Mechanical Fasteners

This section defines the machining to support the mechanical fasteners that your organization uses. This can be simply holes to support screws, dowels, confirmats... to more complex fasteners such as LockDowel, OVVO, Rafix, Minifix and Cabineo.

Patterns

1. Template: The Template used in your model. The machining specification used will be determined by which template(s) your model is using.
2. Fastener: Lists the names that have been defined on the Types tab.
3. Drill Face: Determines the side of the part that the hole will be drilled from. Choices are:
   • Interior (of Cabinet)
   • Exterior (of Cabinet)
4. Hole Diameter: The size of hole to be drilled.
5. Hole Depth: The depth that the hole is drilled to. This information is passed along in the machining export and your CNC software may be able to use this to automatically control drilling depth.
6. Line Pattern: In Addition to drilling holes, CabinetSense can route a pattern to accommodate fasteners like OVVO and LockDowel.
7. The items listed in the selection list are defined on the Line Pattern tab.
8. When you select a Line Pattern, CabinetSense will suppress the drilling of any hole specification that you have defined on this definition and only use the Line Pattern routing.
9. Space before first hole: The guaranteed minimum amount of space that will not have a hole drilled. This distance is measured from the front of the part being machined to the center point of the hole.
10. Space after last hole: The guaranteed minimum amount of space that will not have a hole drilled. This distance is measured from the back of the part being machined to the center point of the hole.
11. Spacing: The amount of space between holes. This distance is measure from center point to center point.
12. Fastener Placement Spacing: Determines how the actual spacing between holes will be applied.
13. Variable: CabinetSense will calculate the spacing so that the first hole is drilled using the Space before first hole distance, the last hole will be drilled using the Space after last hole distance. The remaining holes are drilled using an even spacing that will be not greater than the request spacing.
14. Fixed: All holes will be placed in increments of your spacing attribute value.
15. Connector: You can optionally choose to use a mechanical connector to join your two parts together. Typical connector systems are Hafele Rafix and Minifix. When selected, a connector will be machined into the corresponding part for each hole drilled. See Connectors for more information.
16. Maximum Length: You are able to specify different drilling patterns based on the length of the part being machined. For example you may want a pattern of 101 to be used for smaller pieces (such as stretchers), while larger pieces use a pattern of 10010001001.
17. If you specifed 4 (inches) as the Maximum length for the first pattern (101), CS would use that pattern for all lengths that were 4 inches or less. Specifying 99999 as the length of the second pattern ensures that all other lengths will use this pattern.
18. Metric lengths are entered with the "mm" designator.
19. Patterns: You can setup dynamic drilling patterns t satisfy your construction techniques in an easy to use format. Mix and match different types of joinery hardware such as screws, dowels, OVVO, LockDowel, Rafix and more.
20. a pattern is a series of 1's, C's, P's, and 0's used to indicate if a hole is to be drilled at a calculated location. holes are drilled only at the location if the pattern has a 1, C, or P at that location.
21. a "1" denotes that you will use the drilling line information while a "C" will use the Connector line information. a "P" will use whatever is defined for a Line Pattern. This allows you to effectively multiple types of joinery together (EG 8mm Wooden Dowel with a 5mm Minifix Connector).
22. For example a pattern of 101 and spacing of 32mm would result in holes being drilled at the 32mm and 96mm locations. If your part is longer than 96mm, the pattern is then repeated. A Pattern of 10 and spacing of 32mm would place holes at 32mm, 96mm, 160mm, 224mm...
    1. First: This pattern is done once and only once. It begins at the value specified in the Space before first fastener.
    2. Repeating: This pattern is repeated as many times as possible fitting in between the first and last groups.
    3. Last: This pattern is done once and only once. It ends at the value specified in the Space after last fastener.
    4. NOTE: the maximum spacing between groups will be the value entered for the Maximum Spacing between patterns, or the Spacing attribute should the first value be 0.
23. Maximum Spacing between Patterns: When all three pattern groups (First, Last, repeating) are used, the spacing between any two groups will never be more than what is specified in this field.
24. Build32 Overides Allowed: When checked, you are giving CabinetSense permission to recalculate some positions so that they fall onto a 32mm boundary. This is ONLY applicable when you are using the 32mm build system.
    1. When you use the build32 system specifically for Closet Manufacturing, the goal is to use the system32 lineboring holes to attach hinge clips, rafix connectors, drawer slides and the like. Positioning of the lineboring holes and connector holes must be synchronized in order to avoid drilling additional holes.
25. When you allow build32 overides, CabinetSense will do this synchronization for you.
26. CabinetSense will do the following:
27. Closet Backs: When the pattern is being used to connect the closet back between partitions, CabinetSense will maintain drilling positions so that backs on either side of the partition will use the same hole positions. This allows you to use a thru connector for both backs.
28. No overrides allowed: Notice how the placement of the rafix connectors do no line up when different back heights are used.

Pattern Example

The following example uses the same drilling pattern for the stretchers and deck of all 3 cabinets.

You control what is in each group, the spacing between holes in a group as well as the maximum spacing allowed between any group. CabinetSense creates as many repeating groups as required to ensure that your specification is adhered to.

Easily set up patterns that can use line boring equipment as well as freestyle layouts.

Here is the machining definition used for these cabinets. It employs a combination of Mini-fix cam-locks and dowels.

The Fastener name of Minifix is what will be displayed in your component options list in SketchUp.

The holes in the cabinet end (in our example above) will be drilled from the inside (drill face) of the cabinet, it will have a diameter of 8mm and be drilled 12mm deep. The layout algorithm of variable means that we are not constrained by things like line boring equipment when we position our holes. (Note: Changing the algorithm to Fixed will alter how holes are positioned such that they always fall on a boundary of your lineboring equipment setup.)

The first hole will be positioned 32mm (Space before first Fastener) from the start and the last hole will be positioned 32mm (Space after last Fastener) from the end. Spacing between holes (in a group) will be 32mm while spacing between groups cannot exceed 230mm.

The first group of “C1” will consist of a Connector (Minifix is the chosen connector), a spacing of 32mm and then a hole (8mm diameter, 12mm deep).

The last group of “1C” will have a hole (8mm diameter, 12mm deep), a space of 32mm, and a Minifix connector. The positioning will be calculated such that the Connector is 32mm from the end.

The repeating group of “C” will solely consist of a Minifix connector. This group will repeat as many times as needed to ensure that the spacing between any two groups is a no more than 230mm.

Finally , here is where we assign drilling instructions in our cabinet.

For our back stretcher (below), we also choose to reverse the pattern. This causes CabinetSense to layout the pattern from the back of that stretcher and move towards the front.

This gives us a front and back stretcher that position the minifix cam-lock on the outside edge.

Connector Systems

Overview

Connector Systems allow you to have machining on both of the parts being joined.

For example, a Cabineo connector requires a 5mm dowel hole on one part and 3-15mm holes on the mating part.

The 5mm dowel hole is specified in the Definitions table, while the 3-15mm holes are defined on the Cabineo Connector tab. The two definitions are linked together on the Definitions tab by using the Connector selection list as shown below:

Attributes

1. Template: The Template is used in your models. The machining specification used will be determined by which template(s) your model is using.
2. Connector System: The name that you want to give to your connector system. This name will used on the Connector tab when defining the drilling patterns for your system.
1. Layer: The layer name that the patterns dowel hole will use. This is not the connector's layer name.
2. Hole Diameter: The diameter of the mating hole to be drilled. If left blank, the diameter will be the specified width as declared in the Drilling record that is referencing this connector.
3. Hole Depth: The depth of the mating hole to be drilled. If left blank, the depth will be the specified depth declared in the pattern that is referencing this connector.
   1. Component: Cabinet/Drawer Box. You define the drilling sides for each of these parts.
   2. Side (face) Selection: A series of selections that allow you control which side (or face) that the connector will be drilled from. For example, on the Rafix connection system, you may want to always drill your connectors from the bottom of the tops and shelves but the cabinet deck you may wish to drill from the top.

Connectors

1. Name: The specific connector that you want to define your drilling pattern for.
2. Connector System: The connector system that you are defining. This will determine the sides that your connectors are machined from.
3. Material Thickness: If your connector has been designed for a certain thickness of material, you would enter that in this field. If the connector has been designed for a minimum/maximum range, please enter the minimum thickness that can be used on this connector.
4. Leave this field empty if the connector can be used for any thickness of material.
5. Thickness Sensitive. If selected, this will ensure that the corresponding connection hole will be placed such that you can use your connector on thicker materials.
   1. For example, if you have a connector that was designed for 19mm material, but you wish to use it on a 25mm thick part, CabinetSense will re-position the necessary holes to allow the proper fitting of the connector for this scenario.
6. Line Pattern: You can use a Line Pattern to route a pattern rather than using the hole definitions. If you use a Line Pattern, CabinetSense will ignore the Hole definitions for this Connector.
7. Holes. Describe the hole placements for this connector. Only use the X and Y Location fields
8. X Location: the distance away from the edge of the part that you wish to place the centerpoint of the hole
9. Y Location: the distance (up or down) that you want to move the centerpoint. Typically, you would leave this field empty.

Line Patterns

Line Patterns describe, in a linear fashion, how a tool must move to accomplish the path for the selected fastener.

For clients who use 3D DXF and whose CNC software can pull the depth information from the DXF, you can have multiple lines attributable to the same Layer (note the two 3D lines above). This will generate DXF that does two separate routing patterns (one at 4.5mm deep and the other at 9mm). Because they are associated with the same template, your CAM package should process more efficiently than if it was on two separate layers (see the 2-Default lines above).

Clients who do not pull the depth information from the DXF will need to process as two separate layers… where each layer will hold the depth of cut.

Header Attributes

• Name: name of the fastener
• Layer: The layer name to use for this fastener, unless overridden in the Segments section.
• Distance from Edge: the distance from the edge of the part that is being machined. If left empty, CabinetSense will use the following as defaults.
• When the Line Pattern is referenced in the Line Pattern list on the Patterns tab, the centerpoint of where a circle would normally be drilled is the default reference point.
• When the Line Pattern is referenced in the Connector list on the patterns tab, the distance from edge will be set to 0 (right on the edge).

Points Table

• Layer Name: Leave blank if there is only a single tool required to used for this fastener. Use different layer names, if you need CabinetSense to generate more than one toolpath
• Segment #: CabinetSense will order the commands by this field.
• Positional Move: moves parallel to the edge. A Minus (-) values moves the tool to the left while a positive value moves it to the right NOTE: This value always moves it “x” units from wherever the tool is currently sitting.
• Machining Length: The length of the line to be routed. Note: The Length always moves it “x” units from wherever the tool is currently sitting.
• Depth: The depth is always Absolute. Note: CabinetSense will always change the value of your depth if it would result in the tool plunging past the thickness of the material

Example

In the above example, here is how CabinetSense will export the LockDowel Channel to your DXF.

Here the process if you use the 3D template.

• Segment #1: The tool is automatically positioned to the center point (as if you are drilling a hole).
• Do not adjust the movement of the tool from the center point (because both the positional move attribute and distance from the edge attribute are 0).
• Plunge to a depth of 4.5mm and then move the tool 34mm to the right (because the machining length is a positive value)
• Segment #2: Starting from your ending position of the previous segment, move the tool 30mm to the right while ramping down from 4.5mm to 9mm.
• While the bit is down, move 64mm to the left (because the machining length is negative) while keep the bit down at 9mm.
• Because there are no other segments, the tool pathing is complete and your drill head will retract and go on to the next operation.

Here's the process for the default template.

• Notice that there are two layer names (LDC1 and LDC2) involved for this template. Each layer name constitutes a different tool path and a completely separate tool action. It will complete the tool pathing for LDC1 before starting on LDC2
• Segment #1: The tool is automatically positioned to the center point (as if you are drilling a hole).
• Do not adjust the movement of the tool from the center point (because both the positional move attribute and distance from the edge attribute are 0).
• Plunge to a depth of 4.5mm and then move to the tool 34mm to the right
• Because there are no additional Segments for this layer (LDC1), the tool will retract and go on to the next operation.
• Segment #2: The tool is automatically positioned back to the center point (as if you are drilling a hole).
• Position the tool 64mm to the right (because the positional move attribute is a positive 64mm)
• Plunge to 9mm and move 64mm to the left.
• Because there are no additional segments for this layer (LDC2), the tool retracts and goes on to the next operation.

Preview Drilling:

• Preview Drilling shows the starting point for line patterns. A circle with a cross hair inside signifies the starting point of the routing path.

Types

This section allows you define the names of the dadoes that you wish to use when designing your cabinets. There is a maximum of 29 Dado names allowed.

1. Reference: This is internal reference code used to communicate with your model and cannot be modified.
2. Active: Only types that are checked are listed in your dado options in your model. This allows you to define different types of dadoes, but restrict which ones you want your staff to use.

1. Order: The order that you would like your Dado types to be listed in your selection list.
2. Name: The name that will appear in your selection list.
3. Code: This code is used to format the Drilling Attribute field in the Cutlist export file. The purpose of the field is to show you which sides of the part need edge machining.
4. CNC Layer: This will be the CNC toolpath layer name used.
5. Note: this information is also listed (and can be changed) on the CNC Layer Names tab.