From the Tech Vault Dept.: I can’t find tearsheets for this piece, which I wrote for Computer Life magazine in 1995 or so. This means you’re spared the step-by-step illustrations, which is just as well. This is a completely outdated piece of software put out by a company that, as far as I can tell, no longer exists. And anyway, your kitchen is just fine.
THE CONTROVERSY STARTED SHORTLY before Thanksgiving. “We need a new stove,” my wife declared. We both used to cook professionally and never have been happy with consumer-grade kitchen appliances. “We’ll look for a restaurant stove,” I said. “A used one.”
You don’t want to hear the whole saga. It started with a used stove, sure, for a great price. But it turned out to be fitted for natural gas, as opposed to propane. And my rural town only has propane available. So that would mean a costly upgrade. Still, the upgrade was cheaper than a new stove. Or so I thought, until I saw a nice new one finished with stainless steel that would look terrific in our kitchen-to-be. So we upped the budget a bit, learning as we did so that we’d also need a hood and exhaust system, and the price tag grew.
We got the stove in and it threw everything else out of whack. All the elements of a kitchen work together--a good kitchen is practically organic. But now our traffic patterns were confused. And with six burners to help us cook the extravaganzas we like to prepare, we knew we’d need to up our kitchen to two sinks and three workstations.
It’s a layout program that lets you arrange cabinets and appliances on a floor-plan grid, but it also goes way beyond that. A 3D View window lets you walk through the kitchen, seeing the shapes and colors of your new plan. All aspects of the component items can be modified. And there are design aids – include full-motion video tutorials – to help you through the process.
You’ll want a fairly speedy machine to run this program – it really flew on a Pentium 120, but I had good results on a 486-33. It’s optimized to run under Windows 95, but if you install it to a Windows 3.1 machine, you get the option to load some extra files (called Win32s) that will speed operation.
We’ll take a tour through the program, setting up a simple kitchen layout. It’s what my kitchen will turn into when I’m ready to get all those new cabinets. But as you get familiar with the program, you’ll want to explore the more advanced options.
Budgeting, for example. You can assign a price to each item – suggested prices are even supplied – and get a good idea what the finished kitchen will cost (it can be scary, especially if you share my wife’s ambition to put expensive tile on the floor). Budget sheets can be altered in a special window, and you can print the result.
Call up the design guide and you get a book that’s sectioned to cover room layout, cabinetry, appliances, color and style, and such details as sinks, faucets, counters, floors, and lighting and electrical matters. A guide to business issues, the last section of the book, explains how to contract the work out to professional consultants, and even provides a standard contract form so you can be sure you’re legally protected. There’s also a listing of resources to help you find hard-to-get items.
Even if you decide to work with a design consultant, 3D Kitchen helps you articulate your own ideas. And, because it was put together with a professional kitchen designer, it teaches you the things a consultant would tend to look to do with your kitchen.
We haven’t reached that point in my household just yet. We’re still recovering from the stove expense. But now we know where everything else is going to go. And it’s uncanny to watch that kitchen come together. What started as bare walls and couple of appliances turned into the room I seem to spend half my life in when I switched over to the 3D View. There’s my new stove and hood, there’s the old sink – and there’s where the new one will be.
Next I’m going to go through and add more details. A spice rack, I think, and maybe a display of flowers over on the counter there. All of which you can do with this program. In fact, about the only missing is the pleasant aroma of garlic and onions that starts off many of my meal preparations.
Step 1: Install the software
If you’re running Windows 95, insert the 3D Kitchen CD into your CD-ROM drive. A window will open with options to run or install the program. Click Install. Confirm the destination directory (C:\BTW), then choose the type of installation: Minimal, which requires no hard disk space, runs the program entirely from the CD--but it’s excruciatingly slow. Partial needs 9 MB of disk space and is a good compromise if you have a fast machine. If you have lots of disk space, chose Complete. That copies 95 MB of info to your hard disk, but it runs like a breeze. Uncheck the Background Music option or you’ll hear 20 seconds of nerve-wracking music repeated endlessly. If you’re running Windows 3.1, place the 3D Kitchen CD in your CD-ROM drive. Pull down the File menu, select Run, and type D:\SETUP (substituting your CD-ROM’s drive letter if it isn’t D:). You’ll be presented with the same options as above, with the additional choice of installing Win32s and Video for Windows files to speed performance. Do so if they’re not already installed.
Step 2: Choose a kitchen outline
When you first start 3D kitchen, it will prompt you to choose a layout from its Jump Start screen, which displays ten different layouts – five finished, five unfinished. Click on an unfinished layout that resembles your kitchen’s dimensions and click OK. You’ll see two side-by-side windows – Top View, which is where you do your planning, and 3D, which lets you take a virtual walk around the room. Close the 3D window. It insists on updating every time you change something, which can be maddeningly slow.
TIP: If you want to start over in mid-session, pull down the File menu and select New. This will give you the Jump Start menu again.
Step 3: Add some appliances
While in Top View mode, click the Appliances button. You’ll see a ribbon of items near the top of the screen. Click on the stove icon and drag it to the floor plan. You’ll then be shown a Spec Sheet window that gives more detail: style (four-burner, six-burner), color, and size. Standard sizes are given by default, but if you’re planning to add unusually-sized appliances, you can change the dimensions on the Spec Sheet. Confirm or change the price, too, so your budget adds up correctly. When you’ve make your selections, click OK. Repeat the process for your refrigerator, dishwasher, and so on.
TIP: If you want to bring up an item’s Spec Sheet later in the design process, click once on the item to highlight it, then click the right mouse button and choose Spec Sheet.
Step 4: Put in your cabinets
Click the Cabinetry button and the ribbon changes to display both floor-standing and hanging cabinets. Click and drag the desired items to the floor plan, fine-tuning each of them with the Spec Sheet as you go. Remember to keep the dimensions and pricing as accurate as possible. Add your wall cabinets by clicking and dragging them right on top of any floor-standing item; they’re automatically placed 54 inches above the floor. You can change the height or other dimensions in the Spec Sheet window that pops up.
Step 5: Draw a 3D view
Click the 3D button at the left side of the screen. This opens and automatically updates the 3D window, which gives you a sense of the true layout of your kitchen. A series of navigation controls along the top ribbon let you move in various directions; you can also click and drag the mouse across the 3D window to change your view. To fine tune your 3D view, pull down the Windows menu and choose Arrange Side by Side. Any change you make in the Top View window is immediately reflected in the 3D View.
Everything You Need for This Project: 486 or higher PC running Windows 95 or Windows 3.1
CD-ROM drive
Do’s:
Install as much of the program to your hard disk as possible
Keep your measurements accurate
Run the design tutorials – they’re fun!
Don’ts:
Don’t run the 3D View window all the time – it updates too slowly.
Don’t try to cram too many appliances into a galley space
Don’t go nuts with green.
3D Kitchen
Sugg. street price, $50
Books That Work
2300 Geng Road
Bldg 3, Suite 100
Palo Alto, CA 94303
1-800-xxx-xxxx
– Computer Life, c. 1995
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