Cabinet Vision or MicroVellum

[Anonymous]

We are looking for a "good" CAD add on that we can customize. We draw
and design consoles, floor displays, bars, and wall systems for Golf Pro
Shops, Retail Stores, and Country Clubs.
As you can guess there is quite a difference between all of these
"fixtures". We need to find one that has the ability to be manipulated
according to what is needed.
I can, if necessary, post a few of these drawings so you can get a better
idea (they are copyrighted) of what we are trying to accomplish.
The process as of now is terrible. We draw it, review it, change /
correct it, send it to our factory, who engineers it, and we never get it
back.
We need a B.O.M., a cutlist, and 3-D capabilities.
Any ideas, suggestions, or input would be great.

[Anonymous]

We are in the process of looking at these products as well. Another you
might look at is Cabinetware. One of the big ideas behind these products is
exporting to CNC machines. Both Microvellum and Cabinetware have great 3D
capabilities. I haven't looked at Cabinet Vision.
The best advise I could give would be to demo any product to the fullest you
can. Good Luck.

--
Ken Alexander
Acad2000
Win2000prof.

------------------------------------------
"Eric Weisner" wrote in message
news:6C14F9B53A52324981E332C8B547FEBC@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> We are looking for a "good" CAD add on that we can customize. We draw
> and design consoles, floor displays, bars, and wall systems for Golf Pro
> Shops, Retail Stores, and Country Clubs.
> As you can guess there is quite a difference between all of these
> "fixtures". We need to find one that has the ability to be manipulated
> according to what is needed.
> I can, if necessary, post a few of these drawings so you can get a better
> idea (they are copyrighted) of what we are trying to accomplish.
> The process as of now is terrible. We draw it, review it, change /
> correct it, send it to our factory, who engineers it, and we never get it
> back.
> We need a B.O.M., a cutlist, and 3-D capabilities.
> Any ideas, suggestions, or input would be great.
>
>
>

[Anonymous]

I have tried to manipulate the programs and have not been very successful.
That's why I asked. They are limited to pretty much standard cabinets,
which is not what we do. Thanks for the info, I will look into cabinet
ware.

"Ken Alexander" wrote in message
news:8E7823D536CCAA6D37DDF841D4CA1D4D@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> We are in the process of looking at these products as well. Another you
> might look at is Cabinetware. One of the big ideas behind these products
is
> exporting to CNC machines. Both Microvellum and Cabinetware have great 3D
> capabilities. I haven't looked at Cabinet Vision.
> The best advise I could give would be to demo any product to the fullest
you
> can. Good Luck.
>
> --
> Ken Alexander
> Acad2000
> Win2000prof.
>
> ------------------------------------------
> "Eric Weisner" wrote in message
> news:6C14F9B53A52324981E332C8B547FEBC@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> > We are looking for a "good" CAD add on that we can customize. We
draw
> > and design consoles, floor displays, bars, and wall systems for Golf Pro
> > Shops, Retail Stores, and Country Clubs.
> > As you can guess there is quite a difference between all of these
> > "fixtures". We need to find one that has the ability to be manipulated
> > according to what is needed.
> > I can, if necessary, post a few of these drawings so you can get a
better
> > idea (they are copyrighted) of what we are trying to accomplish.
> > The process as of now is terrible. We draw it, review it, change /
> > correct it, send it to our factory, who engineers it, and we never get
it
> > back.
> > We need a B.O.M., a cutlist, and 3-D capabilities.
> > Any ideas, suggestions, or input would be great.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Anonymous]

We have had Microvellum for many years and have never recieved a stable software build. They issue 10-20 software updates a week and never fully test a build before releasing it. The database will corrupt itself for no reason and their tech support takes days to get back to you when you have a problem. We have spent more hours on the line with tech support than we have actually processing cabinets for fabrication. The tool file that they made for our CNC machine did not do a tool compensation until just recently and the parts were never the correct size because of this.  If you have to customize products it has to be done through an excell spreadsheet and not from the drawing so you will neeed to be fluent with Excell formulas to do this properly. From my experience with Microvellum I would not reccommend it. If you do buy Microvellum I would suggest staying away from version 7 and using version 6.7 as it is a more stable product and I wish you luck, you will need it.

[rockingchris]

hi woody6684 did you get the update for Microvellum 14?

we just did there 30 day demo and for this kind of money the software sucks i think.

We do only custom work like high end face frame kitchens... the Solid Model Analyzer plugin does not work at all!

[Anonymous]

Any update on this front. Microvellum Toolbox is on 15.5 and new product called Fluid Designer.

Has Microvellum gotten better since 2014 when this thread was created.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if it has. We could not afford to continue using the software and dropped it completely. We were told it is better and they were going to come to talk to us about it but we have not heard from them since. We have invested 50k into something that has never been stable enough to use so have went back to using our Excel spreadsheet for cabinet cutbills and are using Alphacam to nest the parts we are machining. I wish I could give you better news but that is the truth of the matter for us. Most of the successful users are still using version V6.7 from what I have read on the forums but I have not taken the time to read anything lately. I have been told that Microvellum has new owners and they have revamped their system so we will see.

[Anonymous]

I used to do the exact same thing. We worked for Polo, Golf USA and Bass Pro among others. We tried Microvellum but in my limited experience it it was not very useful for anything outside of normal cabinetry. Unfortunately, we never found a good solution before the shop closed its doors. That really is a fun environment to work in, I was lucky enough to have experienced both the manufacturing and CAD sides and it really helped me understand the processes involved on both sides.

I'm not very versed in them at all but have you looked into solidworks or inventor? My understanding is they're geared more towards 3D and manufacturing than most other CAD programs. I also think they have built in BOM and cutlist functionality.

[Anonymous]

It’s amazing that after 17 years this post is still active.  I figured I'd better chime back in with an update…

A few years after this thread started, the company I worked for ended up purchasing Microvellum. Within six months after our purchase, we had our Microvellum Software running in full production. The power behind Microvellum amazed me; it allowed us to engineer, cut list and manufacture virtually any type of product we needed. Not only did we have standard box type cabinets in our library, we also added reception desks and fixture type products as well. We found the power of the AutoCAD drawing environment and Excel-based spreadsheets to give us the advantage to build whatever our clients needed.

I found myself immersed in building new, and powerful products that helped reduce our engineering and detailing time. In time, my passion for working with the software led to a career change.

In 2005, I made the decision to join the Microvellum team and what a ride it has been!  Microvellum exploded on cabinet manufacturing scene. We were working with new customers that had unique requirements nearly every day. To meet our customer’s needs and the ever-changing computer demands we had to put out software updates often, in some cases, once or twice a day. This period of rapid growth continued for a number of years and Microvellum’s team continued to expand to support the needs of users.

Today, I would still have to say that Microvellum Software is the most powerful casework manufacturing software that I have ever used. Now, we release one major update a year, adding improvements and powerful new tools and technology. Each release goes through rigorous testing prior to its public release. Microvellum Software version 15.5 is the most robust and most stable release ever developed.

Best Regards,

Ken A.

P.S.

Check out these links:

https://www.microvellum.com/microvellum-live-how-to-build-architectural-millwork-faster/

https://www.microvellum.com/microvellum-live-top-10-reasons-to-upgrade-your-software/

https://www.microvellum.com/microvellum-live-exploring-cabinet-construction-options/

[chrisR78DL]

I have been using Microvellum for 6 years up until now in mid 2023 and to be honest I have never understood why it recieves even a shred of praise. It is NOT "powerfull" or even adequate. I work in the commercial joinery sector. We make a tone of custom joinery including curved planters, high end kitchens, concierge desks 9 metes long, banquette seating booths etc. etc. We also produce fantastic and well detailed drawings.

Lets be clear the one and only thing Microvellum can technichally do is all the things you need but badly. As in drawing through to production including BOM, NC data and stickers and labels can be done using MV. BUT!! it feel like you're pulling barbed wire between your ears! Every single f$%king day I encounter a brand new problem. Good luck keeping up with all of your tickets. If you literally make the same cabinets and box's day in day out you will have one issue a week. I make custom **** on the daily and I am so sick and tired of this garbage. The interface is counter intuitive outdated buggy and completely removed from the actual goal you're trying to acheive. Want to build a cabinet? you'll spend 3 hours looking at spreadsheets and guessing part orientations. Want to make a nest? you'll spend 5 hours going back and forth between Global variables and 5 different settings locations figuring out why your machineing is coming out wrong or parts are misaligned etc etc. 

!!!MICROVELLUM IS A COLOSAL PEICE OF SH#T!!! DO NOT BUY IT !!!

At this point in time we are exploring alternatives. Every single one of them out performs MV in everything from feature set to quality of life. My favourite solution which I have transitioned to is Onshape for drawing and AlphaCAM for the CAM side of things. Very new age solution and not one I actually recomend as it doesn't come with a library. But nothing compares to the potential and capabilities of onshape.

I recomend trialing Top Solid Wood, Woodwork for Inventor or Swood (Solid works) and see which one works best for you if you do a lot of custom stuff. If you're repeating the same things daily then stay with MV if you already have it or have a look at IMOS but keep an eye out as those will probably be superceded soon.

[woody1]

 We bought into Microvellum when they had V6.7 and they were developing V7 to work with MicroManager at the time.  They said we should upgrade to V7 because it was better but they issued updates every week to fix problems with the software. The updates usually caused more issues than they fixed and V7 was never a stable build. We had lots of issues processing jobs with it and we spent more time on the phone with tech support than actually using the software to process jobs so we quit using it. Microvellum cost us thousands of dollars and was a terrible piece of software. I would not recommend buying Microvellum to anyone that is thinking about it.

[chrisR78DL]

And yet you can't use Solid Model anyliser without Version 7. Microvellum Just released a massive workd wide library update. It was incomplete yet still better then the previouse libraries. Too little to late