fully parameterized kitchen cupboards - any better way to do this?

[drafthorse]

Hi,

I come from a programming background and started do dabble in CAD a bit - the goal being to design cupboards for my kitchen. One aspect of this project included being able to freely customize the dimensions of the cupboard, and the model auto updating accordingly. Until now, I achieved this by typing in formulas in the sketch constraints as well as part sizes and positions.

Currently, the project consists of the complete corpus, and the start of a drawer, and I added a Spreadsheet for the global parameters. There are a total of 24 parameters now, and it is starting to get quite complicated to keep track of them.

I was looking at this for a while and felt like I was missing something. I looked around and found documentation on python scripted objects, which look pretty cool but as far as I could tell they were only able to describe a single object, and I am not quite sure whether that would improve the situation.

So my question is - is there a more convenient/tidy/neat way to describe parameterized furniture in freecad? I attached my current project for clarification.

Also, these are my specs:

OS: "Arch Linux"
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.Unknown
Build type: Release
Python version: 2.7.11
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 3.1.3
OCC version: 6.9.1

[Willem]

The dimensions you fill in the spreadsheet can indeed easy be copied to the sketch without using formulas.
In the sketch fill in a dimension with a dummy value and give the dimension the name like e.g. corpus_height like you want to use in the spreadsheet
Open the spreadsheet and rightclick in a cell. The properties show up and now choose Alias. Fill in the same name as in the Sketch. now you go to the left panel and in your tree structure go to the sketch. Here you can see the properties of the sketch and one of the constraints have the name. Click in the formulasymbol at the end of the line and fill in =S. you choose than spreadsheet and after that choose corpus_height. Now the drawing will use the value of the spreadsheet

corpus.png (71.95 KiB) Viewed 3294 times

[Willem]

I see left side is defined under components/corpus/left, including the holes for the dowels. I can understand that. I also see under corpus001/left a sketch with dowels? Why it has to be in a separate sketch. I think you can better organize your drawing in a way I did in the attached file. I did not change the items of my previous post

[drafthorse]

in the side pieces there is one sketch for the dowels, and one sketch for screws. they have different lengths, so I assumed I needed separate Pockets for these.

[Willem]

I understand and it can be logical to do the screws in a separate group because it hes nothing to do with the production of the cupboard but only with the assembling. Perhaps it is also an idea to give the pocket a name

Names.png (23.15 KiB) Viewed 3263 times

[drafthorse]

Thanks for your input, with your help I reworked my design and I think I have improved it. By assigning descriptive names to the individual parts, I can now cross reference them to simplify my formulas and make changes easier. Also, I moved away from sketches and use cuts now instead for the pocket definitions. that way, the part hierachy tree looks much better.

[Willem]

When I look to your design I can see immediately a good organized tree structure with logical names. Also the use of names for a good communication between sketch and spreadsheet. Even when you extend this design in this way to a complete kitchen there will be no chaos anymore. Nice to see somebody who learns so quick as you