Automatic cutting and the cutting map

Automatic cutting arranges the order parts across the material sheets so that there is as little waste as possible. The layout is built by the optimizer; the result is shown as a cutting map — a diagram of the sheets with the parts.

Starting automatic cutting

Cutting is started from the project. Before the calculation the project is checked for errors: if there are empty or incorrect parts, cutting will not start and the list of errors opens.

Every part is also checked to make sure it fits within the full sheet size of its material, taking a possible 90° rotation into account. If a part physically does not fit on any sheet, the calculation does not start at all: you immediately see a clear message about which part fails and why, instead of a long calculation that used to end with a cryptic error.

The calculation itself runs as a background task, and its progress is shown in the “Cutting status” window:

• Status — “Waiting…”, “Processing…”, “Completed” or “Error”; while the task is processing, a progress bar runs below the rows;
• Running time — a timer counting from the launch, and Started — the time the task began;
• Server — which calculation server the task is processed on;
• Attempt — how many times the platform has polled the server for a result (once per second);
• Queue position and Approximately left — when the server reports the queue and a time estimate;
• the error text — right in the window if the calculation failed (for example, a part is bigger than the sheet, or no material is set).

The result is awaited for no longer than two minutes: if the server has not answered by then, the window shows a timeout error. The wait can be interrupted with the “Cancel” button — no map is built and the order stays as it was.

What the cutting map shows

The map is a set of material sheets. Each sheet is shown separately, with its material and the number of identical sheets. Placed on the sheet are:

• parts — with their length and width sizes, in their positions on the sheet;
• business leftovers — free pieces of the sheet, highlighted separately (more in the «Material leftovers» section);
• CNC operations inside the part — drillings, grooves, milling, edge trimming, through holes and others;
• edge banding on the sides of the parts — in a summary edge table with a marking, name and quantity.

Dimensions are shown on the parts and on the leftovers the platform has calculated. A business leftover is labeled with its owner (“Company leftover” or “Customer leftover”) and its size; a leftover with no owner assigned is simply labeled “Leftover” and its size; a leftover marked as unusable carries the size and a “do not use” note. Whether a piece of the sheet counts as a leftover at all is decided by the firm’s production settings: minimum leftover size along X, along Y and minimum area. If the piece fails any one of the thresholds, the platform does not turn it into a leftover and marks it as waste. Hover over the sheet: hatching appears over the empty zones with the size, the area and the reason the piece did not become a business leftover, and the firm’s own thresholds are printed above the map. Strips narrower than 20 mm are not highlighted — those are saw cuts and trimming, not waste. The thresholds are edited by the firm’s administrator in the admin panel, section “Cutting”.

The totals are shown twice: above the maps — a combined total for all materials of the order, and under the last map of a material — a total for that material, if it ended up with several maps. Both list the same figures: the number of sheets, the area of the parts, the area of the business leftovers, the area of the material taken, the net area, the net loss, the number of trimming cuts and the amount of cutting. Every individual map has its own figures too — they unfold when you click the material line in its header.

The area of the material taken is the area of the sheets that went into production. The net area is the same figure minus the business leftovers: a leftover returns to the warehouse and does not count as a loss. The net loss is the share of the material taken that went neither into parts nor into business leftovers — offcuts, the saw kerf and the trimming. The share is measured against the material taken, so a map where almost the whole sheet became a business leftover does not produce an inflated percentage. When there are no sheets in the calculation (linear goods), a dash is shown instead of a percentage.

What the cutting takes into account

When laying out, the optimizer takes the production parameters of the material into account:

• the saw kerf — the thickness of the saw cut that is «eaten» between parts;
• the trimming of the sheet edges — the trim along the edge before cutting;
• the cut direction — free or strictly along one axis;
• the rotation of the part — whether a part may be turned 90° (depends on the material direction, the texture);
• the minimum size of a business leftover — pieces smaller than it do not go into leftovers.

The cutting map is built from the saw commands — the very ones the sheet is cut by on the machine. That is why the pieces no longer drift against the sheet by the trim cut plus the kerf, and a piece is labelled with the exact strip its command takes off. The bookkeeping nominal of a leftover does not change: in the order tables and in the leftovers warehouse it stays as it was. The map is drawn the same way on screen and in the printout.

Printing the map

The ready map can be sent to print — the print button opens a window with options:

• Cutting maps only — printing just the sheet diagrams; the part breakdown can be added as well;
• full print — with extra blocks: edge information and a summary of the cutting maps, CNC operations statistics, a choice of specific cutting maps and the part breakdown.

You can choose which sheets to print and, for each, whether the part breakdown is needed. The «Send» button generates the document for printing.

Only usable leftovers make it onto the printed map. An offcut the platform did not recognize as a business leftover is not printed at all: it has no frame, no label and no dimensions, and it is left out of the part breakdown as well — its place stays an unoccupied area of the sheet (the sheet background is hatched on the printout). A business leftover, on the contrary, is printed as a frame with a note of whose it is and with its dimensions. For mirrored countertop maps, the edge letters flip together with the map, so the edge on the printout matches the edge on the machine. All dimensions on the maps are rounded to 0.1 mm. For parts with a set grain direction, a two-way arrow is printed in the corner of the part — the saw operator sees the grain orientation right on the map.

If a finished layout needs to be corrected — moving parts, adding a sheet, taking a part off a sheet and placing it differently — this is done in the manual cutting editor.