Hans Martin Kern

All, I'm trying to get my feet wet with creating Marionette nodes to support @Stephan Moenninghoff's endeavours. As you would expect from an old fart I run into all kinds of problems, so please feel free to hit me with a rolled-up newspaper if my questions are way too basic. My first "project" is a node creating any kind of custom object (code below). I tried both interiorcad's objects and stock VW plug-in objects. Works beautiful. If I route the custom object created by my node through the stock "Set 3D Rotation" Marionette node, the object is not rotated. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here - any hints? Thanks! HMK == @Marionette.NodeDefinition class Params(metaclass = Marionette.OrderedClass): #APPEARANCE #Name this = Marionette.Node( "Create Custom Object" ) this.SetDescription('Creates a custom object') #Input Ports universalName = Marionette.PortIn(0) universalName.SetDescription('The universal name of the custom object') position = Marionette.PortIn(0) position.SetDescription('Insertion point of object instance') rotation = Marionette.PortIn(0) rotation.SetDescription('Rotation angle of object instance') showPropertiesDialog = Marionette.PortIn(0) showPropertiesDialog.SetDescription('Show the object''s properties dialog') #OIP Controls #Output Ports object = Marionette.PortOut('hObj') object.SetDescription('The resulting object instance') #BEHAVIOR def RunNode(self): #inputs universalName = self.Params.universalName.value position = self.Params.position.value rotation = self.Params.rotation.value showPropertiesDialog = self.Params.showPropertiesDialog.value #script customObject = vs.CreateCustomObjectN(universalName, position[0], position[1], rotation, showPropertiesDialog) #outputs self.Params.object.value = customObject

Hi, I'm Hans Martin Kern, CTO of extragroup, the makers of interiorcad / interior xs. As some of you have pointed out, our focus has been on driving NC machinery for custom part based designs lately. Rest assured, we feel the pain of those who are using interiorcad / interior xs primarily for detailed cabinet visualization. We are (slowly but steadily) adding more functionality to the new Cabinet object - interiorcad 2017 introduced additional scribe options, additional kick options and rotated stretchers. Shaker-style / stile & rail doors (and faceframes, of course) are very much on our radar and will be (re-)introduced in future versions. If you have any specific cabinet design / visualization options you would like to see us address rather sooner than later, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me (just use the board's message option). I look forward to your feedback.

Hi ccw, please contact sven.biermann@extragroup.de. He'll be able to help you out. HMK

Hi, did you check out interior xs - This is the basic version without any support for manufacturing but with all other capabilities of interiorcad. It's available for Vectorworks 2010 & Vectorworks 2011 at 299? (about $430, depending on the exchange rate). As I speak, my colleagues are working on revamping our website, so there's no international info for xs yet - just contact sven.biermann@extragroup.de for more information. HMK (Disclaimer: I'm working for extragroup, developers of interiorcad & interior xs)

Please excuse this shameless plug ;-) Looks like interior xs is a great option for you (http://interiorcad.org/index.php?id=387&L=1). It includes the interiorcad cabinet plug-in object plus our worktop object for a way lower price than the full, production-ready version of interiorcad. Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers of interiorcad / interior xs.

Pat, sorry for the silence. Most of our engineering team is on an extended holiday break and I'm just trying to catch up on my e-mails and RSS-feeds. Unfortunately, there's no holy grail. Our main focus so far has been to provide a seamless CNC interface for our cabinet plug-in objects. In interiorcad 2009 & 2010, we have made some progress on manually designing objects for NC output, but most of it is not yet based on solid-models built with Vectorworks, but 2 1/2 D stuff derived from VW 3D objects. Most of interiorcads NC-output is targeted towards standard WOP-software packages bundled with machines like WoodWOP, NC-Studio, NCHops, IMAWOP, XILOG and others. We do not have an interface to Enroute at this moment (I know there have been talks with the Enroute guys to use their .mpr import interface, but it looks like it's not yet up to the task of importing full-fledged mpr files). We do not support going the "Export DXF route" yet, as exporting CNC-information via DXF is pretty tedious and you will lose all the CNC-semantics added in Vectorworks. Hope this provides a more complete picture, HMK

Would there be substantial interest in us releasing the "Views" and "Rendering" palettes from interiorcad / interior xs to the Vectorworks community? Hans Martin Kern CTO extragroup GmbH Developers of interior xs / interiorcad

John, here are two URLs with some information on what's new in interiorcad 2008 and interiorcad 2009 * http://www.interiorcad.com/weblog/support/archives/interiorcad-200/ * http://www.interiorcad.com/weblog/support/archives/interiorcad-200-1/ One major new feature which may be of interest to you is interiorcad's modern frame object (introduced in 2008, enhanced in 2009) which puts VW 2009's Parasolid engine to good use to create beautiful 3D frames. Hans Martin Kern extragroup GmbH (Developers of interiorcad)

Tom, interiorcad will not output DXF directly. You would need to take the part layout generated by interiorcad (check the movie I mentioned before) - which is a collection of plug-in objects, convert those to groups / Vectorworks primitives, probably assign colors etc. and then out it via Vectorworks' DXF exports. Doesn't sound like a reliable and efficient option to me, especially if we're talking about whole cabinets and not one-off parts. Another option might be to use VectorWOP mpr file export - AFAIK, Enroute is able to import mpr files - You may want to check with your supplier. Hope this helps, HMK

Tom, normally, VectorWOP does not generate G-code output files directly, as we would need to do all the optimizations and security measurements the machine is doing on our own. That's why we prefer to interface with a third-party software driving the machine. Do you have a piece of PC/Mac-based software driving the Multicam or are you inputting G-codes directly? That said, outputting G-codes via VectorWOP is certainly possible, however, it isn't part of the standard package and would have to be implemented on a consulting basis on-site. I suggest that you contact Sven to get more details on how this might work out.

VectorWOP, our CAM output module does not output DXF for further processing, because a lot of valuable information will get lost in the process. VectorWOP will output NC code directly for further processing by software like WoodWOP, NC-Studio, XILOG and others. That way, all the information which is already present in the Vectorworks drawing will be fully available for the CNC operator. Check out the movie at http://www.interiorcad.org/?id=172&L=1 I hope it will answer some of yor questions.

interiorcad is available internationally as an add-on to Vectorworks. In some european markets (e.g. Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, ...), it's available as a bundle including a localized version of Vectorworks. You may want to contact your local distributor for more information. You are also welcome to contact our sales manager, Sven Biermann, at +49251-39089-30 or sven.biermann@extragroup.de with any questions you may have. BTW, I would strongly recommend to consider upgrading to Vectorworks 2009 - There are lots of improvements and great new features in this version which interiorcad 2009 takes fully advantage of. (Hans Martin Kern, CTO, extragroup GmbH, developers of interiorcad)

Charles, you wrote that there's some room for improvement :-) in interiorCADs ease-of-use and how interiorCAD creates reports and how estimating is done. Could you please elaborate? I'm the CTO of extragroup, the company developing interiorCAD and would welcome any feedback you may have. You can also contact me via private e-mail at hm.kern@extragroup.de if this forum is not appropriate. Thanks! HMK

Just wanted to let everybody know that we released interiorCAD 2.0 and interiorCAD 2.0 demo for 11.5. Check out http://www.interiorcad.com.

Hi, my name is Hans Martin Kern and I work for interiorcad.com. I'm kind of puzzled that you didn't receive a reply regarding your demo request. Before I start digging into the problem, here are the download details so you can start checking out interiorCAD right away: http://www.interiorCAD.com/download/demo/downloadDEMO.php User: interiorCAD15demo Password: fkdimjs98237b If you have any questions or feedback, we would like to urge you to contact our technical support at interiorCAD@interiorCAD.com. They will be pleased to answer any questions or address any concerns you may have. We do believe that solid, in-time technical support is a key part of our product and we encourage you to take advantage of our support offer. Thanks for your patience with us, HMK