Free course · 5 exercises · about an hour
SketchUp for Cabinet Makers
Draw a real wardrobe board by board, the way a workshop cuts it, with SketchUp's own tools and keys. Do it right here in your browser, or in SketchUp. Press Check my work and every board is measured to the millimetre: you're told exactly what's wrong.
- One wardrobe: 1000 × 2100 × 600 in 18 mm board
- Checked to 1 mm, in your browser or in SketchUp
- Free, no account needed to start
Checking your progress…
How it works
Open an exercise
The model is ready on the page: the floor, the wall and the boards from the exercises before it. The lesson beside it acts out each step, keys and all.
Draw it with SketchUp's tools
Rectangle, Push/Pull, Move, Line and Make Component, with the same keys, axis locks and typed sizes as SketchUp. Each step ticks itself once it's in the model.
Check my work
Every board is measured: right to 1 mm, or it says which board is wrong and why and shows it. Prefer your own SketchUp? The CabinetOS extension sets up the same model there and checks it the same way.
The keys you'll use
SketchUp is quickest from the keyboard: a letter for each tool, an arrow key to lock the way you're drawing or moving, and the sizes typed straight in.
Keys and axes
Tools
- RRectangle
- PPush/Pull
- MMove
- LLine
- SpaceSelect
- GMake Component (select the board first)
Axes: an arrow key locks the way you're drawing or moving
- →red axisleft and right: the width
- ←green axisfront and back: the depth
- ↑blue axisup and down: the height
- ShiftAlready moving along an axis? Hold Shift and it stays on it.
- CtrlWith Move: makes a copy (Option on a Mac)
- EscCancels what you're doing
Sizes: just type, they go in the Measurements box at the bottom right, then Enter. Two sizes: 1000,600 (1000;600 if your computer writes decimals with a comma).
The five exercises
Each one adds to the same wardrobe. The model starts with the boards from the exercises before it, locked, so you only draw what's new.
- Exercise 1About 10 min4 boardsBoards, not boxesDraw the box: a top and a bottom, 1000 × 600, over two sides, 1964 × 600. Each one its own component. The box sits 100 off the floor: the plinth goes under it in exercise 2.Open exercise 1
- Exercise 2About 10 min2 boardsBack and plinthFit an 18 mm back inside the box, 964 × 1964, flush with the back edges. Put a 100 mm plinth under the box, 1000 long, flush with the front.Open exercise 2
- Exercise 3About 10 min2 boardsShelves that fitTwo shelves, 960 × 580: 2 mm in from each side so they slide in, 2 mm back from the front, touching the back. Tops at 1300 and 1700 from the floor.Open exercise 3
- Exercise 4About 15 min2 boardsDoors with the right gapsTwo doors, 1997 × 496, on the front of the box: 3 mm under the top, flush at the bottom, 2 mm in at each outside edge and 4 mm between them.Open exercise 4
- Exercise 5About 15 min1 boardScribe to a wall that isn't straightThe wall on the left leans 12 mm over the wardrobe's height. Fit an 18 mm scribe filler from the wall to the box: 50 wide at the floor, 38 at the top, flush with the doors, floor to the top of the wardrobe.Open exercise 5
Points and levels
100 points for each exercise you pass, and 50 more when it's right the first time you check. 750 is the most.
- Apprenticefrom 0
- Improverfrom 200
- Fitterfrom 400
- Cabinet Makerfrom 600
Why boards, not boxes
A wardrobe drawn as a solid block looks right but tells the workshop nothing. Drawn as boards, each one its own component at the size it's cut, the model is the cut list: every part, every size, where it goes.
That's how CabinetOS draws units, and these exercises teach the same habits: the right thickness, the right overlaps, the gaps doors need, and a filler cut to a wall that isn't straight.
When you're done
The CabinetOS extension draws units like this for you in a click: wardrobes, chests of drawers, angled units under a slope, whole walls. Send them to CabinetOS for the cut list, the board layout and the price.
Questions
Do I have to pay?
No. The exercises are free in your browser, with no account. A free CabinetOS account keeps your passes on every computer, and is all the extension needs for the exercises in SketchUp. The extension's own units need a plan that includes it, or the free trial.
Do I need SketchUp?
No: each exercise page has the model and SketchUp's tools in the browser, on a computer, tablet or phone (a mouse and keyboard is quickest). For the exercises in SketchUp itself: SketchUp 2017 or newer on Windows or Mac, with the extension. SketchUp Free in a browser can't run extensions.
Is it in my language?
The exercises in the browser and their lessons are in English and in Polish, with SketchUp's own tool names as they are on screen. The exercises' window in SketchUp is in English.
What if I get it wrong?
Check my work says which board is wrong and why: the wrong size, turned the wrong way, a few millimetres out of place, a group instead of a component. Fix it and check again, as often as you like.
Do I keep my points?
Yes. Each pass is kept in your browser (or on your computer in SketchUp) and, once you log in, with your CabinetOS account, so it counts everywhere you sign in. A pass made before you log in goes to the account when you do. The first pass of each exercise is the one that counts.
SketchUp is a trademark of Trimble Inc. CabinetOS Units is an extension for SketchUp and isn't made by or connected with Trimble.