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Mozaik, cabinet sense, others

5/30/21       
Scooter

So I am looking to upgrade software , I used cabinet vision in the past, but it was to costly for my needs.
I currently have all my files programmed with g-code. I have become so proficient with g-code that I just bang out a sketch and program it myself. I will admit it is a backwards approach and the optimization suffers a bit. I work by myself so that is not a big problem.
I would like to do some door designs and some fancier trim pieces on the cnc, some involve macros and others just take to long to program with all the different radius’s etc.
I was looking at Mozaik, but it may be more than I need, it is also more than I want to spend, saying that I will spend the $200 a month if it is worth it, I have also been reading about Cabinet sense, I am not sure of the cost of it. Has anyone used Cabinet sense, what are your thoughts, will it do mdf cabinet doors .
Thanks for any assistance.

5/31/21       #2: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Lynn

We have been using Cabinet Sense for about three years. It is an extension for SketchUp. Not sure about the mdf doors. Look WestOak studios up online. Or better yet email michael@westoakstudios.com. He is a trainer for CabinetSense and very knowledgeable. He will answer all your questions.

5/31/21       #3: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Mark B

CabinetSense user here for perhaps somewhere close to when it became available. As Lynn said, remember its a plugin for Sketchup so that is a factor and with regards to MDF doors you also want to remember that Cabinetsense is you CAD package and your CAM comes from somewhere else (commonly VcarvePro) and thats where your toolpathing (MDF Doors) would happen. I have been very pleased with Cabinetsense mainly due to the cost as Vcarve and Sketchup (until recently with their move to subscription) cost me nothing monthly. We had a classic license with sketchup and it runs through this year but then they are forcing you to subscription (which I will not do).

I use Cabinetsense for far more than just cabs as well, use it for all sorts of component based fabrication. Im not sure if its still the case but you were able to opt in/out month by month as well (we just run it all year).

5/31/21       #4: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
james e mcgrew  Member

Website: mcgrewwoodwork.com

5 man shop (was 10 ) Moziak has been great for me, recently updraded to a fully automated CNC from a man loaded ATC and will integrate Moziak to this one.

5/31/21       #5: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
james e mcgrew  Member

Website: mcgrewwoodwork.com

And I pay 175.00 Mo for Three seats with CNC

5/31/21       #6: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Valerie

Website: http://www.cabinetpro.com

Have you checked out Cabinet Pro Software? It is a design and manufacturing software that is reasonably priced. It can do MDF doors (and so much more).
Take a look at www.cabinetpro.com and call (702) 330-0775 with any questions.

Cabinet Pro website

5/31/21       #7: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Pat Gilbert

I vote for Cabinet Sense, tried Mozaik

The main feature I like is the ability to do custom inside CS

Also the support for CS is better although there is no forum, but Paul answers email questions for free usually within a day

Cabinet Sense is $75 per month Sketchup Pro is $300 per year

5/31/21       #8: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Mark B

Thats what I like about Cabinetsense is the ability to completely invade cabs and components and I do a massive amount of presentation work in Sketchup so the flow is great. If I were making a much higher percentage of straight boxes even with a high percentage of semi odd stuff I may be looking around but its an environment Im very comfortable in and given I do the vast majority of the drawing that works.

Learning software is fine (or telling your draftsman to) but in my opinion if your the one doing a good bit of the work (CAD CAM) you have to find an environment thats somewhat intuitive to you or you wind up beating your head against the wall constantly.

Just get some trial versions and see what feels the most natural to you. That will likely be the best fit.

5/31/21       #9: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Pat Gilbert

Back in the day in order to do custom you had to use Solidworks with no woodworking buttons or Auto Cad with Micro Vellum or Smartlister with a huge learning curve.

I would have killed to have CS back then

5/31/21       #10: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Scooter

Thanks for all the great insight and help. I will be doing everything myself as well, I don’t mind an extra step with the cad and the cam. I like to pay the least amount as possible, but with saying that I still want a decent product. Years ago I did all of the shop drawings for a cabinet shop and used AutoCAD lite. The shop used cabinet vision, the owner hated cabinet vision so it ended up in a drawer somewhere. The price was unbelievable at the time, there was nothing wrong with the program, we just specialized in commercial cabinets with a lot of oddball size and shape reception counters, the cabinet vision took to long according to the owner.

Mark B ,
From your comment about Not paying for Sketchup when they start to charge, what are you going to use?

James,
I live north of the border so our dollar is not worth much, kind of like Monopoly money, that is why I figured about $200 for Mozaik.

6/1/21       #11: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Mark B

Theyve already started charging. I am on the last year of the classic license and have maintenance and support til this fall. At that point I will just stick with whatever the most current version I have at that point moving forward and new features that require latest versions of SU in Cabinetsense just wont be available to me.

Im fine with that as I dont push the boundaries of SU/Cabinetsense as it is and Im 54 so I will likely be fine from that point on. If not I'll deal with it when the time comes.

I abhor the subscription based stuff even though I have a lot of it. I refuse to support it unless I simply have no better option and re-training my brain at this stage is not an option nor a need.

6/1/21       #12: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Jonathan N Korban

Mozaik, Mozaik, Mozaik

It took me a good year and a half to learn it enough to where I could do most everything I wanted with it .

But once you get good with it it is so so nice. I went from building an average kitchen ( 25k range ) in about three weeks to one week with this software, and I am a onw man shop. This includes dovetail drawer boxes , MDF Doors in any style imaginable, all boxes , custom stuff, closets, all G coded for you and I will tell you it is by far the best money I have ever spent. 125.00 a month and I would say its worth many times that. Try it out, you have nothing to loose as its pay as you go.

I will say that you will not reach peak efficiency with it till you have been using it for a while ...... but that is true with anything .

It is the one thing besides the CNC and the PLC Bander that changed my business and allowed me to quadruple my income based on this piece of software alone.

The help desk is free and responds usually within 24 hours.

6/5/21       #13: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Lynn

We tried mozaik for several months. We do custom cabinets and furniture. Mozaik was unable to draw our kitchen cabinets. Everytime we would use tech support the answer was the same....buy some training. We spent good money with a trainer for over three hours. We were eventually told that Mozaik could not do what we were trying to do but offered us 50 percent off the training which did not help us.
We were able to build the cabinet with one hour of training from Cabinet Sense.

6/5/21       #14: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
james e mcgrew  Member

Website: mcgrewwoodwork.com

I am really courious to know What you are trying to cab in a Cabinet that CS would do but Moziak would not ?

6/5/21       #15: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Scooter

I would like to know what cabinet sense would do that Mozaik wouldn’t as well.
I have sent a few questions to Mozaik and it’s been 3 days and haven’t heard back, is that normal?

6/6/21       #16: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Lynn

It has been a little while (maybe just over a 1.5 years). We were building several custom cabinets that included some frame less with full inset doors and drawers. At that time (don't know if they have fixed that problem or not) Mozaik could not draw it. After copious sessions with "trainers" we were advised that it could not be done. I still had to pay for the training.
And as to the question about tech support being a 3 day wait...that would be a quick response for Mozaik. Usually the first answer to any support question was, You need to purchase some more training.
Cabinet Sense used to give 1 hour training for free per month. Don't know if that is still standard operating procedures or not. Cabinet Sense is great for us because you can build anything in Sketchup....

6/6/21       #17: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Pat Gilbert

Scooter look at post #9

Post # 9

6/6/21       #18: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Scooter

Pat,
Thanks for the information, I am not sure I am sold on anything yet, but I think I will try cabinet sense and see what it is like, it also appears to be cheaper per month with the price of sketchup included. I don’t have vcarve pro, but I want to get it anyways so that cost is a wash either way.

6/6/21       #19: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
Pat Gilbert

IMHO CS is better for custom although MV no doubt is better. MV requires a full time draftsman to get over all the hurdles, even then it may not be all that...

When I was doing store fixtures I would have killed to get something like CS

For generic boxes CV or Mozaik appear to be the way to go if you can have a dedicated person for detailing.

8/21/23       #21: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
heic to jpg Member

Website: https://heictojpg.io

It sounds like you're looking for software solutions to streamline your CNC programming process for cabinet-making and woodworking tasks. Both Mozaik and Cabinet Sense are popular software options in this field.

2/7/24       #22: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
MAteus

Website: dinabox.net

Have you heard of Dinabox software? It's also a plugin for SketchUp

2/9/24       #23: Mozaik, cabinet sense, others ...
David Wishengrad Member

Scooter,

You have learned a lot. Your approch is only backwards in the sense that you might be seeing a possibility to speed things up.

A friend of mine is working on some code that when ready for further development can probably utilize and optimize your process. You would have to learn JSON, and specificlly, as he has structured it for this use. It's currently sitting because of other priorities he has. I will reach out to you and see if you want to poke around in it once it is available.

I recommend that you try all of the products recommended, even if you have to pay for a month upfront.

Just don't pay for any sort of expensive or long-term contract unless you understand that whoever you may purchase from could sell their company and possibly not honor you current license if you are not on their support or other 'sunset' licence terms.

It sounds to me that a sweet spot would be passing your g-code to an AI and having it generate your drawings and them actually looking nice and being correct. :) Your data knowledge is valuable.

Almost any software will allow a person to plug in sizes with formulas that generate a correct cut list and gcode.

Good luck in the meantime with whatever you use.


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