double plus sign(++) next to it. These will help you identify the cabinets among a larger list of saved cabinets and will let you confirm that the cabinets will indeed be combined. The size of the bottom rail only needs to be the same if consecutive cabinets are the same height. If you change the height of a cabinet, you may also change the bottom rail size for that cabinet and all others to the right that are the same height. The partition box in the edit window is enabled for one opening uppers, in case you are combining some one opening uppers and need a partition. On Open Below cabinets, the program will not figure for the bottom above the opening. I will try to resolve this in the future, it is quite complicated. Due to the complex nature which these cabinets are handled by the program, it is not possible to give a review screen before printing. If the cabinets are marked with the "+" signs and the elevation views look right, they will print correctly. To print the shop plan for just one set of combined cabinets, open the cabinet with the "++" next to it and click the print button on the shop plan review window. When printing all shop plans at the same time, only the combined unit will be printed, not each individual cabinet for the combined unit. The cabinet number for the combined unit will be the number of the leftmost cabinet. "++" The cabinet name on the shop plan will be "Upper Combo" It does not matter what order the cabinets are planned in, 1 2 3 or 7 23 4, the program sorts them by their location and wall number. If there are only 2 cabinets to be combined, there will be one shop plan with all parts and the drawing. When there are more than 2, the box parts, face frame parts and drawing will be on one page. The shelves and doors will be on a second page. It appears that 10 is the limit of cabinet's part's that will fit on the two pages. This should not be a problem, since most of the time you will only be combining 5 or less. Scribe can be applied to the leftmost and rightmost cabinets accordingly. If a cabinet has scribe applied to an interior side, it will be ignored. As with regular single cabinets, the sides, bottoms and tops will be adjusted accordingly with the upper cabinet type chosen in the upper cabinet standards window. Any combination of heights and widths can be combined. Combined bases and tall: The program will automatically combine multiple Tall or Base cabinets into one single unit when the following conditions are met: * The cabinets must be placed on the same wall * The cabinets must be the same depth * The top rails must be the same size * The cabinets must be located exactly next to each other * The right stile on the left cabinet or the left stile on the right cabinet must be set to zero, but not both * The height of each cabinet is the same When all of the above conditions are present, a plus sign(+) will be displayed (in the list of cabinets in the main window) next to each of the cabinets which are going to be combined. Also, the leftmost cabinet will have a double plus sign(++) next to it. These will help you identify the cabinets among a larger list of saved cabinets and will let you confirm that the cabinets will indeed be combined. Tall 1 opening, tall 2 opening, and tall 3 opening cabinets can be combined Base, 1 Drawer 2 Door Openings, two drawer base, three drawer base, four drawer base, sink base, tray, and blind bases can be combined Due to the complex nature which these cabinets are handled by the program, it is not possible to give a review screen before printing. If the cabinets are marked with the "+" signs and the elevation views look right, they will print correctly. To print the shop plan for just one set of combined cabinets, open the cabinet with the "++" next to it and click the print button on the shop plan review window. When printing all shop plans at the same time, only the combined unit will be printed, not all individual cabinets for the combined unit. The cabinet number for the combined unit will be the number of the leftmost unit. "++" The cabinet name on the shop plan will be "Base Combo" or "Tall Combo" It does not matter what order the cabinets are planned in, 1 2 3 or 7 24 11, the program sorts them by their location and wall number. Scribe can be applied to the leftmost and rightmost cabinets. If a cabinet has scribe applied to an interior side, it will be ignored. Frameless: To have the program plan frameless cabinets there are a couple of Standards that must be set first. * In each of the Upper, Base and Tall Standards windows set all the stiles and rails to .75 or whatever your box material thickness is. * In the General standards window set the face Frame thickness to zero. * If you want to have slab doors, set the door type in each of the Upper, Base And Tall standards windows to 'type 30'. * You will also probably want to set the shelf edge thickness to zero. With these settings the program will change the way it handles cabinets in several ways. * The sizes of the stiles and rails are not printed on the shop drawings with a few exceptions. * The doors are drawn as slabs in the elevation views. If you want to have a scribe strip added to one of the sides of a cabinet, just increase that side's stile by the amount of scribe you want and set the scribe for that side. Now the shop plan will give the width of that side and it will also say how wide the scribe strip is. If you need to increase the size of any of the rails, the program will also then print the size of that rail and adjust the size of the opening. You will need to be careful with the door overlay on cabinets with middle partitions, especially if you are doing full overlay doors. Inset doors will work fine, but do not show a reveal between the cabinet and the door on the elevation views. Adding an angled sink: If you have an angled corner base cabinet and want to show a sink in it in the floor plan, you can plan an angled wall set to zero thickness and place just the sink on it. It will take a little adjusting to get the location right. This method can also be used to place any cabinet or appliance at an angle in the floor plan. Base cabinets with separate toekicks: To plan your base cabinets for use with separate toekicks first set your Standard base cabinets so they do not include the toe kick height. In the Set Base Standards window, set the Off Floor height to the height of your toekick. This will plan the base cabinets with the sides the same height as the face frame. TRICK- If you want the sides to stop flush with the bottom of the bottom and not the bottom of the face frame, enter -.001 (negative one thousandth) for the toekicks height. This will trigger the program to make the necessary adjustments to the sides. You can use a modified Base Filler to plan the toe kick. Everyone makes these toekicks a little different, so I haven't added anything special for them. Decimals and fractions: In the General standards window the box "Round to nearest 1/16" has three settings. Use an X if you are using the Metric system. * Y-- will round all uneven decimals to the nearest 1/16 (example- 7.498 will be printed as 7 1/2) * N-- will only print even decimals as fractions, uneven decimals will remain as decimals (example- 7.498 will be printed as 7.498, 7.5 will print as 7 1/2) * X-- will only print sizes as decimals regardless of being even or uneven (example- 7.498 will be printed as 7 .498, 7.5 will print as 7.5) Frame and doors only: Setting the cabinet depth so it is the same as the face frame thickness will trigger the program to only give the sizes for the frame and doors or drawer fronts of a cabinet. This feature works with all standard cabinets, either single or combined units, but not corner or angled cabinets. General kitchen layout guide: Doorways at least 32" wide and not more than 24" deep in the direction of travel. Walkways at least 36" wide. Work aisles at least 42" wide for one-cook, at least 48" wide in multi-cook kitchens. Work triangle 26' or less, with no single leg shorter than 4' nor longer than 9'. No major traffic patterns should cross through the work triangle. No entry, appliance or cabinet doors should interfere with one another. In seating area, 36" of clearance from counter/table edge to wall/obstruction if no traffic passes behind seated diners. 65" clearance for walkway behind seated diners. Kitchens under 150 sq. ft.: 144" of wall cabinet frontage with cabinets at least 12" deep, 30" high with adjustable shelving. Kitchen over 150 sq. ft.: 186" wall cabinet frontage, with cabinets at least 12" deep, 30" high with adjustable shelving. At least 60" of wall cabinet frontage with cabinets at least 12" deep, 30" high, included within 72" of the primary sink centerline. Kitchens under 150 sq. ft.: 156" base cabinet frontage with cabinets at least 21" deep. Kitchens over 150 sq. ft.: 192" base cabinet frontage with cabinets at least 21" deep. Kitchens under 150 sq. ft.: at least 120" of drawer or roll-out shelf frontage. Kitchens over 150 sq. ft.: at least 165" of drawer or roll-out shelf frontage. At least five storage/organizing items located between 15" - 48" above the finished floor. At least one functional corner storage unit should be included. At least two waste receptacles should be included in the plan: one for garbage and one for recyclables. Knee space should be planned below or adjacent to sinks, cooktops, ranges and ovens. This space should be a minimum of 27" high by 30" wide by 19" deep. Clear floor space of 30" x 48" should be provided at the sink, dishwasher, cooktop, oven and refrigerator. A minimum of 21" clear floor space should be allowed between the edge of the dishwasher and any object which is placed at a right angle to the dishwasher. The edge of the primary dishwasher should be within 36" of the edge of one sink. The primary sink should be located between or across from the cooking surface, preparation area or refrigerator. At least 24" clearance between cooking surface and a protected surface above; or 30" clearance between cooking surface and an unprotected surface above. All major appliances used for surface cooking should have a ventilation system, with a fan rated at minimum of 150 CFM. Cooking surface not placed below an operable window unless window is 3" or more behind the appliance and more than 24" above it. Microwave ovens placed so bottom is 24" to 48" above the floor. At least two work counter heights: one at 28"-36" above the floor; and one at 36"-45" above the floor. Kitchens under 150 sq. ft.: at least 132" of usable counter frontage. Kitchens over 150 sq. ft.: at least 198" of usable counter frontage. At least 24" counter frontage to one side of the primary sink and 18" on the other side. The 24" must be at the same height as the sink. At least 3" countertop frontage on one side of secondary sink, 18" on the other side. The 18" must be at the same height as the sink. At least 15" of landing space, minimum 16" deep, above, below or adjacent to microwave oven. Open-ended kitchen: at least 9" counter space on one side of cooking surface and 15" on the other, at the same height as the appliance. Enclosed kitchen: at least 3" of clearance space at an end wall protected by flame retardant material; 15" on the other side at the same counter height as the appliance. At least 15" counter space on the latch side of the refrigerator or on either side of a side-by-side; or at least 15" counter space no more than 48" across from refrigerator. At least 15" of landing space, minimum 16" deep, next to or above oven if it opens into a primary traffic pattern. If it does not open into traffic, 15" x 16" landing space needed. 36" continuous countertop at least 16" deep for the preparation center. This center should be immediately next to a water source. For two adjacent work centers, determine a minimum counter frontage: longest of the two required counter lengths and adding 12". Open counter corners should be clipped or radiused; eliminate sharp corners. Controls, handles and door/drawer pulls operational with one hand. Wall-mounted room controls 15" - 48" above the finished floor. Ground fault circuit interrupters specified on all receptacles within the kit Island walls: To create an island, you need a wall to put the cabinets on. Set the wall thickness to zero to have the floor plan look right. To place a raised panel back on the island you will need to create another wall turned 180 degrees from the other. Staggered upper cabinets: When planning staggered upper cabinets it is a good idea to have the taller cabinets about 2 1/2" deeper than the lower ones. This will allow you to have some place to butt the crown up against. Plus it gives a better look to the job. Golden Rectangle: A 'Golden Rectangle' is one that has a height to width ratio of approximately 1.6 to 1. This ratio was discovered by Pythagoras (569 BC - 475 BC) and is said to be the most pleasing ratio to look at. This ratio can be found in fine architecture throughout the world, including the Parthenon in Greece. The exact formula is (a+b)/a=a/b. Okay, enough with the history, how does this apply to my cabinets? When planning a job you should always try to keep your cabinets or their door sizes within this ratio. For example, if you have a door opening that is almost square it is better to use two doors than one. Another example is if you have 48 inches of wall space to fill with an upper cabinet, using a 2 Opening upper with 2 doors per opening would make the doors to skinny, 1 door per opening is too wide. Instead, using a 3 Opening upper with 1 door per opening would get you closer to the Golden Rectangle. Keep this ratio in mind with your next cabinet job and you may find that the layout has a better feel to it. This is one of the intangibles that will make your work stand out from the competition. $$$ Planning in the elevation view: Once you have created and saved a wall you can add, edit or delete cabinets while in the elevation view. Just open the elevation you want to work on and either select one of the saved cabinets from the list on the right or choose a new cabinet from the menus along the top of the window. Enter your sizes and press the OK button. A ghost image of the cabinet will then be drawn over the elevation. You can then make any changes in the edit window on the right, click the OK button and the cabinet will be re-drawn. When you have it the way you need it click the save button and the elevation will be re-drawn with the new cabinet. You can open the editing window for any cabinet or object in the elevation view by double clicking on it in the drawing. Right clicking on a cabinet in the drawing will open a little popup window giving you the cabinet name, width, starting point and ending point. Cabinets can also be added in the elevation view using the Click & Drag feature. See 'Click and Drag cabinet placement'. If you would like to preview the shop drawing for any cabinet, just close the elevation window and open the edit window for that cabinet and then press the OK button Also, you do not need to close the elevation view unless you need to see the text window that is normally in its place. When switching to a new wall or the floor plan view, the program will automatically close the window and open the new one. The Save button will be de-activated until the OK button has pressed. Once the OK button has been pressed the info for that cabinet has been calculated and it can then be saved. The Delete button will be de-activated for new cabinets that have not yet been saved. Click and Drag cabinet placement: While an elevation view is open you can place a cabinet by selecting it from one of the menus at the top of the window and simply clicking and dragging the mouse where you want it placed. You can enable this feature in the General standards window. Once you have selected a cabinet the program will show the location of the mouse in the lower left corner of the window. After you have pressed the left mouse button and started to move it, the width of the cabinet will be shown in the lower left corner where the cabinet starts. While dragging the mouse, a rubber band box will be drawn on the elevation view, similar to how walls are placed. Once you lift the mouse button the cabinet will be temporarily drawn in place and the size & location will be entered into the cabinet edit window. This will work in both directions, left to right or right to left. For all corner cabinets, starting in the corner and working out will automatically place the cabinet in the correct orientation. For angled cabinets, the angled side will be the side where you lift the mouse button. For offset vanities, the drawers are on the side where you lift the mouse button. The size and location may jump when you lift the mouse button, with a little practice this should be minimal. This feature only works when the view hasn't been moved or zoomed. Metric: If you didn't select the metric conversion option in the setup window when the program was first run, you will need to reset all standard sizes to metric and place an X in the "Round up" box in the General standards window. Then just enter all sizes using the same units (millimeter, centimeter...) Upgrades: You can upgrade your program any time by going to the Cabinet Planner website. The link to the upgrade page is in the navigation bar on the left side of each page. Check the date on the download page and compare it to the version date of your program. This can be found in the About window under the Help menu. If the date in your program is older than the one on the upgrade page, you should upgrade. Minor upgrades are posted almost once a week, but the date of these is not changed because they are usually for things like spelling errors or obscure problems with the program that no one is likely to run into. Only when there is a new feature or an important fix is the date changed. NOTE: You must close the program before upgrading. Click the "upgrade here" button. In the download window select "run" or "open", not "save". After the download completes click the "run" button again and the installation wizard will open. Keep clicking the "next' button and the wizard will install the necessary files. Place cabinets on back of wall: Cabinets can only be placed on the front of a wall, however, you can easily place two walls back to back to achieve the same results. In the Wall setup window create one wall as usual. For the back of the wall check the Start from end of previous wall box and set the wall depth to zero. Create the second wall so it is like a skin on the back of the first wall. Island walls: To create an island, you need a wall to put the cabinets on. Set the wall thickness to zero to have the floor plan look right. To place a raised panel back on the island you will need to create another wall turned 180 degrees from the other. Adding an angled sink: If you have an angled corner base cabinet and want to show a sink in it in the floor plan, you can plan an angled wall set to zero thickness and place just the sink on it. It will take a little adjusting to get the location right. This method can also be used to place any cabinet or appliance at an angle in the floor plan. Base cabinets with separate toekicks: To plan your base cabinets for use with separate toekicks first set your Standard base cabinets so they do not include the toe kick height. In the Set Base Standards window, set the Off Floor height to the height of your toekick. This will plan the base cabinets with the sides the same height as the face frame. TRICK- If you want the sides to stop flush with the bottom of the bottom and not the bottom of the face frame, enter -.001 (negative one thousandth) for the toekicks height. This will trigger the program to make the necessary adjustments to the sides. You can use a modified Base Filler to plan the toe kick. Everyone makes these toekicks a little different, so I haven't added anything special for them. Glossary: For the most part this list only includes terms used in the program and is by no means a complete collection of woodworking terms. Board Foot-A form of wood measurement, where one board foot equals the volume of a board 1 inch thick, 12 inches wide, and 12 inches long. In this program, the thickness is not considered when calculating board feet. Butt Joint -A woodworking joint where the edges of two boards are placed against each other. Crosscut-A cut made perpendicular to the grain of a board. Dado-A groove in the face of a board, usually to accept another board at 90 degrees. Face Frame-In cabinetmaking a face frame is a flat frame attached to the front of a cabinet. The face frame is used to conceal the exposed edges of the plywood panels used to build the box. Frameless cabinets (European)-A cabinet which does not use a traditional faceframe. Instead, a thin veneer usually made of wood or laminate is affixed to the front edge of the carcass of the cabinet. Kerf-The slot that is created when a saw blade passes through a piece of stock. Lineal Foot-A measurement of the length of a board or a run of cabinets. Mortise-A hollowed-out hole or recess that is usually rectangular in shape and formed to accept a matching tenon for joinery purposes. Mortises can be created with a mortising bit and chisel, a router bit, a series of overlapping drilled holes or an ordinary hand chisel. Mortising is the process of cutting such a hole or recess. Nailer (screw strip)-A piece usually found inside of a cabinet at the top back. Used for fastening the cabinet to the wall. Also helpful for strengthening free standing cabinets. Partition-A vertical piece inside of a cabinet, meant to separate two or more sections of the cabinet. Rabbet-An L-shaped cutout formed in the edge or end of a piece of stock, usually for joinery purposes. One common example of rabbets is the recessed cuts in the backs of the sides of cabinets to accept the back. Rails-A horizontal parts of a raised panel door or faceframe. Raised Panel-A piece of wood that is the center of a frame and panel assembly. Also used for the name of the entire raised panel assembly. Ripcut-A cut made parallel to the grain of a board. Screw strip (nailer)-A piece usually found inside of a cabinet at the top back. Used for fastening the cabinet to the wall. Also helpful for strengthening free standing cabinets. Stiles-The vertical parts of a raised panel door or faceframe. Tenon-A protrusion from a board that fits into a matching mortise to form a joint. Toe Kick-An indentation designed into the bottom of a cabinet to provide room to allow the user to stand closer to the countertop. Stretcher-A horizontal piece that runs from side to side inside the cabinet. Usually used for structural support and for screwing down countertops.