Itchy Brother

I read somewhere here that there is a free program called sketchup on the internet - if so does it work ok and is it difficult to learn? Itchy.

mics_54

Yes Google Sketchup has a free version. They just came out with the latest version 7. You can down load it here http://sketchup.google.com/

It is a modeling program. I use it alot. It isn't very hard to learn and it has some great tutorials on the website and on youtube.

Shamus

Ditto what mics 54 said. Excellent program and it's FREE.

You can jump right in and "play" with it or go through the tutorial. There are many video "how-to's" available on the web as well.

Pretty robust piece of software and beats the heck out of several of the Pay to use versions available.

mics_54

I use it along with cabinet cruncher (excel) to do cabinet cut lists. CC isn't free but it sure saves me time and mistakes.

http://www.cabinetcruncher.com/cabinetcruncher.htm

scotty47

Mics 54, With cabinet cruncher do you actually see your drawing, all I see at there website is cutlists. Thanks...........scotty

mics_54

Yes scotty, With "Cabinet View" , a pdf powerpoint file of a large number of example bases, wall cabinets, face fronts and casework that you can import /modify into a sketchup drawing.

Also door and drawer cruncher is available which I find more valuable. The whole system works in excel database. If you are familiar with Excel then you know how it probably works in regard to changing the cells.

Basically cabinet view allows you to to import the models from the cabinet view model lists to a sketchup file then you modify those models and then tabulate the model instance into the project manager. Its quite involved but rather handy with large cut lists for door and drawer and face front projects.

What exactly do you want to produce?

Depending on what you wish to do, I may have a different solution for you.

scotty47

Thanks for the reply mics_54, I work as a carpenter on a military base and I do a lot of custom cabinets, normally I just sketch what I want to build and make a cutting list, looking for something that I can draw the cabinet turn out a cutting list faster than I do now....scotty

mics_54

Scotty, The application has a bit of a learning curve but I think you would like the output and it would do what you want. Down load the user manual and if you have questions feel free to ask.

mics_54

Scotty...btw..are you currently using sketchup to "sketch" your cabinets or are you considering using the application now?

scotty47

I am currently using ( Learning ) sketchup to draw the cabinets. Thanks again............scotty

mics_54

Scotty, I think the only issue that disappointed me in regard to the cabinet cruncher program was that I expected that the information for the cutlists to be exported to the cruncher application from sketchup automatically. This is not the case. Sketchup and Cabinet cruncher do not interface in that respect. You cannot draw cabinets or import the examples from cabinet view into a drawing and have the cruncher databases populated from sketchup. You have to enter the information on the excel sheets manually and save each to the project manager which tabulates that totals. It is however still a great time saver and once you gain confidence in the output you will be able to adapt the application to the way you manage your operation....or vice versa.

scotty47

Thanks mics_54 for all your info, will download user manual and see if it will work for me................scotty