Digital Templating: Picture It
Now, we take for granted that all of the major digital templating systems work well to gather length and width measurements and accurate angles around corners. Brian Briggs of Turnberry Stone said it best in his StoneLive presentation at StonExpo: All the template systems measure well or they wouldn’t be around.
Digital templating, in combination with CAD-based CNC and waterjets, has moved the industry in new directions and presents new opportunities, and responsibilities, for everyone in the field.
Systems have evolved to the point where using one to simply gather length and width measurements is a vast underutilization.
When the housing market was at its peak and every fabricator had too much work, one of the main focus points for a digital-template system was the speed at which a guy could grab measurements and get to the next job. Length and width were all we had time to care about. And a ‘sub’ was a sandwich, not a bad loan.
Now that the market has slowed and completing each job well is even more-important, the focus shifts away from speed and onto two other components of modern templating – accurate digital representations of the final product for the client to view, and the digital recording of information pertaining to the job itself.
Back in the day, showing a homeowner how their arched snack bar was going to look was a real bear. I clearly remember gluing a stick onto the top of the template and trimming it at 12” to show how far the countertop was going to stick out.
Showing Ms. Jones the actual shape would require heading back to the shop and grabbing a string and pencil to swing an arch onto a full sized sheet of luan. That shape then needed to be trimmed and brought back out to the jobsite, just so Ms. Jones could tell you she wanted it one inch bigger, and oh yeah, by the way, could you make a new template to show her how that would look? All in all, the process was a big pain only done for the pickiest or most important of clients.
Today, Ms. Jones would have no problem seeing her arch within minutes of her template guy arriving – at least in the virtual world. All of the major digital-template systems offer display capabilities that allow a client to see accurate representations of their finished countertops, including sink and cooktop cutouts and seam placement. The ability to see a countertop shape before it’s cut is fast becoming the norm; it also helps to cut down the miscommunication between fabricator and client.
Each digital-template company has its own take on virtual representations of countertops and the digital storage of information.
ETemplate™ Photo from ETemplate Systems offers three different options for viewing a virtual countertop.
The first is for the homeowner to view a completed CAD drawing on the laptop used for jobsite work. By assigning specific offset values to edges, the drawing is automatically created during the photo-processing phase.
The second is to view a virtual countertop in the ‘Backplot’ mode, which places the outline of the countertop onto the photos used in the measuring process. This allows the homeowner to see the shape of a countertop rendered over existing cabinetry; it also helps the templater verify all of the necessary overhangs and placement of the sink and cooktop at correct center point.
The third option is the new Kitchen Rendering Tool, which allows stone colors to be dropped within the Backplot outline, so a homeowner can get an idea of what their kitchen will look like with their chosen color of stone.
The InnoDraw laser system from InnoDraw Inc. gathers template information on a full-sized tablet PC and allows the homeowner to watch the countertop being drawn in real time. Each two laser points selected creates a line between them, representing an edge of the countertop.
The templater can then manipulate the shapes as he needs to in El Cad, Innodraw’s drawing software. Overhangs can be added, along with corner radiuses, sinks, and cooktops. Once a seam is added, the countertop pieces are automatically broken apart, allowing the templater to easily optimize the job and make sure it will fit within the allotted slabs.
InnoDraw allows the homeowner to work with the templater in creating their exact countertop vision. Once the homeowner is satisfied with the virtual template, they can approve the job with their signature on a form within in the Innodraw PC.
The LT-55 from Laser Products Industries is also a laser-measuring system rendering a countertop drawing in real time on a Windows XP-based tablet PC. The control screen on the tablet offers easy-to-use CAD commands that allow a user to adjust the countertop lines and shapes to the wishes of the homeowner.
Sink templates and cooktop cutouts can be dropped into the drawing to complete the template. The lines of the LT-55 CAD drawing can be color-coded to represent different edge details, giving the homeowner one more level of assurance and the fabricator an easy path to programming the fabrication equipment.
The LT-55 PC contains full job documentation and sign-off sheets to record client approvals, as well as a camera to take jobsite pictures. When used in conjunction with software from Allen Datagraph, the LT-55 countertop lines can be viewed on top of the jobsite photos to verify countertop shape.
Green Mesa Inc.’s PhotoTop® measuring system allows three different virtual viewing options for the homeowner. The first is to watch the countertop template being drawn on the PhotoTop software within the CAD window on a laptop display.
The CAD window works in conjunction with the Photo window next to it, allowing the homeowner to see their countertop lines drawn in real time on top of the photos of their actual cabinets. The cabinet lines can be offset and viewed on the picture to ensure proper overhangs. The centerlines of sinks and cooktops are clearly visible as well, guaranteeing their placement.
Once the lines become a closed shape, the newly created digital countertop can be filled in with “cross hatching.” allowing the homeowner to view the shape as is a solid top. The cross-hatched top can then be raised and lowered on the screen, allowing the homeowner to see the exact layout. With the template exported to AutoCAD, the complete countertop drawing can be finished for the homeowner to inspect and approve.
The Proliner® 3D Digital Template System (available in the United States through Innovative Stone® and Blick Industries) uses a screen within the base unit of the measuring device to show the homeowners the shape of their countertop as it’s drawn with points generated from the pen on the end of the extended cable. The countertop shape can be easily manipulated with CAD type commands on the Proliner screen, allowing the templater to quickly draw what the homeowner has in mind.
Because the Proliner viewing screen operates in a 3D field, it’s easy to show Ms. Jones what her full-height backsplash pieces are going to look like. This feature also works great to show the homeowner what a multi-leveled countertop arrangement will look like.
The Proliner pen is easy to manipulate in tight spaces, allowing the templater to quickly show Mrs. Jones even the smallest details of her job. Once the templater has finished, the Proliner template can be exported as a DXF file and completed in AutoCAD® for the homeowner to approve.
All of the digital measuring systems allow the templater to make notes on virtual countertop drawings in the field, creating a line of information from the jobsite to the shop. Next month we’ll look at the relationship between digital templating and production.
Jason Nottestad, a 15-year veteran of the stone industry, is National Customer Service Manager for VT Stone Surfaces; he’s now on his third year of “The Installer” columns for Stone Business. He can be reached at JNottestad@vtindustries.com.
This article first appeared in the January 2009 print edition of Stone Business. ©2009 Western Business Media Inc.