On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 18:01:26 -0400, Tom Watson
wrote:

Then I would go to the CAD program (mostly TurboCad) and

At this point I would take sample doors, drawers, molding, hardware,
and finishes to the customer's house for some show and tell.

The whole game was to avoid having the customer say, at the end of the
job - "I didn't know it was going to look like that." (Note:
sometimes this can be said in a positive way - I am referring to those
instances where they see a finished product that they are not happy
with.)

Even though I'm out of the game, professionally; I still draw and draw
and draw until I understand the project that I am working on for
myself.

I'm fortunate in having access to AutoDesk Inventor these days, which
allows me to quickly generate a 3D representation of any object but,
it has only speeded up the process.

A CAD program like TurboCad, used at the level most wooddorkers are
going to use it; by which I mean basically rectilinear shapes (boxes
and rectangular elements) is not very difficult to learn.

The problem is that the tutorials and books are geared to a general
understanding of the program - while we only require the ability to
draw rectangles and the occasional curve.

There's a couple of other options for prototyping as well. One of
them is a really odd duck, but man is it cool. It's called Qoole 99
(which stands for Quake object-oriented level editor) and it is used
for making 3d map environments for the game Quake 2. The slick thing
about it was that you can design obects from simple polygons using a
drag-and-drop interface, and then skin them with a picture file
(called a texture in the program) Things like drawers can be nested
right into the frame you designed, and then made to open and close
with a bit of very simple code. It also allows you to set up "lights"
in different places, and then it automatically render shadows. It was
easy to learn and easy to use- and the end result not only gives you a
3d model you can "walk around" and interact with (opening and closing
drawers and doors, etc), but one which can be skinned in an actual
picture of the grain of the wood you intend to use. It's kinda nifty
to be able to model the room, then "walk around" the piece, and look
at it from any angle in the environment it is going to end up in, and
even set up lights outside the windows to replicate sunlight at
various times of day. Won't look exactly like the real thing, but it
can be pretty close.

And of course if you were to mess up the project after all that
planning, you can just run the game and blow it up with a rocket
launcher as stress relief.

AutoCAD may have some or all of the same features, but this one is
free (or shareware, at least) and it's very small.

http://www.pcgameworld.com/details.php/id/2035/

(Please be warned that this page does try to install spyware, so make
sure you have an up to date virus scanner, or the information for
removing "Avenue A" spyware.")

Just one of those thinking outside the box things for folks with more
time than money- hope it helps someone!