In this article, you’ll learn a few easy ways to resize and locate boards. By using these techniques, you will be able to join boards, fill space with boards, precisely position cabinet shelves, and make any other changes you can imagine.
There are a few main ways to resize or place boards:
- Dragging and connect dots (with exceptions!)
- Copy pasting dot values
- Modifying “the spreadsheet”
- Dragging and connecting dots
By dragging red dots, you can resize boards. By dragging blue dots, you can move boards around in space.
The best way to use the dots is by Shift + Clicking, which snaps the dots to other boards. For example, “Shift + Click” a blue dot to move your board flush with another, or a red dot to increase the size with a snap to another board.
There are some limitations to this method that might leave you with measurements ending in 13/64. This will be updated in the next version of the program.
Usually, it is best to mix and match dragging with other tools:
- Copy pasting dot values
Now that you understand the dot system, you can use dot values to connect board corners to each other.
Instead of dragging the dots, right click the target corner. The location of the point will pop up, represented by a few coordinate values. Clicking Copy will copy those values. Right click the corner on the board you want to move, press Paste, and the corners will snap to each other.
This method is very quick and easy for connecting corners.
- Modifying the spreadsheet
The spreadsheets operate similarly to the Assembly Calculator (helpful article here). By modifying the dimensions, you can resize the board size and location.
Keep in mind, the dimensions are basically groups of references for where an object starts, how big it is, and then where it ends. And, when you change one of these values, it needs to change one of the others as well.
The easiest way to figure this out is to play around with it. Try to make a cabinet just using the general spreadsheet!
This one takes a bit of practice, but it is a very powerful tool when you get the hang of it.