Grouping display parts

Kevin Gratwick · Post by **Kevin Gratwick** » Tue, Oct 23 2007, 6:01PM

I'm new to this program and am trying to design one of my current projects on in eCabs as a learning experience. It is a free standing unit, finished on all four sides. The front and back have doors and drawer faces, and the left and right sides have matching panels.

I've built an end panel for the left side of the cabinet which consists of 4 face frame pieces (I used display boards for these), four panel molding pieces (display cubes), and a raised panel (also a display board). I've used align constraints to orient these 9 pieces on the left side of the cabinet. Is there a way to group these pieces. Since the left side of the cabinet is the same as the right side, my idea is to save this assembly, load a copy of it, erase everything buy the left panel, rotate it 180 degrees, and align it to the right side of the cabinet. Is this possible???

If it helps I can post what I have so far, but I'm not sure how to do this.

Thanks. Kevin

Damon Nabors · Post by **Damon Nabors** » Tue, Oct 23 2007, 9:29PM

Kevin, another option could be to use doors as an end panel, you could take two or three doors and make a nice looking end panel.

Damon Nabors

Kevin Gratwick · Post by **Kevin Gratwick** » Wed, Oct 24 2007, 7:30AM

Damon - I thought about doing this, but I couldn't figure out how to change the width of my stiles and rails. I need the stiles and rails on the end panel to be wider than they are on a typical door. The way I actually built this cabinet was to make the bottom rail a couple inches wider so that it drops below the height of my baseboard, giving me something to nail the base cap to. It's not really necessary for the panel to do that for the purpose of this drawing, but I would like to show the wider stiles and rails. Here is a JPG of what I have so far.

Kevin Gratwick · Post by **Kevin Gratwick** » Wed, Oct 24 2007, 7:55AM

I think I might have figured out how to move my display parts as one unit. I found an old post that says to make one member of the group of parts a cabinet part, and then associate the rest of the display parts to the cabinet part. This can be saved as a cabinet and then manipulated as one unit. I'll see what happens....

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Wed, Oct 24 2007, 8:23AM

Kevin

Start with a standard frameless base cabinet.

Go into Construction Settings and uncheck left end, right end, deck, top and toe kick (be sure to set toe kick to 0\" for both height and inset).

Now you should have just a back. Size the cabinet to be whatever you want then take the back into the Part Editor.

Once in the Part Editor, go into Contour Mode. Select the Line tool and place perimeter lines for the inside edge of your rails and stiles.

Exit Contour Mode and click the Profile Edge icon. Leave it on Chain and click Next.

Select one of the MDF Asymmetrical tools, set the plunge depth and offset.

Complete the profile cut and return to the Cabinet Editor, saving the changes.

Now go into the Constraint Manager.

Select the Horizontal Dimensioning Tool and click on the top (left or right--doesn't matter) corner of the part. Now click on the corresponding corner of the profile cut. Click a third time to locate the display of the constraint dimension.

Repeat on the bottom of the part.

Now switch to the Vertical Dimensioning Tool and repeat the same steps as in horizontal constraints (above).

Exit the Constraint Manager and save your cabinet (but give it a \"door\" or \"finish panel\" name).

You now have a resizable \"door\" or \"finish panel\" that can be added to any cabinet and saved as an assembly. You can also add it to a room layout and place it anywhere you like (wall, ceiling, etc).

Mike Snodgrass · Post by **Mike Snodgrass** » Wed, Oct 24 2007, 9:45PM

Dan, when you save it as a back, how do you keep track of the pricing of it?
I usually use a door. which is better for costing?

Rick Palechuk · Post by **Rick Palechuk** » Wed, Oct 24 2007, 11:39PM

You should be able to set the sheet price to coincide with the sq.ft. price of a door. For instance, if your door manufacturer charges $12.00 per sq.ft. then you would take 12x32=384. So you would set your sheet cost at $384.00

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Thu, Oct 25 2007, 6:22AM

I see you guys (Mike S. & Rick P.) weren't watching the Red Sox beat up on the Rockies last night.

Mike--You can do as Rick suggests and create a special sheet stock just for finished panels or you could assign costs to it just as you would any cabinet.

Rick--wouldn't a 384 sq ft door be pretty big?

Rick Palechuk · Post by **Rick Palechuk** » Thu, Oct 25 2007, 8:01AM

Bin there.