new to eCabinets help

[Joe Pyle]

So I've been playing with eCabs (v6 build 4) for a couple of weeks now, watching the online training videos, and have read pretty much the entire help file. I can do most all of the basics -- make rooms, add/edit cabinets, etc. But the thing I haven't yet found either in the videos or on the forum, are what steps do I take to get the program ready to work for me? I undestand how to add materials, hardware, save cabinets to a library, etc -- specific operations. But in what order do I prepare eCabinets so it's ready to design and produce cabinetry the way I build them? I'm looking for an answer that addresses a methodology issue, not how to do a specific function. Hope this makes sense.

I have already downloaded and installed the free libraries that are closet to my construction system (frameless 3/4 material, 1/4 backs), but they need some editing to get them the way I want.

I'm really liking eCabinets, much better than my other design software, and want to migrate all my work to eCabs as soon as possible.

Thanks for the input.

[Wally Schneeberger]

I would say that the #1 thing is to develop your own Library. It will take some time but you will have to take the cabs you downloaded and make the changes that you need and then save them as your own in a different folder. Then when you are ready to design a room you use those cabs and it will be made YOUR WAY and have the proper cut lists and hardware and so forth. Also you must set up your Materials list to coincide with the new cabs.

[Jean G Voyer]

Joe,
Most of what you want to do to edit the cabinets to your liking is in the construction setting window.
That's where you adjust the parameters to your needs. I haven't seen the videos but I thought they would teach you that.
Maybe you need the "Almost complete guide to ecabinet".

Good luck.

[Joe Pyle]

Thanks for responding.

Jean, yes, the videos do a very good job of teaching you how to edit and save cabinets. I have learned how to do this.
Wally, so are you suggesting to develop the library AND the materials database at the same time or do one then the other?

When do I develop hardware patterns and save them? Is this before or after I've developed my unique cabinet library?

Concerning the materials, I use either melamine or prefinished ply, 3/4" for everything except 1/4" backs. As I understand it, I need all four of these sheet goods in the materials. Do I need to save a ply version and a melamine version of the same cabinet in my library? Or should my library be of generic material, then change the whole room to the desired material after the room has been designed? Do I save the same cabinet multiple times with different door styles, or one cabinet and change the door style in each job? Can I change all the doors at once or just one cabinet at a time (haven't seen that video yet)?

Perhaps an analogy might help. Say I just bought a new car (eCabs). I have learned how to drive, but this is a vehicle I've never driven before. In what order do I get the car ready for me to drive? I would first familiarize myself with the controls (lights, cruise, wipers, etc), then I would adjust the seat, then the mirrors, the the tilt steering. This order has reason. If I adjust the mirrors before the seat, when the seat is made right the mirrors won't be.

I'm just trying to avoid doing one thing, like edit cabinets in my library, only to discover that I should've done xyz first. I hope I'm making sense. It seems that surely there is an optimal way to go about this procedure. Or does everyone just feel it along?

[Jean G Voyer]

Joe,

Do you own a router? I don't personally own a router yet. So I am not too concern about location of hardware and groves out of my drawing, as long my cutting list is accurate. But the day I will have a router things will be very different. So if you have a router, a router owner should give you a very good answer on that.

[Bryan J Tanner]

Hi Joe,

Welcome to Ecabinets there is a logical order to do things. The thing to remember is that most things get saved with the cabinet. For example, you would want to set up your hardware patterns and apply these to each cabinet as you go, these get saved with the cabinet and the only way to change or apply these to your library is on an individual basis.

You can change doors with relative ease in the layout editor so that would be up to you weather you develop 2 libraries or not. Would you know the finish and style of the door before commencing the design?

I guess the general rule of thumb is save a completed cabinet. Hardware associations, hole patterns, construction settings etc get saved with the cabinet. The only way to change these later is to do so on an individual cabinet basis, very time consuming.

I hope this helps.

[DanEpps]

Welcome to the eCabinets family! It sounds loike you already have a pretty good grasp of the mechanics of eCabinets.

As the others have stated, there is an order to follow.

First, sit down and make out a list of the different distinct cabinet types/styles you produce. For example, closets, bath, kitchen, laundry, bookcases, etc. Use these as your major groupings for the libraries you develop. You may want to further subdivide in, for example, kitchen-base, kitchen-upper or paint-grade, stain-grade, etc. Whatever works best for you, but do organize so you can easily find things.

Second, you must have materials defined before you can use them. As Bryan said, everything is saved as part of the cabinet file but materials exist in a separate database. This does not mean that you can't create materials in the midst of designing a cabinet but it makes it easier if you define the materials you use most before starting to build your library. You can certainly use generic materials and do wholesale material changes to the room.

Next, design the hole patterns for your most often used hardware and associate the hardware with the hole patterns.

If you use any particular edge profiles that are not included with eCabinets, go ahead and design your tools so they will be there when you need them. This is only important if you are using a router or want to show the exact profiles in presentation drawings.

Now that you have all of that stuff out of the way, go ahead and develop your library of seed cabinets. Don't try to create a separate cabinet for every single size you make in a particular style unless you have Part Editor edits that may be difficult to constrain (so the scale accoringly with size changes).

Have fun and enjoy eCabinets and this forum. You will find all the help you want right here.

[Kerry Fullington]

Joe,

I am pretty much in line with what everyone else is recommending.

If I were starting from scratch I would enter all the materials I need in Preferences/Define Material
I would enter all the hardware I might need in Preferences/Define Hardware (including all the vendor and distributor information as well as correct costs and images for the hardware)
I would enter all the correct information in Preferences/Define Standard Dimensions
I would go to the Door Drawer Front Designer and create my own library of doors and drawer fronts with correct pricing info and cutlist information (if you are ever going to build the doors)
I would create a library of all the drawer boxes I would need in the Drawer Box Designer and save them.
Next I would find or create any hole patterns I might need for hardware.

You are now ready to begin creation of your own personal Seed Cabinets.

Open the Standard Base Framed (or Frameless) and go through Construction Settings and change things to fit your material needs (I prefer Generic materials and just change the pricing for different materials instead of having a lot of different libraries) and your construction preferences. Make sure you set everything correctly. Add all of your stretchers and nailers with correct construction. Set all the correct info for fixed and adjustable shelves. Add your basic door and drawer fronts and drawer box along with the correct hardware and hols associations. Make sure this cabinet is perfect and then save it as your Base Seed Cabinet. Now every library cabinet built using this cabinet as will have all your correct hardware and construction information.
Repeat this operation for and Upper Seed, Base and Upper Corner Seeds, a Tall cabinet Seed, an Island Seed and so on. Never overwrite these seed cabinets and use them to create all the cabinet in your libraries.
Once you have all your library cabinets created you are ready to start designing rooms.

I would just create one library of cabinets and then change doors and materials after placing them in the room
Kerry

[Joe Pyle]

Thanks guys. That's the kind of answers I was hoping to get--the intial set up process. Since I've been watching the videos and playing around with the different operations, it shouldn't be too difficult, just take a little time.

[Michael S Murray]

Hi Joe,
Lots of good information, Kerry and Dan are great and know there stuff.
I would add that time spent wisely now will pay off in the future. Be as accurate as possible, spend some time thinking about your library structure as far as what type of work you do.
A lot depends on if your cutting with a router or conventional machining your parts.
Like some one mentioned, you dont have to make a cabinet for every width dim. , but I have found that changing heights can be tricky.
Say you change a base height, your drawer fronts will change and you might lose some hardware hole locations, wall cabinets for example need to built in about 3" height differences.Say if you just pull a 30" high wall cab into the editor or change the height in room layout to say 42" you will find that the number of shelves and shelf holes will remain the same as when it was 30" high. I find it easier to build several different heights in my library and then choose the one closest to the height I am looking for and the correct amount of shelves, then changing the height only a few inches either way of the seed.
I have two different types of Librarys, commercial and residential, commercial use grass zargens and melamine-plam/pvc banding
residential uses dovetail wood drawers cut on the router and wood fronts.
I build the rooms with these and then change the doors/drawers and some times the box material after the room is built.
I learned the hard way that if you try to build a library for every little possibility that it will overwhelm you and get to confusing.
I have standardized everything and have got down to about 4 librarys that I can build about anything you can imagine from.
When you start your seed cabinets, actually leave your origonal seed cabinet as a stripped down box with all the correct settings, but without doors, drwaers etc.
Then go back to that cabinet to start every other cabinet, this will stop what I call drifting, (one little mistake gets in 20 cabinets)
Another thing I might mention is watching how you name yor cabinets, I avoid using diminsions, say you name a wall cab wc30, then change it to 32" in room layout or editor, now your name will still say 30, labels and all, but your cabinet is actually 32" this is confusing if you print out labels or it can also cost mistakes at the assembly table.
Hope this helps, another commercial quote to get out yet tonight, and I am already punchy.....