OpenCutList
English
Search…
⌃K

Introduction

This document explains how to use OpenCutList, a SketchUp Extension. It is intentionally kept very brief to make it easier to translate.
The present documentation is currently work in progress and may change frequently. Translations may be provided at a later date.
This documentation applies to OpenCutList Version 5.0.0 and higher. Some features may not be available in older versions of OpenCutList. Not all features are available in all versions of SketchUp, because of incompatibilities with newer libraries.
We assume that the reader is familiar with SketchUp.

What is OpenCutList?

OpenCutList is a tool for creating Parts Lists, Cutting Diagrams, Printable Lists of Labels, Cost and Weight Estimates and Exploded Views for woodworking projects designed in SketchUp.
Cutting Diagram

Approach

OpenCutList extracts the bounding boxes from SketchUp components (not groups) or selection of components in a scene in order to compute length, width and thickness of all visible parts of a model. The interpretation of length, width and thickness is either
  • automatic by assuming that the greatest dimension is the length and the smallest dimension is the thickness (see Options).
  • defined by convention, so that the length is read on the red local axis, the width on the green local axis and the thickness is read on the blue local axis.
You may change this behavior for a single part and fix length, width and thickness in the part properties.
Defining front and back of a part is not always necessary, but in certain cases it becomes very important. We defined the front face to be the face that is most positive on the thickness axes, while the least positive face will be considered the back face.
By applying SketchUp material to the components and configuring its parameters, OpenCutList will find the best raw material matching the dimensions of the Part and efficiently compute a Parts List. For certain types of material, Cutting Diagrams can be computed. Reports with material and cost summaries can also be generated.
Further explanations about the way OpenCutList works are available under Components.
OpenCutList was written for use in woodworking projects, but may be suited for other trades and projects as well.

For the Impatient

A list of FAQ in this documentation answers common questions.
Links to video tutorials on YouTube are directly available from within OpenCutList.
For users willing and able to read French a good entry point is the Blog L'Air du Bois and L'Air du Bois on Youtube.

Open Source

OpenCutList is Open Source Software (hosted on github) developed by Boris Beaulant and Martin Müller of L'Air du Bois, a french-speaking woodworker exchange platform. Thanks to a dedicated team of translators working on Transifex, we are able to offer this extension in many languages.
If you notice an incorrect term or if you have a better one, please send us an email (using the Bug Report button).

Financial Contributions

We have an OpenCollective account, where supporters can make a financial contribution to support and encourage our work.