Cabinet Manufacturers

[Kirby]

Ditto what Cris said. Soooo, since Kraftmaid is the most popular choice and easily accesible to everyone in America and beyond (clients can just go down to Home Depot and pick out their door style and finish even if they don't buy from there - I see it every day , then why don't we all start by badgering Kraftmaid to get the digital catalogue to CA. All this applies to American Woodmark as well which is better for the lower budget clients.

[Max]

Not to beat a dead horse but...Now that Andrean has brought to light the fact that CA must rely on, not one, but any and all manufacturers we, as the users, may wish to see added to the cabinet libraries I fail to see why the push in that direction rather than simply (figure of speech) working directly with the tool sets. That is definitely something Chief Architect can do in house and not have to rely on the maybe/maybe not aquisition of a particular manufacturer's library. As it stands now, we must hustle the brand we wish to see which, most likely, will be a waste of time since the "numbers" of requests these guys are looking for (1000's) are going to be much larger than the few of us who are even aware of this poll. I don't see having 100 (we only have 60 requests for Kraftmaid) Chief users request a library making a difference. Could be wrong though.

Max

[dgavin]

I think the only way doing cabinet specific items makes sense is as a seperate product that could be sold to comanies that are cabinet dealers. I don't want/need all that comes along with cabinet specific inventories like 20/20 does. I would rather ART have seperate people dedicated to that approach if they do it instead of adding it to the main program. Just like they do for the home designer series. I'd rahter the main program programmers woek on fixing/expanding the existing tools, estimating/material take offs, dimensions and CAD side of the program.

My .02

[GaryT]

Unless you are a cabinet dealer, manufacturer's catalogs would appear to have limited value. Of course one could use a catalog, most any catalog, as an example in a design solution. If your client is planning to use "stock" or semi-custom cabinets, the dealer will most likely tweak the design to use their brand of cabinets. They should provide a drawing for client and/or architect approval. Only dealers have access to pricing as well as door and finish samples.

The amount of design and detail that an architect or designer puts into cabinetry and woodworks varies. When dealing with full custom woodworks, they might detail almost to the point of shop drawings, leaving little to chance. In any event this would seem to support the requests for more customization tools.

Cabinet dealers on the other hand often already have programs that generate 3D layouts as well as pricing. I don't think dealers would be much of a market for CA.

As to the popularity of KraftMaid and other "big box" offerings, it seems incongruous for a client to pay a professional for a custom home design and then purchase from Home Depot. I would think the Home Depot customer would buy his or her plans from a magazine.

As a new user of CA, I am not entirely certain how well the latest version meets all of my needs, but things that are important to me:

1. Extensive material selections (species, color, finish)
2. Extensive selection of door/drawer faces and an easy way to modify or customize
3. A good selection of architecturally correct mouldings
4. A selection of other trim such as korbels, brackets, etc.
5. Tools and materials to do custom wainscot and full paneled rooms
6. Same for coffered ceilings
7. Tools for designing custom valances
8. A Bezier curve tool might be a help in designing our own profiles
9. A full selection of cabinet face construction options (inset, inset beaded face frame, full and partial overlay)
10. A good selection of high end appliances (Viking, Wolf, Subzero, etc.)
11. Under cabinet lighting
12. A way to construct custom profiles for doors and panels
13. Ability to have styles and rails one material and panel another

These are just some things I'm looking for. I'm sure CA already does many of the things I've listed, but as a very new user, I haven't had the opportunity to really explore the tools. I'm sure I'll find that my needs will often be met. I am just starting my second design project with extensive cabinetry and woodworks.

[L Roney]

Ward Cabinets

[bretth0214]

Showplace Wood Products

[dchaley217]

Candlelight and Stanici Hoods

[wpterryj4]

This is an old thread, but still an issue in Chief.

I would love to see the "Wolf Classic Cabinet" line of cabinets. My company sells cabinets to builders and this line competes effectively against the cheap, DIY Chinese imports, that the consumer has to assemble on site. You can see what they offer at the following URL >http://www.wolfhomeproducts.com/kitchen-cabinets

In response to GaryT's post, manufacturers catalogs are extremely important to the builder and to the dealer in order to specify exactly what cabinet should be ordered. It is entirely congruous to expect the material list coming out of Chief to be used as an ordering form for the cabinets to the dealer / manufacturer. I don't see the point in just designing a kitchen / bath / entertainment center if you can't source the boxes easily and quickly without extra interpolation (errors) by humans. My vote would be to have as many manufacturers catalogs as possible, and to provide an easy method of making the brand / model as the default cabinet in the current design. Seems to me that CA should try to come up with a standard ASCII file import format to make it super easy for the manufacturers to participate in the catalog feature of the program.