Introduction

Welcome to KCDw®

       KCDw Cabinetmaker's Software is a complete cabinet design and construction program for the custom cabinetmaker.  It does both Frame, Frameless and Overlay Frame construction, complete part/cut lists, accurate price estimating, detailed drawings, and beautiful 3-D perspectives.  It does kitchens, vanities, desks, entertainment centers, commercial cabinets, and most any case work.  If you are looking to get right into designing, go to our Quick Start section in this help file or to the Tutorial section, also located in this help file.

Walls and Units

        A Wall can be easily added to your jobs and can be any reasonable length, height, and thickness.  You can not add units to a drawing without first adding a wall. Walls can be either a standard wall or an island wall.  An island wall is a wall that is zero inches thick and does not show in the drawings.  It is used as a convenient way to group cabinets and to place them in the center of a room.  Both standard walls and islands can be joined end to end making a corner of any angle.  Standard walls can have units placed on their front side and islands can have units placed on both sides making double sided islands.  For more information on adding walls, click on the Quick Start help page.

       Units can be cabinets, windows, doors, appliances, or accessories such as tables and chairs.  All units must be placed on a wall.  A unit can be located on a wall by placing its left edge, right edge, or center at a specific distance from the left or right end of the wall.  Units can also be placed next to or centered on another unit.  An example might be a sink base centered under a window or a dishwasher next to a sink base.

       Units can also be joined together to make long connected custom cabinets.  These connected cabinets can be any length you want and all parts will be calculated to give you the parts you need.

Parts

       KCDw® can calculate a complete parts cut list including all cabinet parts, door parts, and drawer parts. KCDw® can also include handles, hinges, drawer tracks, and specialty items.  All of these parts can be accurately sized with our perfect fit system.

       These parts can then be organized, sorted, and printed in hundreds or possibly thousands of ways using our Perfect Report System.

Pricing

       Your jobs can be accurately priced and printed in KCDw®.  You can price your cabinets with as many different cabinet and counter top price list as you need. Each price list can use a different pricing method and give you a different price.  These prices can be printed in many different formats using the Perfect Report System.

Getting Started

       When you start a new job, there is a certain order you will want to follow to make designing quick and easy. The headings below on this help page is the order you will want to follow. This is only a suggestion as a way to speed up the design process but setting your standards is necessary to do before you start designing a job. Use this order every time you begin a new job. Use quick start for fast help in designing jobs.

Starting a New Job

       When KCDw® first starts up, you are in the 2-D section and it is ready to start a job.  If you already have a job on the screen and you want to start a new job you need to go to the File menu and choose 'Start New Job'.  This will clear the screen and reset all of your defaults.        

Setting Your Standards

       KCDw® has a standards list for each library (frame and frameless). These lists can be set independently to your standard sizes.  Go to the change menu and choose Set Shop Standards.  The shop standards screen will appear.  Make any changes needed and then press the 'Save as Permanent Standards' button.  This will set the current library to use your sizes as its defaults. If the job you are working on will have "different" sizes according to your permanent ones click the 'Save Sizes For This Job Only' button. This will ensure that these sizes will only be saved for this job. Permanent sizes will be used every time you start a new job unless you edit them.

Adding Walls

       The easiest way to add walls is to drag the wall directly onto the screen .  You do this by first pressing the Add Wall button in the upper right corner of the screen.  Place the mouse on the design area and press and hold the mouse button on the start of the wall and drag the mouse until the wall is the proper length.  You can see the length of the wall as you drag it by looking in the message area in the bottom right of the screen under the unit menu.  When you release the mouse button the wall screen will appear on the right of your screen.  Click the 'OK' button and the wall will be placed on the screen.

       Adjoining walls can be placed in the same way.  KCDw® will join walls to each other if you start the new wall close to the end of another wall.

Adding Islands and Peninsulas

                  Islands and peninsulas are done in the same way as walls. You just press the Add Island button to start the process or click on Island - Peninsula on the wall screen that appears after dragging the wall.

Moving Walls by Dragging

       You can move any wall from the floorplan view. All of the units or cabinets on the wall will be moved with the wall. Just click and hold the mouse anywhere in the middle of the wall and drag the wall to its new location. This works with both island walls, peninsula walls and standard walls.

Changing Walls

       You can change the location and size of an existing wall by double clicking the mouse in the wall.  Be sure you are clicking the mouse within the bounds of the wall and not on or near any unit.  This will bring up the Wall Screen.  Make any changes and then press the 'OK' button to redraw the wall.

Adding Cabinets

       Add cabinets to your job when you have already designed a wall.  You do this by clicking the chosen unit in the unit menu on the right of the screen.  The unit line will highlight.  Now click and hold the mouse on the desired location on one of your wall and then drag the mouse until the unit is the correct width. You can see the location and width in the message area at the bottom right of the screen.  When you release the mouse button the unit screen will appear on the right side of the screen. You could change any of the values on this screen or just press the 'OK' button to add this unit to the job.

       The location and width of a unit will automatically jump to a corner, the end of a wall, or the side of a unit when you start or end a unit close enough to it.

       You can join separate units together making long connected runs easily in KCDw®. You can join a unit to another by starting or ending the dragging 5 or 6 inches into the unit you want to join to. This will make one long cabinet instead of two or more short units.  KCDw® will then automatically build these joined unit as one cabinet

Moving Cabinets by Dragging

       Any cabinet or other unit can be moved to from one wall to another by dragging at the floorplan view. Furthermore you can drag a unit to the left or right when looking at the floorplan or elevation of the wall. The unit can also be moved up or down on the wall. All of this can be done by clicking and holding the mouse on the unit's number and moving the mouse in the direction you wish to move it.

Changing Units

       The easiest way to change a unit already on the screen is to double click the mouse on the unit (aim for the unit number).  When you do this KCDw® will bring up the unit screen.  Change any value you want and then press the 'OK' button.  The unit will now redraw using the new values.

Saving Jobs

       With your job on the screen go to the File menu and then choose Save Job.  This will bring up the save job screen.  Enter the name you want for this job and then press the 'OK' button, your job will now be saved to the hard disk. 

Recalling a Saved Job

       Go to the File menu and then choose Open Job.  This will bring up the open job screen.  Find the job you want in the list on the left side of this screen and double click on it with the mouse.  This will bring up the job on the screen.

Copyright © 2007 KCDw Software