Attention Cabinet Maker Looking for Software.

[thewoodcrafter]

After 3 years I found whats looks like to be a pretty complete and affordable software package for cabinet design.
http://www.easycab.com/
Will nest all the DXF files on to the correct sheet material. You do need a CAM program, V-Carve, PartWork PartWIz, etc.
Shows the cabinets in a room for your customers, etc.
This fella is coming to the California camp March 21 to demo his software.

[mjindustry]

Dang, that looks sweet.

[gene]

Looks good but how can you see a demo. I use extreme software cabinet solutions for my work now and i like it but if this one will export to the shopbot , i want to look at it.....

[dray]

Has anyone used this software on their shopbot yet?

[thewoodcrafter]

I have the software and I am working at learning it.
LOTS of options in building cabinets.
I am trying to make a library of the way I build cabinets so I can just pull boxes, re-size them and plug them in.
The nesting seems to work pretty good.

Gene, pick up the phone and call. 760 244-8266
His name is Clay. He has been refining this program for about 10 years, he can help you.

Danny, are you going to the camp this weekend?

[cabnet636]

roger can you post a 2d elevation view that would be considered an acceptable shop drawing by an architect or gc for submittals? or is it 3d color only

jim

[thewoodcrafter]

James,
I am still working with it (learning) but I think it will only do 3d with dimensions.
The 3d can be either color or wire frame.
You can do either a room full of cabinets or do 1 cabinet.
I'll see if I can figure out how to post one of these so you can see if it is what you are looking for.

[dray]

Heya Roger. I would love to go but dont have the time.

Im waiting for one in Southern Ca lol.

Im in the middle of a big Hotel in Long Beach and starting 60 cabinets for Pier 32 in San Diego later this week. I cant leave my employees get lost lol

[gabepari]

Danny, so the 909 has officially been kicked out of Southern CA ??
I knew you O.C. guys hated us



Stay sane, don't work too much.

Gabe

[harryball]

hmmm... it behaves more like a virus than a program on my system (Vista) it installs and runs but consumes 80% of the CPU even when idle.

/RB

[thewoodcrafter]

I have never checked how much resources a program takes up.

Does it run O.K.?

[thewoodcrafter]

Well Danny, you are going to miss it then.

It is good you have work.
Many of my competitors are gone and all the garage guys are long gone. Leave more for the rest of us.

[easycabcnc]

A good video card such as an NVidia 9600 series or better will work very good.

Bacically the computer needs a video card with 512MB of memory not shared memory.

There is a lot of graphic components in the program, they operate even when idle, if the program does not rotate the cabinet smoothly, the video card is bottle necking.

[Gary Campbell]

Clay...
I tried to install the demo on my Vista design computer.. and it will not run. It did however, run on my vista laptop, but due to a lot less ram and vid ram... not all that well. Any ideas?
Thanks, Gary

[easycabcnc]

Its the video card on the one machine, if the computer hangs up, or there is an access violation warning, that is the video card.

Vista software needs twice as much memory on the video card as XP. If its running slow, thats a video problem, I put it on my wifes EEE laptop it runs the cabinet design ok enough, the the kitchen rendering takes over a minute.

My computer renders the kitchen samples in 4.5 seconds.

I am running a desktop quad core, with 4 gig of ram, a 7900 series Nvidia card with 512MB on it.

It runs pretty fast, is the same computer I built the program on.

[dray]

what 909? I thought it was in Northern Ca?

Ahh I just looked.. Ontario. Sat I may go.

I just emailed Gabe to see what they will be covering.

[Gary Campbell]

Clay...
I dont think its the card. My design computer is virtually the same as yours... quad core 6600 2.4ghtz, OC'ed to 3.2ghtz, 4 gigs of ram, and dual 9200 vid cards with 512meg each in crossfire mode. Processor, NB, SB, ram and vid are liquid cooled.

I would like a little more info on EasyCabs. We are currently doing inhouse drawings for our parts processing as most Apps out there can not acommodate all our needs.

Does your software support, or have an option for the following?
1) Drawer Slide Drilling?
2) Door Hinge drilling?
3) Assembly or screw pilot hole drilling?
4) Dowel Drilling?
5) Blind dado joints for horizontal members to sides connection?
6) We use a Hafele 4 hole leveler leg, do you support this item?
7) Blind back dados?
8) Stretcher dados?
9) Pocket screw pockets?

Thanks for your time. These are probably not all of our "special needs" they seem to be the ones I remember that one program or another couldnt give us.
Gary

[easycabcnc]

Gary, try messing with the video cards, maybe because 2 are running? Try changing screen size to a smaller, or color to 16bit.

The program supports line bore 32mm, I am told that these holes provide for the drawers and the hinges and shelves, that its all the same hole size.

The program does dadoes and rabbets blind and thru.

Don't forget you can tweak the already made nesting sheet files in your cam software, thats what I saw Roger do with VCarve.

www.easycab.com (http://www.easycab.com)

There is some demo nested sheet files for download at the web site above.

[Gary Campbell]

Clay...
Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Video card(s) not the issue. Motherboard is design expressly for using 2. Cards are also designed for same. They are linked by a multiconductor cable. That is what ATI calls their proprietary "Crossfire" mode.

Sorry, we do not line bore, we use custom spacing, sometimes 32mm but never total line bore. We also require custom spacing for our drawer slides and door hardware. Am I correct in assuming that the answers would then be Maybe on 1 & 2, yes on 5 & 6, and no on 3,4,7,8 and 9?

I downloaded the DXF's and looked them over. I like the labels on every part. I did not see drawer slide drilling on what I assumed was a drawer base. I also could not see Hinge holes on the other base. Can I assume that the sheetgoods size is 49 by 97? The parts are nested 48.625 by 96.4375. Can the sheet size be changed?

I will look back into the demo an my portable. Its a little pokey with this app running, but I may be able to find some of these answers out.

Thank you again for your time.
Gary

[cabnet636]

i am not sure about each part having its own layer verses all cutouts on one and all dados on one etc. at 1400.00 the 3d just does not get it for me when cpp is comming along so well, then again i have cw, i also like entering my boxes separate (proves that the guys on the benches are reading the drawings)

jim

[easycabcnc]

I can make it drill holes for the drawers, but I have to know where.

I can program the software to drill on the centerline of the drawer boxes that variable is ready available.

Thats something I can add. Would that work?

I can add to drill holes for the hinges, like a pair of holes, you say how far apart and how far from the edge in the program.

Would that do?

I need input guys, like 3 weeks ago it did not nest, till I met Roger and looked at how he had to do things manually.

The thing is someone may not use your hinge or drawer slide, so we have to know where the hole possibles are at.

[Gary Campbell]

Clay...
Thanks for the reply. I will get into the demo and get familiar, then contact you by email.
Gary

[easycabcnc]

Drilling holes for Knape & Vogt drawer slides installed. More slide profiles will be included later. www.easycab.com (http://www.easycab.com)

[cabnet636]

tooooo many layers just tool pathing would be time consumer or am i missing something, every cut on all separate parts are a different layer.

this is the sample dxf from the website and that is only 1/2 the layers shown in te window

jim
6619

[thewoodcrafter]

James,
How did you get V-Carve to recognize the layers?
I import a DXF and I only get 1 layer.

[cabnet636]

i checked it out after seeing your post, you are using vcp 4.6 or earlier, ther is an up grade out with true shape nesting, i would contact
support@vectric.com (mailto:support@vectric.com) the upgrade is free if you got vcarve in the last 12 months or 150.00 if older

worth every pennu check the website

jim

[cabnet636]

and actually that screen is aspire with the 3d modeling, the upgrades have fluting, nesting, inlay tool paths and a bit more

jim

[Gary Campbell]

Roger...
Check and see what versions of DXF exports are available in the program you are using. Autocad ver 12 seems to work very well, if you have that option.

Here is a VCarvePro 5 screenshot. You can see that all the parts (or cutting actions) are on a different layer. This allows you to select "all on layer" to simplify toolpath operations.


6620
(Export courtesy CabinetPartsPro)
Gary

[thewoodcrafter]

James,
I do need to buy 5.0.
Does V-Carve Pro 5.0 read the different dado depths?
The toe kick has a different depth than the box dados.
When you go to tool path the toe kick dado does the depth change to .5" by itself?

Prior to Clay find me and VCP 4.6 he was selling to users with RouterCad. His program did not have to nest the parts. It just exported 100's of DXF files. RouterCad did the rest.
If VCP 5.0 does not read the dado or drilling depths he is looking at changing the layer count.
It would only have 1 layer per cutting/drilling operation for the entire sheet and not per part.
So each sheet would have about 4 layers.
Drilling at .375
dados at .375
dados at .5
Part cut out
Maybe through drilling.

One thing about dealing with a small company like Clay's, user enhancements are fast.

[cabnet636]

does clay have a working 15day demo?

jim

[thewoodcrafter]

In my previous post I mentioned RouerCad.
It should read Enroute.
That is the program that takes DXF files in, nests them and tool paths.

[Gary Campbell]

Roger...
if you toolpath with VCPro.. then having all similar depth parts on a sheet as a layer would be a plus. You can select them with a mouse click and toolpath them all together with a few more clicks. We usually have about 7 layers per sheet, but have added some custom features.
Gary

[thewoodcrafter]

Gary,
What are 7 layers set up to do?
I count 3 layers for the basic cabinet file.
Hole
dados
Cutout

[easycabcnc]

Ok I resolved the many layers names. There is just 4 layers, cutout, dado, rabbet, holes.

Download the 2 nested cabinets in the demo DXF
www.easycab.com/easycab/Cabinet.zip (http://www.easycab.com/easycab/Cabinet.zip)
And check it on your CAM software.

www.easycab.com (http://www.easycab.com)

There is 3 different 15 day demos of Easycab software at the web site, but the demos do not generate the nested dxf files, download the cabinet demo above for that.

[Gary Campbell]

Roger...
Most of our work is higher end custom and that requires much more than basic cabinet cutting. So that I can control different depths for different options, my layers are as follows:

Hinge holes (-.550)
Shelf holes (varies from -.375 to -.55)
Drawer Slide Holes (-.55)
Assembly Screw Pilot holes (-.76)
Back Dados (-.375 (varies)
Blind Dados for Tops, Bottoms and Stretchers (-.25 (varies)
Leveler Leg Holes (-.5)
First Cut (-.71)
Second Cut (-.75)

Sorry that was 9. In the next week or so I should have a couple more added, but wont use them all the time, except for special cabinets. The ones listed above are the ones we use all the time.
Gary