Another Wish- Since we are in the wishing mood

[Damon Nabors]

Is it just me, or what? I would like to see the counter top and the back splash texture automatically be the same texture unless you specify something else. I don't know of alot of times in my situation that I will have a counter top with one texture and the back splash as something else. I can think of maybe giving the wall a tiled look or something but it is a pain to scroll down and find the texture all over again.

[wayne chater]

I agree, and how about being able to apply the sink cutout in the c-top editor and then being able to drag it around or resize it like a display object?

[Dan Senkiewicz]

A sink cutout or any type of free-form cutout would be fantastic. Would be great to have a utility that you could click along the edge of the sink/vessel you are using to dimension it (like you do for the counter top by picking endpoints) and then being able to apply it to a surface and cut in/through.

[DanEpps]

Well gee, why not just have the sink cutout automatic when you place a sink in the countertop?

Cutouts in countertops do leave much to be desired and it would be nice to be able to drag cutouts to move/resize them.

[Kerry Fullington]

Until these things are implemented, here are a couple of things I do that might help the sink cutouts not be so much of a problem.
Some Sunday afternoon when you have nothing to do, take a display cube into the part editor/contour and create the cutout geometry for every sink that you use. I even fillet the corners just like the cutout templates. Save these geometries as per sink size (or brand if you want) this way you don't have to go through the process of creating the cutout every time you need it.

To make placing the geometry easier, when creating counter tops, create the top for the sink base as a separate top. This way you are pulling a top into the part editor that is exactly the size of just that sink base cabinet making it much easier to locate the cutout. Use the geometries you created to make the cutouts for whatever sink you are using.

Kerry

[Gene Davis]

If you have done this, Kerry, then how about placing them on the 3D page here, so we can all download them?

[Mike Seisser]

Kerry,

While you're at it, I have a coupla jobs I need assembled and faceframed after I get them cut.

Oh, and my truck needs an oil change.

Do you do windows?



Mike

[Kerry Fullington]

Ok Gene Here you are but you know the saying "Give a man a Fish"
How are you ever going to learn to use the part editor

These are cutouts for a 33 x 22, a 33 x 18 3/4, a 25 x 22, 43 x 22 and an approx 21 x 18 oval that works for most oval vanity sinks. For round vanities I just use the circle tool.

My 3D sinks are all self rimming so if it is self rimming I set the sink on top of the counter and if the customer wants under mount I push the same sink into the counter top and profile the cutout edge.

Kerry

[Gene Davis]

C'mon, Kerry, I thought this was a community.

sink.jpg (22.72 KiB) Viewed 9739 times

One of the reasons I find Sketchup so useful for modeling rooms, is because the community of users is so huge, and with everyone posting content, the library of downloadable components is very extensive. The sink above is one I clipped from searching the 3D Warehouse, which listed hundreds of choices. Beyond that, the manufacturers such as Kohler have put all their stuff up for free downloading. Same for Whirlpool and many of the appliance makers.

Couple the ease of component importing to your model, with the SU feature that allows a component to have a glueing and cutting plane specified, which makes it mount to and cut a hole through anything to which it's affixed in your model, and you have one powerful piece of modeling software.

Thanks for posting the models. Believe me, I can figure my way through the part editor, but frankly find modeling in it a little tedious.

[DanEpps]

Gene

You continue to extoll the virtues of SketchUp while denigrating eCabinets. May I remind you that this forum is for discussing eCabinet Systems software and suggest that you read the forum rules.

[Kerry Fullington]

Gene,

Modeling in eCabinets is a piece of cake once you learn to use the software. (Just finding your way around won't cut it)

Sketchup is great for producing mediocre client drawings but where is your bill of materials, cut list, sheet optimization and CNC information to build with.

I think is is silly to draw a job in sketchup to show clients and then have to turn around and draw it again in eCabinets to get the information to build the job. I know it is silly because I started out doing the same thing. I would draw my jobs using Home Designer Pro to get the same mediocre drawings you get from Sketchup then I would draw everything in eCabinets to get my cut lists and bill of materials. I was wasting a lot of time so that is when I decided to learn every aspect of eCabinets. I learned it well enough that I don't have to think about it much. It is now my default software It is the one I use for everything because it is easy.

The eCabinets community is one of the best on the web and as for the availability of 3D objects, models from all of the sites like Kohler, GE, Enkebol, Osborne, etc can be converted and used in eCabinets. There are also a multitude of places that you can download free 3D models. The problem the eCabinets community has is a place to store these models that makes them easily search able. Maybe you could make suggestions to as to how to make this better. Maybe you would want to create and maintain a site just for eCabinet members to upload and download models.

eCabinets is not, nor does it want to be, like sketchup. If you would quit using sketchup as a crutch and make the investment in time it takes to learn eCabinets completely, you would soon find that sketchup would be gathering dust. If you feel that eCabinets is not worth your investment of time to learn it properly, then maybe it is time to look into one of the many other cabinet design software packages that are out there. You will find that they all take as much or more of an investment of time to learn properly and most are not nearly as versatile.

Kerry

[Gene Davis]

Hey, Dan and Kerry. Settle down.

What is the title of this thread? Isn't it all about wishing? Why don't you chastise those other posters for wishing? That's about all I was doing.

So here goes. I'll wish.

1. A room editor that would, just like it creates walls, create sloped walls like attic ceilings and dormered windows. It would also readily create, as part of the wall subroutine, dropdown soffits like a whole lotta kitchens I see have.

2. Placing moldings should be as simple as choosing a molding profile from a library, or creating your own and adding it to that library, then bringing the profile into the room, either choosing the chained group of edges the molding should track, or creating the track in 3D, then having the profile "follow" the track, swooping to the curves if required, doing inside and outside miters as required, finishing up looking like, for example, a completed crown mold job.

3. A library of appliances, either in the software, or accessible as downloads from an FTP site that is member-accessed, that can be loaded directly into a room being worked on. The appliances library would contain products from a huge array of manufacturers.

4. As mentioned by others above, sinks that cut a hole in whatever surface they are applied to, and then take that "hole" with them if they are moved.

5. The ability to create 3D display objects in 3D space by modeling features through software that enables extruding, mirroring, copying, move/place, and in many other ways "building" a model by adding features, rather than doing it the Michaelangelo way, and starting with a block of granite, and chopping away everything that is not "David."

6. A more rich Member Profile area at the forum that requires each member to qualify him(her)self by stating whether router owned or not, if so which model, what other CNC machines owned, if no router ownership then does member use production sharing, and principal uses of software product. Such an expansion would help other members understand better the context of posts made by others.

7. Video tutorials available right at YouTube showing every possible aspect of cabinet making, room modeling, and "display object" modeling.

8. Finally, a wish that the doggone corner cab door and hinge issues would get fixed. I have one or more of these in every kitchen I do.

So, Kerry and Dan, help me out. Got routers? Which one? If not, do production sharing? I've told you about me. I've no router, buy parts via production sharing, and use the software only to build cabs and batch jobs. My clients were happy getting scratched out pics on the backs of napkins, and are happy with any improvement at all over that. Photorealism doesn't float their boats.

[DanEpps]

Gene

1 & 2 -- these two items have been repeatedly addressed with Thermwood stating that they are coming in version 6. You can already create sloped walls, all you have to do is adjust the height on the ends of the wall.
3 -- Appliance manufacturers provide files that can be downloaded and converted for use in eCabinets.
4 -- I (and probably most everyone else) agree.
5 -- eCabinets is for designing cabinets and furniture, not "other 3D objects." The Display Part Editor is provided for converting files provided by manufacturers into something usable by eCabinets.
6 -- Why? What good would that information possibly be?
7 -- Again, this has been addressed many times with Thermwood stating that video tutorials will be coming with wither version 5.2 or 6 (I forgot which).
8 -- That has also been posted several times as having been addressed in the next release.

And for your final question, if you read through much of the forum these questions have been answered many times. Again though, what does it matter to you? For the record though, no, I do not own a router or regularly use production sharing. I create antique reproduction armoire-style entertainment centers. When I say "reproduction", I mean down to the finish...hand rubbed shellac in the style of French Polishing. I use eCabinets to create the base unit so I can quickly get accurate cut lists but if I were to try to produce the carvings I do, it would take different software from eCabinets...something like ArtCam.

Finally, if photorealism "doesn't float their boats", why are you so dead set on having all of the 3D presentation features work like the most expensive 3D modeling software? Is it just that you want these features but you don't want to pay for the software required to get them?

[Damon Nabors]

Well, once again someone put a terd in the punch bowl. I can get the hole in the correct place, I just wanted the darn textures to be the same on both counter top and backsplash unless noted otherwise. Thanks for your input Kerry, I think that is a great idea.

As for Gene, maybe you need to go and purchase some software that does everything you think it should do. I have purchased design software that I no longer use because ecabinets is all I need. I think you will find out that those other software companies have issues as well. Yes they can make it look real easy when they demo it because they know what they are doing, they have been properly trained. I am sure if this software was for sale and someone like Kerry came along, he would zip through it and make it look super easy and after he was gone, I would be scratching my head going, now how did he do that.

I had a rep for another software company call me 3 or 4 months back and wanted to demo there latest and greatest thing. I told them no thanks, I was using ecab and it is great." Oh yes, but could we at least come by an show it to you, you will find it will do everything ecabs will do and more."
To make a long story short, this guy was at my desk for 3 hours trying to duplicate a cabinet and ended up giving up on it. I did not want to see him build his rehearsed cabinet, I wanted to see him build one of my cabinets. I turned around and built it in a few minutes because I have taken advise from Kerry and Dan and Others on this forum and have spent the time to go the Dale, In and get training. I get training everyday off this forum.

Gene, I am sure you are a great guy, and I know some people have bad days and come across wrong when they speak but I am going to give you some advise that my wife often gives me: Everyday she tells me to say a little prayer, "Dear Lord, please walk with me today and keep one hand on my shoulder and the other hand over my MOUTH".

If you would have asked me what I thought about this software 2 years ago, I wouldn't be as positive as I am today. After I did as Kerry has advised and took the time and effort to learn what I needed to know in order to build the projects that I build, all of a sudden the software makes since. Just be patient and practice and take notes. It will come to you.

[Gene Davis]

A clarification, and some more wishes.

Sloped walls in order to create ceiling vaults and spaces like shown here. (Parts shipments arrive Tuesday for this.) Sorry for the cheesy rendering, but those who are writing the check thought it was tres cool.

UnderTheRoofKitchen.jpg (167.77 KiB) Viewed 9602 times

Ability to define an item as translucent, and call out its color, to be able to have clients view and understand some schemes more thoroughly. See pic above.

Previously asked for, but rejected by the usual suspects: a wider angle view in renderings. See views below, for how some other packages have view angle.

KCDw render.jpg (48.56 KiB) Viewed 9658 times

cabnetware.jpg (30.45 KiB) Viewed 9655 times