WOODWORKING DESIGN SOFTWARE
SketchList 3D
Version 4 User Guide
SketchList Incorporated 2
COPYRIGHT 2015
SKETCHLIST INCORPORATED
MILTON, MA
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 3
Table of Contents
WOODWORKING DESIGN SOFTWARE ...... 1 Introduction ...... 8 Learning and discovering SketchList 3D ...... 9 Creating virtual boards...... 10 In SketchList 3D boards have attributes...... 11 Create – new board form ...... 11 Five elements of a board ...... 12 Edit or change board characteristics...... 13 Locating Boards to Achieve Your Design ...... 15 Tools for locating or moving boards in an assembly...... 17 Sliders ...... 17 Blue dots ...... 18 Triplets ...... 19 Triplet tool – Spreadsheet...... 21 Clone and space ...... 22 Resizing Boards ...... 25 Red Dots ...... 25 Triplets ...... 26 Sliders ...... 27 Spreadsheet ...... 27 Lesson: Working at board detail level ...... 28 Base concept 1 – Level of hierarchy ...... 29 Basic concept 2 – Surfaces and edges...... 29 Using the shaping tool...... 30 There are tools for various types of shaping the tasks...... 31 Holes in Boards ...... 33 Creating a hole...... 34 Editing a hole...... 35 Adding contours to board edges ...... 36
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 4
Round over ...... 36 Cove ...... 36 Chamfer ...... 36 V groove ...... 36 Bull nose ...... 36 Roman ...... 36 Joinery ...... 42 Tenon ...... 42 Tongue and Groove ...... 42 Miter ...... 42 Dado ...... 42 Rabbet ...... 42 These videos show how to apply board details...... 45 The use of containers in SketchList 3D ...... 46 Assemblies may be saved as standards...... 47 Doors, drawers, hardware are essentially sub-assemblies...... 47 The containers in SketchList 3-D exist as a hierarchy...... 48 Clone ...... 50 Clone and space...... 50 Clone and mirror...... 51 Rotate ...... 51 Show ...... 52 Show unit box ...... 53 Wireframe ...... 53 Show title and show hints ...... 53 Stretching or shrinking an assembly...... 53 Batch move ...... 54 Using SketchList 3D to create new materials...... 56 Insert a board and select a material...... 56 Existing materials...... 57 Create a new material ...... 58
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 5
Import your own image to use as a texture...... 59 Entering material in the stock database...... 59 Material name ...... 60 Grain direction ...... 60 Optimizing 1 ...... 61 Using SketchList 3D to generate reports...... 62 Generating reports ...... 62 Parts List / cut list ...... 63 Shop drawings ...... 64 Use the tools in the toolbox to create your drawing...... 65 Arrow tool ...... 65 Edge dimension tool...... 65 Point to point tool...... 65 Print ...... 66 Click the delete...... 66 Save ...... 66 Printing your drawing ...... 66 Customizing report headers and footers...... 67 Optimized Layout Diagram and Related Reports...... 68 The purchase report...... 69 2-D image report ...... 71 Adobe reader 3D PDF file ...... 71 Photo like quality 3-D imaging ...... 71 Save the file in any format...... 72 File management and the use of utilities...... 74 File practices ...... 74 File locations ...... 74 File / Project Operations ...... 75 Setup Menu ...... 76 User information form...... 76 Layouts ...... 77 Settings ...... 77
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 6
Automatic container resize ...... 77 Check for new messages ...... 77 Auto save ...... 77 Light color ...... 77 Create statistics report ...... 77 Reset all rotations in a project...... 78 Current zooming level ...... 78 Check for updates ...... 78 Currencies ...... 78 Change Materials ...... 78 Configuring the user interface ...... 80 The default main screen SketchList 3-D is as follows...... 80 Using Standard Objects in SketchList 3D...... 84 Inserting standard objects ...... 85 Saving a standard object ...... 86 Good practices in making standards ...... 86 Face Frame as Standard Container ...... 87 Video ...... 87 Conclusion ...... 88
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 7
WOODWORKING DESIGN SOFTWARE DEVELOPED FOR WOODWORKERS
SketchList 3D is an integrated modeling program designed specifically for woodworkers. As your designs progress all drawings and reports, including an optimized sheet and board layout diagram, are created in the background. Any changes to the design are immediately reflected in all reports.
SketchList 3D is a visual design tool that allows you to work by manipulating 3D objects on your screen. You work with virtual boards by dragging and dropping, cutting and pasting, or entering specific sizes and locations.
SketchList 3D contains built-in woodworking functions including joinery, contours, hole drilling, and cutting of shapes. You can put a tenon on the ends of a board with a few mouse clicks. The same thing happens to apply an ogee or mitered edge. Because of the integration, adding a tenon automatically adds the length of the tenon to the cut list and layout diagram.
SketchList 3D gives you control over every board, cut, angle and hole in your design. True one-off designs can be easily and quickly carried out using the visual virtual board approach. You can meet your design goals, work within the limitations of your project space, and satisfy your clients. Of course with SketchList 3D you can create your own library of objects for repetitive use when that is needed.
This manual will take you step by step through the functions and tools available in SketchList 3D.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 8
Introduction This guide will introduce you to SketchList 3D. Following the information in this guide and viewing the videos included you will be able to create the designs you desire for your woodworking projects.
The graphic above shows the flow and layout of this guide. However you can start with any subject you need or desire.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 9
Learning and discovering SketchList 3D
This user manual is in a PDF format. Three of the advantages to this are that you can read it on any device that supports a PDF reader, it is searchable in that control F [windows] opens a search box where you can type in what you need, and it contains links to videos on the internet that will show you how to use the software. Also you can click the page number in the Table of Contents and go directly to that page in the document.
Our webpage, www.sketchlist .com, contains a great deal of information and updates. Go to the webpage and search for subjects there. From a user email… “SketchList 3D is a If you do an internet search for terms like “YouTube SketchList cove” you can find even more information. In fascinating program that general look for the newest posts and videos. allows me to bring my
SketchList conducts regular online training sessions. ideas from thought to Check the web page for the schedule. In addition paid drawing to finished one-on-one training is available. project. It also forces me An email to [email protected] will bring you a to think out the solutions direct answer to your question. to potential construction
problems before they become real constructions problems.”
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 10
Creating virtual boards
This is as basic as SketchList 3D gets. You must by repetition and practice master this lesson.
Objective Creating and inserting boards in your design.
Know the five elements of a board and what they do.
Leaning about how different materials can be used.
Definitions Board – any three dimensional shape consisting of a material.
Orientation – one of three possible ways a board can exist in a container. It is used by the optimizer.
flat, vertical, horizontal.
One of the unique aspects of SketchList 3D as woodworking design software is the way it uses three dimensional virtual boards to achieve design. A virtual board is the most basic object.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 11
Most typically woodworkers use materials of some species of wood – solid lumber or plywood. However with SketchList 3D a board can easily be any material. You may have need in your design to use stone for a counter top. You may want to use glass for door fronts and or metal for hardware or special design options.
In SketchList 3D boards have attributes. Attributes are things you do to a board – like cut it.
Examples of attributes are
Joinery Contours on edges Holes Shapes
Boards contain and display textures and grain images.
Board attributes will be covered in a later lesson.
Boards can be rotated 360° around a point in three directions.
This lesson focuses on creating and editing a new board.
Create – new board form
Boards exist as objects in “containers”. A container can be an assembly, door, drawer, or piece of hardware.
You insert a new board into a container by dragging the new board icon into the container where you want the board. If there is more than one possible destination for a form will open. Select the container in which you want to place the board.
Depending upon the board icon you select, either the board is put into the container or a new board form will open.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 12
The three types of boards you can insert are flat, vertical, or horizontal.
The new board form contains five elements that define the board. These are necessary to properly visually represent the board in your design, to accurately layout the board in your optimized material layout report, and to present information about the board to the parts list/cutting list reports.
Five elements of a board
There are five things that define a board in SketchList 3D.
1. Name This board identifier appears in all reports. One tip is to name the board in a way that will sort in such a way that similar boards are gathered together and sorted reports. For example side – left and side – right or better selection of board names then left side and right side.
2. The edge represents the thickness of the board. The Optimizer needs to know which dimension of the board matches against the thickness of the material to be laid out properly. Pick one of the images represented by the icon.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 13
a. The first image represents a board like a shelf. b. The second image represents a board like a side or divider. c. The third image represents a board like a back. (Face frames are almost always this choice.)
3. Grain direction - The Optimizer requires a grain direction to be specified to ensure proper layout. If not using or concerned about grain direction you can specify none.
4. Size board – enter the size of want to change. You will notice that one of the dimensions is labeled thickness. These change depending upon the icon you selected above.
5. Material – type and species.
Edit or change board characteristics.
There may be times when you choose to change some aspect of that definition of a board.
1. To do this select the board and click the board definition tab to the right of the SketchList main form.
2. A form will open and you can change the edge with thickness, grain direction, or material type.
Changing size and location covered in other lessons.
Experiment with inserting new boards into containers. Do at least three boards in an assembly – one of each direction.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 14
Watch Video – how to create a 3D board. Some may be somewhat outdated but are still useful for concepts.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 15
Locating Boards to Achieve Your Design
You will learn to locate boards in three-dimensional spaces using the tools available in SketchList 3D. Learning to use the tools and how to relate boards to one another in a given space will let you create the most complex designs.
The objective of this lesson is to understand how boards are located in three-dimensional space.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 16
You will understand how the boards fit into the assembly (or other container) using the concepts of distance from left, bottom, front of that assembly. Building on that concept of distance from left, bottom, front you will be able to relate individual boards in the assembly two other boards in a way that achieve your design. In order to accomplish this you will learn to use the tools available in SketchList 3D.
In this lesson you will learn how to set the values of left, bottom, and front of each board to align them and combine them as necessary to create your bookcase.
Those values of left, bottom, and front are the distances that each board is from the left, bottom, front of the assembly. A board labeled shelf with a left value of zero meaning it is zero units from the left edge of the assembly. Additionally the board shelf has a bottom value of zero meaning it is zero units from the bottom of the assembly.
For convenience sake SketchList 3D also provides the distance that the right edge of the board is from the left edge of the assembly. Let me say that again.
The right edge of board from the left edge of assembly. The right edge of the board is the distance equal to the left edge of the board plus the width of the board.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 17
Don’t worry. There are all sorts of tools to help you do this. As you do this several times and gain some practice it will become second nature to you.
Important concept: All objects in SketchList 3D are located by specifying the distance the left, bottom, and front edge of that object are from the left, bottom, and front edge of the containing object.
A container is an object that holds other objects. The most obvious is an assembly exists as a containing object for boards. The tools in SketchList 3D make managing objects in 3-D space easy. But still you should know this concept.
Tools for locating or moving boards in an assembly.
Sliders appear under the triplets in the board form. By clicking the button to the right of each slider bar you can change the size or increment of the slider.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 18
Sliders move boards from left to right, top to bottom, front to back. There are excellent way of moving a board from somewhere in the assembly to the right, top, back of that assembly. There also a very good way of just moving a board out of the way so you can continue to design.
Click here to watch video. Moving object in design.
Blue dots – blue dots are shown at the corners of each board. Right clicking with your mouse where the cursor is on the blue dot opens the following form.
The distance of that blue dot from the point of origin of the assembly is shown. You can change any or all of the values and click okay to move that corner – and thereby the board – where you want it.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 19
A very useful variation on this technique is to click the copy button on the edit corner form. Then select a blue dot from another board, right click that blue dot and click the paste button. Because the left, bottom, and front values of the blue dots in the two different boards are the same those boards will meet at that point. This is an extremely useful technique.
You can left click on the blue dot and hold the shift key down on your keyboard. Then while holding the left mouse button on your computer you can drag that board anywhere you wish.
Click here to watch video. Using blue dots.
Triplets – triplets are a way to represent the numerical values of the six edges of any board as their distance from the point of origin of the assembly.
In the example below if you edit the value of distance from left to zero, keep the width at 20, the right edge of that board then is located 20 units from the left edge of the assembly.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 20
In the example below if you keep the value of distance from left as 10, and edit the value of the right edge of the board from 20 to 10, the width becomes 10.
You can edit one or two values of the triplet in SketchList will calculate the remaining value. Triplet tool – form. One tool that SketchList 3D provides to manipulate the size and location of objects in three-dimensional space is the form.
The name of the form changes to reflect the object selected. That means if you select a board the form becomes the board form.
1. If you select an assembly the form becomes the assembly form.
2. If you select a door the form becomes a door form.
3. If you selected drawer the form becomes a drawer form.
4. If you select hardware the form becomes a hardware form.
There are three “rows” in the form. One controls bottom to top movement. The second controls left to right movement. And the third controls front to back movement.
(One of the buttons in the center will always be labeled thickness. The button back becomes thickness is set when you create a new board and indicate which edge is the thickness of that board.)
This same functionality works on all three rows of the board form.
Click here to watch video Using board form
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 21
Triplet tool – Spreadsheet
Another method to change the location of a board using values of bottom – top, left – right, front – back is to use the general spreadsheet.
First notice the item names column in the general spreadsheet. Each row contains a name of a board in the assembly. In addition to the name the spreadsheet contains information about the size and location of each board.
The first column of the spreadsheet contains the names of the boards.
1. Columns two through four contain the values of the triplet left – with – right.
2. Columns five through seven contain the value of the triplets bottom – height –top.
3. Columns eight through 10 contain the values of the triplets front – depth – back. All of those columns can move the board same way the boards form does. Only the format is different. In the example below you wanted to move the board called shelf to the right by 10 units you would click on the intersection of the row “shelf” and the column “left”. Then the number 10. Then click on the column heading labeled right. You will see that the value of right change from 48 to 58.The advantage of using spreadsheet over the board form is you can see the locations of any board relative to other boards in the assembly. This is useful when butting boards. To butt a board say from left to right is to say only the right of one board must be equal to the left of the second board.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 22
Watch this video Using the spreadsheet
Clone and space. One other way to locate a board in three-dimensional space is the clone and space function. Clone and space will make an exact copy (copies) of a board and locate that copy a specific distance from the original. This is useful when you want to take one shelf and make several copies of that shelf and locate them all 10 inches apart.
1. Select the board to be cloned. Click the clone and space button on the board form. The clone and space a form will open. You can clone and space from the left, from the front, or from the bottom.
2. This of first example creates three boards and places them the fixed distance of 10 units apart from the bottom to the top. Enter the number of boards to be cloned, check the fixed space radio button, enter the distance between the boards, and check the direction radio button. You can choose left, front, or bottom.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 23
3. The next example of clone and space shows how you would set the distance between the first and last board in the set, and have SketchList determine the spaces between the boards.
4. Enter the number of boards to be created. Check the “determine spacing” radio button. In our example we are adding shelves from the bottom toward the top. This requires that you enter the bottom value of the last board in the sequence. The top value of that board will show when you enter the bottom. If the last board in your sequence should have a top value of 48 and the board thicknesses one than the bottom value to be entered is 47. In this case three boards will be equally spaced from the original board to the distance of 48 to the top and/or 47 to the bottom. Clone in space can be an effective way to center a board between two points. For example if you have a style on the left with a left value of zero, and a style on the right with the left value of 46, if you do a clone in space creating one cloned object, selecting determine spacing, and entering 46 for the left value, the newly created board will be centered between the side pieces.
5.
Watch this video. Clone and space
At this point you should be able to locate a board in three-dimensional space and locate that board in relationship to other boards in that same space to create the design. The design in the videos was a bookcase. There are some aspect of this material that’s confusing please communicate via email or on the site bulletin board.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 24
You will discover that these techniques for locating objects in three-dimensional space are exactly the same for all of the objects in SketchList 3D. So while you’ve invested time mastering this lesson, you will use the techniques and tools over and over again in your design process.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 25
Resizing Boards
This lesson teaches you how to size and re-size aboard using the four tools within SketchList 3D. You will also learn the relationship between size and location.
The size of a board [or any object] in a given direction is the distance between the outside edges.
Right edge – left edge = width.
Top – bottom = height.
Back – front = depth. The task of setting or changing sizes is that of entering one or two of three numbers – left edge, width, right edge and having SketchList 3D calculate the necessary result. Right = 48 left = 18 then width must = 30.
The objective of this lesson is to show you how to use the tools and SketchList to size and re-size boards using the four tolls within SketchList 3D. You will also learn the relationship between size and location.
Red Dots
Click the red dot icon near the top of the screen. Then select the board you want to resize. Grab one of the red dots with your cursor/mouse and while holding down the left mouse button drag the red dot until the board is the size you wish.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 26
As an alternative you can right-click the red dot and fill in the form that opens. You can enter either the new size or the edge value. Triplets
Triplets consist of the nine buttons/text boxes on the board form. Within each role of the triplet – for example bottom, thickness, top – there is a relationship that determines the size and location of the board. In our example top minus bottom equals thickness. To use this as a tool you can enter any of the three values and click on the button of that value you want to change.
The simplest case would be to change the thickness by typing a new value in for thickness and clicking the button labeled top. Another way to achieve a change in the thickness value would be to type in a new number for either bottom or top and click the button labeled thickness. In fact you can change the values of for both bottom and top and click thickness. Experiment with this and watch the affect your changes have on the board in the image viewing area.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 27
Sliders
Sliders can be used to change the values in the text box in the triplet. Highlight the text box you want to change, for example thickness, and slide the little button to the right and left and watch the value of thickness change. Then click the top button to make that change takes effect permanently.
Spreadsheet
The spreadsheet can be thought of as a horizontal presentation of the buttons of the board form. The column headings for the spreadsheet in fact act like buttons. In the spreadsheet changing the value of that thickness for a board and clicking the column heading top will change the thickness of the board by moving the top edge upward.
These are the four ways by which you can change the size of a board in SketchList 3D. Watch the video Resizing boards
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 28
Lesson: Working at board detail level
Working at the board detail level provides the capabilities to add the kinds of effects that create unique, interesting, and specific designs for your use. For example at the board detail level you can take a piece of wood and put a 45° miter on both ends. Then you can cut a cove from the front of that board making it into a cold molding you might install that the top of the cabinet. Repeating the process two more times of allows you to wrap that cove molding around both sides in the front of your design. Other types of detail are joinery and holes. This lesson will show you how to apply all of these features to your design.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 29
Board level details bring realism into your designs. The attention to detail on the model of the kitchen shown above is an example of that. The various shapes, contours, corners, and other treatments allow this designer to achieve a significant degree of realism. In addition to that board level detail functions in a way that lets you address the actual fabrication of your piece. By adding joinery, holes, and various shapes to your design you can better replicate the construction techniques you use in the shop in your design.
Different woodworkers have different attitudes and need for detail. Various situations also affect the amount of be goes into a cabinet design. If you are roughing out ideas or concepts you may not have any detail at all. If on the other hand you need to convince a prospective client to give you the job you may want to add much detail to better represent your ideas. Base concept 1 – Level of hierarchy
Working at the board detail level requires you to be at the board level in the hierarchy of objects and containers. Board detail level is that below the board. There are three ways to get to the board detail level.
1. Double-click at the board you want to detail. 2. Select the board in an assembly, door, drawer or hardware and click the board details level line in the hierarchical level form. 3. Select the board and click the details button in the board form.
Basic concept 2 – Surfaces and edges.
In SketchList every board created with to surfaces in four edges. Using the shaping tool you may actually increase the number of edges. For example if you take a rectangular board and
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 30 change it to what an octagon the number of edges increases from 4 to 8. Edges and surfaces are detailed differently.
Once you have selected a board and entered the board details level you click on the edge or surface you want to detail. It will highlight in green. The chart shows that the types of detail you can add to either surfaces or edges.
Surface Edge
Joinery Shape Dado Contour Round and Non-round holes Round and non-round holes
Using the shaping tool.
After you select the board in the board details level pick a surface. You will notice that the buttons in the regions “board attributes on surface” and “board attributes on both edges and surfaces” become active. Click on the shape button. The shape tool will open.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 31
There are two areas in the shaping tool. The area to the right is the design area. The form on the left is the toolbox for shaping. If you click the top of that form you can drag it anywhere on the screen. The basic idea behind the use of the shape tool is to add, locate, or delete points from the edges of the board. For example changing the board above from a rectangle and to a triangle, click the delete button in the toolkit and click one of the corners.
There are tools for various types of shaping the tasks.
1. Insert a point. Click this button move your mouse into any point on any edge on the board and click again to insert the point.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 32
2. Delete. Click the delete button and click the point you want to delete.
3. In circle. Clicking the in-circle button turns the board into a circle. By taking the result of using the in-circle , deleting points, and using convert to line tool you can make something shapes. For example if you want a semi-circle at the end of a L shaped desk arm.
4. In oval. Same as in circle except the output is an oval shape.
5. Point fillet. Click this button and click a point at a corner on the design. Rounds the sharp corner.
6. Convert to curve. Click this button and click an edge on the board. By dragging the two red dots that appear you can change the edge from straight to a curve.
7. Convert to spline. Essentially the same as convert to curve but with more control over the detail of the resulting curve.
8. Select. Click this button and pick a point. You notice once a point is selected the point properties portion of the toolbar expands to give you information about that point.
9. Cancel. Returns board to the state. When you select a point on the curve the point property area of the toolbox provides more information about the characteristics of the curve.
If you enter or change values in the point properties area click the update button to reflect those changes on the image of the board.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 33
When you finish shaping the board, click the exit shape button in the board form. At this point there is no arc function in SketchList 3D. Holes in Boards
SketchList 3-D allows you to “drill” holes in boards. Holes may be placed on surfaces or edges of a board. Holes may not overlap.
You can drill a hole all the way through the board, or you can make a whole less than the thickness of the board. An example of that would be a hole for a shelf pin or a mortise. Holes may not overlap. If you have the need to overlap holes you can simulate this on your design by having one whole approach another separated by a very small distance. Holes may also not cross the edge of a board. You may get a message indicating that the hole you’re creating does this. The workaround is to make the whole somewhat smaller or move it a bit from that edge.
To drill hole, select the board the board detail level. Pick the surface on which the hole will be drilled. Click the non-rounded holes button or the holes button depending on the type of hole you want to place in the board.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 34
Non- Round hole – this is a square or rectangular Round Hole – this is the round hole form. You hole form. You cannot make other than a four- cannot make other than a round hole. The parameters sided a non-round hole. The parameters for a non- for a non-round hole are diameter and depth. round hole are height, width, depth.
Creating a hole.
Name the hole. SketchList 3-D will provide a default name but many times it useful for identifying the hole to have a named. For example you might name the hole shelf pin hole or lower dado .
Fill in the location information. The A value is the distance from the bottom of the board to the hole for non-round holes in the distance from the bottom of the board to the center of a round hole.
Fill in the dimensions of the hole. For a non-round hole you enter height, , width, depth. For round hole you enter diameter and depth.
Optionally you can enter notes.
Click OK or cancel.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 35
Editing a hole.
You can change a hole where the board details level. Click the edit/clone holes button. Select the hole you want to edit and right click.
When the sub menu opens you can select clone and space, edit, delete, or export.
Edit. Edit opens the hole form allowing you to make adjustments.
Delete. Removes the hole.
Export. Creates a spreadsheet like report of all the holes. You can print this or send it to a comma separated value file for importing to a spreadsheet or other software program.
Clone and space allows you to make multiple copies of a hole and space them either a fixed distance apart or equally over a defined span. This is excellent for putting a series of shelf pin holes on the surface of a board. It can also be used for spacing dadoes or mortises.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 36
Adding contours to board edges SketchList 3D allows you to add one of several different contours to any board edge when doing your design.
These include:
Round over
Cove
Chamfer
V groove
Bull nose
Roman
To add contours to a board edge, first select the board. Then move to the board details level.
You can move to the board detail level by:
double left clicking the board click the board details level on the hierarchical level form click the Details button on the board form.
Double left mouse clicking is generally faster.
Click the Contour button.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 37
Select the contour type you want to apply by clicking its button the top of the form. A form will open. You can select the default contour or you can adjust the various elements that define the contour to create a contour of your own size.
SketchList 3-D does not have the capacity to generate customer cut contours shape. However if you experiment by adding different sizes to the components in the Roman contour type you’ll find that you have a fair amount of design flexibility.
All contour forms share many similar elements. Of course the heart of the contour that makes it unique will be different from form to form. But the logic is consistent across every form.
There are two views of the contour on the contour forms.
The profile of the contour from an end view. In this view SketchList 3D shows the thickness of the board. The layout the contour from the top or surface of you. In this view SketchList 3-D shows either the width or the length of the board depending on the edge selected.
Each of the contours may be applied by accepting the default values. To accept the default click the OK button. For new design these defaults serve very well. There are times when you may need or want to have your own look place on the contour. For this you can modify the contours by changing the values in the contour form.
There are three values to be entered for the top or surface view. The length value of the contour defaults to one third the length of the board. If you want it smaller, type in the new value where that value is less than the length of the board. Alternatively you can change the values as you desire for stop 1, length, or stop 2. At that point you can click the center button in SketchList 3-D will center a contour of that length on the board
The requirement is that the sum cannot be different than the total size of the board as indicated in the total text box.
The number of values entered for the end view depends on the contour being cut.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 38
For the Round over you enter the size of the radius.
Chose top or bottom to face the contour up or down.
For the Cove you enter the size of the radius.
Chose top or bottom to face the contour up or down.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 39
For the Chamfer you enter the number of degrees of the angle.
Chose top or bottom to face the contour up or down.
For the V groove you enter the number of degrees of the angle.
Chose top or bottom to face the contour up or down.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 40
For the Bull nose you can enter shoulder 1, radius, and or shoulder 2. Remember the sum must be equal to the total.
Chose top or bottom to face the contour up or down.
The Roman contour is the most complex. It consists of two radii and two vertical distances. Those for use must equal the total thickness of the board.
One interesting element of the Roman contour is the ability to extend the horizontal size of the second vertical. Making that horizontal size relatively long – say 1 inch – provides the ability to create the type of contour you might use for a five piece door.
Chose top or bottom to face the contour up or down.
Contours appear on an edge with an orientation of top and bottom. You can change this by clicking top or bottom in the contour form or clicking the Flip Contour checkbox on the board form.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 41
Contours can be placed on every edge of a board. Similar contours on all edges of for example on round over will fill the corner and blend together. Different contours on adjacent edges will cause SketchList 3D to place a notch in that corner since it is unclear to the software how exactly one contour of the corner would blend with the other.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 42
Joinery
SketchList 3D allows you to add one of several different contours to any board edge when doing your cabinet design. These include:
Tenon
Tongue and Groove
Miter
Dado
Rabbet
To add joinery to a board edge, first select the board. Then move to the board details level.
You can move to the board detail level by:
double left clicking the board click the board details level on the hierarchical level form click the Details button on the board form.
Double left mouse clicking is generally faster.
Click the Joinery button.
Select the joinery type you want to apply by clicking its button the top of the form. A form will open. You can select the default contour or you can adjust the various elements that define the contour to create a contour of your own size.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 43
All joinery forms share many similar elements.
There are two views of the joinery on the contour forms.
The profile of the joinery from an end view. In this view SketchList 3D shows the thickness of the board. The layout the joinery from the top or surface of you. In this view SketchList 3-D shows either the width or the length of the board depending on the edge selected.
Each of the joinery may be applied by accepting the default values. To accept the defaults click the OK button. For new design these defaults serve very well. There are times when you may need or want to have your own sizes of the joinery. For this you can modify the joinery by changing the values in the joinery form.
There are three values to be entered for the top or surface view. The length value of the contour defaults to one third the length of the board. If you want it smaller, type in the new value where that value is less than the length of the board. Alternatively you can change the values as you desire for stop 1, length, or stop 2. At that point you can click the center button in SketchList 3-D will center a joinery of that length on the board
The requirement is that the sum cannot be different than the total size of the board as indicated in the total text box.
The number of values entered for the end view depends on the joinery.
Tenon – enter thickness of tenon.
This joint can be stopped by entering values for joint length. Enter a value and click the Calc button to see the effect. For example you can enter a 1 for both Stop 1 and Stop 2 and click the center button for Length. SketchList 3D will center the joint.
The value next to the arrow near the bottom of the form is the length of the tenon. This dimension will determine the difference between the cut length and the nominal length of the board on the parts list and optimized cutting diagram.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 44
Tongue and Groove – This joint extends the whole length of the board.
The value next to the arrow near the bottom of the form is the length of the tongue. This dimension will determine the difference between the cut length and the nominal length of the board on the parts list and optimized cutting diagram.
Miter – This joint can be stopped by entering values for joint length. Enter a value and click the Calc button to see the effect. For example you can enter a 1 for both Stop 1 and Stop 2 and click the center button for Length. SketchList 3D will center the joint.
You can enter the angle in degrees.
Chose top or bottom to face the miter up or down.
Dado – This joint extends the whole length of the board.
The value next to the arrow near the bottom of the form is the depth of the cut. This dimension will NOT determine the difference between the cut length and the nominal length of the board on the parts list and optimized cutting diagram.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 45
Rabbet
This joint can be stopped by entering values for joint length. Enter a value and click the Calc button to see the effect. For example you can enter a 1 for both Stop 1 and Stop 2 and click the center button for Length. SketchList 3D will center the joint. .
The value next to the arrow near the bottom of the form is the depth of the cut. This dimension will NOT determine the difference between the cut length and the nominal length of the board
on the parts list and optimized cutting diagram.
Chose top or bottom to face the rabbet up or down.
Joints appear on an edge with an orientation of top and bottom. You can change this by clicking top or bottom in the joinery form or clicking the Flip Contour checkbox on the board form.
Joints can be placed on every edge of a board. Similar joints on all edges of for example Rabbet will fill the corner and blend together.
Different joints on adjacent edges will cause SketchList 3D to place a notch in that corner since it is unclear to the software how exactly one contour of the corner would blend with the other.
These videos show how to apply board details.
Shaping boards CLICK TO WATCH
Contouring edges CLICK TO WATCH
Adding joinery WATCH VIDEO
Making holes WATCH VIDEO
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 46
The use of containers in SketchList 3D
SketchList 3D uses containers as collectors of objects and other. The project is the highest level container. It is the thing you are making: kitchen, office, entertainment center, or even an entire room.
A project must have at least one assembly although there is no practical limit to the number of assemblies that might be in a project.
An assembly can contain three types of containers – in a way they really are specific sub-assemblies. These are door, drawer, and hardware. Sub-assemblies cannot exist directly in a project and also must exist within an assembly.
A board is not a container but may exist in an assembly, a door, drawer, or and hardware. A board cannot exist directly in a project but must occur within an assembly.
A container is any three-dimensional space in your design that can contain other objects.
Project contains only assemblies. There must be one. There is no practical limit to the number of assemblies you can place in a project.
Assemblies are groups of containers and objects that form your design.
The advantage of using an assembly is if you move the location of an assembly and a project all of its contents move at once. Another advantage of using an assembly is you can build one unit – for example a bookcase – and make a clone of that assembly and place it in another location.
You might place that assembly exactly as is, or you might change some aspect of the design. For example you might add doors or drawers. You can even change the size of the assembly.
Assemblies have three dimensions: height, width, and depth. A new assembly is inserted into the project and the size of the assembly defaults to be equal to the project size.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 47
When you insert the assembly you will see green outline of a box that shows the outer limits of the assembly. An assembly cannot exceed the limits of the project. If you attempt to do that you’ll receive an error message.
The assembly is given a default name when created in SketchList 3D. It is good practice to replace that default name with a name that describes the assembly in a meaningful way.
Assemblies may be saved as standards. The collection of the standards forms your library of pre-existing design pieces. Once created, the standards can easily be inserted into new projects.
Doors, drawers, hardware are essentially sub-assemblies. They can be inserted into an assembly. New containers are inserted as empty boxes. You can drag boards into the container to ‘build’ your design.
Like with the assembly the advantage is when you design a door, drawer, or a piece of hardware all of the parts of that can be moved around in the assembly at one time. Other advantages are the same as the assembly. These sub-assemblies can be cloned, moved about, rotated, modified, and adjusted in size.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 48
The containers in SketchList 3-D exist as a hierarchy. You must be in the proper level of container to design in that container. For example you want to put a board in a door; you must select that door and drop into the door level. Often if you double-click on the object you want to work with SketchList will put you at the proper level.
Sometimes SketchList may open the form to show possible containers in which to work. Pick the one you want.
Another way to get to proper level is use the hierarchy form. Just click the level at which you must work.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 49
Still another way to select an object at the proper level is to pick the row of that object in the general spreadsheet.
Insert an object or container into your design by clicking the icon the top of the screen and dragging that icon into your design area. If nothing happens that indicates you are not dropping the container or object in a valid location. For example you cannot drop a board directly onto a project but must drop it into some other level of container.
From left to right insert icons are
Insert assembly [It is grayed out in this image because it is only active when in the project level.] Insert flat board – back board, rails or stiles. Insert vertical board – divider or side. Insert horizontal board – shelf. Insert new board – create your own. Insert hardware [Hardware is inserted as empty containers. You must go to door level and ‘build’ it.] Insert a door. [A door is inserted as an empty container. You must go to door level and ‘build’ it.] Insert a drawer. [A drawer is inserted as an empty container. You must go to door level and ‘build’ it.]
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 50
To delete an object or container select it and click the delete button on your keyboard. Alternatively you can right click the object or container and pick delete from the menu list.
Clone There are three types of clone in SketchList 3D.
The basic clone function combines copy and paste. A clone is an exact copy. This includes the location and size of the object being cloned. The result of this is there’s no visual clue in the image area that the clone has been made. However if you look at the spreadsheet you’ll see that the role of the newly cloned object has a background color of yellow. When any changes made to the object that background yellow hint goes away.
If you select an object or container and click the clone button on the form, or right-click in the spreadsheet and click clone on the list, or right-click on the object in the image area and right-click on the menu that opens.
Clone and space Clone and space function will make any number of copies of the selected object or container and space them. The spacing can be a specific distance apart. Alternatively SketchList 3D can calculate the necessary distance between two points and space the desired number of objects equally on that span. Watch the video for a detailed explanation do this.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 51
Clone and mirror Clone and mirror makes a copy of the selected object or container flipping it 180° on the horizontal plane. We use this option if you have built for example an assembly with doors on the right and shelves on the left and want to switch the doors and shelves left to right in the resulting cloned assembly.
Rotate. All rotation happens from the point of origin (the front equals zero, left equal zero, bottom equals zero, point) in a counterclockwise motion. Also after the rotation is made, the values shown in the triplet remain as they were before the rotation. To better help locate rotated objects and containers it is best to use the blue dot method. This is discussed in detail the lesson on locating boards.
There are two ways to rotate an object or container in SketchList 3D.
The first way is with the red dots icon clicked [top of screen] hold down the R key on your shift board and select one of the green dots that appear. You can then move your cursor/mouse in a manner to make the rotation you desire. Be aware that SketchList 3D will not allow you to rotate an object such that one of its corners is outside of a container.
.
The other way to rotate an object or can is to select it and click the rotation tab near the right side of the screen. When the form opens enter the direction and number of degrees to rotate the object. The number of degrees can be typed in or you can click a button for a “standard” amount of rotation.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 52
There are a number of functions in SketchList 3D that aid you in visualizing your design.
These are as follows.
Show/hide
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 53
Show unit box will display the green box defining a container if. Unchecking this hides the container green box.
Show floor shows/hides the floor of the project.
Wireframe shows the elements of your design as a line drawing.
Show title and show hints set up the guides to the image area.
You can also turn the grid on or off.
You can show the corner points (blue dots), resize points (red dots), the point of as a blue dot and the point of origin as a three directional set of arrows.
You can also show or hide any container or object by selecting it and checking or unchecking the check box in the spreadsheet row labeled “Hidden”.
Stretching or shrinking an assembly. To stretch or shrink an assembly click the red dot icon at the top of the screen and select the assembly you want to edit. Use your mouse/cursor to select one of the red dots and pull or push it in the direction that you want to change. Alternatively you can right mouse click the red dot and type in the size or distance you desire.
Be aware that the red dot method of shrinking and stretching changes (almost) everything in the container proportionately. We are working on a way to have you choose how to shrink or stretch while excluding certain objects.
There is a second method that is very precise and detailed for stretching and shrinking assemblies. At the project level pick the assembly that you want to change. Click the Shrink/Stretch button on the assembly form.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 54
When the form opens check the radio button to indicate which direction you would like to apply the shrinking or stretching. At that point you will see the location and size of the assembly in a triplet. You can edit one or two of the values and click the button of the third to have SketchList calculate its value. At this point SketchList will also calculate the amount of the stretch or required to achieve the values in the triplet.
Optionally you can enter the shrink or stretch amount. For example if you have a 24 inch wide cabinet and you wanted to become a 36 inch cabinet enter 12 and click stretch when you’re finished you must click the exit button to leave the stretch and shrink mode.
Batch move Batch move function in SketchList 3D moves everything in an assembly to the specified direction by the specified amount. If for example you wanted to add 3 inches around the assembly for a molding that is easy enough to do on the right side of the assembly. Just add three to the right side and change the width. But there is no way in SketchList 3D change the side of an assembly that has a value of zero – for example left or front or bottom.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 55
In this case you would move every object and container in the assembly one at a time. Batch move saves this work by allowing you to select the direction and enter the amount of the change.
This overview of containers in SketchList 3D gives you a basic understanding of how they work to achieve your designs. Become familiar with all of these tools and concepts you should practice using SketchList 3D in a way that includes this information.
Make sure you watch the accompanying video.
Insert doors, drawers hardware and boards. CLICK HERE
Operations on containers. Making standards, cloning, resize, rotate, batch move. Use of spreadsheet. Making a door. CLICK HERE
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 56
Using SketchList 3D to create new materials.
Objects in SketchList 3D are made up of materials. Most likely an object will be a board made up of some sort of wood. However there are no limitations on type of object you can create or the type of material you might use to create that object. SketchList 3D supports any type of material – metal, stone, glass, cloth, leather. You can even scan in photographs of rooms, appliances, furniture, artwork, fireplaces and turn those into materials to be represented on an “object” such as a wall in your design.
There are two aspects of materials.
What does it look like which the material functions deal with, and
From what source is it cut, This is the work of the Stock form.
Insert a board and select a material. When a new board form appears as you are inserting a board into a container you’ll notice the right side of the new board form deals with materials. You can make the list of available materials to smaller group by clicking the radio button to refine the total number of materials shown by type.
Then scroll the list up or down and pick the material you want to use for that board. The next time you use the new board form the material you selected last time will be shown at the top of the list.
Note that the bottom right of this form is a button for a new material. That is one way you can access the new material form. At the other way to open a new material form is to select materials from the SketchList main screen menu.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 57
Existing materials When you first click the materials button a form will open showing you the materials that are currently in the database.
At this point you can delete the material. NOTE: you cannot delete a material that is currently in use the product in a project. If you do this a warning message will be generated telling you the project(s) using that material. If you delete that project you can then delete the material.
You can duplicate a material and change some aspect – for example modify the amount of transparency that that material has.
When you click the new button at the bottom of this form the new material window opens.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 58
Create a new material The Add new material form allows adding new materials.
Type of the material. Name of material. Texture.
For texture you can click on the downward facing arrow in the texture box and select the grain you want to use on the new material.
.
You can select a color (without grain texture) by clicking add new color.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 59
You can import your own image from a graphics file by clicking add new texture. Find the image file and click ok.
.
You can set the amount of opacity (transparency) by sliding the bar left and right.
Scale has to do with the size of the texture tiles used in the images. Generally the default of 15 x 15 is suitable. If you use a texture and find that the image of that texture looks off in some way you may want to come back and adjust these variables. When you import your own image – say for example of an appliance to be used in your design – you can set the horizontal and vertical scales to be the actual horizontal and vertical sizes of the object in the image.
Import your own image to use as a texture. After select the file that contains the texture or image you want to import click okay. That “material” will now appear on the material list and on the new board form.
Entering material in the stock database
Version 4 of SketchList 3D intentionally separates the concept of a material having a size from the appearance of a material. In version 3 the size of the material was part of the definition of a material. One problem with that is if you created a design based on the thought that your material provider would supply you with a material of a specific size and in fact that size wasn’t available you would have to go through your entire design and change the materials to the size that is available.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 60
You can open the stock form by clicking the materials menu item in the SketchList main form. Clicking any column heading will sort the spreadsheet based on that column.
You can filter the materials by clicking the radio buttons the top of the form.
Material name – contains the name of the material and if you click the down arrow you will see the texture file associated with that material.
Width – is the width of the board from which parts of that material will be cut.
Length – is the length of the board from which parts of that material will be cut.
Thickness – is the thickness of the board from which parts of that material will be cut.
Grain direction – you can pick the grain direction by clicking the down arrow and selecting the direction desired. You can select none for grain direction. The grain direction though should be consistent with your use of grain direction. If for example you specify a board has a certain grain direction but specify in the stock database at that material has no grain direction you will get unpredicted results. This may become apparent when and if you run the optimized layout diagram.
These columns are optional.
Supplier you can enter the supplier for a given material.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 61
You can enter the cost for material on a cost per unit (piece) or cost per volume (board feet). You can select the currency using the pull down menu in the currency column. Notes can be entered in the note column.
Clone is to make an exact copy of an existing material this is useful when you have a specific type of material for example 4 x 8’ plywood that is going to be exactly the same except for the different thicknesses. Just clone the existing sheet of plywood. Then change the thickness as needed and click the OK button.
Delete a given material is in the final column.
In version 4 you don’t have to deal with the size materials that the parts are being cut from unless and until you get to the material layout optimization stage. If you’re just doing design and don’t care about layouts are optimizing then you’ve saved some work. If you do care about the layout you can use the facilities in the optimized layout diagram form to assign board sizes to given parts.
This is covered in the post video on optimized layout diagrams in SketchList 3D. There are more than 30 posts and videos about this on the webpage the most current are as follows.
Optimizing 1 Optimizing 2
When you finish this lesson and have done some practice with your own projects you should be able to master using materials in your projects. Make sure that you view the videos included in this lesson. CLICK TO WATCH
Videos CLICK TO WATCH
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 62
Using SketchList 3D to generate reports.
One basic concept in SketchList 3-D is that designing and reporting are integrated. Changes to the design are automatically and instantly changed in the reports.
Each report has a set up stage where you specify the types of information that you want to display in the report. But these setups can be saved as standard reports and used over and over again eliminating the ongoing need for the set up process. Shop drawing similar type of set up stage where it is necessary for you to pick the various sides of the design and its components that you would like to have dimensioned.
Once you do that any changes to those sides in the design are dynamically reflected in the shop drawing.
Generating reports To generate a report in SketchList 3D click the menu item Report on the main menu at the top of the screen.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 63
When that menu opens select the report you want to generate.
Parts List / cut list The parts / cut list report has the ability to list all parts in the database.
Available columns This is a list of all the fields in the parts database. Click on fields you want to contain in the report. Then click the arrow key. Click the double arrow key if you want to have all variables in the report.
The selected columns box will fill with the information that’s going to be contained in the report.
You can sort the available information by clicking the down arrow under the “order by fields” part of the form. You can create a multi-level sort by continuing down that list of four possible sort by fields and selecting values.
You can filter by selecting the field, operator, and value and adding the filter.
You can save the configuration or set up by clicking the new button at the bottom of the form, entering a name for the configuration, and clicking save. When you generate the specific report go to the configuration text, click the down arrow, and select the configuration you would like to use.
When the report opens you can print it, save it, export it to a comma separated value.
NOTE: you will see in the available columns list six sets of values for the sizes three are nominal or design sizes, and three are the cut sizes. The difference between nominal and cut is the total effect that lengthening joints have on the size of the board. For example if you have a 12 inch wide board
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 64
with a ½ inch tendon on both ends that board has a 12 inch wide nominal with and a 13 inch cut with.
Shop drawings
Shop drawings are dimensioned 2D images of your design. Shop drawings can be created at the project level and when they are they show the sizes of the assemblies within the project. Shop drawings can also be generated at the assembly level and at that level you can dimension any container – doors, drawers and hardware – and all of the boards or other object assembly.
To start creating shop drawing display a 2D image of your design in the image area, click the button and the upper left-hand corner of the image area
When the menu opens click on shop drawing. Select shop drawing and new drawing.
The shop drawing work area will open.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 65
Use the tools in the toolbox to create your drawing.
Arrow tool Use this to select the line, for example, to be deleted.
Edge dimension tool Click on tool this and select an edge in the design that you would like to have dimensioned.
Point to point tool. Click on this tool then click on any corner point in the design. It will turn red. Click on another corner point in the design and it will turn red and a dimension line will be struck between the two points. Sometimes corner points are difficult or impossible to select. This has to do
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 66
with various aspects of how the renderings are accomplished. Eventually in these cases you will learn to build strategies that will allow you to dimension the distances you would like to see.
Click the delete tool then click on the line you would like to remove from the drawing. That line will disappear. The fifth tool in the list allows you to change dimensions from decimal to fractional representation.
Save – you must save the drawings to be able to print them in the drawing report formats.
The checkmark is the way that you save and exit this drawing.
The final tool, the red X, quits this dimensioning session without saving your drawing. You will be prompted with a warning and asked if you are sure that you want to exit without saving.
Printing your drawing
In the “reports” section of the main menu select shop drawings.
NOTE: in order to print shop drawing you must have created one. If this form opens blank in all probability you have not yet created the shop drawing.
This is the form that opens for you to select the drawing or drawings you want to print.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 67
The top portion of the form provides a list in the thumbnail image of the drawings currently defined for this project.
The next section of the form allows you to specify the layout and or format you would like to use display your drawing.
Page alignment is either landscape or portrait.
Page format varies with the selection you make.
You can set the number of columns of drawing images you want on one page from one to six. Of course the more drawing of the smaller they will be rendered on the page.
You can set the number of rows of drawing images you want on one page from one to six. Of course the more drawing of the smaller they will be rendered on the page.
The unit radio buttons allow you to display measurements in either fractional or decimal format.
The container to display pulldown list allows you to choose which assembly you are create a report.
Check line drawings if you want to have an outline image for your shop drawing.
Preview will show you the image on the screen.
Save, print, close our standard functions.
Customizing report headers and footers.
By using the demise report option in the reports menu list you can specify which information will be printed as part of the headers and footers of all of the reports you generate.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 68
The image at the top of the form is a preview of your form header and footer content. The zoom in and zoom out buttons allow you to magnify the preview image.
The header and footer are divided into three areas: left, center, and right.
You can choose the information you want in any one of those six report areas by pulling selection menus connected to the down arrow.
project assembly customer company name date page view
The values that are stored and will appear are those entered in the customer section of the projects form (at the bottom) and the user information form. You can gain access to both of these forms under the main menu set up item.
When you are set with the formats click the apply button. If not satisfied click cancel.
Optimized Layout Diagram and Related Reports The remaining reports are integral to the optimized material layout diagram report. This is because the layout determines how many or what quantity of material of each type do you need. That information is necessary for the purchase report. The layout report also is the source of information for exporting to the DXF file.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 69
The setting up of the optimized material layout cutting process been covered in a number (32) of different blog posts. http://sketchlist.com/2015/optimizing-parts-layout-cabinet-design-software/ http://sketchlist.com/2015/optimizing-parts-layout-cabinet-design-software/ http://sketchlist.com/2015/optimizing-layout-furniture-design-software/ http://sketchlist.com/2015/optimized-material-layout-diagrams/ http://sketchlist.com/2012/cut-list-software-optimized-layout-diagrams/
This lesson dealing with reporting will only cover the actual generation of the reports. Any preparation of a legitimate layout is covered in detail in the above-mentioned posts.
In the main menu item reports click on the Optimized Layouts option. Using this form you can choose to either include all parts in the optimization or narrow the report scope. You do this by checking or unchecking the box in the optimize column. Material types which are checked will be included on the report.
When you click okay the following form opens.
This form displays on a sheet by sheet basis the layout for the entire project. At the top of the form you see the material. The main image of the report is the layout diagram. Below the layout diagram to spreadsheet like section that shows the part number of each numbered part in that sheet. Part number is only relevant in this report on that sheet.
If you choose to save ink your printer you may select the line drawing option.
You have the alternative to restrict the parts shown in the report I material type.
The left and right arrows in the lower right corner of the screen allow you to page through all of the material specified.
The left at the bottom contains the save, print, and export buttons. It is that export button which will create and save the DXF file.
The purchase report
This is an amalgamation of all the parts of a given material, material type, and thickness. Given that group of parts SketchList provides a count of the number of pieces of material necessary to cut all of those parts.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 70
SketchList 3D uses the information generated by optimizing parts layouts the purchase report. That is the reason the optimizer will run first. At the lower right corner of the optimizer form there is a Purchase Report button.
This is the same interface used to generate the parts list/cut list.
Available columns This is a list of all the fields in the parts database. Click on fields you want to contain in the report. Then click the arrow key. Click the double arrow key if you want to have all variables in the report.
The selected columns box will fill with the information that’s going to be contained in the report.
You can sort the available information by clicking the down arrow under the “order by fields” part of the form. You can create a multi-level sort by continuing down that list of four possible sort by fields and selecting values.
You can filter by selecting the field, operator, and value and adding the filter.
You can save the configuration or set up by clicking the new button at the bottom of the form, entering a name for the configuration, and clicking save. The next time you want to generate the specific report go to the configuration text, click the down arrow, and select the configuration you would like to use.
Then you are ready you can save the report, export it to a comma separated value file, or print it.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 71
2-D image report
Under the main menu item you’ll find an entry for 2-D image report.
Adobe reader 3D PDF file
This report allows you to generate an interactive 3D model as a PDF file. You can send someone who does not have a copy of SketchList 3D and they can open this model using the Adobe reader and move the model around in space to examine different aspects of your design. The Adobe reader is free and available online.
Photo like quality 3-D imaging
With SketchList 3D you can create any number of high quality photo like images or renderings of your project. They may be saved in any common image file format and sent for use by others, be incorporated in your proposals, are used for design review.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 72
To create the image, click the small icon of the camera in the SketchList 3D main icon bar. The following form will open.
The form functions are as follows.
Set Quality This slider bar increases the quality of the image. The trade-off is that it takes more time to generate a higher quality image. You may choose to use a lower quality during the design stage and increase that for your final proposal documents and images. Simple lighting versus full lighting mode The full might lighting mode takes advantage of multiple light sources and produces a slightly more interesting rendering with shadows. Reflections section You can increase the amount of light being reflected off any material by material type. By experimenting with combinations of reflections you can achieve more interesting design presentation. Image parameters Use for setting the image width and height terms of size. You can choose to keep the aspect ratio between width and height or let it very. Background color Background colors can greatly influence the quality of appearance of your work. Strong deep background colors and/or colors that provide contrast are much more visually interesting than weak and washed out color patterns.
Save the file in any format.
Once the file is saved the format it can be used in any application, situation, or need area as any other standardized image file format.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 73
This is a fairly long review the reporting capabilities in SketchList 3D. A search for the word report SketchList 3D website (www.sketchlist.com) uncovers [as of now] 46 entries blog posts explaining some aspect of report generation. If you need more detail than this post provides, go to the website and search for the word report.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 74
File management and the use of utilities.
There are several utility functions is SketchList 3D that will save you time and work. This lesson reviews what these are and how to use these utilities.
From your point of view your work with SketchList 3D is organized by customers and projects. From the software perspective all projects are stored in a single database. When you may import and export projects you are working with a portion of the entire database.
File practices SketchList 3D manages all aspects of saving and retrieving data for your projects. The project information is saved in a database.
Another file named texture.txt for storing texture images since their size would slow down database access.
When you create a new project it is saved in the database. Each time you use SketchList 3D a copy is made of the entire database. You can restore a backup at any time. Multiple copies of the backups are saved.
File locations:
Windows:
By default SL is installed here: C:\Program Files (x86)\SketchList 3D Pro v4\ Texture images are saved here: C:\Program Files (x86)\SketchList 3D Pro v4\Textures User specific data like database, material list and stock list are saved here: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\SketchList 3D v4
Mac:
SL is installed here: Applications/SketchList 3D v4 Textures are saved here: Applications/SketchList 3D v4/Resources/Textures User specific data like database, material list and stock list are saved here: HDD/Library/Application Support/SketchList 3D v4
By default user specific data is stored in hidden folders so users must enable option in their OS to show hidden folders.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 75
File / Project Operations Under the file menu option of SketchList 3-D are nine functions that are used on either a project or the database.
1. New project – creates a new project. The form that opens allows you to record detailed information about the project.
2. Open project – allows you to choose a project from a list of all projects to open.
3. Quick project setup – a fast way to create a project with a default size of 100 units by 100 units by 100 units. The project opens an assembly of the same size will have already been inserted.
4. Save project as – allows you to take the project you’re working on and save it under another project name. This is useful if you are working on a design that is going to use an existing project with modifications. You can take the existing project save it with a new project name and make the modifications necessary.
5. Save project – saves the project you are working on with the existing name.
6. Edit project – lets you change information about the project including size.
7. Close project
8. Import/export project – creates that contains all of the information about the project. This is useful for storing a project as additional backup or sending a project to another SketchList 3-D user.
When you select export the form opens with a list of existing projects. Select the project you want to export and click the export project button. You want to import a project click the import project button. A file finding form will open listing all exported projects at a given location. Select the project you want to import and click okay.
9. Restore Database Backup – this allows you to return to a copy of the database as of a specific date in time. This is useful if something has gone wrong with your current copy.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 76
Each line in the text display box links to a copy of the database. You can select by the date and time the backup was made. Select the backup copy you want to restore and click the restore backup button. You will be prompted if you’re sure you want to overwrite your existing database with the backup. You are again prompted if you would like to make a backup copy of the existing data – that is the database that is current at that point. If you say yes SketchList will make a backup at that point and continue with the restore.
Setup Menu
The setup menu item gives you access to six different functions.
User information form. You use this form to enter or edit information about you and your company. This information then can be included in the headers and footers the reports of SketchList 3D.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 77
The customer information menu item opens the main project form. At the bottom of that form you can enter or edit information about a customer.
Central graphics area
Customize
Layouts – provides the ability to create and save the current configuration of the various windows on your SketchList 3D computer screen (s). You can save and call various layouts depending on your needs.
Settings – this menu item is used to gain access to the form for saving various operational settings in SketchList 3-D.
Automatic container resize. Checking this box allows SketchList 3-D to automatically increase the size of a container. This might be helpful should you change the size of a content of that container in such a way it would exceed the size of the container. Rather than not being allowed to do that SketchList will handle that situation. You should use this setting carefully because you may not want to have this flexibility at play in your design.
Check for new messages. Periodically part of the SketchList update function may issue an important message. You can allow or disallow those messages by checking this box.
Auto save. Periodically SketchList will automatically save your project. You may want to turn that off if your project is so large that the time it takes to save it is becoming a problem.
Light color. You can change the appearance of the photo quality renderings by selecting a different light color.
Create statistics report. Generates an interesting report about the number of objects in any given project or assembly.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 78
Reset all rotations in a project. This was more important as the ability to rotate containers and objects was being developed. It functions to set all rotational values to 0°. Think carefully before you choose this reset.
Current zooming level – in SketchList 3-D you have the ability to hold down the Z key on your keyboard to zoom. The amount of the amount of zooming is set by this slide bar.
Check for updates. When SketchList uploads new builds of SketchList 3-D to the server those new builds are available for downloading to your computer. If you check this feature that downloading of updates will happen automatically. Of course you will be prompted as to if you want to allow it. You can force a check for updates by clicking the check for an update button.
Currencies. You can add or delete currency you want to have displayed on the purchase report. Simply add the currency and click the add button. If you select the currency by pulling down the down arrow key you can delete it in the delete button.
Change Materials There are times that you might want to change materials in your design. You can do that on a board by board basis by selecting a board and clicking the board definition tab the upper right portion of the SketchList 3-D screen. If you have a need to change the material of many boards you can use the change material functions.
There are two icons in the icon bar at the top of the screen that give you access to forms to do this.
The icon to the left will open the form that allows you to selectively change materials by either the entire project or just within selected assemblies.
If the checkbox labeled Change all in Entire Project is checked then all materials of one type be changed to the new type you specify.
If the checkbox labeled Change all in Entire Project is unchecked the list of assemblies in that project will be available for selection. Select the assembly for which you want to change the material. All materials used in that particular assembly will show up in the box on the right. If you want to check with which boards use that material click the “show boards” button.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 79
The material currently being used as shown in the column labeled Old Material. You can change that to the material you want to use by clicking on the down arrow in the column labeled New Material. Select the material the Select button.
NOTE: When you are finished you must click the exit change button the top of the form.
There are times when you simply want to change the appearance of materials in the design and keep the other aspects. In that case click the second change icon.
Select the new material. When you do you will be prompted to save the project under a new project name. This gives you an opportunity of taking the project name and modifying it to indicate that it is now constructed with a different material. For example you might take the project named kitchen and change it to kitchen – Maple.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 80
Configuring the user interface The user interface in SketchList 3D refers to the various windows and forms as they are laid out on your computer screen. The different functioning of the form – for example the new board form – is covered in detail in the lesson on creating new boards. This lesson is an overview of how to configure your screen layout for optimal use.
The default main screen SketchList 3-D is as follows.
The main menu bar across the top and the icon ribbon below it are two of the elements that are fixed in place on the SketchList 3-D main screen.
The image area to the right of the screen displays from one to seven different views of the design on which you are working. The more screens you show at one time the smaller they are appear.
The spreadsheet form with the object or container form, and the hierarchical levels form can be moved to make more room for the image area. Any or all of these three closed as well. To reopen go to the view menu item in the main menu form and select the element you want to reopen.
The sheet, object or container, or hierarchical level form can also be moved. You may want to move one of these forms to a central position on your monitor for better viewing. Below is an example of what the screen look like when the assembly of form was centered.
Depending on the stage of the design you may find you use one type of form more than the other. For example it seems when the design is further along the spreadsheet may become a better tool
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 81
because it shows specific information about a specific element of the design in context with other information.
To move one of these forms, simply click near the top with your mouse/cursor and slide the form where you want it to go. To put it back simply move it near the area where it was originally. With some experimentation you’ll see the different configurations of the screen that you can create.
When you find a layout that works particularly well for you, or multiple layouts that work well in different situations, you can save those layouts for use at another time. To do this go to the main menu set up option and click it.
And pick the layout option and click on create. A form will open for you to enter the name of this new layout.
Enter the name click OK. On the main menu form to the right of the icon ribbon you’ll see a pulldown menu box. You pull that menu down you will see layouts that you have created and saved. Pick the layout you want to use for that session.
Many users of SketchList 3D find that by maximizing the amount of screen available for the various forms and viewing areas increases productivity. One way to do this is to add one or more monitors to your computer. Most more-current laptops have an outlet on the back with which you can connect an exterior monitor. There are other connecting devices you can purchase for connection through your USB port which may allow you to support more than two monitors or displays.
If you add an additional monitor you have the screen real estate to have a one monitor devoted to the image areas, and the other monitor to be devoted to an enlarged spreadsheet and the
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 82
object/container form. Viewing area either a. let you see more of your design at once or b. let you zoom in to a very close detail.
Explore the menu items by starting 3D on your computer and clicking on them one at a time. Most if not all entries on these menus is fairly straightforward. If a not a more detail description is available in this series of SketchList 3D lessons.
The icons in the icon ribbon are as follows.
1. Save project 2. Un-do 3. Re-do 4. Stop-start the time. Notice the time spent working on a project is displayed directly under this icon. 5. Measuring context. Clicking this symbol toggles SketchList 3D to present all locational values (for example left right, or top bottom, or front back) to be based upon the distance between the point of origin (left, front, bottom all equal zero) of the individual assembly or for the project. 6. The camera icon starts the height quality photo rendering 7. The change material icon changes selected material in a project or assembly. 8. The second change material icon changes the textures. 9. Set explosion distance for exploded parts view. 10. Insert assembly. 11. Insert board. 12. Flat – like a back board on a bookcase. Also used for face frames. 13. Vertical – side boards or dividers 14. Horizontal – shelves, bottoms and tops. 15. Generic – original new board form.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 83
16. Insert hardware. 17. Insert door. 18. Insert drawer. 19. Turn on red dot stretch feature. 20. Turn on blue corner locator feature. 21. Display point of origin on containers and objects. 22. Tape rule function – T on keyboard sets points of measure
Review icons -- Watch Video
On the line below the icon ribbon there is a pull down menu with which you set the number of image areas viewed at one time.
Next to that is a time display showing amount of time spent designing a project.
Next to that is information about the project assembly and various containers.
M key magnifies section of image area around cursor.
R key provide rotate function in image area.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 84
Using Standard Objects in SketchList 3D.
Standard objects are reusable design objects in your Sketch list 3D library. Once you create a design, for example of an assembly, you can save that as a standard to be used over again in other projects. But you can also make standards of boards and use them to quickly create custom cabinet layouts and designs.
Standard objects are saved designs that you’ve created for re-use in other designs.
Standards are grouped as any one of six different types.
1. Assembly 2. Board 3. Door 4. Drawer 5. Hardware 6. Appliances
The advantage of using standard objects is your ability to create a design specifically to the way you work and take that save design and use it in another situation. This gives you the ability to have a custom-built template that can be resized gusted for any application. You can drag an assembly into a project, resize it, perhaps add or delete a door or drawer and with that repurpose the template cabinet for another use.
Dragging’s dragging standard objects into the SketchList design follows the same rules as dragging new objects or containers into a design.
Assemblies can only be dragged into the project level.
Containers – door, drawer, or hardware can only be dragged into assemblies.
Hardware can be dragged into an assembly or into a door or drawer.
Boards or board like objects can be dragged into any container.
You can save an entire project using the save as file menu option to take a project and save it as a template to be opened and used in other jobs. Just make sure to keep renaming with the save as file menu command.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 85
In the grouping scheme of sticks shown above we include a standard object type called appliances. This is where you would save and store and retrieve an object such as a stove or refrigerator or even a fireplace. It is a bit of a catch-all category.
Inserting standard objects
To insert a standard object into a project go to the standards tab near the top right edge of the main SketchList 3D form.
When you click it the standards form will open. Noticed in the upper right-hand corner of the form there are a checkmark and a red X. If you click on the checkmark you be able to take that form (any form under a tab) and move it anywhere on your computer screen (s).
There are six check boxes on the form. You can click any or all of them to include that type of standard object in the scrolling list.
To scroll through the standard objects use the slide bar in the image area or the slide bar in the text list area.
To insert into the design click on the object and holding down your mouse key drag the object onto the spot in the design where you want it inserted.
SketchList 3D always inserts objects in the center of the container. This makes it easier to rotate the object. If the object was inserted at the point of origin rotating in any direction would take one of the corners of that object in place it outside of that container. That is not allowed in SketchList 3D.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 86
You can re-size the inserted object by using any of the re-size techniques presented in the lesson on sizing and re-sizing SketchList objects and containers.
Saving a standard object
if you create a new object or modifying existing standard object you can easily make that new or modified design into its own standard. To do this select the object and click the make standard button on the form.
Good practices in making standards As you begin to create your own library of woodworking, furniture, cabinet designs you’ll find yourself calling standard objects and over and over again. This will certainly save time. And if you plan ahead a bit you can structure your standard library to save you still more time
It is a good practice to make standards of your work early and often. This way you have building blocks from which you can build other standard objects. For example saving a basic carcass before adding the frame allows you to use that carcass in a frameless cabinet design without changing it.
If you are making a standard side piece for a cabinet and more or less always use that side in your cabinets design the side and save it as a standard. That standard side may have a toe kick bottom shelf dado back rabbit and holes for shelf pins. And if you save it as a standard board then you need not create that it can but simply call it into your next assembly.
You may choose to save shelves, stretchers, any part really that you use over and over again as standards.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 87
When you finish this you could say that as a standard assembly.
The same idea applies to doors and drawers. Once you make your drawer or door save it as a standard drawer for use in other applications.
You might even experiment with creating your face frame as a door and saving that face frame/door as a standard door to be applied to the front of the carcass.
Re-sizing standard objects is fairly easy to do in SketchList 3D. So when you establish your library you don’t really need one copy of all objects in many different sizes. A kitchen might have five or six different assemblies (for example base and wall units, blind corner), one or two drawer types, and possibly to doors. The point is that there is some smaller number of objects that you can use as building blocks to create practically any project that you want to tackle.
Face Frame as Standard Container
With some thought you can created to fully introduce new containers/objects to your SketchList 3-D standard library. In order to accomplish this task a container, specifically a door, was created to the necessary size. By using the insert new board functions to rails and two styles were put into this “door”. Then the door, renamed as face frame, it as a standard. Now that face frame is available for use in any cabinet.
Miscellaneous Videos
Using Standard Boards to Make Cabinet WATCH VIDEO
Using Standards Library WATCH VIDEO
Make a standard face frame WATCH VIDEO
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission. 88
Conclusion
SketchList 3D will enhance your woodworking projects by providing better designs, necessary reports, and maybe more importantly a way for you to think through your project before buying and cutting wood.
The software is open ended with almost an unlimited ability to bring your ideas to images. You can always learn more.
Keep up with the developments. Go to www.sketchlist.com and browse the blog posts.
Search for what you want to know. Click the icon of the magnifying glass at the top of our web page and enter a phrase for see all the occurrences in old posts.
You should also do a web search on the topic. There are more than 200 videos on You Tube about SketchList 3D and how to use it. Search for YouTube SketchList 3D. You can also add a search term like YouTube SketchList 3D cove molding.
Send us your questions and comments. Sign up and attend an online webinar on our web site. They are interactive and give you the ability for real time Q&A with the developers and other users of SketchList 3D.
Property of SketchList Incorporated. Not to be reproduced without written permission.