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Thread: Cutting plan software
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16th February 2008, 10:14 PM #1
Cutting plan software
What type of software do people use to optimise their cutting plans onto plywood sheets for example?
eg: you type in your sheet size and then the sizes of various pieces for your project and the software will come up with a cutting plan.
I have tried Smartcutpro 2 but that seems to crash too often on my pc.
Any other names that have been tried and found to be good?
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16th February 2008, 11:13 PM #2
A piece of paper and a pencil along with a calculator just to make sure the measurements add up. You can draw the best way to cut the sheet with out too many corners that waste material.
Thats the way I've done it for 25 years in my job. I also find that it is quicker than the computer too, once you get used to it.
RobertCheck my facebook:rhbtimber
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17th February 2008, 01:05 AM #3
I do most of my complex designs in AutoCAD LT (the cheaper version, but thoroughly adequate). Make each piece as a contiguous "block," and shift around to fit the sheet (plywood, aluminium, etc.). Sometimes even draw a piece of large scrap on hand to use as the parent sheet. Optimising software, including my brainware, may assume a completely free-form cutter, such as a jig saw. This doesn't work very well for linear cutters such as a table saw, circular saw, cutoff wheel in a right-hand grinder, or tin snips. In this case, it helps to draw the linear cuts themselves so as to avoid cutting through a future piece not yet cut.
JoeOf course truth is stranger than fiction.
Fiction has to make sense. - Mark Twain
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17th February 2008, 08:56 AM #4
Have you tried googling optimizing software? Some of those programs let you draw the part and then optimize it all in one. Biesse works is one. Don't think there's any free stuff out there but you may get lucky.
You could also try drawing scaled sized parts on the computer or on graph paper and then fitting them in an area drawn to represent the sheet...
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17th February 2008, 11:55 AM #5
Here's a link to a web page that has links to whole heap of options:
http://www.woodweb.com/Resources/RSS...onnection.html
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17th February 2008, 09:01 PM #6
wow, thanks for the all that info, there goes my spare time.
I used smartcut pro the other day and put in a plan from woodsmith magazine for the router table and used the size plywood they suggested and then i changed to different sizes to see how many of these smaller sheets i would need (mainly because i couldn't be bothered hitching the trailer to bring home a 2400 x 1200 sheet.
Well long story short, i priced out all these other sheets 1200 x 900 x three sheets, 1200 x 600 x four sheets and 900 x 600 x five sheets and then totalled then up, $81.27, $74.20 and $70.20 or just $42 for the original 2400 x 1200, guess i'm hitching up the trailer next weekend.
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18th February 2008, 12:40 AM #7Of course truth is stranger than fiction.
Fiction has to make sense. - Mark Twain
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