Brook Haven & Custom Tools!!!
I'm with the rest of you that do a lot of custom work - even when I spec. cabinets off the shelf - I always customise them! Please - give us more custom cabinet tools! Right now I'm working on a kitchen - I'd like to be able to take a generic island, change the dim's., explode it and ***y it up! The idea behind Chief is to help us work faster... give us the tools!!!
Cabinet Libraries vs. More Cabinet Tools
I think Gene Davis hit the nail on the head when he said: "Manufacturers are constantly evolving their product lines and adding new products and features, and any library issued would be out of date quickly."
It's been quite awhile since I've participated in this forum as I've been away doing all my kitchen and bath design on 2020.... not out of choice but necesity due to the pricing catalogs. I still use CA to create layouts because it works better (by far) than 2020. I would prefer to do my designs with CA because of the 'other' library options, ability to create (or have somebody create) symbols, and the ablity to import any material I want to represent.
I think one key issue has not been clarified -- Who's using CA to design cabinet layouts and to what end? If you need to do the conceptual design and rendering, but don't need to create a price quote, then CA already has all tools available to be able to make that happen. If you are a K & B designer that's going to sell the cabinets and need to create a price quote, then you need symbol library (specific to the manufacturer) with their prices in it. For the most part, retail price lists for manufacturers are proprietry to their dealers, so unless you are one, your aren't going to have access to it.
That being said, there are many manufacturers out there that have separate pricing software so you can do the cabinet layout using other design software. But again, you have to be a dealer (or be their designated designer) to get your hands on it.