Shop and Submittal Drawings

General

This following is a tutorial on how you can use Layout to create your shop and submittal drawings.

NOTE: this requires SketchUp 2018 or later.

CabinetSense can send your model directly to Layout. In addition, all Job Information entered in the model is also available.

Preparing to use Layout

Layout templates are stored in a read-only folder and can’t be used by CabinetSense.

Before you start using Layout with CabinetSense, you need to save any Layout Templates that you want to use in a personal folder. We suggest creating a Layout Template folder in your CabinetSense folder for this purpose.

Start Layout, look at the templates that they have and save the desired templates into your own template folder.

Once this has been done, you are ready to start using the Layout feature in CabinetSense.

Create your own folder to store your CabinetSense Layout Templates:

• Start Layout
• Open the Layout Preferences (Edit>Preferences)

• now click on the + tab in the Templates section
• This will bring up a “Browse for Folder” dialog. Navigate to where you want to store your CabinetSense Templates and then create a folder in your designated spot.

• click on the New>Folder option in the menu and name the folder (in this example, I have chosen to create the folder in my CabinetSense Library).

• You are now ready to save your templates.

Here's how to save a template back to your own folder:

• Open a template in Layout:
• Once Layout is open, choose File>New. This will open the Choose a Template dialog.

• Select a template to use

• Save it back to your folder
• Choose the File>Save as Template... menu item

• Give a name to your template and choose the location to store it in.
• NOTE: Layout will store a template without a name... so be sure to name it.

Send to Layout

When you are ready to create your Layout document, simply press the Send to Layout toolbar icon.

This brings up a dialog where you will navigate to where you keep your CabinetSense Layout Templates.

Choose the one that you want to use.

select the template and press the open button.

NOTE: The first time that CabinetSense opens a template that it has never used before, you will see this message.

When this happens, the model will NOT export. Rather, an empty template will open where you can prepare the template for first-time use. See the next section on how to prepare your template.

The next time that you send to Layout using this template, you will get the Send to Layout dialog.

Model Scale: for Parallel Project (non-perspective) scenes, you can choose a scale that you would like Layout to use or leave as No Scale to maximize the drawing area of the Layout Template. Choose from 1:4 thru 1:30 scales

Render Mode: The most efficient mode to use is Raster. Choose Hybrid to get the best definition in Layout… but it takes a long time to generate.

Place Current Scene on Cover Page: (yes/no)

Export Project Scene: (yes/no): if you are using a CabinetSense template, there will be a project tab which typically contains information used to build the model.

Export Floor Scene: (yes/no): if you are using a CabinetSense template or are using Scene Management, Objects that are not on a wall layer will fall to the floor scene. It will also hold island cabinets.

When you click the OK button, CabinetSense will create the Layout document with the chosen template and then open Layout for you.

Preparing a Layout template for first-time use

The first time the template is opened by CabinetSense, your model will not be exported, but rather, an empty template will be presented for you edit for future CabinetSense models.

The first thing that you will notice is that there is a rectangle placed in the document. This rectangle is used by CabinetSense to determine where to place your models’ scenes and how large an area it can use for this purpose.

Move and resize this rectangle to fit the template that you are using. This rectangle is used size and position the scenes from your model.

After you have done this, hide the rectangle so that it doesn't interfere with setting up the rest of your template.

Go to the Layers tab, find the drawing area layer and make it invisible.

Adding Job Information

When CabinetSense opened your Template, it also sent across all the Job Information attributes that were in your model. You can use these attributes to customize the template with these job information tags.

Open the Document Setup dialog (File>Document Setup…) and click on the Auto-Text in the left-hand panel. CabinetSense attributes begin with cs- while CabinetSense User Defined attributes begin with csu-.

You can place these tags in the body of your template and they will be replaced by the models attribute values when your model is exported.

To add a tag in your document:

• Choose the Text tool

• and then click on the place in your template where you want to add it.
• Type in the name of your auto-text field. Make sure that you surround your auto-text field with < and >.

• If you have typed the name correctly, when you click outside the field (don't hit enter), the name will change to your auto-text field surrounded by { and }. In our example above, a correctly typed name will result in this.

• Instead of typing in the auto-text field name, you can also use the Insert Auto-Text option (Text>Insert Auto-Text)

Preparing Scene Information

CabinetSense will push each of your scene tabs in your model to Layout exactly as they appear in your model. Although you can change the way that the scene appears in Layout, you can prepare your model to make this transition fairly seamless.

• Zoom Extents: If you want your scene to fill up the layout diagram area, zoom the extents (Camera>Zoom Extents). This will center your scene and make it as large as it can while still showing all the objects in the scene.

• becomes:

• Cover Page: If you want a certain scene to be placed on the cover page, save your model with your cover page scene selected.

• to get this:

Summary

Once you have prepared your template in the way that you want your document displayed, it becomes a single button click to send your model to Layout.