richards
05-04-2005, 01:18 AM
After messing around with a program to make cabinet doors for the last month or so, I've begun to wonder what it would take to write a simple program to generate SBP file to cut cabinets?
On the surface it seems fairly simple if you visualize the cabinet as a cube with width, height and depth. Since I use the 32mm system exclusively, the height becomes a multiple of 32mm. I also have a Delta horizontal boring machine, so programming 8mm construction holes is just a matter of telling the Shopbot where to drill the holes.
Basically, the method that I use in AutoCAD LT is to have the back panel full width and height. The side panels are full height that are full depth minus the thickness of the back. The top and bottom panels are the same depth as the sides and the same width as the back minus 2 x the thickness of a side panel. In addition, I usually make the back oversized 1mm all around so that after glue-up, I can use a router to flush trim the edges to match the sides/top/bottom. I also extend the sides 1mm, both top and bottom for the same reason.
All material is 3/4-inch thick (19mm), so using 8mm dowels is not a problem. My formula for placing the construction holes is to center two holes on each side of the back panel and then add two more holes every 160mm from the centered holes , with a minimum of six holes per side. (Upper cabinets require that the holes be spaced closer, 128mm or even 96mm.)
5mm shelf holes are spaced 37mm back from the front edge of the sides with the rear holes a multiple of 32mm that matches a hole on the appropriate sized drawer glides.
Cabinets that have drawers instead of shelves, or a mixture of drawers and shelves could easily have proper hole spacing almost auto-generated via a spreadsheet with one row for each row of holes and one column for each column of holes. Again, since the cabinets are based on the 32mm system, everything lays out easily.
The problem that I face is how to organize a set of (spreadsheet) files that are generic enough to contain all of the information required and yet simple enough that entering the data can be done in a matter of minutes.
What do you think? Do you use the 32mm system? Are your designs standarized to the point that a generic program could output the SBP files? Your views would be greatly appreciated.
-Mike
On the surface it seems fairly simple if you visualize the cabinet as a cube with width, height and depth. Since I use the 32mm system exclusively, the height becomes a multiple of 32mm. I also have a Delta horizontal boring machine, so programming 8mm construction holes is just a matter of telling the Shopbot where to drill the holes.
Basically, the method that I use in AutoCAD LT is to have the back panel full width and height. The side panels are full height that are full depth minus the thickness of the back. The top and bottom panels are the same depth as the sides and the same width as the back minus 2 x the thickness of a side panel. In addition, I usually make the back oversized 1mm all around so that after glue-up, I can use a router to flush trim the edges to match the sides/top/bottom. I also extend the sides 1mm, both top and bottom for the same reason.
All material is 3/4-inch thick (19mm), so using 8mm dowels is not a problem. My formula for placing the construction holes is to center two holes on each side of the back panel and then add two more holes every 160mm from the centered holes , with a minimum of six holes per side. (Upper cabinets require that the holes be spaced closer, 128mm or even 96mm.)
5mm shelf holes are spaced 37mm back from the front edge of the sides with the rear holes a multiple of 32mm that matches a hole on the appropriate sized drawer glides.
Cabinets that have drawers instead of shelves, or a mixture of drawers and shelves could easily have proper hole spacing almost auto-generated via a spreadsheet with one row for each row of holes and one column for each column of holes. Again, since the cabinets are based on the 32mm system, everything lays out easily.
The problem that I face is how to organize a set of (spreadsheet) files that are generic enough to contain all of the information required and yet simple enough that entering the data can be done in a matter of minutes.
What do you think? Do you use the 32mm system? Are your designs standarized to the point that a generic program could output the SBP files? Your views would be greatly appreciated.
-Mike