Cabinet Manufacturers

[Steve S]

Some good points have been made about adding more cabinet tools as opposed to libraries; it would be great if it were easier to 1)add moldings such as Enkeboll's, 2)add quarter, half, and full legs to backs and sides of cabinets, and 3)select and drop wood hoods such as Stanici.

[lgc30642]

I often use "Crystal".....a Canadian company for imported, custom finishes, but I also agree with the Shiloh suggestion previously mentioned.
I have also used KitchenKraft.....but most of the time the customer has a preference based on a local cabinet dealer's brands.

[Adrean]

Great...

I'm still keeping track!

[DBJ]

MidContenent, Woodland and Woodpro for bathrooms.

[MEB540]

Plain and Fancy

and

Yorktown

[Adrean]

Max--
I understand your sentiments.
I also hope that we will continue to make progress on the materials list and pricing aspects of Chief Architect. Until the tools are fully available, we can continue to make headway in these other areas of value, like manufacturer specific data.

Thanks for your comments!

[marksandsoy]

For what it's worth, I don't recognize any of the manufacturers listed, but I'm not concerned with it. When I add cabinets, I'm only concerned about what they look like, not who builds them. After the drawings are approved, they go to local manufacturing shops for a bid, and maybe by chance, they may go to one of the listed manufacturers. The most important thing for me is to be able to show anything the client may want. Who builds them and knowing immediately how much they will cost is not important to me.
Thanks

[marksandsoy]

I don't recognize any of the manufacturers listed. But when I design the cabinets, I'm not concerned with who makes them or how much they will cost. I'll try to stay with 3" increments because I understand that's a good standard (like stud spacing of 16" o.c). After cabinet drawings are complete, it's time to go get prices which is usually thru local cabinet shops, who can build anything. If a client wants to go to a manufacturer listed, that is their choice and I can design within those limits. But the first priority is designing what the client wants, not designing for what a manufacturer has to offer. Just my two cents worth.
Mark

[RJ75]

I'd like to see Bertch, Schrock, and Ultracraft

[Chad Cardin]

Yes, I agree with the manufacturers not being of importance its the TOOLS that chief has to get the desired look. Then the client can make a decision of how much they want to pay with depending on who they want to use. I really would like to see more cabinet tools that would make them more customizable like listed in earlier posts... moldings, cabinet trim etc. Also if there were more customizable finishes like the high end manufacturers have. Stains and colors would be nice.

[Max]

Max--
I understand your sentiments.
I also hope that we will continue to make progress on the materials list and pricing aspects of Chief Architect. Until the tools are fully available, we can continue to make headway in these other areas of value, like manufacturer specific data.

Thanks for your comments!

Adrean,
I did drift off topic after you had asked about farming out pricing, which is absurd to have to do. Anyway, my bad. (Lew, I am really trying here!)

The point here, when it gets right down to it, most cannot hardly tell the difference from one brand to another when they are represented in such as Chief. Which brings up the question, what's the point? In order to actually show the details in such a way as to truely define the difference then you will have to make the tools needed to create those differences. Otherwise, there is no difference except maybe someone labled them differently and changed a dim or two. If you do make the tools to create the differences, well...Need I explain this? You seem like a bright girl.

I get a bit ruffled over this kind of marketing hype and misrepresented value, especially in light of the recent introduction of SSV or whatever it was called.

Max

[Steve S]

Max,
I would have to disagree with your assessment of manufacturer specific data being "marketing hype and misrepresented value". I think the value being espoused is a manufacturers library one can go to for any cabinet, molding, or detail the manufacturer offers, select the item and drop it in the plan. I can only assume that this is an effort by Chief to accomodate users that are more conversant in a K & B design program such as 20/20. There are a number of this type of user in our office and they feel that their time can be better spent on developing a k---a-- design and not in creating cabinets and moldings. I happen to agree that better cabinet design tools are probably more valuable than specific manufacturer catalogs (mostly because of what has been discussed in this thread); I just thought I would try to provide a little perspective on users that are approaching the issue from K & B specific software.

[lbuttery]

At the beginning of this thread I was in favor of more catalogs but seeing that there are numerous "favorite" brands I'm now leaning towards more tools.

I may never be able to learn those tools but I have a partner who can or I can hire someone to do it for me.


An old adage goes "if all you have is a hammer then everything begins to look like a nail"


If we only have a few catalogs then those are the ones we would favor when doing cabinets.

If we have the tools we can mimic "anything"


Lew

[05uurx]

Dynasty/Omega and Kabinart

[Max]

At the beginning of this thread I was in favor of more catalogs but seeing that there are numerous "favorite" brands I'm now leaning towards more tools.

I may never be able to learn those tools but I have a partner who can or I can hire someone to do it for me.


An old adage goes "if all you have is a hammer then everything begins to look like a nail"


If we only have a few catalogs then those are the ones we would favor when doing cabinets.

If we have the tools we can mimic "anything"


Lew

Lew,
Well stated. "We" can almost mimic anything now so, with just a few more features, could pretty much do anything.

Max