The hardest part of a custom kitchen isn't building the cabinets. It's getting the doors right.
I've worked with Cabinet Vision for many years — long enough to watch hundreds of custom kitchens go from "client signed off" to "doors arrived from the manufacturer," and long enough to know that the door spec is where a lot of those projects bleed time and accuracy.
A typical door order has to capture at least six things correctly (some shops require more): style, profile, panel type, edge detail, species or finish, and exact dimensions. Each of those lives in a different mental model — the designer's, the shop's, and the door manufacturer's — and they all have to converge on a single set of values that ends up in the manufacturer's catalog format. Most of the time it works. When it doesn't, the kitchen gets delayed by weeks while the wrong door comes back from the manufacturer.
How It Usually Looks
One of my recent clients filled out their door order form by hand on a PDF. They emailed the completed PDF to their Cabinet Vision engineer, who re-entered the same numbers into CV to set up the job. Two careful people, one form, copied twice — and every transcription is a chance for the wrong door to show up six weeks later.
So I built a tool to compress that workflow into a single step.
The Demo
It's a single-page door order form with live 3D. Pick a door, choose a finish, and the door appears in the preview. Change the door, the finish, or the species, and the model updates in real time. Sherwin Williams 7012 Creamy and Benjamin Moore HC-172 Revere Pewter render side-by-side at the click of a swatch. This is what we call runtime paint-swap: a single 3D model whose surface re-colors at viewing time, instead of a separate model for every paint variant. Tap "View in AR" on a phone and the door appears at full scale in your room, against your wall, lit by your actual light.
When you're happy with the spec, the form exports an ORDX file (Order XML — Cabinet Vision's standard import format for cabinet and door orders) that loads directly into your CV install and preloads the job with the customer data and the door selections. No double entry. No transcription errors. The same form the customer touched becomes the job the engineer opens.
Try the door order form demo — modellink3d.com/demos/door-order-form-demo.
It runs on three doors right now: Chester and Chester Glass in 17 paint colors, plus Chester in white oak stain. It's a whitelabel demo — the catalog name is generic, the demo customer is fictional — because the point is to prove the workflow, not to commit to a specific manufacturer.
Where Runtime Paint-Swap Goes Beyond Doors
The technology underneath the demo isn't door-specific. It runs on any 3D model that follows a simple material-naming convention, and it works in AR. The same machinery can render cabinets, islands, furniture, hardware — anything you can model in SketchUp and export to glTF (the web-standard 3D format). The door order form is one specific surface; the capability underneath is much broader.
It's also the working prototype for the next major feature of ModelLink 3D™, the AR platform I've been building. The conceptual frame for that work — treating 3D models as full assets rather than raw files — is laid out in an earlier post on 3DF, p3DF, and ModelLink 3D. A provisional patent has been filed on the runtime paint-swap technique; the non-provisional is queued for next year.
What's Next for the Door Order Form
More to come. I'm working with a small group of cabinet shops on tailored versions of this for specific workflows. As that progresses, I'll share what we learn.
Common Questions
What is the door order form?
A single-page web tool for spec'ing cabinet doors. You choose a door style, finish, and species, see the door in 3D, place it at full scale in your room via AR on a phone, and export the spec as an ORDX file that imports directly into Cabinet Vision — preloading the job with the customer data and door selections.
Does it work with Cabinet Vision?
Yes. The form's output is an ORDX file in Cabinet Vision's 2025 import format. Importing it preloads the job with the customer info and door selections — no double entry, no transcription. The current public demo uses a generic catalog placeholder; tailored versions for specific manufacturers are being built with cabinet shops as part of an ongoing pilot.
What is runtime paint-swap?
A 3D model with one re-colorable surface, rather than one separate model per paint variant. The viewer recolors the door surface at viewing time when you pick a new color — one model, all colors. This is what makes a 17-color paint catalog practical without storing 17 separate models, and the same technique scales to any surface that needs runtime color or texture changes.
Can I try it?
Yes — the live demo runs at modellink3d.com/demos/door-order-form-demo. Three doors right now (Chester and Chester Glass with 17 paint colors, plus Chester in white oak stain). Any modern browser works; AR works on iOS and Android phones.
Thoughts or questions? Email me.