In addition to wood based material, there are other items including pulls, slides, hinges, catches, lazy susans, tip outs, slide outs and the like that may be needed to complete a cabinet. These items can be added to the cabinet providing several important benefits.
The first benefit is the ability to include the cost of these items in the cost estimate for the cabinet. Second, when multiple cabinets are added to a job, the software can add up all the items you need for the entire job and provide these to you in a Buy List. Then, with little effort, everything on the list can be purchased through the program, saving considerable time.
For items that must be mounted to the cabinet, another benefit is the ability to automatically add the mounting holes to the appropriate cabinet parts. Hardware mounting hole patterns are included for most hinges and slides available through the program and the Hardware Hole Editor can modify these patterns or create new patterns if necessary.
Hole patterns are shown on individual part drawings and are included in CNC programs.
Finally, for many decorative pulls there is a rich three dimensional image that can be displayed on the cabinet providing an accurate representation of the final appearance.
There are two methods of handling hardware selection within the software.
First, there are default hardware selections for certain items such as hinges and hinge mounts for doors, slides and slide mounts for drawers, pulls for both doors and drawers as well as top, mid and base moldings for the cabinet. These are called “Cabinet Defaults”. Cabinet Defaults also include KD/RTA fittings for each joint when these are used.
There is an area where these selections are maintained. This area can be accessed either by selecting the Define Default/Add Item icon in the Cabinet/Assembly Editor and then selecting Cabinet Defaults or, from the Door/Drawer Editor you can press Hardware Selection.
Here you select the vendor and the actual item you want. You can also add them to My Favorites which makes finding them much easier in the future.
Default items for a door, hinges, hinge mounts and door pulls are automatically added to the cabinet whenever a door is added to the cabinet. Once you set the defaults, you do not need to worry about adding hardware when you add a door, it happens automatically.
This same thing works for drawers.
The second way of adding an item to a cabinet is using the “Add Item” feature. This allows you to select anything from the eCabinet Systems store and associate it with a cabinet. Whenever that cabinet is added to a job, the associated items are also added to the job.
This works well for items such as tip outs, roll outs or lazy susans. To position these properly, you need to know how to move and align parts in the workspace, so we will cover that next