How to Create Custom Pulls in CABINET VISION (Including SketchUp Models)

G’day everyone, how’s it going? My name is Clayton, this is the Planit Canada channel, and welcome back to another CABINET VISION tutorial. In this video, we’re going to look at how to create your own custom handles or pulls in CABINET VISION. We’ll go through the process step by step in a beginner-friendly way, and I’ll also show you how to import your own SketchUp models so you can use them as pulls in your future projects.

Any new pull in CABINET VISION is treated as a new material, and every new material starts in the Material Manager. So we begin by clicking on the Material button at the top. You probably already have a folder or even multiple folders dedicated to your pulls, which is a good way to stay organized. If you need to create a new group, you can click the “Create Group” button on the top left, which adds a new folder. You can rename it however you like, for example “Pull2,” and then use the arrows to move it up or down in the structure and arrange your folders the way you want.

To create a new handle, you basically have two options. You can click on the “New” button at the top and follow the prompts to create a pull from scratch, or you can copy an existing handle that’s already similar to what you want. Often, copying an existing pull is the quickest way, since many of the settings are already configured and you may only need to tweak a few things, such as the model or dimensions. That said, creating a brand-new pull is also quite simple, and we’ll look at both approaches.

When we click “New,” you’ll notice the process is the same as for any other material in the Material Manager. We choose that we want to create a pull and give it a name, like “Test pull,” so we know what we’re working with. CABINET VISION then asks a few questions, such as the unit of issue. Since this is a handle, we choose “each.” We also need to select a 3D model for CABINET VISION to use. We don’t have to stick with this model forever, because we can change it later, but at this stage we do need to choose one of the defaults. It is usually best to pick a pull model that’s close to what we’re trying to create in principle, so we might choose “Pull #1.”

Next, we enter the dimensions. I like to work in metric because many handles follow the “rule of 32,” so for example we might set the centre-to-centre distance to 160 mm. On the side, CABINET VISION shows small images to clarify exactly what each dimension represents, which helps avoid confusion. Most manufacturers list all of these specs on their product page, so you can usually just refer to those values and copy them into CABINET VISION. Once the basic information is filled out, we can also choose the finish, finish type, and texture, then click “Finish.”

Alternatively, if we are copying an existing handle, we select one that is similar, click “Copy,” and then adjust the values using the fields at the top of the window. We scroll across the settings, update whatever needs changing, and once that is done, our pull is essentially configured and ready.

Now, let us say we want to go a step further and either import our own 3D model to use as the pull, or tweak the existing model by stretching it or changing its position. To do this, we double-click on the ID number of the handle. This opens the Material Properties window for that specific pull, which corresponds to all the settings and columns we saw earlier. To adjust the model itself, we click on the “Model” button, which opens the Model Editor.

In the Model Editor, switching to 3D Mode gives us a 3D view of the handle so we can see how it will look in our CABINET VISION projects once we finish our modifications. On the left, we see the individual elements that make up the handle. In this example, there are three: two shafts and the pull. We can select each model and adjust its position using the X, Y, and Z axes. For instance, we can change the Y position by adding two inches and immediately see the result. We can also change DX, DY, and DZ values to stretch the shapes in different directions. This works well for simple, geometric shapes. For highly detailed models, stretching too much can distort or deform the geometry, so it is better to be cautious.

Sometimes we do not want to use the default model at all. Instead, we might prefer to use a handle we created ourselves in SketchUp, or downloaded from a website. I prepared a simple pull in SketchUp as an example. When importing models into CABINET VISION, simpler is usually better. The more detailed the model and the higher the polygon count, the more demanding it is on your computer. Very detailed models may affect performance and slow down your CABINET VISION experience. The ideal balance is a model that looks good and elevates the quality of your drawings, without being so detailed that it impacts performance. It is also important to note that CABINET VISION currently accepts SketchUp 2020 files, so when saving the model, we make sure to choose that version.

When we are ready to import the SketchUp model, we first click on the main work plane in the Model Editor and choose a view, such as the front view. Then we click the “Add Hardware” button, locate our SketchUp file, and open it. CABINET VISION shows a preview and asks us to confirm a few details, like axis orientation, scale, and we can see the polygon count to get an idea of the model’s complexity. Once everything looks good, we click “OK,” and the model is brought into the editor.

At this point, we often keep the old model in the scene as a visual guide while positioning the new one. For example, we can see that our SketchUp pull, labelled “Pull / Handle,” needs to move 8 mm along the X-axis, so we enter -8 mm to shift it into place. We can also lower it by adjusting the Z value. We can use the measuring tool for precise placement or click and drag points and then refine the numbers manually for accuracy.

Once we are happy with the placement of the new model, we remove the old one by selecting its components on the left and either right-clicking and choosing “Delete” or using “Remove from this View,” repeating the process until only our imported pull remains. Now our new handle model is fully integrated.

The last step before we can use this pull in CABINET VISION is to add it to a material schedule. We click “Return” to leave the Model Editor, save the material (in this case, “Test pull”), and click “Return” again to go back. Then we open Material Schedules and locate our Pull Schedule. We can click “New” to create a new schedule, give it a name, and then drag the appropriate material from the list of materials into the correct spots for doors, drawers, and finger pulls. If we already have a similar schedule set up, we can copy it and adjust from there, which is especially useful when dealing with more complex assemblies.

In the schedule, we can also define the default rotation for the pull. With both rotation options set to “No,” the pull will come in vertically on doors and horizontally on drawers by default, which is usually what we want. Once everything is set, we click “Return,” start a new job, and we should see our new Test Pull schedule available to use under Hardware → Pull Schedule.

Sometimes we only notice an error once we see the pull inside an actual project. For instance, I opened a job to show how the pulls look in a kitchen layout and realized I had entered the wrong vertical inset. If you see a handle behaving oddly in the drawing, that setting is often the culprit. To fix it, we close the job, go back into the Material Manager, re-open our pull, and switch to millimetres if needed. Comparing the vertical inset with other working pulls makes it easy to spot a value that is way off, like a 50 mm inset when all others are much smaller. We correct the value there.

Because we already used that pull in a saved project, we then need to update the job. After changing the setting, we click “Return,” re-open the job, and from the Plan or Elevation view, go to Utilities → Update Job → Materials, then click “OK.” This tells CABINET VISION that we changed a material currently used in the job and it should re-check and re-apply those settings. When we go back to 3D, the handle now appears correctly.

If you have any questions about creating new pulls, importing models, or working with other materials in CABINET VISION, feel free to leave a comment below. We look forward to seeing you in the next video.