The Part Editor is used to modify any part of a cabinet or a Display Panel, Display Board or Display Cube. Not only can you modify these parts, but for parts made from sheet stock or for profiled edges, the modification is automatically added to the nest diagram and the required CNC program to machine the modified part is generated through the CNC feature. The part is modified by cutting through, pocketing or profiling it.
Modifying a part is typically a two step process. First, geometry is created on the surface of the part and then that geometry is used to cut, pocket or guide a profile tool. It is also possible to use the edge of a part to guide a profile tool but geometry must exist for a through cut or pocket cut.
There are two different ways to create geometry. Simple geometric shapes such as a rectangle, circle and filled arc can be defined and placed on the surface in the Main workspace. Several geometric shapes can be placed on the surface at once and the shapes can overlap. These shapes can then be highlighted and used to cut through, pocket or make a part from.
These simple geometric shapes can be modified, even after they have been cut by using the Constraint Manager. For example, to create a pattern of four holes, you could carefully create correct geometry and then use it to cut the hole pattern. You could also draw and cut four random circles, which can be done rather quickly, and then set their position and diameter in the Constraint Manager. See the section “Constraint Management for Parts Modified in the Part Editor” for more information.
External corners and, once cut, inside corners can be modified by filleting or chamfering.
More complex shapes are created in a separate area called Contour. This area is more CAD like and allows the development of more complex shapes and paths. The Contour area either creates open paths to guide a profile tool or it creates a closed shape that can be used to cut through or pocket.
The Contour area can also import two dimensional DXF files to help define the contour. This allows you to use most popular CAD systems to create geometry for parts or cut-outs and then bring those shapes into the software.
Before we demonstrate actual pieces, let’s take an overview look at the Part Editor.
This area is actually quite simple to use but very powerful. It is essentially a simple CAD system that operates on parts imported from the Cabinet/Assembly Editor.
Start by highlighting a part in the Cabinet/Assembly Editor and pressing the Part Editor icon. The part can be a single part of a cabinet or assembly or can be a Display Panel, Display Board or Display Cube. This opens the Part Editor with the part in the work area. The part is oriented flat and can be worked on from either side.
A part is selected in the Cabinet/Assembly Editor by SINGLE clicking on it. It then displays with a cross hatched highlight.
In the Part Editor, text depicting the orientation of the part helps provide orientation. The view can be changed from front to back or side to side by changing the C-Plane located in a control box on the taskbar just above the center of the workspace. There is also an X, Y position readout of the cursor position located next to the C-Plane control.
Although we refer to the Part Editor as a CAD system, it functions a bit differently than a typical CAD system.
In most CAD systems you draw lines and surfaces to define the exterior of a part. Then, if you want to actually make the part, you must define tools and tool paths that will cut the part from a blank. Finally, the size of the required blank is determined.
In the Part Editor, we start with a blank or a basic part and then use defined tools to cut away material to produce the desired final shape. In doing this we are automatically defining the required tools and the cutting processes needed to make the part. This approach makes it possible to quickly and easily machine any part developed in the Part Editor.
The Part Editor basically modifies the part in two ways. The first method uses geometry placed on the surface of the part. The geometry is created by either using one of the geometry tools such as the Rectangle, Circle or Filled Arc or by creating a closed geometric shape using the Contour Mode. This geometry is then selected and the part cut.
The part can be cut in two ways;
- It can be cut all the way through the part, creating a hole or cut-out the same shape as the geometry. It can also be cut only part of the way through the part, creating a pocket the same shape as the geometry.
- The geometry can be the actual part, cutting away all material outside the closed shape.
The second basic function of the Part Editor is to cut a profile on the edge of the part or along a contour on the part.
To cut a profile, a Tool is required that has the profile you want. This Tool is created in the Shape Manager and saved as a .tol file.
To demonstrate these features, let’s start with a simple cabinet box and modify it to have a curved front, profile top and speaker hole.
Open the Cabinet/Assembly Editor and load the Std. Base Frameless from the Standard Cabinet directory.
We will start by creating the curved top and front. You should perform all function on the cabinet that will require changes in size, joint construction or overlap before modifying parts in the Part Editor. Once parts have been modified, no changes can be made to the cabinet that would require the size of the modified part to change. Should this happen, you will lose all modifications made in the Part Editor since the system does not know how to handle these changes as part size changes.
To prepare for the machining, we need to modify the top of our cabinet.
From the Main page of the Cabinet/Assembly Editor, right click on the cabinet top and select Construction Settings. This opens the Construction Settings area on the page that defines the Top.
Change Placement to Top Flush.
Set the Front Inset to a -4”, Right Inset and Left Inset both to -1”. Press OK.
The top now overhangs the cabinet box. We will return to the top later, but first we will place a speaker hole in the left side.
Highlight the left end by single clicking on it.
Notice that the highlight is a grid
pattern on the entire part. This indicates that the individual part is
selected. When a cabinet is selected, only the outline of the parts is
highlighted. This distinction is important when working with cabinets and
individual parts.
Then, click the Part Editor icon.
The part is displayed in the workspace as shown.
Notice the position of the “Top” and “Front” of the part is denoted. From this position information and the knowledge that this is the left end of the cabinet, we can determine that we are facing the surface of the part that is inside the cabinet.
We would like to machine from the outside of the cabinet, so we must change the View.
Change the C-Front View in the control box circled to C-Back View.
Now you will notice that the “Top” and “Back” are shown and that we are looking at the outside surface of the part.
We are going to want to cut a ¼ inch deep square pocket into the side to hold a speaker cover and then cut a circle all the way through the part.
We will start by defining the geometry of the square and circle.
Select the Rectangle Tool icon to enter the Rectangle mode. Note that instructions at the bottom ask you to “Enter the first point X,Y”. At this point you can either position the cursor over the first point and click or you can enter the point manually in the box. If you want to use the cursor, it is almost mandatory that you set the Snap Increment and turn Snap on. Otherwise it is difficult to achieve a precise position.
We will use manual input. Type
“6.5,11.5” and press Enter. Positions
are entered in absolute coordinates with the X Axis position entered first,
followed by a comma and the Y Axis position. The origin or 0,0 point is located
at the bottom left corner of the part.
Next, type the end point, “17.5, 22.5” and press Enter. The rectangle is shown in gray.
We will now use this geometry to cut the ¼” deep pocket.
Click on the Select Mode icon from the toolbar. Then click on the rectangle we
just created to highlight it.
From the Right Click Menu, select Cut Shape. In the dialog box that appears, put .25” in the Specify Cutting Depth field and press OK.
We can now examine the pocket by selecting the Review Mode icon. In this mode, the part can be rotated and zoomed using the normal controls used for cabinets.
We will now locate a circle over the top of the rectangle. Select the Circle Mode icon to enter the Circle Mode.
A circle is defined by specifying the location of the center and the diameter. Specify the center by typing “12,17” and pressing Enter. Input 10” as the diameter.
Switch to the Select Mode, highlight the circle and from the Right Click Menu select Cut Shape. This time select Cut Through and press OK.
We will next create geometry for the mounting holes in each corner. From the Circle Mode, create four circles each .375” in diameter with centers of:
7.5,12.5
7.5,21.5
16.5,12.5
16.5,21.5
Next, switch to the Select Mode and click on each to highlight them. Again select Cut Shape from the Right Click Menu and cut them through.
We could also have placed the large circle and all four small circles and then cut them all through at the same time. We could have even placed all the geometry on the part first and then selected entities one at a time and cut them. This approach, however, can cause confusion because more than one entity is selected if they overlap at the point you use to select.
Placing all the geometry at once
does have the advantage that certain nodes are available for Object Snap, such as the center of a
circle or the corners and center of a rectangle. This can make location of
geometry easier.
Press Return to return to the Cabinet/Assembly Editor and take the changed part with you.
The result on the cabinet is shown to the left.
We modified the left end by using the geometry tools.
Next, we will modify the top using the Contour Mode to create a closed geometric shape that cannot be developed using the simple geometry tools.
Highlight the top by single clicking on it. Now click on the Part Editor icon.
The Front is toward the left and the Left side is toward the top of the display. This means that we are looking at the top surface of the top, which is what we want. If this was incorrect, we could use the C-Plane control to change the view.
We want to put an arc across the front of the cabinet. To do this we need a closed arc geometry with a concave arc. The Arc mode available from the toolbar is a convex arc so we need to use the Contour mode to create the geometry.
Press the Contour Mode icon.
We will use the Snap functions to create the geometry. Press the Grid Settings icon and set the Grid and Snap each to 1” and make sure they are turned on. The Dotted grid display is probably the easiest for this application.
Place the cursor at the top left corner of the part. Notice that the cursor position is 0”,32”. This dimension will be needed shortly.
Select the Circle/Arc Mode icon, then select Three Point Arc.
Move 3” to the right to 3”,32” and place the first point.
Now move to the left edge and down to 0”,16”. The 16” is half the 32” dimension we noted earlier. Place the second point.
Finally, move to 3”,0” and set the last point. You now have the arc we need.
We must now turn this into a closed geometry so we can use the Cut/Pocket Using Closed Contour function.
Switch to the Line Mode and freehand some lines to close the shape. Their actual position is not important since only the arc will actually be used to cut the part.
Create lines as shown to develop a
closed geometry that we can use to cut the front arc.
Now, exit the Contour Mode by selecting the Exit Contour Mode icon from the toolbar.
We now want to cut this shape through the part. Geometry created using the geometry tools (circle, rectangle, etc.) use the Cut/Pocket Using Closed Contour function to cut. Geometry created with the geometry tools use a function called Cut/Pocket Using Geometric Shapes to perform the same function.
The system will try to help you
determine which function to use based on your operation.; If you have placed
geometry and have highlighted it, it will only offer the Cut/Pocket Using Geometric Shapes and the Cut/Pocket Using Closed Contour will be grayed out. If you have a
defined closed contour and no geometry is highlighted it will offer Cut/Pocket Using Closed Contour and will
gray out the Cut/Pocket Using Geometric
Shapes option.
Now back to our part. From the Right Click Menu, select Extrude Cut. Then, click on any of the lines in the contour. The entire closed contour highlights.
Now press Done to access the cut dialog. Check Cut Through and press OK. The part is cut as shown to the right.
We now want to put a profile on the front and the left and right edges of the part.
Select the Profile Part icon.
Since we are not going to go all the way around the edge but will cut more than one edge, we need to select Partial at the bottom of the display.
The guide at the bottom tells us to “select the first entity”. Click on the bottom (cabinet right) edge. Click near the back which is the right hand side of this edge. The direction around the part that the partial chain will take is determined by the location that you select. If you select the right side of the bottom edge as the starting point, the profile will move away from the corner closest to the point you selected, in this case it will move counterclockwise around the part. If you select the left side of the edge as the starting point, the profile would move to the right and counterclockwise around the part.
At the bottom left starting point you will see the symbol shown. The red line with the dot indicates the starting point of the cut and the direction. The red dot is in the direction of the cut.
Then we need to “Select the last entity” which is the top (cabinet left) edge.
Now press Next to indicate you are finished with the path selection.
Using the dialog, find the path and file name where you saved the profile “Cove5.tol” and select it.
Press View to see the tool profile.
The blue and yellow areas beneath the tool signify the part. We must now set parameters that define how the tool cuts the part.
If you select No Comp/Centerline, the center of the tool will cut along the path.
If you select Comp Left, the tool shifts to the left and the part is represented by the yellow area on the right.
If you select Comp Right, the tool shifts to the right and the part is represented by the blue area to the left.
Next, input the plunge depth and press Apply.
Note that movement downward and into the part is the negative direction and movement upward and away from the part is the positive direction.
The image to the right shows our tool with Left Compensation and plunged -.625” into the part. Our part is represented by the yellow area.
The left or right designation for cutter compensation is determined by standing behind the cutter bit and watching it cut away from you. The direction to the left is left compensation and the direction to the right is right compensation.
The Additional Offset area allows you to offset the tool, left or right, in addition to the offset that occurs from tool radius compensation.
The actual offset caused by tool radius compensation may change at the machine if the diameter of the tool changes. If the machine operator indicates that the diameter of the tool has changed, due to sharpening for example, the system will automatically shift the tool to compensate for the new diameter. This insures that the final part is the correct size.
At this point it is simply a matter
of pressing OK.
You now see the part with the profile cut along the edges.
Now press Return and indicate you want to take the changes with you.
The result is the cabinet shown to the right.
The basic techniques shown here will work for sheet material, either a cabinet component or a Display Panel.
Using a Display Panel for a part rather than an actual part of the cabinet has some advantages. When you use an editor, such as the Shelf/Partition Editor or the Face Frame Editor, the entire geometry of the cabinet regenerate as you leave to incorporate the change you made. This regeneration may resize parts as part of the process.
The system cannot resize a part that has been modified by the Part Editor so, if the cabinet regenerates, you lose any modifications you made to any part of the cabinet. There is a warning about this if you try to enter an Editor with modified parts.
This can be avoided by waiting until all adjustments that require editors have been completed and then using the Part Editor to modify parts of the cabinet. A second choice is to make a Display Panel the same size as the cabinet part and replace the cabinet part with it. Then you can modify it without the danger of losing the modifications.
This Display Panel will not resize, however, you can regenerate the cabinet without affecting the Display Panel. If the changes you make to the cabinet requires that the part actually change dimensions, you will need to create a new part of the correct size.
We will next demonstrate some other techniques that can be used to develop different types of parts.
As an example, we will develop a curved door. This same approach can be used with a large Display Cube to create a curved wall for a room.
To do this we will start with a New screen in the Cabinet/Assembly Editor.
Next, load a Display Cube 4” Wide, 12” long and 30” Deep. Give it a wood texture you like.
Then click on it to highlight it and press the Part Editor icon.
We will use the Contour Mode to create a closed shape we
can use to make the cut.
Press the Contour Mode icon to enter the Contour Mode.
Use the Three Point Arc and Line tools to develop a shape as shown to the left. Make sure you used the Fillet (with zero diameter) or Trim tools to be sure you have a closed contour.
Exit the Contour Mode.
Right click and select Create Part Using Closed Contour.
The result is shown at the right.
Press Return and keep the changes.
Here is our door. It has the correct shape but doesn’t look very good. The grain texture is warped and does not look realistic. This is the result of how grain is mapped to parts in the Cabinet/Assembly Editor.
We will fix this by converting our part into a Display Object using the Display Part Editor.
We will Export the part as an HSF, then load it into the Display Part Editor, adjust the grain and appearance and save it. We can then load it back into the Cabinet/Assembly Editor as a Display Object.
Highlight the door by clicking on
it.
Then from the File menu at the top left, select Export Selection. This will export whatever is highlighted as an HSF file. Give it a name and directory.
We can now go to the Display Part Editor, load the file and adjust the grain appearance and then save it again. Now its appearance is quite acceptable.
This technique adds a powerful
capability to the system. For example, if you wanted glass shelves in a
cabinet, you could highlights the shelves, Export
them, change them to glass appearance in the Display Part Editor. Then you could load the resulting Display Object back into the Cabinet/Assembly Editor and locate the
new glass shelves.
We will now develop a corner post for a cabinet with a V notched out where it meets the cabinet.
Return to the Cabinet/Assembly Editor and press the icon for New and say Yes you do want a new page.
We started in the Shape Manager where we created the shape of the leg we want as shown to the left. This was then made into a tool and saved. See the chapter on the Shape Manager for details on how this is done.
Next, in the Cabinet/Assembly Editor, create a Display Cube 3” W x 3” H x 24” D.
Highlight the part and press the Part Editor icon.
Once in the Part Editor, we will cut the corner notch first.
Use the Rectangle tool to pace a rectangle that extends from the center of our block to the edge as shown. Highlight the rectangle, right click and select Cut/Pocket Using Geometric Shapes. Select Cut Through and press OK.
Now, press the Fillet icon and set the Fillet
Radius to 1.5”. Be sure to press Enter
to make the dimension active.
Apply the fillet to the remaining three corners. The result is a round post with a corner notch as shown.
Next, we will apply the tool we developed for the leg to the outside of our part.
Press the Define Cut Path icon. Select Partial to indicate that we will not be cutting along a path that is closed.
Next, click on the lower right quadrant of our post to indicate that this is the starting segment of our partial chain. Then click on the upper left quadrant when asked for the end segment.
Press Next to move to the next step.
Select the tool you saved and press OK.
The shape of the tool is cut into the post.
Press Return and take the changes back to the Cabinet/Assembly Editor.
We can see the result to the left. It has the proper shape but again, we need to convert it to a Display Object to get a really good appearance.
Reset to the front view and highlight the part. From the File menu selection at the upper left, select Export Selection. Save the post as an HSF file.
Open the Display Part Editor and adjust the grain image. The most common adjustments are the Texture Scale and Rotate.
Then save the part as an HSF. This can now be loaded into the Cabinet/Assembly Editor or into the Custom Layout. Note that you can also Export from the Custom Layout.
The finished post shown to the
right has been given a walnut grain which has been sized and rotated until the
appearance shown was achieved.
As you can see from these exercises, the Part Editor is a powerful tool and allows you to produce almost anything.
The thing you don’t see is that most of what you design can be machined using a Thermwood CNC router.
A really powerful feature is the ability to model a profile edge and then machine it without requiring a matching profile cutting tool.
The CNC router is able to do this by developing a modeling program from the data sent to it by the eCabinet Systems software. This is all done inside the Thermwood CNC control.
The modeling program starts with a ball nose cutter. It traces the path of the profile. Then it shifts over slightly and traces the path again. It goes back and forth along the path, shifting over a little each pass until the basic profile is generated. Then, if there are sharp inside corners that the ball nose tool couldn’t reach, it uses a flat bottom tool to trace those. It can also use a pointed liner tool to cut sharp lines if required by the design.
This process is automatic and can
be used to generate profiles on straight or curved parts. It can cut moldings
like the one shown here. It can cut profiles on the edge of parts such as table
tops or raised panels for doors.
The ability to model profiles is part of the initial release of Version 4 and the software you are using right now generates the CNC files needed to do this. Additional capability is planned for future releases.
For example, in this guide we used a highly impractical 24” tall tool to generate turnings and posts. In future versions of the software, a turning capability is planned using the Shape Manager and Part Editor. This will make developing turnings easier but, the primary purpose is to automatically generate files needed to actually machine the turning on a Thermwood CNC router equipped with a rotary playback axis. The rotary playback axis is currently available as a machine option.
The current system can model virtually any molding or edge profile shape. In the near future you will also be able to create and then machine turnings quickly and easily.