Cabinet Layout Software

[tonyisenhoff]

Any recommendations on cabinet layout software? Anything out there that works with Revit or at possibly imports the .dwg or .dxf format?

I know you can create families within Revit to create a cabinet layout, but then again Revit is an architectural design software, not a cabinet design software.

Just looking for some direction on other apps that specialize in this.

Thanks,
Tony Isenhoff

[hand471037]

Are you a cabinet shop?

Or are you a house-builder/contractor that does cabinets too?

Just wondering what kind of work you're looking to help along. My Sister and Brother-in-law run a cabinet shop down in NM, and use some add-on to AutoCAD for modeling/drawing their cabinets, and I could ask them what they use.

If you're a builder, then something like Chief Architect I've heard has some nice cabinet tools.

Is any of your modeling going to drive a CNC machine?

But then, if you knew how to use Revit to do this, you'd gain a lot more advantage to using either of these solutions IMHO. It's just a question of cost and what else you want/need to do...

[tonyisenhoff]

I'm assisting a company that does ONLY cabinet design & manufacturing. They work currently with AutoCAD (for more complex cabinets - curves, etc.) and another software call Cabinetware that does drive a CNC machine (using AlphaCAM).

They also contract with a company that uses Revit, but they end up re-creating the cabinet design in their own software and don't use any output from Revit (which is really just a quick layout)...

Tony Isenhoff

[hand471037]

I used to do furniture fabrication, and as I said my family does cabinets, so I think I've got a good idea about the area.

The cabinet families that Revit comes with simply won't work for the way that most cabinet shops do things, esp. for high-end residential.

However, if you made your own Cabinet Families, you could address this and have the cabinets in Revit.

As far as I see it, the cabinets that come with Revit & the WIC ones are set up more for the commercial/insitutial market, where cabinets are units or modules that are shipped out to site and put together & a top put on.

Whereas with high-end residential construction, the cabinets are typically done as one large box unit, with the drawer fronts & doors being the 'custom' parts that fit within that larger unit. Now, if you made one large parametric box unit, and a large family of drawer fronts & doors, you could replicate the end result that some of the cabinet-only AutoCAD add-ons do. These Families would be pretty complex, depending upon your needs.

However, with Revit exporting .SAT and ACIS solids via DWG now, you'd be able to do the design work within Revit, and then export just the cabinets into AutoCAD or something, pull the parts out and into whatever application they use to generate the G-Code, and drive the machines directly.

You'd have a lot of advantages to making this happen within Revit for the designer, for you'd get multiple options, nice renderings, and the ability to do quick & easy shop drawings... it's just going to take some upfront work, and in the end still might not be as automated as one of these 'cabinet only' solutions that are out there...

hope this helps. If you want, I can take a crack at making the kind of cabinet family I'm talking about when I get the time.

[Thomas714707]

I think you may have a look at online web app for cabinet design and price calculation Online 3D Kitchen Constructor http://prodboard.eu/kitchen/#project-sample-6 My brother owns a small cabinet shop and he uses this software. I've also tried it for my kitchen project. There you can create a catalogue of your products and other additional items for your customers. It can be integrated with accounting software, so price calculation is possible to. Just examine it and decide, whether it is what you need or not...