YouTube Transcript: Designing & Manufacturing Closets (Wardrobes) with Microvellum Software
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Microvellum, an Autodesk partner, is a powerful and flexible software platform that integrates design, manufacturing, and estimation processes, specifically demonstrated through its capabilities in custom closet design and production.
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In this video, we'll highlight both the power and flexibility of Microvellum.
when it comes to closets. Microvellum is an Autodesk partner.
We are working within an AutoCAD environment where Microvellum is really a palette
within this space.
The first thing we'll do with Microvellum is to open up a new room.
A new room can be structured however you like.
This could be an entire home that you're working in or just a particular,
area within that home.
Now one of the first things we'll do as we begin our design process here in
model space of AutoCAD is use what's called an external reference.
This could be anything from a PDF to an image file,
but in our case we'll use an AutoCAD DWG file and I have an example of that on
my desktop. Now,
this DWG file could be a file that you receive from an architect or contractor
that you're working with.
I can then place that anywhere I want within my drawing area.
This can be moved around as again,
this external reference for whatever area of this home in our
case that we want to use our for our design. Now,
Microvellum develop can of course do cabinetry like in this case, in this kitchen.
We're gonna focus in on a couple of these closets over here. Now, in this,
we of course have more information than we need in our drawing submittal that we
can very quickly graphically turn off through a freeze command within
AutoCAD. So in this sense,
we clean up our drawing the way that we want it to be
seen here for our submittal.
We may also have more information than we need to see around the area of our
submittal.
We can very quickly create a clipping boundary that just isolates the area
of our design that we care about in this case. Now, from this,
we have a basis to work off of with very little work, but again,
the level of professionalism goes way up with using AutoCAD's tools.
Now within our Microvellum process,
we'll start over here with just drawing a simple wall to place the products
or product in our case, that will be a closet system.
Now the scale of your drawing can be set to whatever you need.
In our case we'll just use a simple wall and go to our draw products area.
Within this, you get your first glance here at what we call our product library.
We have different expansions within this library.
Our focus today is on our closet products, closet wardrobe,
and master closets.
Now we'll focus in on its master straight designer closet.
This product will place on a wall with the left anchor point right at this
location.
We select the wall and either click a point to place that or type a number to be
that dimension away from that circular reference.
Now we of course know the size of our wall there is 124 inches and a half.
We can also just double click in any of these fields to take a dimension from
point A to point B.
If we didn't happen to know that information already in our case,
we want to be just two inches short of that.
So we'll plug in 122 and a half.
Now the power of the library when it comes to closet products is really key to
this process. Certain specifics of library construction methods,
your default hardware materials and those things are really predefined
but can be configured to a very deep level
when it comes to customizing that process the way that you want it to be.
Now this individual product inherits those defaults,
but of course we want to be able to make those changes as needed on a product by
product basis as well.
So these are again where the product prompts or the options live and breathe
for this specific product.
In this product we get a taste of the power of the library.
We can specify number of bays like four in this instance.
Based on this selection,
we have tabs that populate above for each individual bay one through four
within these bays. We then have additional options within bay one.
I would like to have a double hanging rail for instance,
and we're working left to right here within bay two. Um,
that should be something like
shoe shelves and within bay
three we can specify that bay three should be actually a
center shelf.
So we're gonna break this individual bay up now into two individual bays
and we can change the location of that center shelf as needed.
In our case, we'll just say up top,
we'll specify that to be something like pigeon holes and
down below we'll say that's just adjustable shelves. That's fine.
Bay four...
We can also add a center shelf to that and we'll say up top is
going to be our hanging rail and down below adjustable
shelves is also fine,
but you can kind of taste the power of the library in this process and to really
see that any of those options there that we are setting
those can be configured or changed at any time. In this process,
we just write go right back into our product prompts and make those
modifications.
Now, in this Microvellum is drawing all of these products here,
these parts in 3D with full machining.
That means that graphically we we're looking at here is exactly how these parts
will be manufactured.
There's not a disconnection between another secondary or even third party
software when it comes to manufacturing and machining.
We can take a dimension to see the specifics of how far back is that inset
in X or Y or Z value.
We can of course change our visual style to more of a 3D aspect
and there's a lot going on there. No doubt.
We'll change that also to an x-ray to see kind of more of a surface level of our
products. Certain
construction standards here that we have just predefined in this library are
some CAM connections. Now within this, we may look at and see um,
you know,
maybe we don't wanna use cams like cams may not make any sense in a scenario
like a pigeonhole there. So the power of the library, again,
very simply we can go to certain options within this individual product and
for our pigeonhole specifically,
we can change the construction method to something like screws.
We're gonna do that for the construction method in general and also the top
and bottom connections as well.
Now, we've made a very specific change to just one individual component or aspect
to our four bay closet system.
And graphically we see that take place
on even a deeper level. You may have scenarios where we just want to
draw something that will be unique.
It's not so much a checkbox option at any of these parts.
We can tell Microvellum to just flatten that part for us and draw it in a 2D form
specific for the machining operations that will be taking place.
Now, from here in using very simple AutoCAD tools,
we can do things like draw a rectangle that may represent an outlet cutout
through our part or just to show the power a polyline,
which is another word for a line with an AutoCAD,
that we can change to a curve at any type of serpentine shape.
These are drawing entities that can then be copied out as needed for whatever
purpose that you see fit. Now within micro elms tools,
we go to our 2D machining list.
This is a tool list that corresponds to your specific CNC tool list.
We can grab tool number 104, specify the depth of the cutout,
specify the compensation of what side of the line our tool should be on,
and tell Microvellum to apply machining to that entity.
And we'll do the same thing there with a right compensation for our rectangular
outlet cutout.
But we don't want this to be a separate aspect of what you do.
We want everything to be in sync in this process.
So we tell Microvellum to update that part and graphically in your design,
in your submittal, everything stays in sync through this process.
That is really a difference maker with Microvellum is that we are a platform to
this process, not a single solution for only design,
only CNC, only manufacturing or many other components of what you do.
Now, from here we want to detail out this design a little further.
So, of course, we have some automated dimensioning here.
What we're going to do is create more of what's called
a submittal page within this area.
So, very easily within Microvellum we can create what's called a "view base" from
that selection that we just highlighted.
Using this tool very simply,
we can place a point for our first elevation of our products.
We can select whether or not we want to see visible or hidden lines or the
scale, the graphical style of our pro components.
Then wherever we move our cursor to,
we can project out an additional view based on those selections.
We then have different components that we can modify, move around as needed,
change the scale of independently very simply and quickly on
the screen. From there,
we can create additional projected views like a section detail going through
something like our shoe shelf section. We just two points.
We then tell Microvellum and AutoCAD to create a view based off of that.
It's intelligent enough to know to label it section AA at the appropriate scale,
to the next level of detail. We may want to
create something like a zoomed in detail of how the two parts
will be connecting to each other. We select that,
create a projected detail view and again,
based off of however big of an area you want to explode this detail out to,
you can tell Microvellum to place it there at a corresponding scale
and again,
knows detail B does the name it the same detail a on the same page.
The next component we'd like to touch on is the 3D aspect of this process.
Glancing over through our 3D
paper space sheet here we have our viewport pointed to our objects.
It's in an x-ray view. This very well,
well may be all you need to provide to your customer for that 3D
aspect of the feel for the area,
but we don't limit that you can really add to this process in many different
ways. Changing the graphical style or going to a further step.
We go back into our model space actually creating more of a photorealistic
process here. Now within model space,
we can create that photorealistic rendering without having to redraw anything
in a separate piece of software.
Now, there's just a few tools that we can utilize to make that happen.
One that I like to do is to create an oversized floor from a simple rectangle
within AutoCAD.
You can tell Microvellum to then make a floor from that polyline or rectangle.
We can prompt the options for our wall that we drew earlier and tell Microvellum
to add rendering lights to that wall.
Micro ve then automatically places the lights where they need to go.
You can then pan around to see where do you want to take this rendered image
from or this picture that we're going to create.
I'd like to change to a perspective feel to give you a better feel for the area
in more of a real world scenario, which would be something like this.
You can zoom in nice and close and again,
wherever you would like to take this picture from,
that's the view that you'd like to use here.
Then we can just tell Microvellum to generate a render view of this area.
It then goes through this process.
The pixelation will begin to fill in the more time that you spend on this
rendering.
And this is really just a sample of the rendering capabilities that we can do
within Microvellum. You can be very detailed in this process.
We're using lighting here. We can also use rendered environments.
Changing materials.
We have a very extensive material library of not only Microvellum
materials but also AutoCAD materials for things like paint flooring.
And really the list goes on and on.
It's also completely user-defined and customizable by you.
Whenever you're done or the image is satisfactory for your process,
we can just save that image file, we'll save it right to our desktop
and then that file can be either sent independently
to your customer,
your prospect potentially without giving them additional details and the rest of
the drawing process that you've accomplished.
Or we can attach that image to your drawing submittal
to be included in your total package. We do that by just finding the image,
finding it on our desktop as that saved PNG file or image file,
whatever it is. And then we just tell Microvellum where we'd like to place it.
So, again, without having to redraw anything in a separate piece of software,
we can create photorealistic renderings. This is again,
just a quick sample of that all within the same exact platform.
Now, stepping back for a moment, we'll go back over to our model space.
We'd like to highlight some different aspects of the product library and
features of that that can really enhance, again,
your process and make the automation of custom closets very
easy as well.
So, we're going to highlight really how we do that with tapping into a couple of
these other closet products.
We'll use our u-shaped designer closet as an example of just that.
We'll get rid of this lighting for now cuz we don't really need it
for what we are accomplishing.
And in this we'll select our U-shape designer closet and we'll pick a
point to place this. Now,
in this process we get to tap in again to the power of the library.
So, right away in this U-shaped designer closet,
we can change certain aspects like we have been such as the width.
This would apply to like the back wall on the left side.
We can also double click here to very quickly hold dimension based off of the
wall layout On the right side we can do the same.
And of course you could adjust this as you may see fit.
Now, within each of these sides of this U- shape,
we can specify the number of bays. Bay three or quantity of three would be for
the center section.
The left section could be one along with the right section of one.
Then you have similar options like we did for our straight designer product
within bay one. We can say this really apply to the corner.
Let's do a double hanging rail in both bay one and bay three,
Within bay two. Maybe that's something where we'd like drawers,
we'll say add a center shelf and then,
on the main component, we won't need anything inside as far as a component
insert.
Instead we'll do drawer system and we can even specify quantity
of drawers. Next, we'll highlight certain hardware functionalities,
Within this left bay one for instance,
we can highlight something like this Hettich Duo Lift System,
a Hafele of Dress Code Pullout System.
We're continually working with hardware suppliers to really try to add as much
as possible to the process so that you have access to it.
And just like before, at any time we can calculate certain bay sizes.
For instance, where we have drawers,
we may wanna be 20 inches wide and tell Microvellum again to do the math for us
in each of the corners. Now, when we hit okay, again,
everything about this product is now going to draw for us in 3D with
full machining being shown along with the accurate graphic
representations of specific hardware. Of course,
we wanna see exactly what happened in this closet system.
We can also tell Microvellum to isolate this
whole entity for us.
We do so by just selecting any part of that and isolating it graphically.
Now, I can pan around and see all the specifics of our closet system,
how these pieces will fit together,
what size am I gonna have in that corner to access clothes.
Maybe where are the drilling operations going to land For a component like this?
We see all of that accurately depicted. Even zooming into our drawer box.
This is a direct DWG file from Blum.
You get to see that as part of your design process.
And of course we see an accurate representation of exactly how this drawer
front will be drilled when we send this to production.
Now, from here, let's say our design is done.
We have approvals and now we'd like to manufacture this project,
these few closet systems. Very simply, we can do that
through Microvellum by selecting the products that we would like to create,
what we call a work order for whatever that is.
We can process this out. In our case, we'll just grab these two products,
but we do have an extreme level of control when it comes to how you want to
manufacture,
what you want to manufacture and where you want to manufacture it.
In our case, we just have these two closet products. Two products are processed,
a total of 146 individual parts.
We're going to open up that work order and see a list of all of those 140 some
odd parts. At the bottom left of our screen,
we have a list of what we call processing stations.
This would correspond to your processing stations.
Do you have a point-to-point machine,
a saw and a nest or maybe multiple nested operations or CNCs?
Those would just be listed here.
Now, the level of control in this interface is very high.
We can be very selective on what parts get sent to what processing
station, selecting individual parts for a variety of reasons.
We can sort out these columns by material types, by item number,
which room do they belong to?
We can have predefined sorting methods.
The level of control here and how you produce,
how you manufacture is really second to none in our case.
We're going to select all of our parts and we'll send them out to our nested
based processing station.
We assign the parts we process based off of the selections above
to our specific CNC nested base controller. That is,
this is when the actual G-code is created for your specific machine.
Direct communication without third-party software being able to allow you
to control the way you manufacture processing is complete
In this case. The first thing we'll do is open up the
results of our nested-based optimization.
We do this in AutoCAD and we see a full layout of all the individual parts
with their specific operations.
This is the custom operation we created earlier. Even at this stage,
if you decided that you no longer need this center odd-shaped route,
you can just simply delete that with AutoCAD.
If you needed to have two of these outlet covers or you needed to add it into
individual other parts, you can do so here.
You would make those changes graphically. Moving around parts, deleting parts,
adding parts to this process,
and just telling Microvellum to update the G code based off of your drawing.
Stepping back to the manufacturing process,
we can notice a wide variety of different part labels that we can
customize per size and e even a specific data or
information. If we do a quick preview of a four by three label,
you get a taste of what type of information can we include on this.
This is a real image of these parts, not just a cookie cutter,
type of block that we pull in. What product did it belong to?
What's the project name?
The room that it does it go to the material type edge banding.
All of these different signifiers to make the process very streamlined and
efficient for how you manufacture. Stepping over to our labels,
we have a wide variety of labels.
What took place in our little project here of two products,
this is a summary of that. We have a list of our two products.
We need to order 16 sheets of 3/4 white melamine at 4x8
256 feet and 3 inches of,
edge banding. We need 64 screws,
452 cams. You get the point,
your takeoff is a hundred percent.
This is the exact ready-to-order without the
possible rush order at the end of your production.
We know exactly what you need in order to produce these parts.
Other components like our nesting optimization report,
this is something that you'd handed off to your operator to help he or she label
your parts to cut out those parts. As the CNC is going through that process.
We have the ability to automate barcode scanning if your machine's capable of
doing that. A product detail report.
This report is per product, a list of all the individual parts,
their cut sizes, even graphically,
being able to see different elevations plans for custom products
like the one that we designed together.
If you do any buyouts like your drawer systems, your drawer fronts,
automate those in a simple report hand that report off to
the company that you're buying those from.
The other component of this that we have not touched on yet is the ability to
create estimates. You don't have to draw anything to create an estimate.
We just need that work order to be created.
The way we handle estimating is extremely powerful.
It's extremely accurate.
This would be an estimate that you could potentially hand off to your customer,
really just giving them a list of the products used or maybe this is set up by
room with a total cost.
You can then control things like sales tax or certain markup percentages
or if you're not doing any installation or shipping by just checking those boxes
and resubmitting the form.
But where is this information coming from?
That is really the power in the estimating process that Microvellum can
either greatly enhance your current estimating process with or
really replace it as well.
This report is a report that's more behind the scenes of how much did this
project actually cost us. The materials is really quite easy.
We just saw a takeoff of how many materials do we need.
This is set up to be square footage,
so, 475 square feet of white melamine.
This is a total cost of our sheet stock and of course the same's happening with
certain hardware and edge banding as we go through.
The labor aspect though is really the impressive part to me.
Certain things like manufacturing,
we know within our just couple of closets there,
we know that there are exactly 1,716 vertical
drilling operations that have to take place.
You then tell Microvellum how many vertical drilling operations can you do per
minute? And if you're using a CNC, maybe it's something like 25 per minute,
you then can set the labor rate per hour to operate your CNC.
The payment that you have on that, the electricity, the person operating it,
whatever it is now for just vertical drilling,
that's going to cost your business $286.
Typically, that's information that you have no idea about.
The same thing's happening for lineal footage of panel cutting, routing,
interior routing, for instance. Lineal edge banding feet,
and how fast can your edge bander apply edge banding per minute?
How many feet can it do?
How long does it take someone to put together a drawer box or,
mount one of those, whatever it is in your product.
We can automate that to give you a real project price with the
same amount of control on the left, such as sales tax, custom amounts,
naming those amounts and adding those amounts as well.
How those things are set are very easy Within micro develop,
we call those activity stations and certain things like vertical drilling can be
easily manipulated,
defined here by just plugging in a certain number such as 20 instead of 25,
and of course adjusting a labor rate.
The material values are set within the material, again, completely accessible,
for you as the user to fit your exact needs.
We've seen many aspects of the software and the process with how Microvellum
can streamline the way that you work,
but we've really just scratched the surface.
We hope though this demonstration has been educational for you and beneficial
for your business.
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