Hello team,
can i build customisable cabinet with sketchup?
I usually do it with another software. But since i want to learn Sketchup, i need some advice.
As carpenter, i am looking for configuration and parametrization solutions for my cabinets. (dimensions, options like doors or drawers and so on.)
i will really appreciate your response and advices.
Thanks
Cherubin
The short answer is yes if you mean SU Pro as you get Dynamic Components with that. The dynamic bit is the parametrics bit.
But…
There is quite a sharp learning curve and the UI is not the best. Once set up, it’s fine but getting there can take some doing.
Dynamic components work well but as @simoncbevans indicated they can be quite a bit of work to design and get to work correctly.
They aren’t too bad if you have a limited number of options and they aren’t nested too deep.
Have fun.
Take a look at some of the dynamic components in the 3D Warehouse some are done quite well.
There are also several quite sophisticated extensions for cabinet design.
As a carpenter you would need to be using SketchUp Pro for the license and to be able to make your own dynamic components.
As Dave said, you’ll need to pony up for a SU Pro license. You can download the 30-day trial to familiarize yourself.
I would recommend @gkernan GKWare CabMaker plug-in if you’re looking for full parametrization:
It is a very full-featured extension that allows you to design virtually any style of cabinet (Euro or Face-Frame), with full control over every attribute. There is a free 7-day trial version available at his website:
But I would caution you that there are 2 significant learning curves involved: one for SU itself and a second for CabMaker. So set reasonable expectations about the time and effort required before you see a net increase in productivity / quality of output.
@slbaumgartner can you share some of them with me?
Sure, that’s my aims. The software is event affordable as the one i use at work
You have already received some excellent advice from @DaveR, @simoncbeveans, @slbaumgartner and @db11 … but they failed to point out that the 3D Warehouse already includes a wide selection of cabinet designs …many available as full functioning dynamic components. These models of dynamic component may provide everything you need. But even if they don’t (supply EVERY option you need)… you might still be able to use one (or more) as a starting point for developing your own dynamic component(s).
To find these existing cabinet models: Once in SketchUp open the 3D Warehouse, enter “cabinet” as the search criteria … under that select “PRODUCTS” … and also select the “Dynamic Component” switch in the column on the left side. The search results will then include all of the dynamic component cabinet models of real cabinets that have been submitted by real companies. You may find the models supplied by KraftMaid and Cabinets Quick particularly helpful. The 3D Warehouse includes complete suites of dynamic models from both companies … including base cabinets, upper cabinets, tall cabinets, sink base cabinets, etc.
Once you download a component into SketchUp … select it (left click) … then right click on it … the bottom menu item will be “Dynamic Components” … which will enable you to open (among other things) menus for both “Component Options” and for “Component Attributes.”
The Component Option menu will enable you to “use” the dynamic component “as is” … allowing you to modify it within the parameters set by the developer. The Component Attribute menu will enable you to “modify” the basic parameters of the component … which may be sufficient, depending on your needs. Or, this could also be used as a starting point for adding additional parameters not included by the original developer.
So there you have it. As @simoncbevans said, the answer is most emphatically YES, SketchUp can be used to develop a customizable model for cabinet design. But, depending on what you want/need to customize … you may already be very close to the model you are looking for.
In 3dwarehouse you can find a model that you can completely adapt to your wishes.
Search for ‘Smart Dynamic Parametric Cabinet’.
These are a few examples of what you can create with this basic model:
