Material Pointers Guide

Material Pointers Guide

Material Pointers

Info
A downloadable PDF of this article is attached to this page. This document is written to reflect the software as of Microvellum Foundation Library build 25.0418. 
Notes
Some sections in this article contain information in tabbed format. You can click on different tabs for information on those specific material pointers.
Material Groups— Microvellum’s material file structure offers complete control over every component of the product using a wide variety of pointers as outlined in this document.  The goal is to allow ultimate flexibility when setting your materials for the project.  If you use less detailed material selections, Microvellum offers the Material Groups functionality to create groups from the various pointers outlined below.  You can activate and edit those groups by right-clicking on the pointers and selecting Show Groups.


Cabinet Types
There are a variety of cabinet types within the library, and the majority of the pointers are simply copies of one another to allow different materials for each cabinet type.
Base—Base cabinet pointers are used for all cabinets in the Base and Door-Drawer Categories.
Tall—These pointers are used for cabinets in the Tall category of the libraries. Also called high or pantry cabinets, these typically sit on the floor and may be as high as the top of the upper cabinets.
Upper—These pointers are used for cabinets in the Upper category of the libraries. Also called wall or hanging cabinets, these are typically above base counters, and the bottoms are often considered exposed or semi-exposed, depending how high they are installed above the floor.
 

Open or Interior Finish



The Foundation Library uses a “Product Type” code to determine if the cabinet will use an open or interior finish. This identification system is preset for out-of-the-box products but can be changed within the “Advanced Construction Options” Tab.
Changing the Product to have an –Open suffix will indicate Open Finish material pointers, otherwise using the Interior Finish Material Pointers. 
Open Finish—The interior of the cabinet will use _Open material pointers. Typically used when the interior of the cabinet is made to match the finished exterior materials for cabinets such as the 
Open Base. In the sample pointers in the next section, the inside of the cabinet would be finished with PL1 laminate just like the outside of the finished ends.
Interior Finish—The interior of the cabinet will use the regular material pointers (without _Open). 

In the example picture above, the glass door upper cabinets might be Open Finish while the cabinet over the range would be Interior Finish, as it’s only seen when the doors are open. This Open Finish vs. Interior Finish designation applies to all surfaces inside the cabinet, so many of the material pointers will have a standard version and an _Open version. 

Cabinet Side Materials


Finished End (FE)—Left or Right side of cabinet with finished material on the exterior.
Select FE to finish the outside of the integral cabinet side. In the example below, a liner laminate or white melamine would be used for the unfinished side, and PL1 laminate for the finished side.
Open or Interior Finish—In the sample pointers below, the inside of the cabinet would be finished with liner laminate or white melamine for interior finish, and PL1 Laminate for Open finish.

Referenced Material Pointers

The first indicator listed in a material name with different material composition on each side, is the material that would be face up on the CNC machine, which is why there is PL1-Liner and Liner-PL1. 
Referenced Global Variables— throughout the library, the local prompts will reference back to Global Variables like the one below, allowing you to set the option for the entire job, and override it at the local product only when required.

Post Laminate End—when selected, the finished end will be made from unfinished material, and a finished skin will be applied after product assembly using a part from the Loose Laminate pointers. 

Cabinet Top Materials



Full Top or Stretcher Rails
For the base cabinets only, there is an option to use a single full depth top panel or to use a stretcher rail front and back. By selecting the Full Top option, the full top will be activated, and the stretcher rails will be turned off.

On occasions where the top is to be finished, for a freestanding cabinet or where part of the top might be exposed, there is an option for finishing the top.
When Post Laminate Top is selected, the top material will use the unfinished material pointer, and an additional part will be added as a loose skin to be applied after assembly. When using a finish top without Post Laminate, the top edges of the exposed parts will be edgebanded.

Back Materials

Thick Back
Nailers
Thick Back

Thick Back—Typically a 1/2”-3/4” thick material, this back will be attached to the adjacent cabinet parts with a fastening method similar to the cabinet construction, so there are options for dowels, screws, dado, lock dado etc. This back is structural and does not require additional parts.
Nailers
Nailers—When thick back is not selected, the Unfinished back material pointers will be used, and typically Nailers will also be active. Nailers serve as the structural members for the cabinet. The back is grooved into the adjacent cabinet parts, often with a gap to allow the back to be slid into place after assembly.
 

Divisions and Dividers

Divisions
Drawer Divisions
Dividers
Material Pointers
Divisions

Divisions— Typically 3/4 or 5/8” thick material and run the full height of an opening. They are structural, and may have shelves machined into them. They are attached to the top and bottom of the opening using the standard construction method such as dowels or dados.
Drawer Divisions

Drawer Divisions—Used in 2 Door 2 Drawer cabinets between the top 2 drawers.
Dividers

Dividers—Typically a thin panel mounted into grooves in top and bottom of the opening between shelves.
Material Pointers
Material Pointers— Dividers have a unique Material Pointer Group for material assignment. The divisions follow Open and Interior finish methods, they can be found in the Open Carcase and Carcase Groups for Base, Tall and Upper cabinets.

 

Intermediate Stretchers, Dust Panels


Stretcher — Rail used between drawers, not running the full depth of the cabinet.
Dust Panel— Full depth shelf between drawers in drawer bank cabinets. Often used when locks are required and sometimes referred to as a security panel.

Material Pointers— The stretcher material pointers follow open and Interior finish methods and can be found in the Open Carcase and Carcase Groups for Base, Tall and Upper cabinets.

Shelves

Fixed Shelves— Structural shelf in cabinet connected to side panels with construction similar to top or bottom—dowels, dado etc.
Adjustable Shelves— Moveable shelf on pins or clips in shelf standards to be adjusted in location on site.
Wide Span— Shelves longer than a specific value may need a thicker material to avoid sag. There is a Global Variable for max span, and shelves longer than that value will use the _Wide_Span pointers.
Shelf Edges— In the Global and shelf prompts, there is an option to use Face Mounted Lip Up, Face Mounted Lip Down, Top Mounted, Bottom Mounted and Mitered option on the edge of the shelves. The _Shelf_Edge pointers are the materials used for those edges.

Material Pointers— The shelf material pointers follow open and Interior finish methods, they can be found in the Open Carcase and Carcase Groups for Base, Tall and Upper cabinets.


Doors, Drawer Fronts and FE Panels


Doors—Hinged cabinet doors.
Drawer Fronts—Drawer fronts applied to the front of a drawer box.
FE Applied— When using an Applied Back Panel or Left/Right Applied FE panel.
Slab— Used with the Generic front selection, these will be a single panel edgbanded 4 sides.
MDF Doors
Solid Wood Doors
Buyout Hardware
MDF Doors
MDF— Used with the MDF front selections, these will be a single panel cut from MDF with profile tooling cut in the face.

Solid Wood Doors
Solid Wood— Used with the 5 Piece Door Libraries such as Cal Door and Elias, these will be a door made from solid wood components.

Buyout Hardware
Buyout- Based on the selections in the product, these items will appear on a list to be procured from an alternate source. They will not be cut listed, but only listed in size for purchasing on the Buyout report. These pointers should always be assigned a material from the Buyout tab.
 

Rollouts and Drawers


Wood Drawers/Rollouts— Interior drawers or pullouts inside of a cabinet. These may be wood drawers with slides, system boxes, or flat shelves with edges.
Referenced Pointers— Depending which type of rollout is selected, different pointers will be referenced for the sides, fronts, backs, or bottom.


Miscellaneous Pointers

Toe Kick
Countertop
Valance
Sub Front
Shadow Line
Misc Part
Door Glass
Toe Kick
The Toe Kick material pointers are applied to the default toe kick in every product. They also belong to stand-alone Toe Kick Products and Subassemblies.

Countertop
Countertop material pointers are connected to every default countertop material in the default library as well as the stand-alone Countertop products (e.g Countertop Straight, Countertop With Waterfall Ends).

Valance
The Valance pointer affects multiple products across the Foundation Library, such as the Valance, Extruded Crown, Extruded Valance, Pel-met, Soffit.
This also affects the material pointers in the Strip Lighting—Light Valance, and the “filler/corner filler” subassemblies.


Sub Front
In all default library cabinets, the front rail can be set as a “Vertical Front Rail” through the prompt UI, this will indicate to use the shown Sub-Front material pointer.
This pointer is also used for the Toe Kick Box assemblies' sub-front material.


Shadow Line
The Shadow Line solid rail pointer sets the solid rail material for all default library products that include a shadow line option; Base, Tall, Upper Cabinets. Solid Rail material is used when the shadow line option is set to a “Solid Rail” shadow line type.

Misc Part
Products that are included in the “Miscellaneous” & “Parts” categories utilize the Misc Part material pointer, as they are single part products, comprised of few parts or a one-off design/single purpose function.

Door Glass
Finished Faces with glass options will reference the Door Glass pointer.
Some metal drawer box systems will include a unique glass design element that also references this pointer.
 

Expansion Material Pointers

Face Frame Expansion
Staircase Expansion
Office Furniture Expansion
Closet-Wardrobe Expansion
Fixtures and Extruded Products
Bathroom Partitions Expansion
Face Frame Expansion

All Base, Tall and Upper products in the Face Frame expansion will reference this material pointer for face frame parts. Carcase parts follow the same default pointers. The non-Face Frame expansion option for a Simple Face Frame will reference this pointer also.

Staircase Expansion

These material pointers dictate the associated material for stringers, tread, platform, and winder materials in the Staircase expansion that consists of unique staircase design products.
Office Furniture Expansion

Materials specific to the Office Furniture expansion cover additional parts such as desk/worktops and legs. The carcase parts follow the default library cabinet setup for material pointers. 

Closet-Wardrobe Expansion

These material pointers apply to some unique subassemblies belonging to the Closet expansion products (e.g. sliding door systems). 

Fixtures and Extruded Products

Curved parts and die-wall material pointers are affiliated with the library catalog of extruded wall options. Control all aspects of extruded wall materials with this pointer grouping. 

Bathroom Partitions Expansion

The partition pointer group drives all material selection for the Bathroom expansion, bathroom/shower stalls and privacy panels. 
 

    • Related Articles

    • Overview: Material Pointers

      The material of a part is determined by the Material Name property associated with the part. The image below shows a Base Back part within a product and the material that is currently assigned to that part.  Fig. 1 – Base Back currently has the ...

    • The Staircase Expansion Overview

      About the Expansion The Microvellum Staircase Expansion contains a collection of staircase layouts to plug into the Foundation Library. This article will provide you with an overview of the Staircase Expansion and contains a listing of products, ...

    • Overview: Materials in Microvellum

      Material Levels in Toolbox Figure 1: Library Specification Groups. Figure 2: Project Specification Groups. Materials in Toolbox can be controlled through one of two interfaces, each of which is attached to one of two levels of control: library ...

    • Office Furniture Library Expansion

      Office Furniture Library Expansion The Microvellum Office Furniture Library contains an in-depth collection of furniture products. This library is intended as a foundation for manufacturers to establish their own catalog. Products can be created and ...

    • Overview: Formula Driven Materials

      There are two distinct types of Microvellum materials – formula materials and non-formula (traditional) materials. This article focuses on formula-driven materials. Accessing Formula-Driven Materials You may use either the Add Formula Material ...

    • Recent Articles

    • Microvellum Foundation Library Release Notes | Build 25.0523

      Additions Added a new Master Curved Front Cabinet product. Added 282 Titus Hinges and 83 Titus Base Plates. NOTE: You will need to manually add this hardware brand into Hardware Wizard “Hinge Brand” combo box list if you are updating library. T-Type ...

    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 25.1.0519.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 25.1.0519.641 Work Order Defaults Fix There was an issue reported with setting defaults on work orders. When one processes a work order, then modifies it afterward using the Modify Work Order ...

    • Adding a Font to Toolbox

      This article will explain the process of adding new fonts to Toolbox, both in drawing space and the Report Designer. Toolbox offers an array of fonts for users to customize their text in reports, documents, and drawings. New fonts can be added to the ...

    • Toolbox Release Notes | Build 25.1.0505.641

      The following release notes apply to Toolbox build 25.1.0505.641. Project Workbook Permissions Fix An issue was reported and resolved regarding the permissions of employee access to project factory workbooks. Users who do not have authorization to ...

    • The Microvellum Client Portal

      When logging into Microvellum’s Client Portal, several features are available to help ease the purchasing and management of Microvellum products, the ability to find accurate information in a convenient and timely manner, as well as keep track of ...