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5 Millwork Section & Elevation Design Mistakes (and How to Fix Them) — Transcript

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0:00Millwork drawings can look perfectly
0:01clean and planned, but the second that
0:03you switch to section or elevation,
0:05things fall apart. The shelves don't
0:07line up, the cabinet heights feel off,
0:09and suddenly the design that looked
0:10perfect on paper doesn't quite work in
0:12reality. If you design custom cabinetry,
0:15built-ins, or wardrobes, you've probably
0:17encountered at least one [music] of
0:18these problems. In this video, I will
0:20walk you through five common mistakes
0:21designers make when documenting that
0:23millwork, and show you [music] simple
0:25ways to fix them so your drawings are
0:27clearer, faster to produce, and easier
0:30for fabricators and clients to
0:31understand.
0:34Millwork design is all about precision,
0:37from [music] cabinet proportions and
0:38shelf spacing to panel alignment and
0:40material breaks. [music] The details
0:42matter, and those details rarely reveal
0:45themselves in plan alone. That's why
0:47sections and elevations are essential
0:49when designing [music] millwork. In this
0:51tutorial, we'll look at five common
0:52mistakes that designers make when
0:54documenting millwork, and I'll
0:55demonstrate practical ways to avoid them
0:57using Rayon, so your drawing stay
0:59consistent, [music] accurate, and
1:01presentation ready. If you'd like to
1:03follow along while watching, you can try
1:04Rayon [music] for free by clicking the
1:06link down below in the description.
1:07Let's start with the first mistake.
1:09Diving right into mistake number one, a
1:11common [music] mistake in millwork
1:12design is relying too heavily on just
1:15the plan view. Now, while plan [music]
1:17views are useful for a layout, they do
1:19not tell you much about how the
1:20cabinetry actually works vertically.
1:23This can obviously lead to issues
1:24[music] like shelves spaced too tightly,
1:26wardrobes that don't accommodate hanging
1:28clothes, or cabinet heights that feel
1:30awkward in the space. And the fix is
1:32simple. Just always review millwork in
1:34section view as well.
1:36>> [music]
1:36>> Sections allow you to verify important
1:38vertical relationships like shelf
1:40spacing, cabinet heights, countertop
1:43levels, and appliance clearances. And by
1:45checking these early, you make sure that
1:47the millwork is both functional and
1:49comfortable to use. [music]
1:50So, here you can see in our Rayon
1:52drawing, we've got
1:54a top plan of this
1:55>> [music]
1:56>> um wardrobe
1:58as well as an elevation which obviously
2:00[music] tells the story a little bit
2:02better and even some section cuts over
2:04here um, which kind of slice through
2:06[music] it and tell the story even
2:08further um, which makes it much easier
2:10for a contractor and even a client to
2:12[music] understand.
2:13So, here you can see again um, we've got
2:17just like a top view [music] of this
2:19plan and then this elevation is kind of
2:21aligned with it and so here this is
2:24where we can kind of start adding some
2:25more like vertical dimensions for
2:26instance if we wanted to [music]
2:28um, understand the height between uh,
2:31shelves here we can just grab our
2:33dimension tool and I'm going to make
2:35sure it's on loop [music] because I like
2:36to add all of my dimensions in kind of a
2:38string. Um, and then we're just going to
2:41basically select the dimension and click
2:44and then select the next [music]
2:45dimension we want to take and click
2:47and the next dimension we want to take
2:49and click [music] and you can see that
2:50this is information that you would not
2:52get from just the floor plan. So, we're
2:55almost done with our string here. We'll
2:56do this one last [music] large one
2:59and click. And then we'll hit done and I
3:01don't really worry too much about how
3:03crazy these look because I already
3:05actually have a dimension style created
3:08that I can just pick [music] the style
3:10of that dimension and voila now all of
3:13my dimension strings here match the
3:15other ones in the drawing as well. Now,
3:18of course
3:19>> [music]
3:19>> standards are going to vary by project
3:22um, and also just like location um, but
3:25there are benchmarks and best practices
3:27that are important um, there are certain
3:29clearances [music]
3:30uh, that you should follow and um, all
3:33these things are really important to
3:35>> [music]
3:35>> utilize elevations and sections for.
3:38Now, while we're seeing all of these
3:39drawings kind of together on this one
3:41[music] canvas this leads me into issue
3:43number two. This issue often appears in
3:45millwork documentation [music] and it is
3:47inconsistent alignment between drawings.
3:50Cabinet tops, shelves and panel joints
3:52easily drift, and even a slight drift
3:55matters, especially in millwork design.
3:57>> [music]
3:58>> Um these drifts happen between plans,
3:59elevations, and sections, and if they're
4:01not tied to a clear reference line, then
4:03it is [music]
4:05it's not good. Again, this might seem
4:06minor on screen, but it can create real
4:09confusion during the [music] fabrication
4:11and installation process. So, the
4:13solution is to just anchor your drawings
4:14to a clear grid [music] or reference
4:16system by aligning your millwork to
4:18consistent lines like floor level,
4:20cabinet tops, shelf [music] heights, and
4:22panel breaks, you ensure that everything
4:23stays coordinated across every single
4:25[music] view. So, we have all of our
4:28views kind of working in this um one
4:30model canvas, but to kind of [music]
4:31connect them to each other, we can add
4:33in a grid system. So, back into our
4:36layers over here, we're just going to
4:37create a new layer called
4:40guidelines.
4:41And this is where we're just going to
4:42place some grid guidelines. Now, of
4:44course, I already have these drawings
4:46[music]
4:46um started and pretty well developed,
4:48but this is also helpful even from the
4:51beginning of the project, when [music]
4:52you're just drawing in plan to start
4:53adding these guidelines um so that will
4:56help you uh start drawing your
4:57elevations, and then that will help you
4:59start drawing your sections, and they
5:00all kind of connect to each other.
5:01>> [music]
5:02>> So, all we need to do is go down here to
5:03shapes and click guideline. Um again, I
5:06like to be on that loop, so I can just
5:07click, click, click. Let's start with
5:09our vertical guidelines because we want
5:11to connect our floor plan to elevation
5:13first.
5:14>> [music]
5:14>> So, all I'm going to do is just click on
5:16the important corners. So,
5:18you know, my edges are important, so
5:19click, click. You can see that that drew
5:21two guidelines for me.
5:23Um it looks like [music] these are
5:24probably important, right? So, this is
5:27the thickness
5:29of these [music] vertical panels.
5:31And I think that's probably um good for
5:35for at least the start. [music] Now, we
5:37can also add in some horizontal ones
5:39while we're here, so I can just click
5:41the horizontal, and then we can start
5:42connecting [music] the elevation to the
5:44sections. So, again, the important
5:46corners, so top and bottom are usually
5:48>> [music]
5:49>> first on my list, and then um I like to
5:51just kind of move down the line. So,
5:53[music]
5:53um I'm just clicking basically anywhere
5:56that I know that I'm going to need to
5:57draw something in section. And again, I
5:59already have my section drawing drawn,
6:01um but [music] this can be super useful
6:03um
6:04from the beginning of the project.
6:07So, let's hit done. I do need to go in
6:09here and adjust one of these, [music] so
6:11I'll just double click. I do need to go
6:13in here and adjust one of these cuz it
6:14didn't quite snap. So, I'm just going to
6:17click on the guideline and bring it
6:18down.
6:19So, now you can see that that easily
6:21connects [music] to our sections, and um
6:24that's going to be super useful when
6:25you're drawing from scratch because
6:28um
6:29now you can just kind of snap to these
6:31guidelines when you start um drawing
6:33your sections or elevations. Now, if
6:35these are a little hard for you to see,
6:37you can also select all of the
6:39guidelines that you just drew, and
6:41[music] we can change the style of them.
6:43So, under stroke, I can make these Let's
6:45make them like [music] purplish color,
6:47and now you can see them super well. Um
6:50and since we have these on their own
6:51layer, you can easily toggle them on and
6:53off as [music] well. So, just make sure
6:55that you are you don't have your
6:57guidelines set to your current layer,
6:59and then you'll see this eyeball that
7:00you can turn on [music] and off, which
7:02makes it super super helpful. And again,
7:04this just makes sure that all of your
7:05drawings are aligned with each other at
7:07all times. Now, I'm going to go ahead
7:09and turn those guidelines off, and let's
7:11talk about mistake number three. [music]
7:13So, another common challenge in millwork
7:16documentation is using inconsistent
7:17blocks for cabinetry [music] components
7:19across drawings. When designing custom
7:22millwork systems like wardrobes, kitchen
7:24cabinetry, media units, or built-in
7:26storage, [music] designers often rely on
7:28blocks for elements such as base
7:30cabinets, tall units, drawers, shelves,
7:33doors, panels, and integrated
7:35appliances. [music] And many of these
7:36blocks come from different online
7:38sources. Um so, it's actually really
7:40difficult to find matching
7:41representations for plan, elevation, and
7:43section views [music] of the same
7:45millwork element. Now, as a result, a
7:47cabinet might look right [music] in
7:49plan, but it looks a little bit
7:50different in elevation or section, which
7:53can then make the drawing set feel a
7:54little bit inconsistent, and again,
7:56harder for fabricators to [music]
7:57interpret. So, the alternative to that
8:00is redrawing each cabinet component
8:02manually, which quickly becomes [music]
8:04time-consuming and unnecessary in my
8:06opinion, especially when documenting
8:08large millwork systems with many
8:10repeating elements like cabinetry.
8:12[music]
8:13Now, the better approach is to use a
8:15coordinated millwork block library. With
8:17Rayon's block library, millwork elements
8:19like base cabinets, [music] tall
8:20cabinets, shelving units, drawer
8:22modules, doors, panels,
8:25they all come with aligned plan,
8:27elevation, and section views, so three
8:28different views for each block, [music]
8:30helping you keep your documentation
8:31clean, consistent, and much faster to
8:34[music] produce. So, let's take a look
8:35at Rayon's block library.
8:37Um right now we are over here in layers,
8:39so let's click down to blocks. And uh
8:42you [music] can see if you click in
8:43libraries here, if you click libraries
8:44here as well, you'll see there's a nice
8:46categorization um of different blocks
8:49[music] here in Rayon. Um for millwork
8:52design, a lot of those are going to be
8:53[music] like under kitchen. Um there's a
8:56lot of different base cabinetry. You can
8:58see that this uh wardrobe design that
9:00we're doing is a little bit more like
9:01open shelf [music] bespoke design. Um
9:04so,
9:05this design is mainly made up of [music]
9:07just uh shapes
9:09in Rayon here. Um
9:11but, there are plenty of uh you know,
9:14base cabinets. [music] If I type in
9:15cabinets
9:17and go to blocks here, um you can see
9:20that there are tons of like, let's
9:22[music] see here, this is like a file
9:23cabinet, but just to show you, um tons
9:26of different uh blocks that have top,
9:28side, and front view. [music] So, um all
9:31these are going to be aligned with each
9:32other in scale um and easily just drag
9:35and drop into the project. Now, again,
9:37this is more of a bespoke design, but
9:39just to kind of show you how this works.
9:41Um let's add in a little laundry basket
9:43>> [music]
9:43>> uh just to show how a laundry basket
9:45could fit in this area that we have
9:47selected um as open storage for [music]
9:49laundry.
9:51So, if I just type in basket, um we are
9:54going to select Let's select
9:58uh this laundry [music] basket right
9:59here. So, we'll hit open. You can see
10:01that we've got a top and a front view
10:03for this one.
10:04Um
10:05the front view can obviously work in
10:06side view as well because this is a
10:08circular basket.
10:09>> [music]
10:09>> So, what I'm going to do is start in my
10:11floor plan, and we'll grab our top view.
10:13Just drag and drop that over.
10:15And we'll place that right there.
10:18So, [music] that's our top view. And
10:20then additionally, we can drag and drop
10:23our front view
10:24>> [music]
10:24>> into the elevation. So,
10:27looks like that brought in my top view,
10:28[music] too, which we don't need. Um
10:30but, we can just place this basket right
10:32here in elevation and just kind of
10:34confirm [music]
10:35um how that height works. Now, you might
10:37see that, and you might think, "Okay, we
10:38need to adjust the size of um
10:41>> [music]
10:41>> these shelves a little bit more." Or
10:43like, "No, that looks great." It helps
10:45with that visual other than just in
10:46floor plan [music]
10:47to be able to see how this actually
10:49works in elevation in the real world.
10:52Now, the cool thing [music] about Ryans
10:54library, it doesn't just have laundry
10:55basket. Like I said,
10:57it has um tons of cabinetry [music] and
11:00appliances. Um there are a lot of basic
11:02blocks as well as more like
11:04uh parametric, [music]
11:06like more detailed um blocks. And then
11:08you can also use their AI chat over
11:10[music] here to uh generate your own CAD
11:13blocks as well, which is super cool.
11:15Now, another cool thing is that if you
11:17do find that there are blocks that you
11:18[music] tend to use on every single
11:19project, you can actually create your
11:21own um custom block library within Ryan
11:24uh to be able to easily access those on
11:26projects. And if you're [music]
11:27interested in learning about that, you
11:28can just pop over to our YouTube
11:30channel. There's a lot more information
11:31there.
11:32Moving on to mistake number four, which
11:34[music] is presenting millwork to
11:36clients only using technical line
11:38drawings. Now, let's just go to our
11:41original import of this project. This is
11:44just our original CAD import. This
11:46[music] does not tell me I'm I'm a
11:47designer and this barely tells me
11:49anything. So, you can imagine from a
11:51contractor standpoint or even a client
11:53standpoint that, you know, they look at
11:55this and they're like, "What am I
11:56looking at? I have no idea." So, that's
11:58kind of why it's important [music] to uh
12:00stylize these drawings so they're a
12:02little bit easier to understand. Now,
12:04while these drawings, you know, are
12:06necessary for construction, they don't
12:08necessarily communicate like that
12:10finished materialized design intent
12:13[music] look very clearly, right? It's
12:15difficult for clients to imagine the
12:17difference between, you know, a material
12:19like oak veneer, [music] painted
12:20cabinetry, or stone panels when
12:22everything just appears as like black
12:24and white simple outlines.
12:26>> [music]
12:27>> And like I said, the solution is to
12:28apply a visual style. Using Rayon style
12:31library, you can quickly [music] add
12:33textures, materials, and graphic styles
12:35that make millwork elevations feel much
12:37closer to the final result.
12:39>> [music]
12:39>> And this helps clients understand the
12:40design more clearly and make decisions
12:42with confidence. Now, popping back into
12:44our [music] actual stylized drawing, you
12:47can see here that even with just a
12:48simple uh color variation, you can kind
12:52of get a sense of depth, right? And
12:54we've also got like some shadows kind of
12:55indicated here. So, you can get a little
12:57bit more of an idea even without like
12:59any textures or materials. Now, of
13:01course, you can add textures and
13:03materials and let me just go ahead and
13:05show you how you can do [music] that
13:06using the styles here in Rayon. So,
13:08we'll pop back to our uh DWG import and
13:11this is where I can show you this. So,
13:13in order to add a style um
13:16to [music] anything on here, we're going
13:18to grab our rectangle tool. You can also
13:20use your zone tool. There's a couple
13:21different ways to do this.
13:23And let's, for [music] instance, just
13:25we're going to indicate this particular
13:27these particular upper uh cabinets as
13:30[music] some form of wood. So, we're
13:32just going to kind of trace and snap
13:34this rectangle. And once we have that,
13:36we'll go over to our styles and under
13:39fill,
13:40you can either just [music] add a simple
13:42color kind of like that other drawing,
13:44a gradient,
13:46or [music] in this case we're going to
13:47add a texture. And we're just going to
13:48look for like a wood texture. And I
13:51don't see a great wood texture in the
13:53textures already provided here. So, I'm
13:55actually going to
13:57>> [music]
13:57>> go all the way over to image and click
13:59upload and we're going to go find an
14:01image that I've already saved to my
14:02desktop [music] to use as our wood
14:04material.
14:08Okay, so here I have uploaded my image
14:10and you can see if I zoom in here, it's
14:12got this nice little
14:14wood texture to [music] it. Now, if I
14:17want to kind of move this behind these
14:19lines so it looks a little bit more
14:21understandable [music] like from the
14:23standpoint of how you can actually open
14:24this cabinet. We can find the layer with
14:27these lines on [music] it.
14:30Which is right here. And then all we
14:32need to do is just bring our rectangle
14:34[music]
14:35down below those. So, then that way it
14:38reads a little bit better. So, once you
14:40kind of have one of these cabinets
14:42established, you can either copy paste
14:45and continue that process all over or if
14:48you already have
14:50like [music] rectangles drawn in place
14:51for all these, you can just actually
14:53click that rectangle and then I drop
14:55your new style and it will just apply it
14:56[music]
14:57to that cabinet. So, if I select all
14:59these
15:00and do that.
15:02Now, that's starting [music] to kind of
15:04explain a little bit more about this
15:06design, right? And again, you don't need
15:08to do a wood material or realistic
15:09material, you can just do colors easily.
15:12It's just going to tell the story a
15:13little bit better than a black and white
15:14drawing will. And if you [music] do like
15:16the style that you created, you can
15:17always click the plus button and say
15:19save style and I can just call that like
15:22oak cabinet and then that way [music] I
15:23can easily access that later as well if
15:26I need to. Now, the last mistake that I
15:28want to discuss [music] here is handling
15:30every step of the design workflow by
15:32yourself manually. Millwork projects
15:34often involve multiple iterations and
15:37presentation visuals [music] which can
15:38take a lot of time to produce from
15:40scratch. Now, instead of doing
15:41everything manually, you can use AI
15:43tools to extend the value [music] of
15:44your drawings. With AI, you can generate
15:47quick visualizations,
15:49>> [music]
15:49>> explore different design options, turn
15:51technical drawings into presentation
15:52ready visuals so much faster and this
15:55allows you to focus more on design
15:56decisions instead of repetitive
15:58>> [music]
15:59>> unnecessary drafting work. So, let's
16:01take a look at the AI panel that is
16:02built right into Rayon.
16:05So, if I go over here to my AI chat,
16:06>> [music]
16:07>> um what we can do is we can actually I'm
16:09going to go ahead and turn off my
16:11annotations
16:12and we'll go back to our AI panel and
16:15we're going to just take a screenshot of
16:16this elevation and then we're going to
16:18ask it to [music] create axon for us.
16:21So, what that's going to do is basically
16:23create a little 3D model representing
16:26this elevation without us having to
16:27actually do [music] any of the 3D
16:29modeling.
16:30Now, in order to do that, we just need
16:31to hit the plus button, add screenshot,
16:33[music] and we'll take just a little
16:35screenshot of our elevation.
16:38You can also add in
16:39the floor plan as well as the sections.
16:42>> [music]
16:42>> Sometimes it's just the AI understands
16:44it a little bit better if you just do
16:45the elevation.
16:47>> [music]
16:47>> And then once we have that, we'll just
16:48click tools and generate axonometry and
16:52we don't even have to prompt it
16:53anything. We just hit send and it's
16:54going to
16:55>> [music]
16:55>> do the work for us. And now the cool
16:56thing is that after it does that,
16:59we can actually apply a style to it as
17:01well. We can either make it, you know,
17:04more of a clay style which would be more
17:07focusing on the 3D [music]
17:09geometry of the design instead of the
17:12materials
17:13or we can do more of like a realistic
17:15render style which is just going to add
17:17some, [music] you know,
17:19reflectivity and shadow and light and a
17:21little bit more realism. So, let's go
17:23ahead [music] and hit preview here. And
17:25you can see that it basically took
17:27exactly that elevation and made a 3D
17:30axon [music] out of it. And this is kind
17:32of why I turned off my annotations
17:33because it does
17:35pretty accurately display anything that
17:39it sees in [music] your screenshot. So,
17:40you can even see like you know, if I
17:42wanted to turn off the cabinet
17:44that little V here or
17:47even some of my dimensions, it it kind
17:49of starts interpreting those into
17:51[music]
17:52the axon. But, you know what? That's
17:54fine for now. We're just going to say
17:55insert image and now we have a 3D
17:58representation without having to
17:59actually go do any of the 3D work
18:01ourselves. And then, like I said, we can
18:03select this image that we have just
18:04created. We'll say use selected image
18:07and then we're going to [music] go apply
18:08a style. So, under tools we'll go to
18:10stylize and I'll say realistic and it's
18:12going to do its best [music] to
18:14interpret this design as a realistic
18:18wardrobe. And over here, if we just hit
18:21preview, you can see that it pretty much
18:22took
18:23exactly what we had. It looks like it
18:25applied a wood material.
18:27It added just a little bit more light
18:29and shadow, reflectivity.
18:31>> [music]
18:31>> So, if you like that, you can say insert
18:33image and again, it's not perfect, but I
18:36also did not have to go do the 3D
18:37modeling of this. So,
18:39>> [music]
18:39>> this is especially helpful, I think,
18:40more in like concept phase or even like
18:43earlier on when you're just kind of
18:45trying to get client buy-in, this
18:47[music] tool can be super helpful. So
18:49then, to wrap things up, let's go back
18:51to our full presentation here. Here is
18:54the final presentation. I'm just back in
18:56my presentation canvas here and this is
18:58just kind of where we have all of our
19:00drawings docked as well as our little
19:02axon and even some inspiration.
19:05And the cool thing about this is that
19:06you can go the traditional route and
19:09just export PDF [music] images of this
19:12and just present it as an actual
19:13presentation, email it, whatever.
19:16Um, or my preference is to actually
19:18generate a URL presentation and you can
19:21literally just send the link to the
19:22client um, and they can view it as a
19:24true presentation and even comment on
19:26it. Um, so it makes that process a
19:28little bit more interactive. [music]
19:30So, there is our end-to-end uh, millwork
19:33project created in Rayon and if you want
19:36to learn more about some of the uh,
19:38tools that I did not deep dive into you
19:40can visit our YouTube channel [music] to
19:42learn more. So, those are the five
19:44common millwork and elevation mistakes
19:46and exactly how to avoid them. [music]
19:47By paying attention to these details,
19:49you can create drawings that are
19:50clearer, more coordinated, and much
19:52easier for contractors and clients
19:54[music] to understand. And if you'd like
19:55to speed up your millwork workflow, from
19:57blocks and grids to styles and
19:59AI-powered visuals, [music] you can try
20:01Rayon for free. Just click the link
20:02below in the description to get started.
20:04And if you enjoyed this tutorial, then
20:06make sure you like and subscribe [music]
20:07for more design workflows and
20:09documentation tips for interior
20:10designers and architects. See you next
20:12time.

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