Materials

Material applied to components defines how a part will be handled by OpenCutList.

Applying Material

To distinguish between different wood species and types of materials, a Material must be applied to the components. A texture representing the actual material can be used, but this remains optional, as plain colors (including white) are sufficient.

If you have already defined a SketchUp material and maybe even applied it to your components, the material will automatically appear in the Materials section of OpenCutList, although it will not have any specific configuration.

OpenCutList will allow you to add a material and configure it directly, without having to first create it in SketchUp and then configure it.

Material Types

An OpenCutList material is a SketchUp material with a few additional attributes. OpenCutList defines the following five types of materials:

1. Solid Wood is rough lumber, usually available in specific thicknesses, but not in standardized lengths or widths. Because it may have defects (knots, cracks, discoloration, …), it is up to the woodworker to carefully choose the location of the parts inside such a material.

2. Sheet Good is lumber coming in sheets (MDF, Plywood, OSB, …). Such a material is not meant to be planed, just cut. It is a fairly homogeneous material where grain direction may (Plywood, OSB) or may not be important (MDF).

3. Dimensional is lumber coming in standardized cross sections and standardized lengths. Typically, such a material is only cut to length. Consider it as carpentry/construction lumber. If we were to use this wood for cheap furniture, we would make it Solid Wood, since we would probably rip and/or plane it first.

4. Veneer is a thin slice, in general of valuable wood, that is applied onto panels to obtain a nicer looking surface.

5. Edge Banding is a thin strip of material applied to the edges of parts made from less valuable core material like MDF or Plywood, to increase the durability of exposed edges and to make them look nicer.

6. Hardware is an accessory like a hinge, a drawer slide or pull, or any other non-wooden part.

You can apply a material to a component definition, by opening the component and applying the material to all its faces, or just by applying material to the selected instance. In the latter case, components with the same definition may have different material applied to them.

If you apply material to a group of components, OpenCutList will consider that all components have the specified material, if they do not already have a material. If you later ungroup the components, they will simply retain the material that was applied to the group. In this respect, OpenCutList behaves like SketchUp.

This behavior will be deactivated if you unselect "Smart Assignment..." in Options for Parts.

If you apply a material to only specific faces of a component, OpenCutList will consider this to be the material of the component (but only if "Smart Assignment..." has been selected in Options for Parts).

Configuring Materials

Materials must be configured to help OpenCutList produce the Part List. Each material type (as defined above) has its own specific set of configuration options. A material has a name, a color and a type. The name can describe a whole set of material. MDF, for instance, which is available in multiple thicknesses and sheet sizes, can be configured as a single material.

Once configured, the material can be exported to a *.skm file or a SketchUp collection, see Materials. The configured material can also be set as a default preset.

Solid Wood

Solid wood can be rough lumber or any lumber that will be ripped and planed to thickness. In addition to length and width oversize, a thickness oversize can be configured to account for warped, irregular boards. Soft or hardwood lumber is usually available in standard thicknesses (real, not nominal).

Sheet Good

Sheet goods like MDF, Plywood and OSB are available in various sizes and thicknesses. A single material can describe all variants.

• a length and a width oversize can be applied to each part to be placed onto a panel.

• a standard thickness (multiple values possible) in real dimension (not nominal).

• a standard size of the sheets (multiple values possible) in real dimensions (not nominal). The first dimension is length by convention, the second dimension is width.

• presence or absence of a grain direction. Grain direction always runs along the length, i.e. the first dimension of the panel.

Dimensional

Dimensional lumber is often used in construction. It is characterized by a standard section (width x thickness, multiple values) and available in standard lengths. A length oversize parameter can be set to account for rough dimensions.

Veneer

Veneer has a thickness, a length and width oversize and may have a grain direction. It usually comes in sheets.

Edge Banding

Edge Banding has a thickness, a length oversize and a standard length (multiple values possible). It is also available in standard width (multiple values possible).

Reduce applies to the dimension of the part the edge banding is applied to. When No Reduction is selected, the part will not be trimmed. If Reduce by Edge Banding Thickness is selected, the part's dimension will be reduced by the thickness of the edge banding.

Common Attributes

Density and Price may be configured for all four types of materials. These values are used in Reports, to calculate the weight and price of the raw material needed for a project.

Hardware

Hardware is handled quite differently from the other types of material, because there are no parameters to configure here. For each type of hardware you will use, add a distinct material. For example, dominos to use Dominos. Now you can assign this material to any component and OpenCutList will consider this component to be a Domino and list all components of this type in a same group. Edit the properties of each part to add Packaging, Price and Weight if you want to use the Report feature.

By drawing simple dowels and assigning the material dominos, OpenCutList will provide you with the total number of Dominos needed for the project. If you buy your Dominos in packs of 1000, but you only need 80, OpenCutList will inform you that 920 will not be used.

Adding and Configuring Textures

Textures can be added from SketchUp or directly from OpenCutList. The tab Texture of the properties of a material lets you select a texture picture.

This feature was introduced in version 5.0.0. Before, textures had to be added using SketchUp.

Textures can be rotated in 90° steps and their width and height can be defined.

Textures in OpenCutList

Saving and Importing Material

You may save the configured material for use in future projects. OpenCutList lets you export each material to its own file with extension .skm. So, you can use the same material (including all parameters associated with it) in another model.

OpenCutList will save the material in a subfolder of your profile, so that it can be reused in another project or shared with other users.

If you import a material with the same name as a material already present in the folder, the import will be silently ignored (which is SketchUp's behavior).

Duplicating Material

To duplicate a given material (including its OpenCutList attributes), open the Properties of Material window and click on Duplicate. Enter a new name for the copy. If you don't change the name, a new unique name based on the old name will be given.

Removing Material

You may directly delete a material from OpenCutList.

Removing a material from the OpenCutList Materials tab will also remove it from the SketchUp model and apply the default material to all parts which had the deleted material.

Purging Unused Material

You may also purge unused material similarly to Window -> Model Info -> Statistics. However since the extension relies on a SketchUp function, if an unused material is currently selected in the material tray, OpenCutList cannot delete it.