ERP Cabinetmaking Tutorial – Continuing the Face Frame Option Sketch

In the last installment of this ERP Cabinetmaking Tutorial we were working on the Rail Options sketch, and left off with some rail profiles attached to some geometry that was projected onto the sketch from the Side Elevation sketch. The reason for the separate sketches  is pretty simple, if you start piling optional geometry atop of your base feature’s geometry, pretty soon you have a pile of unmanageable gobbledygook that is sure to explode the first time it is configured via iLogic. It’s not pretty, trust me.

As-is, the Rail Options sketch is shy 8 dimensions of a fully constrained state. All of our profiles are dimensioned for thickness with the Face_Frame_Thickness parameter, and the top and bottom rails have their widths accounted for temporarily, and all profiles are attached to the line that represents the face of the face frame via a collinear constraint…

 

Now the three intermediate rails need a width dimension added, but first we need to create the parameters that we will use to dimension them. Create the three parameters shown in the image below…

 

 

… then starting at the bottom (undimensioned) profile, add the three dimensions to the intermediate rails…

 

Now we will move the top rail up to the projected geometry that will give it its dimensions. Delete both dimensions from the top rail then get the Coincident Constraint (Sketch Tab > Constrain Panel) and click on the upper left corner point of the geometry…

 

… then click on the upper endpoint of the projected face frame line…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The geometry will stretch up to meet the point. Now use the Coincident Constraint tool again and click the bottom right corner of the top rail geometry, then click the endpoint of the projected bottom line of the rail…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now drag all of the intermediate rails into their rough positions, leaving the projected bottom rail geometry clear so that we can attach our bottom rail geometry to it just like we did for the top rail –just upside down this time. The easiest way to attach this one is to drag it up above where it will be attached before deleting the dimensions, then use the coincident constraint tool attach it in a mirrored fashion to the previous one. The sketch should now only need three dimensions to fully constrain. We will be using a formula and iLogic to drive the position of the intermediate members, so we need to create three more parameters as well as a driven dimension that we will use to determine the opening size.

 

 

 

 

First, add a dimension between the bottom of the top rail and the top of the bottom rail to give us a driven dimension that reads the opening size. Open the Parameter Editor and rename this Reference Parameter “Frame_Opening”…

 

 

Now create three new parameters as follows:

 

• Rail_Inter_A_Location = ( Frame_Opening / 4 ul )
• Rail_Inter_B_Location = ( Frame_Opening / 4 ul ) * 2
• Rail_Inter_C_Location = ( Frame_Opening / 4 ul ) * 3

 

 

 

Create a point at the center point of each of the intermediate rails using the point tool on the Draw Panel. If the Center Point text is highlighted in blue as seen to the right, click to get rid of the highlighting and create regular points.

 

 

Hover around the center of each intermediate frame member’s left vertical line until the green dot appears, then click to place the points…

 

 

 Now add the dimensions needed using these new parameters. Dimension from the top of the bottom rail to the centerpoint of each of the intermediate rails using the A, B, and C versions of the new parameter on the A, B, and C versions of the intermediate rails respectively. On the Tools Tab > Document Settings > Units Tab, change the Modeling Dimension Display radio button to “Display as expression”. You can now visually inspect to be sure you have your ABC’s correct…

 

 

That will wrap up this session of this ERP Cabinetmaking Tutorial. In the next installment we will write some iLogic code that will control  how many rails are present and automatically position them. Later…

 

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