AC25 Cabinet Objects

[Benji_W]

Obviously, the AC25 cabinet objects have been completely overhauled. I'm all for embracing a new tool and taking the time to learn how to use it. However, there seem to be some critical issues with the design of these new objects, which interfere with how some people choose to present their casework. A few of these issues might, in fact, be very easy to resolve in a future library update. I'll start with the easy ones:

1. Knob Positioning. This is a simple – albeit mind boggling – one (and perhaps easy to resolve). The knob position of the cabinet doors seem to originate from the bottom hinge side of the cabinet door in an XY grid. This was an unfortunately stupid idea. This means that if I have a completed 3d model of a kitchen (and thus, finished interior elevations), and the client asks to see what 42" tall wall cabinetss might look like...well, sure, I can change the dimension. And then I'll simply go into the int elevations and adjust the knob position of every single door. Just switch the knob macro's start position to be the opposite side, and make sure that it originates from the top/bottom of the door (in accordance to whether it is a wall cab or base cab), and no matter how I resize the cabinet, the knob will be in the correct location. And I won't need to create a favorite for every single conceivable cabinet design possible, just to make sure that the knobs are in the correct place in my model and interior elevations. It seriously wastes so much time to have to go back in and realign the knobs every time I change a cabinet's dimension.
2. 3-Door Cabinets. They do exist. We still need them in some instances. And no, we cannot simply use three single-door cabinets. See item #6 for the reason why.
3. Face frames. I know, another annoying American here. I love the European look, but don't often get to employ it. A face frame design would be fantastic. Obviously, this might be a fairly big issue to implement, UNLESS...I do have a solution. "Front Panel Right Offset" and "Front Panel Left Offset" are two options given. They allow me to overhang the door/front panel out past the outer edge of the cabinet. I will never, ever use this function. But what I would use is the ability to shrink the panel size, in order to mimic a partial overlay cabinet. I could simply increase the "Carcass Thickness" to be 1 1/2" or so (as I would if I were trying to mimic a face-framed inset cabinet door), and then punch in a negative offset number (of course, negative numbers aren't allowed in this field. For reasons, I'm sure). Just add in a top, bottom, and center offset (in the case of double doors), and viola. I have a partial overlay cabinet that I can work with.
4. Double Drawers for Double Doors. It's far more common in our locale for double door cabinets to have two drawers (or false panels) that align above. Yet this is not an option. Again, for reasons.
5. Undermount Sinks. They don't show as undermount on the floor plans. Like they used to. 
6. Floor Plan Representation. I don't know what happened here, but the floor plan display has some serious issues. All centering around the new inability to disable the cabinet and carcass hidden contour lines. This obviously causes an issue with figuring out how to correctly show a 3-door cabinet, and I'm certain that it causes many other problems and inconveniences that I'm yet to uncover. I get it, we're supposed to use the model view options – or set a custom 2D Detail Level – in order to hide the various hidden lines. This just seems like another new way to waste time. The old cabinet objects weren't nearly this functional, but at least they didn't necessitate us having to insert separate sink objects and linework in order to show the kitchen layout the way that we want to on the floor plans. They just worked. And no. Using a widely spaced dotted line is not a proper work around. Lot's of teeny, random little dots everywhere is not going to work. This software is far too expensive to be reliant on such old-school hacks.

Just want to ease some tension – these new objects ARE INDEED much more versatile and functional than the last iteration. They are an improvement. You guys simply missed a few critical things, which make much of your work nearly useless – as I (and others I'm sure) am seriously considering loading the old cabinet objects into my template to avoid having to take the extra time it would take to use the new cabinet objects. Though I would love to successfully employ the use of these ones.

Thanks,

-Ben 

[SenecaDesignLLC]

A solid answer since v16, learn gdl and never suffer from crappy out of the box objects. Only from your own errors. 

I wrote my own cabinets due to this and several other issues that still seem to plague v25.

[Jeno Barta]

Hi Ben! 

Thank You for Your feedback! We have a relatively big list of bugs, features and wishes correponding to them new kitchen cabinets, and three issues from Your list (1.,5.,6.) is already on it at top positions. 

We have already made improvements on the floorplan representation, on the area of cabinet edges (there will be a separate tabpage where you can set which edges you would to tur off), also We have adresses the issues with them undermount sinks. Also We are on to fix them knob positioning aswell. 

I'll add 2., 3. and 4. to Our list aswell, and see What can do about them in the future.

Huge Thanks for using them new cabinets, and implementing them in Your workflow. Also Thank You for Your positive attitude, and giving Us feedback. It means a lot and We do everything We could to make new kitchen cabinets better.

[Mats_Knutsson]

EDIT: just watched Jareds vid... Looking forward to the fixes.

[Jeno Barta]

Hi Mats!

The lack of edge visibillity options in new kitchen cabinets are a main issue, that We are already adressed in AC26.

Sorry for the inconvenience, We are trying to make new kitchen cabinets better in every way based on Community feedback, and this issue was a top priority one. 

Thank You!

[Mats_Knutsson]

EDIT... just watched Jareds soft rant on the topic. Looking forward to the fixes.

[Mats_Knutsson]

Good news. However it shouldn't have slipped through the quality control in the first place. Since we use use the odd AC versions we'll get this in 27 then...unless 25 lib will be corrected!?