From the room to the files the workshop builds from

How a project is born

Eight steps, in the order furniture is actually made: seven in WoodCAD (FreeCAD), the eighth in the browser of the client and the workshop.

1. 01

   The room

   Build the room from real measurements — walls, floor, ceiling, openings — or bring the survey in from a Leica DXF. Everything that follows stands inside it.

   The room and its measurements

2. 02

   Parametric boxes — Magic Box

   Create your own parametric modules, set up their elasticity zones and change the overall size in one go (height, depth, width) — everything inside the module rebuilds itself.

   A module built by Magic Box

3. 03

   Materials

   A database of sheet and linear materials. Set thicknesses, sheet sizes and textures (a one-sided material can take a separate decor on its face and on its back). Thanks to such worked-out details the piece looks from the very start the way it will after installation.

   The materials database

4. 04

   Edge banding

   Assign the edge band's texture and band with different thicknesses. Select all the parts that need a band and band them in one go. WoodCAD has several ways of applying a band — use the one that is handiest and most familiar to you. We show it in every drawing and export.

   Edge bands on a panel

5. 05

   Hardware — parametric and Blum in 3D

   Hardware is not just a nice 3D body: it is parametric and drills its holes in the parts. Confirmats, cams, dowels, shelf supports, hinges… Build fastening schemes from parametric hardware and fit it many times faster. A connector facing the wrong way? Turn it round with one button.

   A full import of BXF files from Blum's E-SERVICES: articles, identifiers, 3D bodies and drilling. The import is streamlined as far as it goes — all the designer has left to do is set the elasticity zones on the panel material that came with the hardware. Save it as a template and use it again. No more evenings spent filling a parts library — give them to your family and friends.

   Want to draw some other hardware? No problem: use FreeCAD's own tools for it and convert it into WoodCAD hardware.

   Hardware and its holes

6. 06

   Drawings

   Like to make the frames on your sheets your own? Great! Use the «Template designer» for it. Draw a frame to your liking. Fill the sheet with blocks that fill themselves from the model. Tie the blocks to the sheet or to the frame if you want the sheet to fit another paper size (A4, A3…) by itself.

   Make the design documentation in packages, straight from the model: «General view and notes», «Wall elevations», «Section assembly and specification», «Part drawings», «Technical brief» — the least handwork, the most result.

   Changed the model when the drawings were already done? No problem: one button and the information is brought up to date from the model, your notes kept. Don't like the angle of a view? Change it right on the sheet. Design documentation is now an automatic process with a minimum of corrections and drawing.

   A drawing sheet

7. 07

   Export to the services that cut and drill

   ViyarPro, GibLab, iFurn, and others later. Making the parts in your own workshop? Then export them to DXF and PDF for cutting and CNC. Make the specifications in Excel: parts, hardware and linear stock with its cut plan. Nobody retypes a single size.

   Export and specifications

8. 08

   Show the piece to the client and send the 3D documentation to the workshop

   Do assemblers and installers keep pulling the designers away from their work? A familiar story. Make full 3D documentation in our viewer service. The project opens in the browser from a link — on a phone, a tablet or a computer, with no software to install.

   Now assemblers and installers can see for themselves how to assemble the piece and install it, without a single sheet of paper. The general view, section assemblies, part drawings, the distances from the walls and the notes — all in one place now: for speed, for convenience, and out of respect for their hard work.

   A project in the browser