[Steve]

I am not a 2020 user but work in a department with 3 2020 designers.  We install kitchens and baths.  We have issues with installer not being able to read the kitchen design print from an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.  Can 2020 kitchen design print to a larger paper other than 8.5 x 11?  I worked with my father years ago where blueprints could be printed from large printers.  We use a Lexmark color printer that only prints 8.5 x 11 which in my opinion is worthless when printing kitchen designs.  Would you recommend a printer manufacturer/model that will print to larger printer sizes?  This would eliminate hidden items.

[Neil Wilson]

Hi Steve,

I don’t have any specific printer recommendations for you but 2020 can definitely print to larger formats that 8.5 x 11.

Neil

[Steve]

Neil,

Was is the max size for printing?

Thanks

[Mike Langensiepen]

I’ve printed to a HP ‘Plotter’ before at A1 size.

2020 appears to support whatever size is available on the printer you are using. Try installing PrimoPDF and printing to A1.

We routinely print on A3 here.

[Steve]

Thanks for the suggestion.  We have 3 kitchen 2020 designers.  The kitchen cabinet installer cannot read the design(s) because some of the cabinets, fillers, etc. sizes are hidden.  I’m not a 2020 user but the biggest complaint from our GC kitchen installer is that he can’t read the design.  In my opinion the 8.5 x 11 paper is not suited for printing kitchen designs.

Is their an option in 2020 that will un-hide any or all dimensions?  One of the 2020 designers mentioned to me he has to right click the object and show the actual size.

Mike, when you print out your design using an HP Plotter, A1 size paper will it print the entire kitchen design and NOT hide any dimensions?

Thanks for all your help.

[Susanne Meyer]

Hi Steve, both on floorplan and elevations, the designer can move, eliminate and add dimensions.  They can also change the font size.  If they right click on the individual cabinet that the name is hidden on, they can move that to a readable area also.  For clarification, they

can also add notes anywhere.  These tools really clean up a plan so that contractors

can easily read in 8 1/2 x 11.   I also save my elevations and floorplans to picture files

where they can be sized to fill the page.  Hope this helps. This was you always have a copy with your chosen dimensions as every time that you close elevations, it reverts

to original set up.

Regards

Susanne

[Steve]

I was looking at the HP T120 as a possibility.  Any thoughts on this printer.

Another question pertains to designing kitchens.  When you design a kitchen are all the elements in the design normally hidden?  Are they hidden based on the layout or default printer settings, in our case 8.5 x 11.  If for example, I was designing a kitchen and I had the printer settings to print A1 paper would all the elements (base cabinets, fillers, wall cabinets,etc.) be displayed and not hidden.  Or is this based on the monitor I’m using?

Thanks everyone for your help.  I’m just trying to find a suitable printer that will print to a paper size where the kitchen designer can understand the dimensions and product to install.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Steve,

As Susanne said, you can add/delete/move dimensions, change fonts etc.

Drawings can become cluttered with some cabinets hard to see on the floorplan (e.g. a stack of assorted cabinets). Also, the drawing may have a bulkhead obscuring the wall cabinets below it (for example) – in this case I tend to make the bulkhead fill transparent so you can see the cabinets below.

2020 has a very powerful option called Display Schemes whereby you can have a scheme that just shows floor cabinets, another that just shows tall cabinets and so on. When the design is showing too many dimensions (as sometimes happens) I tend to have 2 floorplan schemes – one that shows floor+tall and another that shows wall+tall. If you have any unused tabs along the bottom, these can be renamed and reconfigured to use the new display schemes.

Breaking it down like this allows you to use standard size paper (in our case A4). We only use A3 when we get the occasional request to show plans and elevations on the same sheet. You can do this using ‘layout templates’ which is another feature of 2020 but I found this awkward to use and it’s much easier to save the plans and elevations as images and drop them into a Word document wherever you want. Quick example attached.

I honestly do not see that you need the T120. I work with one company that has 24 2020 users and they rarely resort to A3 let alone A1. Just tell the designers to stop being lazy and to play with the Design Schemes to clean up the prints.

Attachments:

1. Example.pdf

[Steve]

Thanks for the example and the tips for printing.

As I mentioned above I am not a kitchen designer nor use 2020.  My question is this to all 2020 designers.  When you design a kitchen do most of you go to the home to see what your designing or do you design based on a client coming to your office and giving you dimensions?

I would find it difficult to design a kitchen for a client where I did not see nor measure for myself the area.  Take measurements in the home etc.

Just curious to hear the answers!!

Thanks

[Mike Langensiepen]

Due to the number of enquiries my designers get, they normally work with a house plan or hand drawn sketch with basic measurements coupled with some digital photos just in case. Occasionally we will offer a free on-site visit if the person is unable to provide a sketch or house plan but more often than not, these people will be offered a visit for a set charge which would be refunded if they go ahead.

Many enquirers are ‘tyre kickers’ and just asking these to come into the showrooom first for a chat (one of the qualifiers for a free measurement) tends to weed these out.

Generally a house plan/sketch + photos is good enough to get a 98% accurate design going. We sell about 15 kitchens a week and draw up at least 2-3 times that so everything has to be optimised to get through these as quickly as possible. To this end, we have a very customised catalogue and use Application Integration to export the data to our web based quotation and job management system which also exports the kitchen info to Cabinet Vision for the factory to produce.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the information Mike.

Curious to ask what training/school is required to become a 2020 designer?

Thanks again

[Mike Langensiepen]

There are official courses run by most professional bodies (in Australia, the KBDA and HIA to name 2) or even Interior Design degrees but the best designers seem to pick it up by themselves.

In my case, I’m primarily IT having been a computer guy from the late 70s but I renovated a few UK properties designing the kitchens myself and installing over-the-counter flatpacks (inlcuding the plumbing and electrical) but when I migrated to Aus, I needed to invest/run a business for 2 years so I bought a Kitchen Franchise and ran that for 7 years designing probably over 2000 kitchens/laundries and selling over 700 of them. I then sold the franchise back to the parent company and now work for them supporting 2020 Design and IT in general.

Mostly it’s about

Clearances

Work Optimisation

Appearance

Generally I design with as many drawers as possible and avoid complexity and only get ‘fancy’ when the client wants Ultra Modern or Traditional (called Federation Style in Aus).

Clearances are everything – see attached pic (example off the web – not one of mine!)

Attachments:

1. 

   1.jpg