Overview
Working with Cabinet Solutions software is very easy to do because it follows the same basic steps you would use if you did the work by hand.
There are 4 stages you will go through to produce your work, moving from the more general information to the more specific details. Each stage
is performed in a different screen. The screens proceed as follows:i
Note: If this is your first time using Cabinet Solutions, you should first read the section on Standards. Standards are
fundamental to getting an accurate cut-list to work from and a thorough understanding of them is essential.
- The "Start Up Screen": Before doing any kind of work in your shop, you have had to decide how you are going to construct the cabinets and what kind of wood does the customer want. In this first screen you will enter information about your shop and about the job you are doing. Then specify in your Standards how this job will be built before you proceed to the next screen. Standards are the specifications for the way you construct your cabinets.
Click the Draw Walls button to proceed to the Draw Walls Screen.
- The Draw Walls Screen: The next step is to begin designing or laying out the cabinets for the job. The first step in that process is to define the walls that make up the room in which you will be placing your cabinets. In the "Draw Walls Screen" you will take the wall information you have gotten from your field measurements and put them in your computer. This screen lets you draw the walls of each room in your job and insert any windows, doors, or obstructions (i.e. wall switches, outlets, plumbing pipes, etc.) that you want displayed in your output. Cabinet Solutions allows you to draw as many rooms as each job requires and as many walls as you need for each room. Draw walls by moving your mouse cursor into the drawing window. Then while holding down the mouse button, move the mouse in the direction you want to layout your wall. Release the mouse button and a "size window" will appear. Give the length, height and name of the wall you are drawing in this window. Draw all your walls at this time. You can resize or delete an existing wall. You can place windows, doorways, and obstructions on a wall. To perform these functions, click on the Edit radio button, then click the mouse button when the wall you want to edit is highlighted. Click the "Start New Room" button in the tool box on the right to name and draw up the other rooms in your job.
Click the Place Cabinets button to proceed to the Place Cabinets Screen.
- The Place Cabinets Screen: The function of this screen is to do your basic cabinet layout in each of the different rooms you have drawn. This screen will quickly begin to look familiar to you as you place cabinets because it will look like an architect's floor plan. To place a cabinet, click on the cabinet icon representing the cabinet or appliance you want to place. Each of these icons represents a type of cabinet that you can place in Cabinet Solutions. They are standard templates that you will learn to customize to make virtually any cabinet you want. A sizing window will appear in which you will give the overall size to each cabinet that you are placing. When the size has been adjusted, click on the place cabinet button. Move the mouse until the cabinet is located in the proper position on the wall, then click to place the cabinet. On the right, in the tool box, the name of the current room is displayed. To place cabinets in a different room, click on the small Arrow to the right of the room name. Then in the drop down list, click on the name of the room you want displayed. You can change, move or delete an existing cabinet. To do this, move your mouse until the cabinet you wish to edit is highlighted and click the mouse button. In the window that appears click "Edit Cabinet" and another window will appear that will allow you to resize, delete or move a cabinet. Using the "Assign Standards" button you can also give any or all of the cabinets in the room a different set of standards.
Click on the Edit Elevations button to proceed to the Edit Elevations Screen.
- The Edit Elevations Screen: In this final work screen you can view your wall elevations and edit or customize any of the cabinets you have placed. Through this screen you can also view the cut-list for each cabinet on screen before you send it to print. To control the view of the wall, use the controls in the tool box at the right. The controls include arrows that move the view of the wall, a Flip button, Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons, and arrows that control the view of the wall.
To edit (customize) a cabinet, move the mouse until the cabinet you want to edit is highlighted, then click the mouse button. The Customize Cabinet Tool Box will appear. You can add or delete cabinet parts. You can edit the cabinet openings, or edit the number of shelves in an opening. You can modify the end panel of a cabinet to have an applied door panel (plant-on) as a finished end. You can change the standards for a particular cabinet and then save your changes into a custom cabinet file that you can use in future jobs. At the right, the name of the current room is displayed. To view a different room, click on the small Arrow to the right of the room name. Click on the name of the room you want displayed. Use the same method to select the wall you want displayed. The current wall is displayed right below the room name.
Once you have completed your work in these 4 steps you can View the Rooms in 3-D from any perspective. You can use the Job Costing tool to produce an estimate for your job. You can Print your work in many different reports including: cut lists, assembly sheets, wall elevations, the 3-D room views, etc. Cabinet Solutions will even print out a way to cut your sheet goods by Optimizing them.
Standards
Please read carefully! Standards are the specifications for the way you build your cabinets.
Most errors found by our technical support people are due to incorrect standards.
Overview of Standards
As every cabinet maker is well aware, no two customers are exactly alike, so it is rare that two cabinet jobs are exactly alike. Some differences are
relatively minor, like the size of the refrigerator that will be used, but some differences are major, like choosing frameless cabinets, (Euro), over
face frame cabinets. Whatever those differences might be, your Cabinet Solutions software will need to be set up to reflect those differences. In
Cabinet Solutions, we call the specifications used to produce your drawings and cut-lists Standards, and they are obviously a critical aspect of
your program. It is your Standards that set you apart from other shops. Some examples of standards would be: what type of material will you be using for your
face frame? What type of doors you will be using? What parts are dadoed together, and how deep are those dadoes? What type of material do you want to
use for your drawer boxes and how will you construct them? This is the type of information you need to give Cabinet Solutions in Standards to get customized
results in your drawings and cut-lists.
When you place a cabinet you will be able to create cabinets any size you want them to be. Cabinet
Solutions creates that cabinet with a file of information called a standards file. This file is stored with each cabinet and gives that cabinet the instructions
it needs to be constructed the way you want it to be. If every cabinet within a job has the same standards file saved with it, they will all be built the same
way, using the same materials, doors, dado depths, etc. However, there may be times when you want individual cabinets, or rooms of cabinets to differ from the
rest of the job. To allow you this kind of flexibility, there are several ways you can set the standards for a cabinet, and as you will see, each way is useful
for different applications.
Saving Standards files and Opening Standards files:
Because jobs are rarely alike, we at Cabinet Solutions have tried to provide a fast and easy way to set up each job with a different set of standards. To make
that process even easier, Cabinet Solutions allows you to take a prepared set of standards and save them as a file. This gives you the ability to make a library
of standards, any of which you can open and use on your new jobs or on any individual cabinet within that job. Some shops carry a low end cabinet, a medium grade
cabinet, and a high end cabinet. And each time they prepare a set of drawings or a estimate, they might want to give the customer several design/price options.
Cabinet Solutions lets you set up and save as many different sets of standards as you need.
Set-Up Options for Standards:
Another way in which your Cabinet Solutions program can be tailored to your shop is through the Standards Set-Up Options in
the Menu Bar. Through this window you can select whether Cabinet Solutions will start up ready to layout cabinets
with face frames, or without. You can also setup specific standards you want Cabinet Solutions to load when you choose Face Frame or Euro construction.
To Adjust the Standards for a New Job:
- When Cabinet Solutions starts, the first working screen that appears is called the "Start Up Screen". From this screen you can choose to either Start a New Job, or Open an Existing Job. If you choose to start a new job, a message box will appear asking you; "Do you want to enter in new standards for this new job?" (You can also start a new job or open an existing job through the File command in the menu bar.)
- If you will be using the default standards that you can set up to be automatically loaded with each new job, click "No", and you can proceed to the Draw Walls screen. Click "Yes", if you want to adjust the standards in any way or if you want to select an entirely different set of standards.
- Once you have opened the Job Standards, click on the button with the name of the standards that you would like to change.
- Enter the changes.
- When you've made all the changes you need to, click on the "Apply to Job" button at the bottom of the standards window. If you don't want to apply the changes you've made, click on the cancel button.
To Adjust the Standards for a Open Job:
- If you selected to Open an Existing Job file, and you want to change the standards you are using for that job, you can make those changes by clicking on the Adjust Job Standards icon after you've opened the job file you want to work on.
