Manual cutting editor

The manual cutting editor is a visual editor in which the parts are laid out on the material sheets by hand. It is needed when a finished layout has to be adjusted: to move a part, add a sheet, or take a part off a sheet and place it differently.

Opening the editor

The editor opens for a specific order and always with a finished map: the cut is produced on its own, and the operator edits its result. If the order has no map yet, the editor starts the cut as it opens, so it never stays empty. Parts end up in the list on the left not because the cut “did not cope”, but when the operator takes them off a sheet or adds a new material to the order. As long as at least one part is off the sheets, the bottom button is «Cut» instead of «Save» — it sends those parts to be cut and brings back an updated map. And if a part does not fit any sheet of its material, it never gets as far as the editor: the order shows a calculation error with the reason.

Interface

• the parts list — the parts not laid out yet, with sizes and a quantity counter;
• the working area — the material sheets on which the parts are laid out;
• the sheet previews — thumbnails of all the sheets;
• the material selector — if the order has several materials, you switch between them.

Every part in the stack on the left now has buttons for printing, preview and placing the part on the sheet in a rotated orientation. While dragging a part onto the sheet, the mouse wheel rotates it — no need to click «Rotate» separately. Double-sided (joined) parts are not colour-coded here — their fill is the same as on any other part; the beige highlight only exists on the cutting map. In the editor they are marked by a blue label shown instead of the running number: “PD N” is the base part, “PD N-F” is the face (front) overlay and “PD N-B” the back one. N is the same for every piece of one joined part, so the halves match up by it, while the F/B suffix tells you outright which side you are looking at. The label is shown both in the stack on the left and on the part itself on the sheet; the stack search uses it too — “PD 3”, “pd3f” or simply “3”. The saw kerf in the editor is read-only and comes from the production equipment settings, so discrepancies between the on-screen map and the machine are ruled out. A hint toggle that remembers its state and a separate help window let you learn the editor without training.

Placing the parts

A part is dragged from the list onto a sheet: while dragging, a semi-transparent outline of the part is shown under the cursor, and if it fits a free zone — you release it and the part snaps into place. The quantity in the list decreases accordingly.

• Rotation — a part can be turned 90° (if the material allows it by the texture);
• Click on a placed part — opens a small menu of actions for it: “Rotate” (turns the part 90° in place) and “Remove (to stack)” (takes it off the sheet back to the list on the left);

Precise positioning by coordinates is done with the «X,Y» button in the top panel — it sits immediately to the right of the «Magnet» toggle and is always available, there is no need to switch the magnet off (the button only hides while the cutting is being recalculated). Clicking it opens a window: pick a part from those not laid out yet and a sheet, enter the X and Y of the top-left corner in millimetres and, if needed, tick «Rotate 90°» — a part with grain has no such checkbox. Right there, in grey, the allowed X and Y ranges for the selected part-and-sheet pair are shown, and input is validated on the fly: it reads «Fits» or «The part does not fit at this point.» / «Coordinates out of range.», and the «Place» button stays inactive until the coordinates are valid. This is useful when a part must sit in an exact spot — for example, over a specific grain area or a sheet defect.

The «Magnet» toggle itself only affects dragging with the mouse: with it ON the part snaps to the corner of a free zone, with it OFF it stays exactly where it was dropped, centred on the drop point.

Sheet operations

• Add a sheet — the «+ Sheet» button opens the «Add a sheet» window. It lists the free leftovers of your firm's warehouse for this material — size, quantity and leftover number — and at the bottom there is a «+ Whole sheet» button with the catalogue dimensions. A leftover already added to the current cutting is shown in grey with the mark «already in the cutting» and cannot be picked twice. When there are no free leftovers, the window says so: «No free leftovers — only a whole sheet is available». For a client material the window does not open at all: a whole sheet is added straight away, because client materials are not kept in the firm's warehouse. A trim is laid in automatically along the edges of the new sheet;
• Rotate a sheet — changes the sheet orientation, the layout is recalculated;
• Delete a sheet — all the parts on it return to the list.

Note: there is no separate undo of actions — a part is returned to the list by a click, and for a complete reset the layout is cleared entirely.

The «Merge offcuts» button rearranges the sheet's free zones so that instead of several small scraps you get one large usable offcut — the option is offered only if it is strictly better than the current layout (fewer offcut zones, fewer cuts, a smaller total cut length), and it never exceeds the machine's saw-turn limit. Clicking a narrow strip where no part fits no longer opens an empty list — the system redirects you to the nearest offcut where the part will actually fit.

Several materials

If the order is of several materials, the working area shows only the sheets of the selected material. Switching the material changes the set of sheets; the count of unplaced parts is kept for the whole order.

Saving and re-cutting

At the bottom of the editor one of two buttons appears — depending on whether all the parts are laid out:

• «Save» — shown when all the parts are laid out. Saves the manual layout as the order's cutting map and closes the editor: the cart the cutting was started from opens;
• «Cut» — shown when some parts are not placed yet. Hands the remaining parts to the optimizer, which cuts them itself; after the calculation the editor refreshes with the ready layout and the «Save» button appears.

If a map is saved from this editor, the order is automatically marked «Manual cutting»: an icon appears in all order lists, and the order card and the order form show a large red «ATTENTION! MANUAL CUTTING» banner. The mark is removed automatically if the cutting is later fully recalculated automatically.

How to start automatic cutting and what the ready map shows — in the article «Automatic cutting and the cutting map». The business leftovers that stay on the sheets are described in the «Material leftovers» section.