Creating a New Section

Creating a brand new section is a simple process. To make it even easier, you should check before starting whether there is an existing section that is similar to the one you want to create. If so, it becomes a matter of only copying the other one and modifying it to your needs. Most of the time there will be another section you can base your new one on.

For example, if we wanted to create a new cabinet with a raised servery attached, we would use an existing floor cabinet as a foundation because most of the work has already been done for us. Instead of creating a brand new section then deleting the old benchtop, we can just modify the benchtop that is already on the cabinet. This has the advantage that all the formula controls, textures, costing, etc will not have to be redone. When you are done modifying your new cabinet, you will probably want to add it to your Library. To modify the cabinet, we would follow a sequence like this:

1. Create a new drawing, and onto the drawing page, place the cabinet which you are going to build on (perhaps an F-300 for this example).
2. Right click the cabinet and select "Format Cabinet" to open the Cabinet Properties sheet.
3. Change to the Sections tab, then highlight the Benchtop section.
4. On the top right corner of the list are copy and paste buttons. Click Copy and the Paste to make a new section called "Copy of Benchtop". Note that its subsections are also copied.
5. To rename the new section to something like "Servery", select it, and then click it again a second later (or press F2). You can now type in a new name and press Enter when done.

At this point, the new section you just created is exactly the same as the old benchtop. It has the same offsets, overhangs, formula, textures, everything except for the name. This also means that it is in exactly the same position as the old one, so we will need to move it by modifying the section.

Positioning a Section

The height, width and depth of every section can be specified in one of three ways. For example, one way you can set the height of a section is by giving it a fixed height, and then positioning it a certain distance above the bottom of its container section. This is known as "from the bottom up". All you need to do is set the fixed height and the gap from the bottom. Whenever you resize its container, it will always remain that same height, and always the same distance from the bottom.

The second method is called "from the top down", and is very similar. Again, the section has a fixed height, but a gap is set between the top of the section and the top of its container.

Slightly different to the other two, the third method does not involve a fixed height, only a top and bottom gap. This is known as "between", because its size changes to fill up the space between the top and bottom of its container. This means whenever you resize the container, both top and bottom faces of the container will stay the same distance from the containers faces, and its height will change.

These three methods apply to the width and depth of a cabinet too - you can have it set "from the left", "forward from the back", "between left and right", etc.

You will note that on the Section Size and Pos page, there are dropdown lists labelled "in front of" and "behind". The Width and Height tabs have similar lists like "to the left of" and "above". These allow you to specify that the section is positioned relative to another section in the cabinet, instead of its container (which is the default). For example, if you opened the list called "below" and selected a section from it, the "from bottom up" gap of the current section would be taken from the section you selected.

Recesses and Overhangs

You can recess or overhang a section face from its nominal face by specifying a negative or positive value in the Overhang field. For example, the back face of a section could be recessed 16.5mm from its normal position if we specified "-16.5mm" in the back overhang box.

An overhang will protrude past the nominal face when you specify a positive overhang value. A good example of this would be the front face of a Benchtop section, which is required to overhang the nominal front face of the cabinet by a certain amount. To achieve this, place the overhang distance in the front overhang field.

All six Primary Faces can have recesses and overhangs applied to them in any combination that you like. The method for doing this is the same for all faces.

When dealing with corner faces, the main thing to remember is that the recesses and overhangs of the primary faces will affect the corner faces, even if the primary faces are not sealed. In fact, the first part of creating a corner face is restraining the limits of it by specifying recesses and/or overhangs in the relevant primary faces.

If the primary face recesses are changed, then this affects on the location of the chamfered edge. Keep this in mind when constructing angled sections.

Nesting Sections

Although new sections are initially contained within the cabinet as a whole, it is frequently very useful to be able to group a set of sections together and treat them as one. This can be done by making them all contained within a single parent section.

A good example of this is a drawer. We will say that a typical drawer is composed of six parts: the four box sides, a bottom, and a drawer front. These would normally be implemented as four sections, combining the back and front panels into one section, and the left and right panels into another.

Now if these were all separate sections, and you wanted to make a copy of the entire drawer and place it below the original, you would have to modify each of the four sections. Each would have to be copied, renamed, and then have its vertical position changed individually. If you wanted to display a cabinet with one of the drawers pulled out, again - every section would need to have its offset changed.

However, if you had created a new empty section called "Drawer1" for example, then set all the four sections to be contained within that one, all you need to do is modify only that single container section. When you copy it, all the sections within it will also be copied, and their positions are taken from the position of their container. So when you move the "Drawer2" section downwards, all the parts inside it will follow. When it is offset forwards, the whole drawer will be pulled out in one go, which is much easier than individually moving every section.

Nesting sections is a very simple process; however, you must give some initial thought to the relationship between the nominal cabinet size and the parent section and between the parent section and the nested sections. In effect, the parent (or containing) section becomes another nominal size control within the nominal cabinet. In other words, treat the relationship between the parent section and the nested sections in the same way that you would treat the relationship of normal sections to the nominal sizes of the cabinet.