Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

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Kunda1
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by Kunda1 »

not a fan of folks posting proprietary CAD examples and functionality unless they're careful with how they do it. FreeCAD isn't tryna clone anyone out there but be it own thing.
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dprojects
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by dprojects »

zohozer wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 11:16 am Basically FreeCAD Furniture workbench needs to be able to produce something like this and all the wood panels to have grain orientation:
For drawers this is small furniture for me. However, I have no problem with that that FreeCAD would add button with predefined drawer with all needed properties assigned. The only question is whether you will be able to get exactly the same drawer from the store. I doubt it very much. The drawers have different soft-close systems and different mounting dimensions. Therefore, no one plans it that closely. This is a certain skill in assembling furniture, and part of the process that has to be done by hand at this stage, unfortunately.

The direction of the wood grain in many cases can be reduced to a group of objects. Because you have the same grain direction on both sides and the same on all shelves. So you can easily group it into folders in FreeCAD.

The biggest problem I see now is the glued laminated table top. There, the grain direction must be mirrored for each next part so that the top table does not crack when the wood starts to work.

Well, the matter of wood grain is still open for discussion, so maybe it will be resolved somehow and it will be great.

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Darek
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workbench for woodworking is available at: github.com/dprojects/Woodworking
zohozer
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by zohozer »

Kunda1 wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:26 pm not a fan of folks posting proprietary CAD examples and functionality unless they're careful with how they do it. FreeCAD isn't tryna clone anyone out there but be it own thing.
They are just examples on how other software's are dealing with this tasks.
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by zohozer »

dprojects wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:41 pm
Therefore, no one plans it that closely. This is a certain skill in assembling furniture, and part of the process that has to be done by hand at this stage, unfortunately.
The hardware manufacturers (Hafele, Hettich, Blum, etc) are offering CAD drawings and 3D models for all their parts, and all the needed mechanizations like holes and rebates are produced in the design process automatically. Other software's have their's own hardware libraries and also the possibility to create your own custom hardware as needed.
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dprojects
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by dprojects »

zohozer wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:50 pm The hardware manufacturers (Hafele, Hettich, Blum, etc) are offering CAD drawings and 3D models for all their parts, and all the needed mechanizations like holes and rebates are produced in the design process automatically. Other software's have their's own hardware libraries and also the possibility to create your own custom hardware as needed.
Because they get money so they have the whole infrastructure to promote it. But if you go to the store you may not find exact Blum hinge with a soft close. Also in store in Poland the cheapest noname hinge costs about 3 pln, but the Blum one costs 10 pln or even 20 pln in special luxury shop. So if need 20 of them the costs grows a little ;-) and later it may turn out that you also need a special hinge template ;-)

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Darek
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workbench for woodworking is available at: github.com/dprojects/Woodworking
zohozer
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by zohozer »

dprojects wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:59 pm Because they get money so they have the whole infrastructure to promote it. But if you go to the store you may not find exact Blum hinge with a soft close. Also in store in Poland the cheapest noname hinge costs about 3 pln, but the Blum one costs 10 pln or even 20 pln in special luxury shop. So if need 20 of them the costs grows a little ;-) and later it may turn out that you also need a special hinge template ;-)
This is your case but all the furniture factories I worked for they are using catalog items from dedicated manufacturers and they prefer quality over price.
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dprojects
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by dprojects »

zohozer wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 1:15 pm This is your case but all the furniture factories I worked for they are using catalog items from dedicated manufacturers and they prefer quality over price.
Furniture factories can afford expensive tools like CNC and programs like Autodesk, they don't use something like FreeCAD. I saw that woodworkers in Poland use SketchUp but generally they don't need to design anything, maybe piece of paper.

Many years ago, when I started my hobby related to furniture, I checked all possible furniture design programs and nowhere did I find a simple report (on one A4 page) with dimensions for a 3D model. Only FreeCAD was for Linux and it has simple macro possibility.

FreeCAD is rather not for large furniture corporations or rich people, I have never heard of anyone using it for profit.

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Darek
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workbench for woodworking is available at: github.com/dprojects/Woodworking
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by zohozer »

dprojects wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 1:58 pm
Furniture factories can afford expensive tools like CNC and programs like Autodesk, they don't use something like FreeCAD. I saw that woodworkers in Poland use SketchUp but generally they don't need to design anything, maybe piece of paper.

You are missing the point. The objective of this workbench it is to be usable by the hobbists and PROFESIONALS alike. And professionals are not using FreeCAD for furniture design simply because it lacks the required tools. If you are hobbist it is ok, but there are other peoples who needs more advanced tools. Got-it?
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by dprojects »

I guess, we should make simple list tasks to do and tasks done and pin it as new topic at forum under "Woodworking".
I don't know forum well so I don't know where this should be created.

I paste here the Yorik list, he is the founder so have main voice here:

Open for further discussion:
  • more advanced grain direction support
  • be able o generate CNC cut sheets
  • be able to generate exploded drawings?
  • be able to subdivide boxes?
Already available somehow:
  • work with boxes
  • be able to assemble those boxes
  • be able to drive the boxes dimensions from a spreadsheet
  • generate panels from those boxes
  • generate specific attachment points from these panels
  • those attachment points can become holes, or be use to hook other objects (screws, hinges, buttons, whatever)
  • be able to generate BOM
  • be able o generate conventional drawings (plan, front view...)
Anything else? Anything should be corrected?

Thanks
Darek
github.com/dprojects

workbench for woodworking is available at: github.com/dprojects/Woodworking
zohozer
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Re: Cabinet furniture design tools workbench

Post by zohozer »

We need to create a library with fixture and panels parts that can be easily inserted.

We already have a Vendows Part Workbench that can be adapted to our needs.

FreeCAD_PartsToolbox

Image

Looks like this feature it is no longer developed.

Also this FreeCAD Fasteners Workbench and this Rethinking the "Part Library" can be a good start to make some fixture insertion tools.
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