Wardrobe Drawings and Client Revisions in TopSolid Wood | Draftsman's Day Part 2
The Model: Built from Library Components
The wardrobe is assembled from reusable library components, grouped by layer:
Two carcasses with drawers below
A shelving area and a hanging rail
LED lighting, with a push-back zone above to house the LED driver, positioned to suit the existing cable and socket on the wall
Doors and drawer fronts with an integrated J-pull finger detail
Because each component is parametric, sizes, gaps and positions update automatically when the design changes.
What a First-Draft Drawing Needs (and What It Doesn't)
The first draft sent to the client was just two pages:
Front views with and without doors, the LED outlined, how the out-of-square wall is handled, and the J-pull dimensions.
Internal layout and a floor-plan section: push-back and LED driver location, fixed shelf with LED below, adjustable shelves, and drawers.
The dimensions focus on what the client cares about: overall height and width, plinth, clearance to the door, internal drawer height, hanging height, upper storage height, and shelf quantities. Panel sizes, hinge positions and detailed sections come later, in the final production drawings. A first draft answers one question: how big is it, and how much storage do I get?
The Client's Changes
As almost always happens, the client came back with revisions:
One large drawer at the bottom of the tall door section, with the door shortened above it
The shelving converted into ventilated shoe storage
Making the Revisions in TopSolid Wood
Each change reuses an existing component rather than drawing from scratch.
A new drawer in minutes
The tall door is resized and its handle stays in place. A drawer front is copied from an existing component and dropped into the driving block; it picks up the parametric 30 mm floor gap automatically. A finger pull component is copied in, snapped to the centre of the new front and subtracted to cut the J-pull. A fixed shelf and a large drawer box on 550 mm runners complete the change.
Ventilated shoe shelves
Shoe storage needs airflow, so two details were added:
Shelf fronts set back 35 mm from the face of the carcass
A scoop cut out of the back edge of each shelf, 50 mm in from each side with 6 mm radius corners, creating a vertical ventilation path
The scoop is made with a Boolean subtract: a panel component is placed as a cutting tool and removed from the shelf. Shelf quantity is then set to six, and hinge clearances are checked.
The whole revision took around ten to fifteen minutes, including updating the drawing dimensions.
Revisions Mean Budget Conversations
Revisions are part of every bespoke job. Each one has a cost: an extra drawer can add around 250 or more depending on the drawer system and finish, and an additional custom-veneered front with a machined finger pull needs extra time and care. Clear revision drawings make that conversation with the client easier.
Coming Up Next
Once the client approves this revision, the drawings move towards production: at least one more page, extra sections and hinge positions. Watch the full episode on YouTube and subscribe to follow the Draftsman's Day series.
