# Refrigerators, CAD, and Circumcision



## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

*Introduction*

My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.

The single door refrigerator model was created in the CAD program while the French door model was obtained from http://www.3dcontentcentral.com/ a web site, one of many that have free CAD models ranging from O-rings to extremely complicated assemblies. The GE side by side was modified to represent a French door model and rescaled so that the height and width would be identical to her selection.










*Figure 1*










*Figure 2*

It is obvious that the new refrigerator is taller and wider than the current one and that is the problem with the associated kitchen cabinetry shown later.

The drawing in figure 3 below was created from model in Figure 1 by the Creo and printed as a PDF. Any part of the 2D annotation screen can be copied and pasted as a bitmap, Window (enhanced Meta-file), or other formats. Figure 3 is a direct copy from the annotation view of the drawing and either method can be used for building or documentation purposes.










*Figure 3*

Any model or parts of a model or assemblies can be turned into a drawing by Creo by selecting the item from the model browser that lists all of the currently available models created by the user in the current session or previously created models from another session.
At this time you may wonder why I used CAD models as opposed to photographs and, there a number of reasons:


The kitchen island location intruded for a proper photograph.
It is difficult to create an exploded view with a photograph.
I wanted to show some the capabilities of Creo.
I use Creo for woodworking, mechanical, and electronic designs.

As a free program, Creo is an outstanding tool and this document is essentially a commercial interspersed with a real project.

*Limited introduction to CAD with Creo Solid Modeling*
Creo is actually two applications in one. The main application is the solid modeling application while the second, called annotation, is a 2D complement used to create 2D prints of the 3D models or create 2D drawings directly. The solid modeling application is a very powerful application that has too many features and tools to describe in this document.

Actually, even after ten years of using this program, I probably haven't used all of the features or tools of this application. The first release of the program was called One Space PE (Personal Edition) which compared to this version now called Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express, was archaic in user interface and number of tools.

Note that I used the word "solid" because the items created are truly solid like a piece of lumber or metal, or whatever other material may be selected and is not unlike many of the other solid modeling programs such as SolidWorks, AutoCad, CorelCAD®, Alibre, IronCad and others.

*Annotation, 2D drawings*
The annotation application provides the capability of creating 2D drawings of any model or assembly of models and can be annotated (dimensions, text, notes, BOM, and the like). The 2D drawings can be any orthogonal view, isometric views, or other angle views along with section and detail views. Any, and all, views can be scaled and positioned on the sheet as desired.

Dimensions can be added to any view and the properties of the dimension text, lines, and arrows are all under user control as is any text or hatching that can be added to the drawing. Switching between 2D and 3D is a done by a tool bar selection.

Additionally, any changes to the model will be reflected in the annotated views. A drawing can consist of a minimum one sheet to a number of sheets in standard drawing sizes A, B, C, D, E#, A0, A1, A2, A3, A4# in either portrait or landscape and custom sizes. Each of these sizes has a title block that can be used as is, modified, or ignored. Custom sizes do not have title blocks so you can add you own if desired.

*Now back to the kitchen*
The following image is the north wall (and part of the west) of the kitchen showing the old refrigerator and the surrounding cabinetry. Creo (the free version) does NOT support rendering but it does support lighting, object colors, and parallel/perspective views.










*Figure 4*

The properties of the image above are 2053 pixels wide x 1579 pixels high, resolution is 96 dpi and bit depth is 24. Perspective view was enabled and lighting was chosen to match the overhead kitchen lights. The cabinet color is close to the actual but NOT rendered as wood. The wall, what is shown, is near the actual color and the floor is actually tile, not a single color as shown.

The following two drawing were created by Creo. The properties of the lines were set at .002", the tangent lines at .002" (they can also be hidden), the hidden lines were left hidden. The dimension text color was set to black (default is blue) the dimension text size to .125", and all other text color and size to match the dimension color and size. The dimensions of interest were added to the 2D drawings and plotted creating a PDF print.










*Orthogonal Views*










*Isometric Views*

*The Upper Cabinet*
The entire purpose of this project is to reduce the height of the cabinet above the refrigerator; an exploded view of the cabinet is shown in figure below. Creo allows configurations under the structure tools with a number of automatic options for exploded views; an assembly can have any number of configurations. For the explosion below all that was required was the scale of the explosion; how far the parts move from each other.










*Exploded View of Upper Cabinet*

The line drawings are not as clear as the should be as they were converted to JPEG images so they could be used in this document. Links have been provided as part of the image title for downloading or viewing the image!

*Next cutting the cabinet virtually and in reality*


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## DJPeck (May 16, 2012)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


My God, and I am struggling to learn SketchUp. Dare, pun the words isometric and orthogonal.


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## jbertelson (Sep 26, 2009)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


Looks like fun, and a very capable program. Hope the major surgery on the cabinets works out. Buy new cabinets andyone?


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## jap (Oct 10, 2012)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


Cool, i use autodesk inventor http://usa.autodesk.com/autodesk-inventor/ , but am going to download it and try out creo


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


*DeLayne, *Creo and Sketchup aren't that much different except when it come to the 2D part (and that 3D model parts are solid) which the free version of Sketchup does not have. Please note that Creo created the 2D orthogonal and isometric views, NOT ME. In the 2D annotation part you can select "add views" and you are given the chance to select which part/assembly and which views to add which include all of the orthogonal and all of the isometric plus a number of isometric angles.

*Jim,* The program is very capable and you will see more in the next segment.

*Jap,* you will enjoy using it and if you need help it is included and you can PM me. After you download, when you install it make sure you select the OS you are using otherwise it won't behave properly.


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## dontrushme (Jul 23, 2012)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


Wow, lots of work. I tried Sketch Up a few times, but found it frustrating. From your drawings the benefits of mastering Sketch Up are obvious.
Maybe I'll give it another shot, meanwhile I use Autodesk's AutoSketch, two dimensional but powerful.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


*Ralph*, this is NOT Sketch up!


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## Brad_Nailor (Jul 26, 2007)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


This reminds me of Cabinet vision. I like the way it generates all the different views as you work in 2D. The render engine and textures leave a little to be desired..typical Solidworks looking results. I went to the Creo website but couldn't find any download links..do they offer a demo?


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


Brad,
I did not get that far in my blog to provide the download sites so here it is:

Creo Elements/Direct Express FREE DOWNLOAD

After the download make sure you set it up for your OS; XP, Windows 7, etc.


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## adamjohn (Feb 19, 2013)

oldnovice said:


> *Introduction*
> 
> My wife wanted a bigger refrigerator with a bottom freezer. I agreed (he who doesn't agree with his wife is a fool) because, I was also tired of bending down to get things off the bottom shelf, not having enough freezer room, and low efficiency of the current unit. Figures 1 and 2 below show CAD models of the old and new refrigerators and are a result of a high resolution print of the screen contents of Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Since the refrigerators were white, the background was changed to off-white.
> 
> ...


Very thorough details. It would be fun to open the doors and find food!I imported this as an IGES file and modified it to a 3 door, freezer on the bottom. I did not convert the skin portions to solid but other elements w…
Refrigerator repair Woodbridge VA HVAC repair Alexandria VA


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

*Cutting the cabinet and installion*

*Cabinet Circumcision, Virtual and in Reality*

The entire cabinet is veneer covered particle board and is heavy. There were four screws in the bottom, four screws in the top, three screws in the back, and six staples holding each of the dividers (perhaps a little overkill?). The hardware was not added to the model to keep the model count below 60 as that is a limit for the free version of Creo.

The cabinet top and bottom were doweled to the sides with eight dowels in each edge. Figure 8 is the sheet, created by Creo, of the exploded front view and an unexploded rear view; the labels for each of the cabinet parts were manually added to the views but could have been added by Creo as well as part of the BOM, Bill of Materials.









 
*Fifgure 8 -- Exploded 2D cabinet Drawings*

The two exploded views above are one of the sheets of this drawing.

*Cutting the cabinet virtually*

After reviewing the size of French door refrigerators it became apparent that shorting the cabinet by 4" would allow any of these refrigerators to fit. The next four figures show how the cabinet height was reduced by 4". Figure 9 shows the initial selection of the items to move by dragging a rectangle over the items of interest.










*Figure 9 -- Selecting the items, edges to move*










*Figure 10 -- Selection completed and the Move 3D label appears*




  






*Figure 11 -- Move complete with distance moved indicated*

The move operation is actually a "drag" but the drag can be completed by entering a value into the box which in this case was 4". This makes it easy to enter higher accuracy values as if in this case the value could have been 3.375" or the like.




  






*Figure 12 -- Completed reduction in height*

The cabinet has now been reduced by 4" and was a lot easier then the real world operation!

*Cutting the cabinet in reality*

I used a Rockwell Versacut™ saw, as it was a birthday present, and I have physical difficulty using a standard circular saw. Even though this saw was new to me it proved adequate for this operation after only a couple of practice cuts. This saw only has a 1/16" kerf, and, with the dust collector attached, was nearly dust free even in the MDF. Although I didn't need the depth adjustment for this operation and it is somewhat difficult to set exactly; once set it can cut the thickness a business card in half very accurately. (I saw this in a TV commercial and thought I would try it and it worked!)

When cutting the doors I made sure to cut from the proper side to reduce the chipping of the veneer as they were the only real parts of the cabinet that had a visible edge. On the sides and the dividers I scored the front edge veneer before cutting so that chipping would be reduced. All in all, the amount of chipping was very limited (see photographs of the veneered doors below) as would be expected with a carbide blade. The veneer was stripped from the door cut-offs and re-applied to the cut edges of the doors.










Since the cabinet was heavy, I decided that I would only install the central divider and screw it in place as before and to install the remaining dividers after the cabinet was hung. In order to hold the top edges of the dividers I cut 1/8" dadoes into the top and only use screws in the bottom to hold them in place. Obviously, the dividers would need to be 1/8" taller than the central divider.

To do this in the solid modeling program I just needed to select one of the three dividers, since they were shared parts, and select the edge I want to move up the 1/8" and therefore moving all the three at once. I then subtracted the dividers from the top creating the three dadoes as required for the top edge.

After cutting the sides to the proper height I used the cut-offs to locate the dowel locations in the new top edge of the sides. The dowels were only glued into the top and not into the sides so they were cut flush with the top edges and used as screw locations.










*Figure 14 -- The new refrigerator and the cut down cabinet*










*Figure 15 -- New refrigerator installed (doors opened with a user defined configurations)*

Configurations are an assembly in which the parts are not in the same position. This is useful for assembly views and moving parts out of the way to get a better view, without disturbing the actual view. Selecting/deselecting a configuration moves the parts desired in another place or back again. It's main use is to show an exploded view which can then be used to make a 2D drawing of the configuration while the actual model is still assembled.

*Conclusion*

Obviously I did not need a CAD program for this project! All I really needed was a good ruler, a saw, and patience since these cabinets are no longer available and a mistake would be difficult to hide!

*Links (I told you this was a commercial)*

The following link is the free download and information site Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express

Creo Elements/Direct Modeling

Those familiar with Sketchup will find a lot of similarity with the modeling tools. As stated before, rendering is not available in Creo and there is a 60 part limit to one assembly. The 2D annotation portion is part of Creo and enables the ability to create 2D drawings, orthogonal, isometric, section views, scaled detail views of any parts and/or assemblies and plot them as PDF files.

All of the variables in the annotation portion are also under user control; dimension metric, inch, feet-inch, dual metric/inch, fonts style/size/color, arrow size/location/color, geometry borders/tangent/invisible visible/hidden/size/color, and many more options. None of these need to be changed as they all have default values but each and all can be set to the users choice and saved as part of the users environment.

In my use of Creo I have basically 2 environments; woodworking and electronics which I can load when I start a modeling session or chose not to load and use the default environment.

Notes:

Versacut™ is a trademark of Rockwell
In inches the print sizes are 8-1/2" x 11", 11" x 17", 22" x 34", 44" x 68" respectively
In mm the print sizes are 841×1189, 594×841, 420×594, 297×420, 210×297 respectively

*Next some of the CAD tools used in this exercise*


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

oldnovice said:


> *Cutting the cabinet and installion*
> 
> *Cabinet Circumcision, Virtual and in Reality*
> 
> ...


Nice job on the rendering and glad to hear it went well.


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## love2cad (Oct 8, 2012)

oldnovice said:


> *Cutting the cabinet and installion*
> 
> *Cabinet Circumcision, Virtual and in Reality*
> 
> ...


Cool, thanks for sharing. While I am an AutoCAD, Sketchup guy I like seeing other packages being used and explored. Isn't nice to have the ability to make modifications, revisions and such long before a single piece of wood is cut? I think so… I am huge proponent to model twice, cut once!!


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