Software — Drafting Millwork

Job ads for millwork drafters list software like a shopping list. The list hides a simpler picture. Every package in it does one of three jobs: it draws, it drives machines, or it coordinates a building. Know which job a package does and you know where you will meet it, who will ask you for it, and what it is worth learning first.

Three jobs, not six programs

Job	What the output is	Who reads it	Packages
Drawing	Sheets: plans, elevations, sections, details	Architect, contractor, shop, installer	AutoCAD, SketchUp with LayOut
Manufacturing	Cut lists, bills of material, machine code	The shop's machines and the people running them	Cabinet Vision, Microvellum
Coordination	A shared building model	Architects, engineers, other trades	Revit

SolidWorks sits across the first two: its maker sells it for product design and development, which is a different trade with overlapping needs.

The rest of this chapter takes each package in turn. Every description of what a product does comes from its maker's own pages, or a partner's page, read in September 2026. Those are sales pages. Treat them as the maker's claim, which is what they are.

AutoCAD: the drawing board

Maker: Autodesk. What it says it is: "computer-aided design (CAD) software that is used for precise 2D and 3D drafting, design, and modeling with solids, surfaces, mesh objects, documentation features, and more." Autodesk sells a cheaper sibling, AutoCAD LT, which it describes as 2D software; the full product adds 3D modelling, automation and add-on apps.

Where you meet it in millwork: almost everywhere a sheet is drawn. The file format, DWG, is what other packages promise to read: SketchUp Pro advertises "Enhanced IFC and DWG compatibility", and Revit says it imports and links common CAD formats. Microvellum runs inside it (below). The Architectural Woodwork Institute's in-person boot camp teaches an AutoCAD course "for woodworking applications", covering drawing creation, editing and dimensioning.

What it does not do on its own: it does not know what a cabinet is. A line is a line. Cut lists and machine code need a manufacturing layer on top, or a person re-entering the job.

Cost to learn: Autodesk says students and educators get free one-year educational access, renewable while eligible. On r/woodworking, one commenter recommends a community-college drafting course partly because students can get AutoCAD and Fusion 360 free.

Microvellum: manufacturing inside a CAD engine

What it says it is: Microvellum Toolbox "is built for AutoCAD and BricsCAD". It says it produces "fully customized shop drawings", "detailed 3D models", reports including "material usage and optimization, cut lists, and pricing", and "machine-ready code directly from your designs". It also says it integrates with the INNERGY ERP system.

What that means for a drafter: the drawing and the manufacturing data come from one model. You still work in a CAD environment you would recognise from AutoCAD, but the objects are cabinets and parts with construction rules, not loose lines. A drafter in a Microvellum shop draws what the machines will cut.

Why AutoCAD first helps here: the host program is AutoCAD or BricsCAD. The commands, the file handling and the sheet layout all come from the host.

Cabinet Vision: design to machine

Maker: Hexagon. What it says it is: on Blum's software-partner page, Cabinet Vision describes itself as "the most widely used design-for-manufacturing software", covering "custom cabinet and room design, photo realistic renderings, material optimization, bidding and costing, and cutlists and bill of materials." Its Screen-to-Machine (S2M) Center, it says, "automatically create[s] machine-ready G-Code" for CNC flat-table routers, point-to-point machines, panel saws, drill and dowel machines and chop saws.

"Most widely used" is the vendor's claim, and no independent market-share figure was found to test it. A practitioner on r/cabinetry holds the same impression and hedges it: Cabinet Vision "has always seemed to me" the segment leader, "probably because they captured the screen to machine marketing early on. I could be wrong."

What that means for a drafter: the same as Microvellum. The model is the production data. A mistake in the model is a mistake in every part the machines cut, which is why shops running this kind of software care who is allowed to change it.

The catch for a newcomer: each shop builds its own library of construction methods, materials and machine settings on top of the package. A commenter on r/cabinetry, arguing against a startup's plan to support every drafting package, put it as "So many different drafting packages out there and custom libraries for each shop." Knowing Cabinet Vision in one shop does not mean knowing another shop's Cabinet Vision. You learn the package; then you learn the shop's library.

SolidWorks: product design

Maker: Dassault Systèmes. What it says it is: "2D and 3D product development solutions" that help companies "design products better, faster, and more cost efficiently". Its encyclopedia entry describes it as parametric, feature-based solid modelling that runs on Windows.

Where it fits: parametric solid modelling suits objects made again and again with variations: store fixtures, furniture lines, metal components inside joinery. It is a mechanical design tool. No source was found that measures how many millwork shops use it, so this book does not guess. If a job ad asks for it, the shop likely makes repeatable products or works in metal as well as wood; ask at interview.

SketchUp: fast 3D, cheap entry

Maker: Trimble. Plans and prices as printed on SketchUp's pricing page, September 2026, billed annually:

Plan	Price per user per month	What the maker says it adds
Go	$10.75	iPad and web only; no desktop
Pro	$33.25	"Desktop 3D modeler", "2D design documentation with LayOut", "Enhanced IFC and DWG compatibility"
Studio	$71.58	Revit-to-SketchUp importer, photorealistic visuals; Windows only

Where you meet it: designers, small shops and clients' own sketches. On r/woodworking several commenters recommend it to beginners, and one praises how it lets them "manipulate the seed of an idea". Another calls it "basically backward from all the other 3D modeling programs, and way slower." Both are one person's experience.

What it is good for in this trade: learning to think in three dimensions for little money, and showing a client a massing model. The Pro plan's LayOut makes 2D sheets, but SketchUp on its own does not produce machine code or a shop's cut list.

Revit: the architect's model

Maker: Autodesk. What it says it is: software that "helps architects, engineers, and construction teams design, coordinate, and deliver projects". It lists "parametric components" for walls, doors and windows, and says it imports, exports and links IFC, 3DM, SKP, OBJ and STEP files.

Where you meet it: upstream. The architect or interior designer draws design intent in Revit, and you receive views, sheets, or sometimes the model. An interiors studio's published Revit template checklist shows how millwork looks from that side: a "Millwork Branch" for "enlarged joinery views", a "Millwork Takeoff" to "Calculate cabinetry linear meters/areas for pricing", and parametric casework families. That is design intent and quantity, not construction. The shop drawing still has to say how it is built.

When to learn it: when a project requires the millwork to go back into a coordinated building model, or when you are heading toward the architectural side of the fence. It is not the first tool for a shop drafter.

What the labour data sees, and what it misses

O*NET, the US Department of Labor's occupation database, lists example software for Architectural and Civil Drafters (17-3011.00). Its examples flagged as in demand include AutoCAD Civil 3D, Revit, Bentley MicroStation and SketchUp Pro. Neither Cabinet Vision nor Microvellum appears in that summary. That is not evidence they do not matter; it is evidence that general drafting data does not see millwork's manufacturing tools. The trade's software sits in the gap between drafting and production, and the public data counts only one side.

What software does to your pay

Honest answer: nobody has published it. No survey found for this book separates millwork drafter pay by the software used. The claim that manufacturing software "moves the number" is common and plausible, and it is not sourced here.

What can be said, from the descriptions above:

A drafter whose output is machine code does two jobs in one: the drawing and the data entry that would otherwise follow it. That is the argument for paying more. It is an argument, not a measurement.
A drafter whose output is sheets alone can be replaced by anyone who produces sheets, including an offshore vendor paid by the hour (chapter 30).
Skill in one shop's library does not transfer by itself. A drafter who understands construction transfers to any library faster than one who only knows the buttons.

Which one to learn first, with no experience

AutoCAD, then the manufacturing package of the shop that hires you. The reasons, each from a source above:

It is the common format. SketchUp Pro advertises DWG compatibility, and a shop's drawings and an architect's backgrounds commonly arrive as DWG files.
Microvellum runs inside it. Learning the host teaches half of one manufacturing package.
The trade body teaches it. AWI's boot camp includes an AutoCAD course for woodworking alongside CAM and CNC courses.
It is free to learn on through Autodesk's education access, if you are eligible.

Alongside it, spend a few evenings in SketchUp or AutoCAD's own 3D tools. The aim is not a second product on your CV. It is learning to see a cabinet as parts in space, which is the skill chapter 26 depends on.

Do not try to learn Cabinet Vision or Microvellum in the abstract before you have a job. Each shop's library is its own, and the shop will teach you theirs. What they cannot teach quickly is construction. The drafter on r/Millwork seven months into the job said it directly: the "biggest learning curve has been the overall construction of custom cabinets rather than AutoCAD skills."

A first-month plan

This is a suggested sequence, not a course from any source.

Week 1. AutoCAD basics: lines, polylines, offsets, trims, layers, blocks, dimension styles. Draw a plan and elevation of a single base cabinet from a tape-measured one in your own kitchen.
Week 2. Sections. Cut the same cabinet through the side, the drawer and the toe kick. Name every panel and its thickness as measured.
Week 3. Sheets. Lay out plan, elevation and sections on a titled, numbered sheet at scales that meet AWI 100's minimums (chapter 26 has the table).
Week 4. 3D. Model the same cabinet as solids. Generate views from it and compare them with your hand-drawn sheet. Note what the generated views missed.

At the end you have one object drawn four ways, a sheet for a portfolio (chapter 29), and an honest sense of which tool does what.

Checklist: reading a job ad's software list

Which of the three jobs does each named package do? A list of only drawing tools means the shop re-enters data or buys it elsewhere.
Does the shop run CNC from the software? Ask. It tells you whether your drawing is the production data.
Is Revit listed? Ask whether you receive models or produce them.
Is a manufacturing package listed without a library? Ask who maintains the shop's library, and whether you will be allowed to change it.
Does the ad ask for years in a specific package? A shop that trains on its own library may care more about construction knowledge. Ask which they would rather have.

Sources

Autodesk, AutoCAD product page, autodesk.com/products/autocad — description, AutoCAD LT difference, toolsets, free educational access. Claimed.
Autodesk, Revit product page, autodesk.com/products/revit — description, parametric components, file interoperability. Claimed.
Microvellum, microvellum.com — Toolbox built for AutoCAD and BricsCAD; shop drawings, reports, machine code, ERP integration. Claimed.
Blum, software partners: Hexagon CABINET VISION, blum.com/us/en/services/e-services/softwarepartners/cabinet-vision/ — description, "most widely used", S2M and G-code. Vendor text on a partner page. Claimed. The Hexagon product page itself sits behind a bot check and could not be read.
Dassault Systèmes, SOLIDWORKS, 3ds.com/products/solidworks — description. Claimed. Wikipedia, "SolidWorks" — parametric feature-based modelling, Windows. Reported.
Trimble, SketchUp plans and pricing, sketchup.trimble.com/en/plans-and-pricing, read 21 September 2026 — plans, prices, LayOut, DWG compatibility. Claimed (the seller's own prices; they change).
O*NET OnLine, 17-3011.00 Architectural and Civil Drafters, onetonline.org — example technology skills. Primary.
Architectural Woodwork Institute, In-Person Boot Camp, awinet.org/in-person-boot-camp/ — AutoCAD, CAM and CNC course descriptions. Primary (the trade body describing its own course).
albestudio.com, Revit Architecture & Interior Template Checklist v.01 — millwork branch, millwork takeoff, casework families. A design studio's free resource. Reported.
r/cabinetry, "Looking for a Millwork Shop to Partner With on Drafting Workflow Research" — Cabinet Vision as perceived leader; custom libraries per shop. Reported.
r/Millwork, "Millwork drafting" — construction, not AutoCAD, as the learning curve. Reported.
r/woodworking, "How did you learn to draft?" — SketchUp opinions; community-college student licences. Hobbyists. Reported.

Dropped for lack of a source: market share for any package; any pay premium by software; how many millwork shops use SolidWorks or Revit.