Renaming a cabinet

[Damon Nabors]

Maybe I am having a dumb moment or something, but is there a way to rename a cabinet when bringing it in from the cabinet library without saving a brand new cabinet. I have found that I can rename parts when I find a creative way to use them. I may use the same seed cabinet 4 or 5 times in the same job and change the size of it. I would like to rename the cabinet so that installation is easier on the job site. If I send 5 cabinets out and they are all named " .710 Base with half shelf" but they are different sizes, it can get confusing. I would like to maybe call them by their location, like "lower cab. stove left" and "Lower cab. stove right" as an example. This would help with the onsite installation in my opinion. Some of these yahoo's we get to install can get them in the wrong location, especially if the cabs are close in size like a 30" cabinet and a 30.25" cabinet. I hate hearing " Well, it looked like it went there."



Thanks for the input.
Damon

[Michael Yeargain]

Damon,

Sounds like a competent install crew is needed too.

I feel your pain and would as always like to add my 2 cents.

At the present time there is no way to change the name unless you save it. Thus creating a large unnecessary database. You can ,for the mean while, place notes on your install plans to help filter out the mistakes. Keep only pertainant information to the install on these pages. Less information is actually better in this type of senerio, if you can communicate your objective.

You can also use the find and replace feature in excel . I use this alot.

Hope this helps.

[Damon Nabors]

Thanks Mike, I have found a crew that 90% of the time they do ok, (Language barrier) but its that occasional 10% blunder that will get you the phone call saying "Hey, these cabinets don't work, are you sure you programmed them right?" What a way to start off your day.

The library is getting large and I was hoping to condense it a little by renaming some of them but it looks like that may not work. But now that I have thought about it over night. You could rename the top front stretcher to what ever you want that cabinet to be and leave that sticker on the cabinet.

BTW
Damon

[Terry Hall]

I like to keep things simple and a picture is worth a thousand words. I usually just print the kitchen in the line drawing editor, insert the numbers and transfer the corresponding numbers to the backs of the cabs as they're built.

[Michael S Murray]

Damon,
We try to never use diminsions to name our cabinets, that can lead to error or confusion for the installers if you change dim.
We just take the job tothe lde and then print out with cab #s. The label will have the cabinet # also, we leave a couple on in conspicous places for the install.If you send a copy of the cut list, it will have cabinet sizes on it.I also send a elevation of all walls with notes on starters,scribes,int fittings, etc.

[Damon Nabors]

I understand about the cabinet numbers, we do the same thing. But like I said earlier, there is that 10% of the time that something gets fouled up. We are still trying to get our system to run like a well oiled machine. Since getting the router, construction methods have changed as have other things and we are trying to get a system that runs smooth. Right now we are doing 4 kitchens a month with just me, my wife and one other full timer. The full timer is the problem, he is very good at installs but his English is not that great and I am trying to get this as elementary as possible for him. I am getting frustrated with the "Oh, I did not understand". I am too busy right now to go back and fix things twice, and I do not have the time to be at every install.

[Justin Melhiser]

Damon
The best thing to do is once you have your cabinets created, add them to a batch. Then the same seed cabinets that you use over and over in the same job add those and change the dimensions. Then you can click on the name that is in blue text and change the name to what you want. An example would be if you had two std base frameless cabinets one would be std base frameless right of stove and the other would be std base frameless left of stove. Now you can save this batch file and create your CNC file here. I know this may not be exactly what you are looking for but it will have the cabinets with different names labeled.

[Michael Yeargain]

Damon,

I use to do custom cabinetry that would actually break into any numerical dimension. Such as a, 24 3/4" cabinet. I went through so much confusion that it was terrible.

I found that creating a (single door and double door) cabinet in a particular style and height, is almost all I need for that set of cabinets. I always try to divide the length of the cabinetry into 3" increments. Ie 15,18,21... So far I have had great luck with this. I can resize a std 1 door upper cabinet from 12" to 27 with no proble and a std 2 door cabinet I can resize to 39 without any problem. The width of the cabinet is printed on the cut list and I have drasticly cut down on the number of actual cabinets I have saved in my catalogs.

Hope this makes since.

Ps. I may need to clarify something... I do mostly frameless That's why I said 1 door and 2 door. In my basic upper cabinet catalog I have 8 cabinets. I can design almost anything with this. I also have a catalog for hoods and specialty cabinets that have more cabinets in them than my basic cabinet directory. So this technique has potential.