Suggestions for future Ecabs

[davewest]

Here are a few features that I would love to see on future builds:

1.The ability to have more control over the nesting so that parts that are the same widht can be placed all on the same sheet instead of being on several different sheets.
2.Being able to manipulate the cutlist so that the width of the parts are listed in descending order from largest to smallest.
3.It would be great to have a nesting diagram for solid board stock instead of just the board footage calculator. Woodsmith Magazine does some amazing board diagrams to show best use of stock. That feature would be great.
4.Custom molding profiles are going to be great when they become available.
5.Ability to add lines, circles and other shapes in the line editor. Would it be possible to add a limited amount of drafting capability for those of us who like to add basic items to the plans?
6.Bring on some other larger door companies like Walzcraft and Keystone. I find that the door styles are limited.
7.It would be great if I could change the color of any door in the library to a color other than the colors that the manufacturers offer.
8.I would love to be able to enlarge the drawings in line editor and maintain a certain scale. Is there a way to cuurently do this? When I enlrage drawings I have no idea of the scale.

I love the program and can't wait to see it evolve. Great job Thermwood!

Dave West

[Lamar Horton]

I like you ideas, I listed them in the priority that I would like to see. This is a great program.

3.It would be great to have a nesting diagram for solid board stock instead of just the board footage calculator. Woodsmith Magazine does some amazing board diagrams to show best use of stock. That feature would be great.

2.Being able to manipulate the cutlist so that the width ((I would prefer length)) of the parts are listed in descending order from largest to smallest.

5.Ability to add lines, circles and other shapes in the line editor. Would it be possible to add a limited amount of drafting capability for those of us who like to add basic items to the plans?

1.The ability to have more control over the nesting so that parts that are the same width can be placed all on the same sheet instead of being on several different sheets.

7.It would be great if I could change the color of any door in the library to a color other than the colors that the manufacturers offer.

8.I would love to be able to enlarge the drawings in line editor and maintain a certain scale. Is there a way to cuurently do this? When I enlrage drawings I have no idea of the scale.

4.Custom molding profiles are going to be great when they become available.

6.Bring on some other larger door companies like Walzcraft and Keystone. I find that the door styles are limited.

[Justin Melhiser]

Dave
I will send your request to the programmers. Thank you for your input.

[davewest]

Thanks Justin. I just thought of one other small thing that I thought I would mention. When I am preparing shop drawing submittals it would be helpful to be able to zero in on a closeup part of a cabinet by putting a circle around the area or being able to erase out all the surrounding lines to make it easier for viewing. Thanks for the reply.
Dave

[Mike Seisser]

Thanks Justin. I just thought of one other small thing that I thought I would mention. When I am preparing shop drawing submittals it would be helpful to be able to zero in on a closeup part of a cabinet by putting a circle around the area or being able to erase out all the surrounding lines to make it easier for viewing. Thanks for the reply.
Dave

Dave,

You can draw a bounding box around an area that you'd like to snap-zoom to. Hold down the Ctrl key, then left click/drag the mouse around the area. (It draws a blue outline box as opposed to green.)

As far as being able to erase out all the surrounding lines, I choose 'Select Mode - Cabinet Part' from the right click menu, then individually highlight any parts I need to 'erase' and use the 'Hide' function in the same right click menu. This is especially handy when dimensioning because hidden nodes aren't always easy to 'grab' with the dimensioning tool.

HTH

Mike

[davewest]

Mike,
That's pretty slick. It would be great to be able to highlight the blue box, get a zoom in/close-up and then capture everything inside that square and delete everything outside the square. Then we could zoom out a little and there would just be those parts showing. The problem I have is that I want to show a portion of a part and not the whole part so hiding the part keeps me from showing a portion of it. Thanks for the tip on doing a closeup zoom. That's why I love these forums.
Dave

[Paul Ellis]

Dave,
Try a program like MWSnap or Snagit. You can capture part of the screen and paste this into your favourite word processor to print. This way you can hide, rotate zoom in and then capture and paste until you have all you need. Compile this into a presentable 'drawing plan' and print. Save this document together with your jobfiles so that you know where to get them if you need it again.
HTH