I built a cabinet extension that fits into a existing SketchUp workflow

Extensions
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I’ve been building a cabinet extension for SketchUp that’s meant to stay simple and fit into the way people already model.

The idea is basically this:

Click a face and get a cabinet door or drawer front.
Click where you want the hardware and place a pull or knob.

That’s the core workflow.

I built it because I do a lot of cabinet modeling where the goal is to get the design intent across clearly and quickly, and I got tired of repeating the same manual steps over and over.

I didn’t want a full cabinet design system, a huge menu, or something that required learning a whole new workflow. I wanted something that works out of the box and just speeds up the repetitive parts.

There are just a adjustable settings and an option if you want a material pre applied or not, and I’m planning to add more door styles and hardware choices as it develops.

I’m also working on getting it into the SketchUp Extension Warehouse. For now I have the beta available through my own site.

Since its in beta, I’m mainly curious what other SketchUp users think.

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add a link to your first message mate.
right now it’s a short video, it could be good, it could be a game changer, it could be bad, until people actually try their hands at it, it’s hard to judge.

out of curiosity, have you checked how well the result works with tools like opencutlist ?
it has become one of the main / default woodworker tool, and having a new woodworking plugin produce a 100% compatible result is a big plus for your potential user base. they can include your tool in their workflow.

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Don’t want to come off as an ad but the link is https://inveltools.com

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I’d be more than happy to do an extension trade and see if they fit well together

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This looks clean bro! Anything that saves time on repetitive cabinet work is a big win.

Since you are in beta and want honest feedback, my best advice is to give a completely free trial or open beta link directly on your site.

For new developers, the main problem is not the price- it is trust. People are always scared to install new extensions into their active project files. They want to see if it is stable and actually saves them time before thinking about money.

A simple trial removes that fear. It changes their mind from ‘how much it costs?’ to ‘wow, this tool just saved me two hours of work today.’ Once they see the value themselves, the pricing part becomes very easy.

Good luck with the Extension Warehouse approval. Hope it goes well !

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One thing I’m curious about is how the cabinet itself was created. Your video and website does not seem to explain this (or maybe i’m just glazing it over) I’m curious if the cabinet needs a special setup for this to work.

And yes, I agree with @N1LESH I’m highly intrigued by this plugin but I cant afford to throw a bomb into my workflow without a trial to know that it all goes smoothly.

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ping to @boris.beaulant and Opencutlist. it’s free and quite simple, all you need is to model things using components.

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I will update the tutorial to show that part of the work flow and attach a video later today of the process.

It works off the faces you already model. I wanted it to fit into an existing SketchUp workflow instead of making you build cabinets through a separate system. I’ve also been using it with coworkers for about two weeks now and have worked through the major bugs. If you’re seriously interested and want to test it first, I can set you up manually.

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That’s fair. I’m not planning a public free trial during beta, but I do have a 14 day money back guarantee. The beta is also the lifetime license, so there’s a little early adopter risk, but you’re locked in as the tool keeps improving.

For the official launch I will probably do a trial version. I am down to set you up to use it if you want.

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Thanks, appreciate it! Yeah, I’d be happy to give it a look and share some honest feedback.

Good luck with the launch!

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Here is a very simplified version of my typical workflow. So it doesn’t build the whole cabinet, it essentially meets you half way. With my job I still have to do all the math and decide what the best cabinet layout will be for the space and then once I have it, I get to go in and plop in the cabinet doors and hardware. If you need to make a change simply delete the cabinet face and adjust the face size and replace it with new cabinet door and hardware.

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I gave EZ Cabinet a proper run. Overall, the workflow is straightforward and easy to understand. The core workflow works well - divide a cabinet face, activate the tool, and generate a shutter or drawer directly on the face. The Plain and Shaker/Classic options are a good starting point.

The UI is simple and I didn’t run into any major usability issues. The 3×3 grid for handle placement also works well and is easy to use.

A few things I noticed during testing:

1. Groove behaviour

This was the main thing I noticed. The groove appears to be applied around all four sides. Because of that, the top and bottom rails can end up with additional margins, which can affect the intended slab/skirting dimensions.

For a real cabinet workflow, I think it would be better if the groove could respect the intended top/bottom rail dimensions rather than simply applying the same inset on all four sides.

2. Corner overlaps

I noticed some overlap where two generated fronts meet at corners. I don’t consider this a major issue, since the tool is working from the face it is given, but visually it could be cleaner if adjacent fronts could eventually be handled more intelligently.

3. Handle placement

The 3×3 placement grid works well. One improvement I could see is allowing it to work on compatible existing cabinet fronts as well, rather than only fronts generated by EZ Cabinet.

I wouldn’t necessarily make it work on every arbitrary SketchUp object, but if the tool can identify a suitable planar cabinet/front face, that could make it more flexible when working with an existing model.

4. Bigger picture / workflow

One thing I kept thinking about while using it is where the tool sits in the overall kitchen workflow.

Right now, it feels like EZ Cabinet mainly helps toward the end. If someone has already built around 90% of the kitchen, the tool can make the remaining cabinet fronts/shutters easier.

The really interesting direction, in my opinion, would be to reverse that - where EZ Cabinet can take a basic cabinet or kitchen layout and handle a much larger portion of the cabinet workflow.

That would make it feel less like a helper for the last 10% and more like a tool that can accelerate the first 70-90% of the work. I think that’s where the bigger productivity/value jump could be.

These are just things I noticed from actually using it. The core idea is simple and useful, and I think there’s a good foundation here to build on.

Good work for a beta - I’m looking forward to seeing where you take it.

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Thanks for taking the time to test it and write all of this up. Best actual feedback I have gotten so far. To address some of your points.

On the groove behavior, I think I understand what you mean. Right now the frame/recess is intentionally simplified and uses a consistent inset around the front. EZ Cabinet is really aimed more at design intent, interior design, and rendering than creating fabrication or CNC-ready cabinet drawings, so I’ve tried to keep that part lightweight. Separate rail and stile dimensions could definitely make sense later as I add more front styles and an advanced controls toggle.

For the corner overlaps, I agree there’s room to improve that. At the moment it assumes the user is accounting for corner clearances the same way they would in a manual workflow, but a corner spacer or dedicated corner condition would be a useful feature.

On hardware placement, I’d like to make that more flexible too. There’s actually quite a bit of math involved in determining orientation and placement, so right now it relies on data stored in EZ Cabinet-generated fronts. I’d have to expand on that carefully so I don’t have it guessing incorrectly on arbitrary geometry.

And on the big picture workflow, I think this is where my goal for the extension is a little different. I’m not really trying to build another full cabinet design platform. There are already tools that handle the entire cabinet system, but they often come with their own workflow to learn. EZ Cabinet is meant more for someone who already has a more native SketchUp workflow and wants to make the repetitive finishing work, doors, drawer fronts, and hardware, much faster. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I despise placing hardware handles from 3D warehouse onto cabinet doors and doing it 40 times for a big kitchen, I could rant. Anyways.

I really appreciate you putting it through its paces. Feedback like this is exactly what I was looking for during beta.

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Yes bro, that makes sense. Now I understand better where you are taking EZ Cabinet.I think keeping it lightweight for now is actually good & advanced controls can come later as the tool grows.

I’m glad the feedback was useful. I’ll keep testing it if you add more stuff. :+1:

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@Easha please stop spamming your plugin. Start a thread about it in the Extensions category, introduce it and keep all the conversations about it there.

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Update: EZ Cabinet 2.0 is now live

Wanted to circle back on this thread since I got some feedback from you guys and some people that work in design.

The basic idea is still the same: I didn’t want another complicated cabinet system that changes how I model in SketchUp. You build the cabinet however you normally would, then EZ Cabinet handles the repetitive finishing work on the faces that you made and planned the layout for. Get the design intent across.

V2.0 now includes:

  • more front styles
  • built-in pulls and knobs
  • easy hardware placement
  • adjustable reveals, profiles, arches, grooves and projections
  • the ability to use what ever material you have active to be pre applied to the cabinet fronts
  • a bunch of workflow and hardware-placement improvements from the beta

I made a short video showing the current workflow:

The direct release is live now at inveltools.com. I’ve also submitted it to the SketchUp Extension Warehouse, but that version is still going through their review process. (which is taking so long, holy cow) if anyone has any tips to speed up that process, let me know.

I’m still very interested in feedback, especially from people using SketchUp for kitchens, interiors, or visualization. I want to keep this pretty lightweight and focused on speeding up the parts of the native SketchUp workflow that get repetitive rather than turning it into an all-in-one cabinet-design system.

Thanks again!

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Are there any plans to implement custom fronts at some point? The hardware would be a simple fix with a component swap, but what if we need to use a custom panel? Would we be able to import a profile or the panel as a group/component?

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With the stage its in right now if you want to send over your favorites and I can get them in, there is a fair bit of math going on to make the cabinet front change size dynamically. At some point I might think about that option but having the ability to import custom cabinet panels would probably cause so many edge cases and bugs, same goes for hardware, making sure the origin is set in the right position and it being placed in the right orientation. I do like the idea and giving users that level of freedom would be awesome. I think the goal right now is to essentially create a library of so many cabinet styles and hardware that the user wouldn’t need to search anywhere else. Maybe like a custom molding creator could be a thing?

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In that case, perhaps using a catalog of door styles from a manufacturer would be a good starting point? The first one that comes to mind is Kraftmaid. I know there’s a limited selection of cabinets in the warehouse but they have so many…

Are the cabinet fronts being created from profiles or from a panel that just changes in size?

If getting the entire Kraftmaid catalog in would be possible, I would make it my mission to provide the files just to make it happen XD

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Yeah Kraftsmaid looks great, I will definitely add as many of those styles in as I can. I think that would help take renders to a different level.

And to answer your question, Whatever rectangular face you click, it reads the width and height and generates the front to fit, it isn’t stretching a premade panel. Basic styles use offsets and depths, arche styles calculate a curve from the panel width and arch height, and decorative panels calculate evenly spaced, centered grooves. Its essentially designing it the same way you would manually, but using math to do it all in one click. I don’t think any of the Kraftsmaid panels would be hard, just tedious, but I am down for the challenge.