Tutorial
Draw your first kitchen, step by step.
One L-shaped kitchen, from an empty account to a set the homeowner signs and a cut list the shop builds from. Wall A is 144" with the sink under a window; wall B is 120" with the range and a pantry. Follow along with the same numbers, or use your own room.
The steps
What this covers.
Step 1 · Start the trial and set up the shop
An account for the shop, then its title block.
Press Start free trial and fill in Your name, Shop or company name, Email and a Password of 10 characters or more. Continue to checkout opens Stripe’s checkout for the card; nothing is charged for 14 days, and you land back in the app.
Open Account first. Everything under The shop — name, phone, email, street, city, state, ZIP and website — prints in the title block of every sheet, so fill it in before you print anything. Job numbers sets where client numbering starts; the first client gets 1001 unless you pick up from your own numbers.
- Designs — every design in the account, newest first, with a search box
- Clients — each client with their job number and designs
- Team — the people in the shop account
- Account — the title block, job numbers and your password
- Billing — the trial, the card, invoices, cancelling
The five links across the top of the app. A banner under them counts down the trial days.
Step 2 · Add the client
Every design hangs off a client.
Go to Clients and press + New client. The form takes first and last name, company (optional), phone, email, the job site’s street, city, state and ZIP, and notes. Only a name or a company is required. Save the client and they get the next job number on their own.
The client’s page lists their details, every design drawn for them, and an activity log of what changed and who changed it. Edit client fixes a typo; Archive tucks a finished job away without deleting it.
- First name, Last name — or a company for a builder’s job.
- Phone, Email — tap to call or write from the client page.
- Job site street, City, State, ZIP — prints on both sets.
- Notes — gate codes, the dog, who picks the paint.
Step 3 · Start a design
One design per room.
On the client’s page press + New design. Type the Room — Kitchen — check the Client is right, and press Start drawing. The design gets a number and starts at revision A.
The editor has two halves. On the left, four tabs: Room, Cabinets, Finishes and Shop settings. On the right, six views of the same design: Plan, Elevation, 3D, 3D line, Cabinet list and Cut list. Every change redraws all six.
There is no save button. The design saves itself 0.7 seconds after your last change, and the line under the title says saved just now.
- Practicing? Pick — no client yet — and attach the design to a client later from the Room tab.
- Several rooms for one client — kitchen, pantry, primary closet — are several designs under the same job number.
- Your place in the editor, the tab and the wall, is remembered while the browser tab stays open.
Step 4 · Put in the walls
Walls clockwise, standing in the room.
On the Room tab, set Ceiling height to 96 and Construction to Frameless (full overlay) — or Face frame if that is how your shop builds. Under Start from a shape, press L-shape. It puts in wall A at 144" and wall B at 120", which is this kitchen already.
For your own rooms: stand in the doorway. Wall A is the one to your left as you walk in, and the walls go clockwise from there. Measure each wall left to right as you face it. Type sizes the way the tape reads — 144, 12', 11' 11 1/2" and 34-1/2 all work.
Each wall’s card also has Corner after (turn right for an inside corner, left for an outside one), the Corner angle — 90 for square, 135 for a 45° wedge — and the wall’s thickness. + Wall adds one; + Island / freestanding run adds an island.
Step 5 · The window and the switch
Openings and obstacles before cabinets.
On wall A’s card press + Window and fill in From left 39 1/2, Width 36, Height 42 and Sill 42. The window shows up on the elevation straight away, measured from wall A’s left end.
Then open + Switch, outlet, access panel, soffit… and pick Light switch: From left 104, Bottom 45 3/4. Put in anything a cabinet could land on — outlets, the thermostat, an access panel, a vent, plumbing stub-outs, a soffit — each with its size and height. The checker reads every cabinet against them.
A + Door on a wall offers Make it a doorway (split the wall): the wall becomes two walls with the doorway between, and the doorway gets its own card for its width, height, hinge side and jamb.
Step 6 · Wall A: the base row
Fill the base row left to right.
Switch to the Cabinets tab and pick Wall A along the top. Press + Add to wall A and add, in order: Drawer base, Base, door(s) + drawer, Sink base, the Dishwasher from the Appliances list, Blind corner base and a Filler.
Cabinets fill left to right in the order you add them. Change widths in each row’s W box: 18, 21, 36, 24, 42 and 2. Click a cabinet’s number to open its details. For the blind corner, set Blind width to 24 and Blind side to Right, the corner end.
The Base heading now reads 143 1/2" of 144". The cabinets are 143" together, and the shop standard leaves 1/2" of wiggle room at each end of a run for walls that aren’t straight.
Step 7 · Wall A: the top row
Wall cabinets, with a gap for the window.
Still on wall A, add six items for the top row: Wall, 36" high at 18 and 21, Open space (top) at 36 over the window, then three more Wall, 36" high at 24, 24 and 20. They hang at the shop’s upper line, 54" off the floor by default.
Each wall has three rows: Base on the floor, Top for the wall cabinets, and Upper above those to the ceiling. Leave From left blank and a row stays packed; type a number and that cabinet sits exactly there.
Want widths shared evenly? Tick the boxes beside several cabinets and press Make them equal, or Equal, and fill to the wall end. Widths round to 1/16", and the last cabinet takes the difference.
Step 8 · Turn the corner onto wall B
Wall B starts past the corner.
Pick Wall B and add Base, full-height doors (W 18), the Range (30), a Drawer base (21), a Tall pantry (24) and a Filler (1 1/2). On top: Wall, 36" high (30), the Hood (30) and one more Wall, 36" high (21).
Leave them packed and wall B’s run starts right in the corner, where wall A’s blind base already is. The check says so, on wall B, naming the cabinets by their plan numbers:
- #5 and #12 collide in the corner of wall A and wall B — start the second run past the first one's depth, or make one a blind corner.
Open wall B’s first base and set From left to 25: the blind base’s 24" box, its 3/4" door and 1/4" to spare. Do the same for the first wall cabinet at 13, past wall A’s 12"-deep uppers. The warnings clear.
Step 9 · Read the warnings
Fix what the redlines say.
Warnings show under the drawing, each on the wall it belongs to. This is what the same kitchen said on a first try, with one base 3" too wide and the pantry slid over an outlet:
- Wall A: the base run ends at 146 1/2" on a 144" wall — 2 1/2" too long.
- Wall B: #15 covers the outlet at 100" — move the outlet or cut the cabinet back for it.
The checker catches a run longer than its wall, a leftover under 4" that wants a filler, overlaps, a cabinet in a window or door, above the ceiling or into the crown, two runs colliding in a corner, and a cabinet over a switch, outlet or access panel. The build set shouldn’t go out while any are showing.
Step 10 · Finishes and the 3D room
Pick the look, then turn the room.
The Finishes tab sets the door style and drawer fronts, the cabinet finish (paints and stained woods, with the grain drawn in), pulls and their metal, closet rods and hangers, the countertop, sink and faucet, and baseboard and crown. Any one cabinet can take its own finish in its details, like a navy island.
Switch the view to 3D. Drag to turn the room, scroll or pinch to zoom, right-drag to pan. Open the doors swings every door on its hinges, and Open the drawers slides them out to show the shelves and drawer boxes. 3D line is the same room as a flat drawing for the build set.
Step 11 · Shop settings
Tell it how your shop builds a box.
The Shop settings tab holds the numbers every part and door size is figured from. That covers the box, back and front thickness, a separate toe base or a notched one, frameless reveals and gaps, face-frame stiles, rails and overlay, drawer-slide clearance, the upper line, the countertop, and whether closet sections share panels.
The cut list with this step is the kitchen’s first drawer base, figured from the default settings. Make the box 5/8" instead and its bottom, stretchers and back go from 16 1/2" to 16 3/4" wide, and the drawer boxes from 15 1/2" to 15 3/4".
Changing a number changes this design only. Once they’re right, an owner or admin presses Make these the shop standard, and every new design in the account starts from them. Back to the standard settings undoes it for one design.
1 DB3-18 — Base — drawers, wall A · 18 × 34 1/2 × 24 · Frameless
| Part | Qty | Width | Length | Material | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Side | 2 | 23 1/4 | 30 1/2 | Box | |
| Bottom | 1 | 16 1/2 | 22 3/4 | Box | |
| Stretcher | 2 | 4 | 16 1/2 | Box | front and back |
| Back | 1 | 16 1/2 | 30 1/2 | Back | between the sides, behind top and bottom |
| Toe base | 1 | 18 | Toe | 4 high, set back 3 |
Fronts: drawer 17 7/8 × 6 · drawer 17 7/8 × 12 1/16 · drawer 17 7/8 × 12 1/16
Drawer boxes (outside W × H × D): 15 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 21 · 15 1/2 × 10 1/2 × 21 · 15 1/2 × 10 1/2 × 21
Step 12 · Print the sets
Two sets from one design.
At the top of the editor, Client set opens the homeowner’s set: plan, a 3D picture, the elevations, the cabinet list and an approval block. Build set opens the shop’s: fully dimensioned elevations, the 3D line view, the cabinet schedule and the cut list. Print either one, or save it as a PDF from the print dialog. Pick Letter or Tabloid under Paper on the Room tab.
When the client asks for a change after they’ve seen it, press New revision, note what changed, and the letter moves on — A, B, on to Z, then AA — on every sheet. Duplicate makes a second option to show side by side. Archive puts a finished design away.
Step 13 · Bring in the shop
Invite the people who draw.
On Team, an owner or admin presses + Invite someone, types their email and picks a role. They get a link that works for 14 days, and the app shows the link to copy and send yourself as well. They set their own password and join your shop account, with the same clients, settings and title block.
- Designer — draws, and manages clients and designs.
- Admin — everything a designer does, plus the team, the shop’s details and billing.
- Owner — everything, including making other owners.
Step 14 · Drawing a closet instead
The same steps, with closet sections.
For a closet, pick Walk-in closet or Reach-in closet under Start from a shape. Then fill each wall from the Closet sections group: Double hang, Long hang, Shelf tower, Drawers + shelves, Drawer tower, doors above and Shoe shelves.
Turn corners with L corner shelves: open its details, pick the Corner it turns and the Leg on the next wall, and that wall’s sections start after the leg on their own. More on the closet design page; the printed sets are on shop drawings.
Answers
Tutorial questions
What people ask while drawing their first room.
Do I need CAD experience to use Cabinet Maker Pro?
No. You type wall lengths and pick cabinets from a list, the way you would write them on a measure sheet, and the plan, elevations, 3D room and cut list draw themselves. There is nothing to draw with a mouse.
Which wall is wall A?
Stand in the doorway: wall A is the one to your left as you walk in, and the walls go clockwise from there. Measure each one left to right as you face it.
How do I type measurements?
The way the tape reads. 34 1/2, 34-1/2, 2’ 10 1/2" and 12’ all work, and every size shows back as feet, inches and fractions to 1/16".
Can I practice without a real job?
Yes. Start a design with “no client yet”, draw the sample kitchen from the tutorial, and delete or archive it after. A design can be attached to a client later from its Room tab.
What do I do when a cabinet won’t fit?
Read the warning under the drawing: it names the cabinet by its plan number and says what is wrong, such as a run 2 1/2" too long. Narrow a cabinet, add or trim a filler, or move the run with From left until the warning clears.