In the last installment of this Automated Cabinetry Inventor Tutorial, we got all the way around the cabinet with our sketch, but there are still a few things to add. We need to get the applied toe kick in place, add a locator for the adjustable leg, and add the rail representations in the top nailer frame. If time allows, we will start on the variable sketches that will begin to describe the variation available to the base design.
Before we start sketching, we need five more parameters (to start) to define the kick and its location, and to define the rail width for the top nailer frame. Open the Parameter Editor, and if yours looks like the one below..
Click the little minus sign next to Model Parameters to collapse the Model Parameter list. This list will get incredibly long, and most likely we will not be needing to see these parameters at all during the course of our modeling —– and, new in Inventor 2013 –the list will remain collapsed the next time you open it. Why it didn’t for all this time is anybody’s guess.
Now for some parameters…
- Kick_Depth – Will control the depth from the face of the face frame to the face of the kick.
- Kick_Gap – is the distance between the top of the kick and the underside of the cabinet.
- Kick_Thickness – The thickness of the kick material.
- Nailer_Top_Width – The width of all of the top nailer frame members.
- Nailer_Back_Width – This is a rename of the Back_Nailer_Height parameter. Will help finding things later if all related parameters start with the same word.
The last one, as noted, is a rename. Just rename the old one to this new name…
Now for some sketching. Begin by sketching a Two Point Rectangle from the bottom Construction line upwards. Again, it doesn’t matter much what size it is while we are drawing it –the only thing important is that you see the little yellow ball when starting the rectangle on the construction line…
You may wish to shut off the display of the grid lines at this point. Having extra lines within a sketch when your zoomed into a small area can lead to confusion. Personally, I never use them at all. If I need to know the location of an Origin Plane or Axis, I just hover my cursor over them in the browser to see where they are in the canvas, or, I turn on their visibility until I am done with them. To shut the lines off, go to Tools Tab > Options Panel > Application Options Icon > Sketch Tab, and uncheck the boxes shown to the right…
Click the green Sketch tab to return to the sketch environment.
Now add the dimensions needed to locate and size the kick using the parameters created earlier. You can see by the parameter list on the left why it’s a good idea to name related parameters such as those for the kick with the same first word.
After adding the three kick parameters, your sketch should look like the image below, and should show “Fully Constrained” in the status bar to the lower right, and have a little orange push-pin added to the icon in the browser…
For the top nailer, we need to draw the two lines that describe it first. All we need are two lines within the top nailer, one towards the front as shown below, and one towards the back…
…then dimension the two lines using the Nailer_Top_Width parameter you created earlier…
Now for the leg location. I have a dimension from a previous model, but cannot say how accurate it is as it is a few years old at least. We’ll create a couple parameters for the leg regardless, and when I find one to use the parameters can easily be updated. What you need to do is draw a line through the bottom of the cabinet and make it a Construction line, then create a parameter called Leg_To_Kick –with a value of 1 ½”, and use that parameter in a dimension from the back of the kick to the new line…
We will move on to the next sketch in the next installment of this Inventor Tutorial for Automated Cabinetmaking Design. But before we go, we will test our sketch for closed loops. While still in sketch mode, press the E key on your keyboard to start the Extrude tool. All of your sketched lines except construction lines are part of a closed loop, and should appear light green. As you pass your cursor over the loops that represent the cabinet, they should all fill with pink as shown below…
You can use your 3D Connexion 3D mouse to effortlessly move around to all of the areas that need checking –or you can use the screen-based controls. Also make sure the model is fully constrained, and that’ll do it for today. In the next installment of this Inventor Tutorial, we will begin the Plan View sketch. Hope to see you there.
Later.
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