This document explains how to get the most out of OpenCutList, a SketchUp Extension. It is intentionally kept very brief to make it easier to translate.

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.

The Best SketchUp CutList Plugin :-)

Approach

A certain number of assumptions had to be made in order to make OpenCutList useful. The interpretation of length, width and thickness, as well as which side of a part is the front face and which one is the back face have to be agreed upon. Material information is provided in the form of SketchUp material, enhanced by OpenCutList attributes. Furthermore, a classification of the material helps the tool take advantage of the specificities of each type of material. Processing will be different depending on the type of materials (for example, Sheet Goods compared to Solid Wood (Rough Lumber)).

Dimension and Orientation of Parts

OpenCutList extracts the bounding boxes from SketchUp components (not groups!) or a selection of components in a scene, in order to compute the lengths, widths and thicknesss of these visible parts of the model. The interpretation of length, width and thickness can be or two types:

• automatic, so that the greatest dimension is the length and the smallest dimension is the thickness (see Options); or

• defined from the local axes, so that the length is read on the red local axis, the width on the green local axis, and the thickness on the blue local axis.

The actual behavior may be specified for each part, and its length, width and thickness defined in the properties of the part.

Defining the front and back of a part is not always necessary, but may be very important in certain cases. The front face is defined as most positive along the thickness axis, and the back face as the least positive face.

Material of Parts

By applying SketchUp material to the components and configuring its parameters, OpenCutList is able to 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. Estimates with material and cost summaries can also be generated.

Further explanations on how OpenCutList works are available under Components.

OpenCutList was written for use in woodworking projects, but may be suitable 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 French-speaking users, two good entry points are 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 woodworking exchange platform. Thanks to a dedicated team of translators working on Transifex, this extension is available in many languages.

Financial Contributions

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

History

OpenCutList started with its first commit on GitHub on December 3, 2016. The idea was first announced on the French site L'Air du Bois: Un autre plugin Sketchup pour les fiches de débit ?

Team

Boris Beaulant

Boris was a game programmer in another life. He switched to furniture design and making more than 10 years ago. His professional website is Boris Beaulant.

Shortly after he began his career as a furniture designer, he also initiated and programmed the website L'Air du Bois, a French collaborative woodworking platform.

Boris is the creator and main developer of OpenCutList.

Martin Müller

Martin's background is in system and network administration. A graduate from the University of New Mexico in Computer Science (though it was quite some time ago), he likes algorithms and data science. He is currently working part-time on the project, as a scientific assistant.

He is the main developer of the cutting diagram algorithms and manages the translator team.

Translators

The core team takes care of the French, German and English versions. The versions in other languages are contributed by volunteers. These contributions are invaluable, as automated translation of specialized software like OpenCutList would be ineffective!

Sponsoring

The development and support of OpenCutList requires a lot of time from us developers, as we strive to provide a very qualitative product and want it to continue evolving.

To give OpenCutList users the opportunity to show their appreciation by supporting financially the project, we have created a collective on OpenCollective.

Financial goals for the funding (and development!) of the next version are periodically set, and it usually takes 1 or 2 months from the call for financing to the delivery of the release (see also OpenCollective Updates).

Compatibility

All new features are compatible with SketchUp 2017+.

Export Parts

Version 6.0 introduces a smart way of exporting part drawings to:

• 3D - STL or OBJ files.

• 2D - SVG or DXF files.

We wanted to cover different use cases, which is why exporting parts is available from several locations.

• From Parts List and Part Properties through export actions.

• From a new Smart Export Tool, similar to the Smart Paint and Smart Axes Tool.

Export Actions

With export actions, you can export parts in batches, in front or back side view.

Discover this new feature on its specific page :

Smart Export Tool

The Smart Export Tool is more refined. It allows you to export a single part or a face directly from the 3D model. It offers greater control over the projection plane used.

Discover this new tool on its specific page :

Materials

Material URL and Description

We have added two new attributes to materials : a URL and a Description.

These attributes are also displayed in the Summary of the Parts List, and you can click on the link icon to open the URL in your browser.

Material Colors

Since version 6.0, materials are identified by a round bullet in several places : Parts List Summary, Group Headers, Cutting Diagram, Estimate, Edge Banding columns...

The color of the material is also used to display the Edge Banding in the cutting diagram or on the labels.

We have added a new option called Hide material color to hide the colored bullets in front of material names.

Changing Edge Material

You can now change the material of all edges of a group in Parts List by simply editing their shared properties.

Parts

Part URL

Parts have a new attribute: a URL. The URL could point to your suppliers on-line store.

Cutting Diagrams

Leftovers to Keep

We have added a new parameter to define the minimal size of leftovers and display them in the cutting diagram. All leftovers that are greater in both dimensions will be listed separately. The list can be hidden. The content of the list can be copied to the clipboard and pasted into the Panel Offcuts of another project.

Real Shape of Parts

A new setting defines how parts are displayed in the cutting diagram. The cutting diagram is computed by considering only the bounding box of parts. With this setting, the real shape of a part is placed on the cutting diagram instead of its bounding box.

Cutting Diagram Export

We have added a new button to export entire layout drawing to SVG or DXF files. Many options to customize the export are available. You can save the options to a preset for future use.

Select Unplaced Parts

We have added a button to select all Unplaced Parts in the cutting diagram. If parts cannot be placed because they are too large to fit or because there are not enough panels for all parts, this option lets you select all the parts and see them in the Parts List. This could be useful to mark them with a badge or change their material or properties.

Labels

Formula as Element

We have added a new element called Formula that lets you customize the content of the element with Ruby code.

Thumbnail as Element

We have added a new element called Thumbnail that lets you preview the real front part shape.

Remove All Elements

We have added a new button called Remove all to quickly clear the label layout.

Estimate

Material Density by Item

We have added the possibility to setup material density by standard item. In some case the material density does not help in computing the weight of a part. Because we use the bounding box of parts, the volume of a pipe/tube is greater than the used volume of material. With this attribute, you can add the density of material by item. To be able to add a density you need to specify a size.

Price by Length

We have added the possibility to specify the price of sheet goods and veneer by length.

Effective Volume

You can now configure materials so that they are estimated according to either the effective volume or the volume of raw material required. This allows you to compute the effective weight and cost of parts.

Settings

Height of Table Rows

We have added an option to change the height of table rows from Normal to Compact saving a little extra space.

Weight and Currency Precision

Weight and Currency numbers can have their own precision, very much like Dimensions.

Cool Features

Badge Filters

You can now toggle the Badges filter in the Parts List to include or exclude parts based on the badge. Enter a badge name, then click on the eye to toggle from include to exclude.

Compatibility

In this version a few features/fixes have been introduced that are not compatible with older versions of SketchUp. There are three main reasons why certain features are not backward compatible:

• Bug fixes in newer versions.

• API changes. Certain functions are simply not available in older versions.

• Rendering engine upgrade for the HTML/JavaScript.

Parts

With the new material type Veneer, we had to define how front and backside of a part are detected. Using the local axes, we define the front to be the most positive face on the blue thickness axis.

Sometimes we used the word "Edge Banding" but meant simply Edge, one of the 4 edges of a panel part. Now for all parts of type Sheet Goods, we will speak of Face, meaning the two thickness faces (front and backside where veneer can be applied) and Edge (where edge banding can be applied).

3D preview

Properties of Part now displays a 3D preview including dimensions.

Material

Duplicate 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.

Load texture

From material's properties dialog, you can now load a new texture or clear the current.

Color Picker

To add custom colors for material, you can either edit the color in SketchUp or insert an RGB Hex code. With newer versions of SketchUp, you can select the color by using a color picker. Click on the left end of the Color field to open the picker.

New Material Type Veneer

Similar to Edge Banding, Veneer is a new type of material that can be applied to the faces of a panel (of type Sheet Goods). Theoretically it could also be applied to the edges (like the four sides of a leg), but in OpenCutList it can only be applied to the front and back face of a material of type Sheet Goods.

The Veneers material is available when the Paint faces tool is selected. The frontside of the part is the part with the largest dimension along the blue axis (thickness). The Smart Axes tool lets you swap front and backside of the part.

Draw

The Draw feature is available directly from the Parts List or from a Group Header. Draw will pick up the parts that are visible or that are within the group. If you want to draw only a detail, select the parts that make it up and hit draw. You can use Badges to group parts with different materials.

Presets

Presets are used in a few places to store and retrieve settings for Labels, Materials, Cutting Diagrams. Most modal configuration windows can be prefilled with presets.

When you upgrade SketchUp, a new version of SketchUp will be installed, without touching the old version and without the presets (this is how SketchUp works). To assist the user in saving and restoring Presets a new menu is available in the Preferences Tab.

To save presets from SketchUp 2021 to SketchUp 2023, save the presets from the old version of SketchUp (by first installing OpenCutList 5.0 in SketchUp 2021), then open SketchUp 2023 (with OpenCutList 5.0 installed) and import the presets.

Tools

Smart Paint

To accelerate the assignment of material (Edge Banding, Sheet Goods, …), the Smart Paint tool was introduced in version 4.0.0. This tool has been reworked to make it even faster and easier to use.

The tool has 5 functions:

• Paint parts to paint an entire part. The material will be assigned to the instance. Only material that can be applied to a part will be displayed, including No material to remove any material.

• Paint edges with material of type Edge Banding (1 edge, 2 opposite edges or all 4 edges at once). Edges are the SketchUp faces of a part of type Sheet Goods that have thickness as second dimension.

• Paint faces with material of type Veneer (1 face or both faces of a part). Faces are the SketchUp faces of a part of type Sheet Goods that have dimensions length and width.

• Sample to pick up material and select it as current material.

• Clean to remove all material information from a part.

Smart Axes

In general, the orientation of the local axis is not very important, but OpenCutList uses the position and the orientation of the local axis of a component to identify length, width and thickness of a part and also its front face and back face.

It was already possible to quickly change the local axes by reordering the dimensions in the Part Properties. Now with the Smart Axes tool it is even faster.

The tool has 3 functions:

• Flip to mirror a instance of a part along one of its dimensions, which can be length, width or thickness. This operation only affects the selected instance. The symbol >|< shows if the instance is mirrored with respect to its definition.

• Swap length - width rotates the local axes so that length and width are swapped. This will also lock the orientation of the axes. This operation is done on the definition of the component and it will affect all instances of the part.

• Swap front - backside reorients the local axes so that the front face showing a full arrow is most positive on the blue axis. The backside displays a dashed arrow. This operation is done on the definition of the component and it will affect all instances of the part.

• Adapt axes is a tool that lets you set the local axes of a component without entering into edit mode. Pick a face, edge or vertex to reposition the local axes. Instead of swapping length, width and thickness, this tool also lets you reposition the axes for odd shapes.

• (former, replaced by Adapt axes) Orient automatically will reset the local axes so that the biggest dimension (length) is along the red axis, the smallest dimension (thickness) is along the blue axis and the width is along the green axis. There are exceptions to this heuristic. The user can always rearrange the dimensions in the Part Properties and lock the orientation of the axes for a particular part.

Cutting Diagram 2D

In the cutting diagram for panels, the two first trimming cuts are accounted for in the total cutting length and in the count of cuts. These cuts may not always be necessary, but including them puts you on the safe side.

Improvements

Estimates

Estimates (Formerly Reports) now compute used and unused raw material weight and cost.

Reduction for Edge Banding

Edge dimension reduction is now clearly separated from the oversize. Using length/width oversize for the part and then applying a reduction for edge banding does probably not make sense. This display better shows what is going on under the hood. The material has an oversize in length and width of 10mm, but the thickness reduction for the edge banding applies to the finished dimensions (500 -1) x (200 - 1).

Renamed Terms

Tags changed to Badges

The term Tag to designate a label that can be attached to a part has been renamed to Badge. One or more badges can be attached to a part. Badges can be used to filter the list of parts.

Tag is used by SketchUp to refer to what was formerly called Layer.

Reports changed to Estimate

Report is a very general term and it does not quite describe the purpose of the feature. It is now called Estimate (verb).

Installation from the Extension Warehouse

The easiest way to install the signed extension is by downloading it from the OpenCutList by L'Air du Bois extension page at Trimble's Extension Warehouse. The signed file of the latest version is also available on GitHub ladb_opencutlist.rbz.

OpenCutList works with all versions of SketchUp greater than 2017 (the last free version).

After installation, OpenCutList can be accessed in the menu Extensions -> OpenCutList, or using the icon in the toolbar. If it is not present, right-click on an empty area of the icon bar and select it from the list.

The toolbar features four icons. Clicking on these icons will open:

• the Main window, which can be minimized or maximized.

• the Smart Paint Tool, an on-screen tool to apply or remove material to components.

• the Smart Axes Tool, an on-screen tool to relocate the local axes of components without having to open the definition.

• the Smart Export Tool, an on-screen tool to export 2D projection or 3D geometry of a single part.

Main Window

The minimized window of OpenCutList displays four buttons:

• Maximize/Minimize: to show/hide the result window. To minimize the window and get it of your way, simply hit the <ESC> button.

• Materials: to configure materials. This is an interface which links to the native SketchUp material. If you have already configured some material in SketchUp, it will show up here. If you add material here, it will also show up in the Materials Inspector of SketchUp.

• Parts: to compute the Parts List of a selection of components or of all visible components in the current scene.

• Import: to import parts defined as rectangular boxes from a CSV file.

When maximized, the toolbar has two additional buttons.

• Doc.: a direct link to open this documentation in your browser.

• More: displays a ribbon with more links (some may depend on your language):

  • Tutorials: displays a list of YouTube tutorials made by users.

  • Plans: opens your browser to the model section of L'Air du Bois where users publish their creations.

  • News: inline access to the latest and archived news we publish on OpenCollective.

  • Forum: read-only access to the OpenCollective discussion forum. If you plan to participate in discussions, you must create a free OpenCollective account.

  • Update: starting with version 1.9 a self-updater was introduced, which updates directly from the github repository. This version is identical to the version hosted on the Extension Warehouse, it is signed by Trimble. After an upgrade, you must restart SketchUp for the new version of OpenCutList to be re-loaded.

  • Sponsor: we very much appreciate your financial support on OpenCollective. Even small contributions help us to take the time to make OpenCutList a better tool for your workshop.

The lower right border of the OpenCutList window displays more actions:

• A link to www.lairdubois.fr: a french-speaking woodworker community, completely ad-free!

• Report a bug: this will open your mailer to send a bug report to the developers.

• Preferences: to change unit, weight or language preferences.

• Sponsor: opens a page with the current status of contributions and the next goal.

• About: gives information about the developers, the translator team and the software we used to develop OpenCutList.

Smart Paint Tool

The Smart Paint Tool lets you select a tool to sample, paint or clear a component with material from a list of material.

Smart Axes Tool

The Smart Axes Tool allows you to reposition the local axes of your components. Because OpenCutList interprets the dimensions of a part from its orientation with regard to the local axes, it is important to position them correctly. You could use SketchUp tools to perform this task, but you would then have to open the component to get to its definition.

The Smart Axes Tool displays the dimensions of the part and an arrow on the front and back face of the selected part to help you decide if the interpretation is correct.

Preference Settings

The preference settings are accessible from the Preferences button at the bottom right of the maximized OpenCutList window.

Changing the Interface Language

The interface language of OpenCutList is independent of the installed version of SketchUp. You may select among English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Dutch, Vietnamese or Ukrainian. An experimental version of Arabic and Hebrew is also available (currently without RTL interface). If an OpenCutList language matches the language of your SketchUp installation, it will be displayed at the top of the drop down selection. You must close and reopen the OpenCutList window for this change to be applied.

Print Margins

You may select between small and normal print margins.

Selecting Length Unit and Precision

By selecting a template in SketchUp, you have already selected a model unit. The model unit can always be changed, but it is good practice to stick with the unit that you are most familiar with and to select an appropriate precision for your work. Check the box if you want OpenCutList to display the unit next to each dimension.

These settings change the underlying SketchUp settings from the menu Model Info -> Units. If you change those settings, the changes will be reflected in the Model Preferences.

Selecting Weight Unit and Currency

Reports require the mass unit and the currency in order to compute weight and cost of materials. Insert a currency symbol of your choice, it can even be a smiley!

Saving to Presets

The Model Preferences can be saved as Presets. Presets are default or named sets of settings that can be saved and reloaded at a later time.

Presets are sets of parameters associated with a modal window. Presets are stored in the SketchUp defaults, but in a compact almost unreadable format.

Saving a Preset

If you like the set of parameters you have entered, you can save them to a descriptive name. From now on, the parameters can be recalled, modified and saved back.

Exporting Presets

When installing a new version of SketchUp, the settings from the previous version are ignored. To be able to recuperate your OpenCutList settings, you may save them to a file and then later reload them into OpenCutList of the new SketchUp version.

You may select which presets are to be exported or imported.

From Components to Parts

To ensure the most meaningful results, several assumptions have been made while developing OpenCutList. It is essential to follow these guidelines for best results:

• Use components for modeling your project (scaled components are also supported), because only components will appear in the Part List. They may be nested in groups and even inside other components.

• Label the definition and the instance of your components (optional). This information will appear in the Part List.

• Correctly define the component axes to match the grain direction and/or the orientation of the part in the raw material. Usually length, width and thickness cannot be swapped in wood.

• Apply SketchUp material to your components and configure its parameters through the Materials tab.

Bounding Box and Dimensions

OpenCutList uses the blue bounding box of a component (provided by Sketchup itself) to compute its length, width and thickness. This is done irrespective of whether the component has an irregular shape, holes, etc. (of course, there are some limitations to this approach). In the following example, OpenCutList will see the box below as a rectangular box, not considering the miter.

By default, OpenCutList will consider the largest dimension of the component as the length, the shortest dimension as the thickness, and the last dimension as the width. This behavior can be changed on per-part basis.

It is also possible to configure OpenCutList so that it will never guess the dimensions, but always consider the dimension along the local red axis as length, the green axis as width, and the blue axis as thickness.

OpenCutList will notify you as a new release becomes available. To check if you have the latest release, simply click on Update.

Great care is taken before releasing new features. So, there is no advantage not to update.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Layout of the Page

This page includes the filename, the scene name and the units used in the model. A summary section lists all parts, grouped by material and thickness, with quantities and rough dimensions (depending on the type of material). The summary is followed by sections specific to the different groups.

To shorten a long Parts List, you can hide the summary and all groups, up to the title bar.

Parts List gives more details about the content.

Menus

Generate recomputes the Parts List after a change in the model, after the selection of active parts, or if the current scene has changed. To avoid OpenCutList always asking to regenerate the Parts List, you can click on Ignore or simply minimize the window. However, because of the dynamic nature of the list, it is important for you to know if the list does correspond to the model and your selection. The menus also include:

• Print, to print the current Parts List.

• Export, to save the Parts List to a CSV file.

• Draw, to generates a configurable exploded view of your model or a selection of parts.

• Estimate, to estimate cost and weight of the Parts List.

• Options, to define how OpenCutList should build and display the Parts List.

• "...", to access for general functions.

Only the visible groups of the Parts List will appear on the printed version. The print-out will always show the date and the units of the model (to avoid the Spinal Tap - Stonehenge problem).

The extent of the margins can be configured in the General Preferences.

If you have entered a Name and a Description for your model in the Window -> Model Info -> File, then this information will appear at the top of the print. In addition to the name, the Scene name and description will also appear on the print.

The List of Instances, the Parts List or the Summary can be exported or prepared for a Copy to Clipboard.

When selecting List of Instances, OpenCutList exports each part on its own row. Parts List and Summary export the data as represented on screen.

If units are shown in the Parts List, dimensions will be exported with units as well. On the Customization tab, rows can be selected, ordered or used to compute derived data.

The Separator allows you to select among Tabulator, Comma or Semicolon as the sign to separate columns.

Encoding defines how special characters (beyond ASCII) will be encoded in the file. UTF-8 is a widely supported encoding.

Copy to Clipboard

By clicking on the Preview, you may copy everything (values including headers) or just values to the clipboard.

Columns of the exported data can be customized using the Formula editor.

Native Columns

The native columns are the raw columns that depend on the selected Source (Summary, Parts List or List of Instances).

For each column, you may

• change its title

• hide or show it

• remove or add it

• change the alignment (this will have no effect in the exported file!)

The order of columns can be changed by dragging the left handle.

The settings can be saved to a preset for future use.

You can also add new columns, for example to add the result of a formula.

Formulas

A formula can be added to each column to define its content. To be as powerful as possible, formula are written in Ruby code.

For example, to add the string "ABC-" in front of each designation, use

"ABC-" + @Designation

To replace the edge material name by an X, use

@Edge Length 1.empty? ? '' : 'X'

This tells OpenCutList that you want to concatenate two strings, instead of just using the native value of the column.

To get a list of available variables, type @ into the formula field. In front of each variable, a small colored square will tell you what is the type of this variable.

The meaning is

• S: string

• I: integer, a number without decimal part

• L: length, a number measuring a length

• Black A: array or list of something

• Orange A: area

• T: material type, an object that represents a material type name with following test functions:

  • is_solid_wood?

  • is_sheet_good?

  • is_dimensional?

  • is_hardware?

  • is_edge?

  • is_veneer?

• E: edge object that hold 3 sub properties :

  • material_name - the edge material name (S: string)

  • std_thickness - the edge thickness (L : length)

  • std_width - the edge width (L : length)

• V: veneer object that hold 2 sub properties :

  • material_name - the veneer material name (S: string)

  • std_thickness - the veneer thickness (L: length)

Composition

The Composition tab groups the options to customize the appearance of the parts and the labels in the exploded view.

Customize labels

You can customize labels through the field Formula. Just write Ruby code to compose the text of each label from default input variables.

Use the Formula examples button to try 😉

Configuration

The exploded view will be placed on a printable area. You may define the paper size, header and the camera parameters.

Layout

Once the exploded view is displayed, you may change the camera parameters and use the mouse to move the view around.

If you need to add more information to the exploded view, there is an option to send it to Layout.

General Parameters

For each material used in your project, price and weight information can be specified.

In addition, the following OpenCutList General Preferences are important:

• the currency symbol to be used. All prices will be displayed using this symbol. You are free in your choice of symbol (€, CHF, USD, $, ...).

• the weight unit used to compute weight from the material density.

Material Configuration

Material Density

The material density or specific mass is the mass divided by the volume.

In the properties of each material, there is a tab Attributes. The density can be entered in [kg/m³] if your model units are metric, or [lb/ft³] if your model units are imperial. Entering the density in [kg/ft³] or [lb/m³] is also possible.

The density of wood varies according to moisture content and is very variable, even within the same species, due to various factors. The material density used by OpenCutList may be approximate.

Price

A standard price or size dependent price can be specified.

Hardware

Hardware is somewhat special. You cannot configure a price on the Material Tab.

Running the Estimate

OpenCutList can be configured in many ways to suit you needs.

General Tab

Automatic Orientation of Parts

If this option is selected, the length, width and thickness of a part will be determined from their relative values:

1. The length will be the largest dimension of the part.

2. The width will be the second largest dimension of the part.

3. The thickness will be the smallest dimension of the part.

If this option is not selected, the dimensions will simply be read along the local axes of the component. The length will be the dimension along the red axis, the width along the green axis, and the thickness along the blue axis.

Mirrored Part Detection

If this option is selected, parts that have been mirrored will be detected as two different parts. Mirrored Part Detection can also be configured on a per part basis in the Properties of Part.

Smart Assignment of Material

If this option is selected, OpenCutList will try to infer the material of a component from the material of a face. If two or more faces have different materials, the material of the face with the largest area will be considered. When material has been extracted from one of its child elements, the Parts List will display a small icon next to the part.

If a material has been applied to an enclosing group, but not to the enclosed parts, OpenCutList will use the material of the the group for the parts. A small icon next to the part in the Parts List will tell you that the material was inherited.

Use the Attribute Name of Dynamic Components

Use Letters to enumerate Parts

Instead of numbers, 1, 2, 3, ... , to enumerate parts, use letters, A, B, ..., AA, ....

Reinitialize the Enumeration of Parts for Each Group

If you select this option, enumeration will start afresh with each group.

Group Similar Parts

If this option is selected, parts with identical size and tag (possibly empty) will be grouped in the Parts List even if they are not instances of the same component.

Hide Instance Name

If this option is selected, the instance name of a part will not be shown in the Parts List.

Hide Description

If this option is selected, the SketchUp description of a component will not be shown in the Parts List.

Hide Tags

If this option is selected, tags will not be shown in the Parts List.

Hide Rough Dimensions

If this option is selected, rough dimensions (defined as the dimension of the component plus any oversizes configured on the material or on the part) will not be shown in the Parts List.

Hide Finished Dimensions

Hide Actual Area of Parts of Type Sheet Goods

Hide the Columns of Edge Banding

When edge banding is applied to a part, four additional columns describe the edge banding. If this option is selected, the columns will not be displayed in the Parts List.

Minimize after Highlight

If this option is selected, the OpenCutList window will be minimized if you click on the magnifier icon of a part. If you are working with two displays (or a large display), you probably don't want this option to be checked.

Part Sorting Tab

The parts are always grouped by type of material and thickness, but you can choose how they are ordered within each group.

Dimension Ordering Tab

The dimension ordering affects the column order of the dimensions when displayed in the Parts List. For example, when cutting sheet good on a panel saw, it is sometimes easier to have the width as first column instead of length, because usually the first cut is horizontal.

Tags Tab

OpenCutList tags are like keyword stickers that can be attached to parts in order to support selection and filtering of the Parts List. You can configure a list of custom tags to identify group of parts or parts requiring a special processing.

Tags are optional.

Parts List Sections

Title

The title displays the filename or the SketchUp model name, the name of the current scene, the current date and the length unit used. An icon next to the length unit directly links to the Preferences.

Summary

The summary displays an overview of the part groups (by Material/Thickness) with information for buying the lumber/sheets or accessories.

When the model units are metric, information is displayed in meters, square meters and cubic meters. When the model units are not metric (fractional, decimal inches, ...), the information is given in feet, square feet and board foot.

The summary lists rough dimensions based upon the oversizes that were configured in the Materials.

Hiding the Units

Even if the Preferences have been configured to hide units for single dimensions, the values in the summary will always be shown with units.

Group List

A group list is a group of parts with the same material and the same thickness.

Group Title

Part Numbering

Parts can be enumerated with letters A, B, C, ... or with numbers 1, 2, 3. The enumeration can be global for the Parts List or defined on a per-group basis. The enumeration of parts can be saved, to avoid overwriting part numbers/identifications when adding future components.

Description

This is the description that can be added to a component when creating it. It is displayed in the Components Inspector, not in the Entity Info.

Info Icons

• Similar Part Fold/Unfold

• Mirrored Part

• Scaled Part

• Inherited or extracted Material

Action Buttons

• Highlight Part

• Edit Part

• Select Box

Rough and Finished Dimensions

Rough and finished dimensions will be displayed. To customize the order of rows and columns and to hide/show columns, select the appropriate Options.

Properties of Parts

Some properties of parts in the list can be edited directly from the Parts List. The description (but not the instance) of the component and the material assigned to the part. Furthermore, one can define that the length or (exclusively) width attribute should be summable. In this case, the rough dimensions will be summed up and shown in the rough dimension column.

Highlighting Parts

A long list of parts may contain components for which there is little information, or which can be difficult to locate in the model. Therefore, parts can be highlighted from the properties window by using Highlight the part in the model.

Highlighting parts works also directly from the Parts List or from a Cutting Diagram.

From the Parts List, all parts contained in a group can be simultaneously highlighted.

Numbering Parts

Parts can be enumerated with numbers or letters. The enumeration can be reset for each group or run over the entire Parts List.

Saving Part Numbers

To fix the number of a part, use Save the part numbers of this group.

To edit the properties of a Part, click on the pencil symbol in the Parts List. If you select a single Part, the Part Properties Window will open, allowing you to edit a single part or a group of identical parts.

If a down arrow is the first icon after the description, multiple Parts are grouped together, because the Options setting Group Similar Parts is enabled. In that case, you will only be able to edit their common attributes. Click on the arrow to unfold the group and select each Part individually.

If you selected a group of Parts spread over several lines, only their common attributes can be changed.

Part Properties

The Part Properties window contains five tabs:

• General

• Material Specific Tab (Dimensional, Sheet Goods, ...)

• Axes

• Oversizes

• Info

General

Within this tab, you may change the Name and Description of the component, associate it with a Material, and add or remove Tags.

Material Specific Tab

Depending on the type of material of the part, this tab will display the configuration options.

Axes

OpenCutList shows you how it interprets the local SketchUp axis (length is red, width is green and blue is thickness) of the Part. You may reorder the dimensions. At the same time, you may ask OpenCutList to change the location of the axes origin and to lock the orientation (in case you have selected Automatic orientation in the Options).

If a part has been flipped along one of its axis with respect to the component definition, an icon will indicate that this part is mirrored.

Oversizes

The dimensions of your components are usually finished dimensions. A length and width oversize, and even a thickness oversize for solid wood, can be applied to all parts via the Material configuration. Note, however, that there are situations where one would like to make a single part slightly larger because it will be adjusted when the part will be installed (filler strip, cover panel, ...).

Info

Instances of components in SketchUp with the same thickness and the same material become parts in OpenCutList.

When creating a component with Make Component..., you may:

• give the component definition a name by replacing the default text (usually Component#1), or leave the default identification.

• set the component axes or rely on the default Sketchup behavior, which sets the component axes parallel to the model axes. The global option of the extension, Automatic orientation of parts, will then interpret the 3 dimensions of a part such that the largest dimension is length and the smallest dimension is thickness, the third dimension becoming width.

It is important to correctly set the component axes to convey the desired grain direction to OpenCutList. With the default Sketchup behaviour, you may get unexpected results, as in the case of a short but wide part.

These parameters may be changed at a later time, but OpenCutList will use them to describe the part in the Parts List and to retrieve its dimensions.

Description

A component may be reused several times in a model, therefore you can label the instance. This label will also appear in the Parts List.

The Bounding Box

Every component has an enclosing bounding box defined by the extent of the object along the component axes.

The length of this box is represented along the red axis, the width along the green and the thickness along the blue axis. If the components axes are set incorrectly, this may lead to a wrong interpretation of the dimensions of the component.

If you are not familiar with the concept of bounding box, checkout this video SketchUp Skill Builder: Group axis and bounding box.

Working with Scaled Components

OpenCutList also takes into account scaling of components. Although the description of the parts will be the same, they will appear on different lines of the Parts List.

Computing Cutting Diagrams

Cutting diagrams can be solved by a class of algorithms known as Bin Packing, albeit with a few twists. We are looking for an optimal cutting plan, but what is optimal? The criterion most often used to define optimality is the least number of bins necessary to pack a set of boxes. Other criteria to optimize include the size and number of offcuts produced (one large is better than many small), the total length of needed cuts, the number of times the panel needs to be rotated, the number of top-level through cuts, ...

Our cutting diagram algorithm includes further restrictions to the general problem:

• all cuts must be guillotine cuts, that is they must cut through the panel or the offcut and cannot be stopped in the middle or make turns.

• parts to be placed onto a panel may or may not be rotated by 90° depending upon the material (wood grain direction or none).

• the generation must be deterministic, that is, it must always give the same solution for the same input. The cutting diagram is not saved in the model, but recomputed every time.

Limitations

Bin Packing problems are notoriously difficult. Even if we cannot guarantee to find a perfect solution, our algorithm tries very hard to find an acceptable solution.

Material Tab

Select the Standard Dimensional and/or the Offcut Boards you would like to use to compute the cutting diagram.

Configuration Tab

Define the Blade Thickness and the Trimming Size, which is applied to both ends of the board.

Display Tab

Configure the appearance of the resulting Cutting Diagram.

Cutting Diagram

Grain Direction

Materials without grain direction allow a part to be rotated by 90° if a better fit can be found.

If you are using material with grain direction, but the grain direction is not important for a few parts, because these parts are hidden, let OpenCutList know that grain direction shall be ignored. This can be done in the tab Axes of the Properties of the part.

Material Tab

Material of type Sheet Good must be configured before a cutting diagram can be computed, see Materials. By convention, length is read on the red axis of your components. If the material has a grain direction, the grain runs along the first dimension. Select a Standard Panel size and/or list the Offcuts you would like to be considered first.

The standard panel size is assumed to be available in unlimited quantity. If additional space is required, the cutting diagram algorithm will generate a new panel with these dimensions.

Configuration Tab

Configure the Blade Thickness and a Trimming Size to be applied around the raw panel.

You also need to select an Optimization Level (Medium is faster but may sometimes miss a good solution, Advanced makes more computations but may take much more time). Finally, select a Preferred Direction, which determines if parts should rather be aligned lengthwise, widthwise, without preference, or ask OpenCutList to check for all three possibilities.

When multiple panels are required, the last choice may select a different stacking preference per panel; otherwise, the same or no stacking preference is applied to all panels.

Display Tab

The Display Tab lets you configure the appearance of the resulting Cutting Diagram.

Cutting Diagram

At the top of the cutting diagrams, a Summary displays the settings in use, the panel sizes, quantity, area, and the number of parts placed onto each panel. At the bottom of each cutting diagram, OpenCutList indicates the length of all cuts (excluding the trimming cuts) and the efficiency of the placements onto the panel.

You can export cutting diagrams drawings into SVG or DXF files. This feature is useful, in particular, to transfer cutting diagrams to other CNC or laser cutter software.

Each panel (or bar) of the cutting diagram will be exported in a separate file. All files will be placed in a common directory, which will be named according to the name of the material and the thickness (or section).

Configuration

After generating a cutting diagram and clicking on the Export button, a configuration dialog appears.

Supported Formats

Cutting diagrams can be exported in the following formats:

• SVG : Scalable Vector Graphics

• DXF : AutoCAD DXF

  • DXF Structure : Layer or Layer + Block

Export options

• Unit : Define the unit used in the exported file.

• Smoothing : Smooth circles and arcs. Learn more.

• Merging Mode : Learn more

  • Default : The part shape is exported with one layer per depth.

  • Outline + Drillings + Merge : Activate the separation of the outer contour of parts from their holes, as well as the merging of depths for each cavity.

• Paths : Enable the use of edges, which are not associated with a face contained in the part, to export them as a path. Learn mode.

• Sheet color : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported sheet.

• Parts colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported parts.

• Drillings colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported part's drillings.

• Paths colors : Customize the line color of exported paths.

• Identifications colors : Customize the text color of part identification.

• Leftovers colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of leftovers.

• Cuts colors : Customize the line color of cuts.

Selecting Parts

The Print labels icon is available for every group in the Parts List and from every Cutting Diagram.

By default, Labels will use all parts in the list (shown by a small letter "A" in the icon). If you select only a subset of parts, it will warn you and show a small letter "C" in the icon.

Page Configuration

Depending on your requirements, you will have to select a specific page configuration for your labels. The Paper Size, Margins, Label Gap, and the number of Columns and Rows can be configured to match the available sheets of labels you have purchased.

These parameters will determine the real size of your label, shown at the top of the Layout.

Label Layout

Label elements can be added, resized, aligned, colored and deleted. A layout together with its page configuration can be saved as a Preset. You may want to set up a few layouts for different applications.

One special element named Formula allows you to fully customize its output string with Ruby code. Learn more.

Offset

The Offset defines the position of the first label to be printed on the first page of your sheet.

If you are printing to a continuous label printer, like a Dymo or Zebra printer, this will have no effect.

Printing on Sheets

When printing the labels, you must ensure that you have selected the matching Paper Size in your printer. OpenCutList has no control over your printer, and so it cannot determine if your choice is correct.

To meet different uses, OpenCutList allows you to simply export the part drawing in 2D (CNC, laser cutting, ...) or 3D (3D printers, ...).

Even if SketchUp already allows you to export the drawing in 2D or 3D, doing it using OpenCutList greatly simplifies the operation:

• No need to change the model view

• One file per part with batch processing

• Custom origin

• Advanced 2D projection options

This module allows you to export one or more parts as 2D projection(s) in one operation.

This can be done from three places:

• From Parts List, to export all parts.

• From a group of the Parts List, to export all the parts of the group.

• From the part's properties dialog, to export edited parts.

Each part will be exported in a separate file. All the files will be placed in the directory named after the part's material and thickness (or section).

Configuration

Supported Formats

Cutting diagrams can be exported to files with the following formats:

• SVG : Scalable Vector Graphics

• DXF : AutoCAD DXF

Export options

• Unit : Defines the unit used in the exported file.

• Projection : Define the viewed face of the part : 2D Front View or 2D Rear View.

• Anchor point : This options preserves the location of the coordinate axes of the SketchUp component of this part in the exported file (Project the part's origin). Otherwise, the smallest coordinate of the bounding box is used as location of the origin of the coordinate axes (Default).

• Smoothing : Smooth circles and arcs. Learn more.

• Merging Mode : Learn more

  • Default : The part shape is exported with one layer per depth.

  • Outline + Drillings + Merge : Activates the separation of the outer contour of parts from their holes, as well as the merging of depths for each cavity.

• Paths : Enables the use of edges, which are not associated with a face contained in the part, to export them as a path. Learn mode.

• Parts colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported parts.

• Drillings colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported part's drillings.

• Paths colors : Customize the line color of exported paths.

This module allows you to export one or more parts as 3D geometries in one operation.

This can be done from three places:

• From Parts List to export all parts.

• From a group of the Parts List to export all the parts of the group.

• From part's properties dialog to export edited parts.

Each part will be exported in a separate file. All the files will be placed in the directory named after the part's material and thickness (or section).

Configuration

Supported Formats

The 3D geometry can be exported to files with the following formats:

• STL : Stereolitography

• OBJ : Wavefront OBJ

Export Options

• Unit : Defines the unit used in the exported file.

• Anchor Point : This options preserves the location of the coordinate axes of the SketchUp component of this part in the exported file (Project the part's origin). Otherwise, the smallest coordinate of the bounding box is used as location of the origin of the coordinate axes (Default).

File Format

CSV files are simple text files representing columns of identical data with an optional column header. The field separator may be space, comma or semi-colon. The optional column header is the first line of the file.

Open CSV file

A single file may be selected for import. If you want to import multiple files at once, you must merge them before importing them. This is because not all files may have the same structure.

After selecting the file, you must match the columns to the mandatory fields, which are Designation, Length, Width and Thickness. Without additional fields, a quantity of 1 is assumed.

Quantity, Material and Tags are optional fields.

OpenCutList can only import the parts when all required columns are green.

Import Into Model

Once you have selected all required columns, importing can be completed by

• removing all existing parts in the model and replace them with the new ones. In doing so, you may select to keep definitions (components) and material settings or remove them.

• adding parts to the existing ones.

In both case, the imported parts will be placed into a group to make it easy to select them and move them to an appropriate location.

The SmartPaint tool allows to manage the materials of parts, as well as their faces or edges, without having to enter the tree of instances.

It is accessible from the paint bucket icon of the toolbox or from the OpenCutList → Paint Parts menu.

Actions

The Smart Paint tool allows for the following actions (visible at the top of the OpenCutList screen):

Paint Parts

A material can be applied to a single instance of a component (1) or to all components with the same definition (∞). This excludes Edge Banding and Veneer.

Paint Edges

Edge Banding can be applied to the edges of a part, which generally constitute its 4 smaller faces. It can be applied to 1 edge, 2 opposite edges, or all 4 edges.

Paint Faces

Veneer can be applied to the faces of a part, which generally constitute its 2 largest faces. It can be applied to 1 or 2 faces.

Sample

By clicking on an area with the Sample Tool, the underlying material and associated tool will be selected. If you sample Edge Banding, the Paint Edges tool will be selected.

Clean

Clean will remove all material information from a part. If you only want to remove Edge Banding, apply No material to the edges instead.

Cleaning affects all drawing faces of the definition and all instances using the definition.

Shortcuts

• Use TABor SHIFT + TAB to navigate forward or backward through action, respectively.

• Use CTRL + TAB (on Windows) or OPTION + TAB (on Mac) to navigate through the action's modifier.

Material picker

At the bottom of the screen, you can find the Material picker, which allows you to select the current material to use.

On the left side of this picker, a "+" button creates a new material.

On the right side, a "funnel" button permits to filter materials by type.

Shortcuts

• Use the ← and → keys to navigate through materials.

• Use the + key to open the new material form.

• Double click on a material's button to edit the material's properties.

It is accessible from the axes icon in the toolbox or from the OpenCutList → Orient Parts menu.

OpenCutList computes the dimensions of a part along the local axes of the underlying component. They are defined as the lengths of the (blue) bounding box of the part. For a good computation of the dimensions, the bounding box of a part should therefore preferably closely surround it.

The dimensions of a part do not depend on the position of the local axes (the axes can be translated), but do depend on their spatial orientation.

The default set of local axes is right-handed. When the set of axes is placed on a vertex of the bounding box, the blue axis shows the direction of the thickness of a part. It does not matter whether the blue axis points in or out of the part, but the face which is the most positive along the blue axis will be considered the front face of the part, and the opposite face the back face.

If you flip the local axes in such a way that the most positive face is the opposite face, then you have told OpenCutList that the other side is now the front face. Remember, changing the local axes does not affect the definition of the part, but only its reading by OpenCutList.

Actions

The Smart Axes Tool supports several actions (Flip, Swap length ↔ width, Swap front ↔ backside, Adapt axes). Each action can have several modifiers. All possible actions are visible at the top of the screen.

Flip

The Flip action is more convenient than the SketchUp tool, because it automatically detects parts under the mouse pointer and lets you decide along which direction (as seen by OpenCutList) a part must be flipped. This can be L for length, W for width or T for thickness. Also, you do not have to select the part to flip it.

Swap Length ↔ Width

This tool orients the local axes in such a way that length and width (the red and green axes, respectively), as seen by OpenCutList, are swapped.

Swap Front ↔ Backside

This tool orients the local axes in such a way that the thickness (on the blue axis) is swapped. This reverses the blue axis, and (because the set of axes must remain right-handed) also the green axis. By convention, the front face is the face with the most positive coordinate on the blue axis.

Adapt Axes

For an even finer control, this tool lets you pick the front of a part. It will then adapt the axes to match length and width. The thickness is automatically the last direction. When moving the mouse over a part, a white arrow shows the current front and the direction of the length.

The arrow shows the direction of the old and new red (length) axis. Hover a face and an edge displays the future setting, click to confirm.

Shortcuts

• Use TAB or SHIFT + TAB to navigate forward or backward through actions, respectively.

• Use CTRL + TAB (on Windows) or OPTION + TAB (on Mac) to navigate through the action's modifier.

It is accessible from the export icon in the toolbox or the OpenCutList → Export Parts menu.

This tool is a concentrate of magical things. We have developed it with the aim of covering a maximum of needs with a minimum of user actions, while at the same time providing a real-time preview in the 3D model of what will be exported.

To achieve this, this tool focuses on exporting the 3D or 2D geometry of a single element through 3 types of action.

Actions

Smart Export Tool supports these actions: Export 3D part, Export 2D part, and Export face. Each action has several options. All possible actions are visible at the top of the screen.

Export 3D Part

The Export 3D part action allows you to export the 3D polygon mesh geometry of a single part as an STL or OBJ file.

Once this action is activated, just point and click on a part in the model to export it.

Supported Formats

The 3D geometry can be exported to files with the following formats:

• STL : Stereolitography

• OBJ : Wavefront OBJ

Export Options

• Unit : Defines the unit used in the exported file.

• Anchor Point : This options preserves the location of the origin of the coordinate axes of the SketchUp component of this part in the exported file (Project the part's origin). Otherwise, the smallest coordinate of the bounding box is used as location of the origin of the coordinate axes (Default).

Export 2D Part

The Export 2D part action allows you to export a 2D projection of a part as an SVG or DXF file. Note that it is more powerful than just a face exporter.

Once this action is activated, just point and click on a drawing face of a part in the model to export the 2D projection along the plane of this face. This allows you to quickly choose the projection plane according to which you wish to export the part. You can also point at an edge to align the red axis (x).

The projection algorithm slices the 3D geometry in several coplanar layers.

Along the projection direction, the top most face determines the depth zero layer. All other layers are calculated in relation to this one.

If a face is curved (a smooth surface) or not coplanar to the projection plane, the projection of the face will flatten up that face to its top most point. In the Figure below, two such faces are shown as horizontal blue rectangles. Coplanar faces will be merged.

The tool displays a preview of the exported layer in the 3D model.

The projection plane is shown as a black dashed rectangle, and each layer is represented by a blue line. The dark blue lines correspond to the zero depth layer, and the light blue lines correspond to the other layers.

Hidden faces or hidden portions of faces are ignored.

Supported Formats

The 2D projection can be exported to files in the following formats:

• SVG : Scalable Vector Graphics

• DXF : AutoCAD DXF

Face Projections

This option determines which faces should be included in the export. The target face is the face that gets the click.

• 1 : Use only the target face.

• ∞ : Use all parallel faces of the part.

Export Options

• Unit : Defines the unit used in the exported file.

• Anchor point : This options preserves the location of the coordinate axes of the SketchUp component of this part in the exported file (Project the part's origin). Otherwise the smallest coordinate of the bounding box is used as location of the origin of the coordinate axes (Default).

• Smoothing : Smooth circles and arcs. Learn more.

• Merging Mode : Learn more

  • Default : The part shape is exported with one layer per depth.

  • Outline + Drillings + Merge : Activates the separation of the outer contour of parts from their holes, as well as the merging of depths for each cavity.

• Paths : Enables the use of edges, which are not associated with a face contained in the part, to export them as a path. Learn mode.

• Parts colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported parts.

• Drillings colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported part's drillings.

• Paths colors : Customize the line color of exported paths.

Export Face

The Export face action allows you to export a 2D projection of a drawing face to a SVG or DXF file.

Once this action is activated, simply point and click on a face drawn in the model to export it.

Supported Formats

• SVG : Scalable Vector Graphics

• DXF : AutoCAD DXF

Export Options

• Unit : Defines the unit used in the exported file.

• Smoothing : Smooth circles and arcs. Learn more.

• Parts colors : Customize the line and fill (SVG only) colors of exported faces.

Shortcuts

• use TAB (left to right) or SHIFT + TAB (right to left) to navigate through actions.

• use CTRL + TAB (Windows) or OPTION + TAB (Mac) to navigate through action's modifier.

Advanced Options

Smoothing

To overcome SketchUp's technical limitations in terms of circles and arcs, we have developed a curve detection algorithm.

This algorithm is able to detect circles, ellipses and arcs from the contour of a face or a curve. Circles need not to be known to SketchUp.

Once this option is activated, the detected portions are emphasized with a bolder line.

Merging Mode

By default the 2D projection algorithm slices the 3D geometry in layers that contain only projected faces that correspond to their depth.

By enabling Outline + Drillings + Merge, the algorithm will go further :

• Through holes will be detected. They are drawn with a purple line in preview.

• Depth zero layer now contains the full merged outline of the part, without any holes.

• Sub layers are merged by cavity.

Let us consider a more advanced example:

Paths

In addition to exporting faces, you can now export open or closed paths. These paths could be useful for exporting non-geometric elements integrated into the part without altering its dimensions.

A path is a curve or a single edge that is not associated with a face.

The best option to embed paths into a part geometry is to draw them in subgroups.

The links in More are explained in the section about the interface. There are more links in the French version, pointing to sites in French.

Drawing the Model

To get you started, an initial model is available here table_2017.skp (in SketchUp 2017 format). This model has all the necessary material already configured.

The model represents a small coffee table with the legs, aprons and a frame made from solid wood. The table top is made from birch plywood.

For convenience, the legs and aprons have been grouped. The frame and the top insert are also grouped inside of a SketchUp group.

Exploring the Parts List

The top of the Parts List shows a summary of all groups of material OpenCutList found in the model. The icon in the Type column tells you what type of material it is. Refer to Materials to learn about the different types of materials.

OpenCutList uses native SketchUp material to link parts to available raw material. Extending the attributes of the SketchUp material has many advantages over simply using naming conventions.

Groups in the Parts List

Lets have a look at the different groups.

1. solid-wood / 45: the solid wood is available in several thicknesses. With the oversize thickness, configured on the material, the 45 mm thickness is the closest match for the legs. The legs are components with 4 named instances, as you can see in the Entity Info.

2. solid-wood / 27: the aprons and the table top frame are made from 22 mm and 19 mm, for which the 27 mm has been selected. Note that the grain in solid wood always follows the length of the part.

3. plywood / 19: this is a sheet goods product available in some standard sizes. This material has a grain direction, which always runs along the length, that is the first dimension of the panel.

You can view and edit many properties of the parts using the pencil tool. To find where a part might be in the model, you can use the magnifier tool and enable temporary transparency of the model in case the part is hidden. The arrow indicates the direction of the length (the red local axis of your component). If the arrow line is dashed, it means you are looking at the back of the part. By convention, the surface that has a most negative blue axis value is the back face, while the surface that has the most positive blue axis value is the front side of a part.

Filtering the Parts List

When a subset of visible parts are selected in the scene, only those parts will be displayed in the Parts List. This behaviour allows you to restrict the Parts List to a single part, a group of parts or all visible parts in the scene.

We have added a tag top to all parts that form the table top. Going all the way to the top of the Parts List, beyond Summary, you may filter visible parts of your model by using this tag. Parts can have multiple tags. You can also click on a tag in the Parts List to filter the list or remove that particular tag from the filter.

Cutting Diagrams

Next to the title of groups of type Sheet Good, and Dimensional, you will notice a button to generate Cutting Diagrams.

In this case, we have also configured an offcut of 500 mm x 500 mm, we had left in the shop. Despite the configured standard panel, this offcut will be used for the top insert.

For cutting diagram, you need to configure a standard panel or offcuts. Only a single standard panel can be selected, but you may add as many offcuts as you have on hands.

The thickness of the saw blade and a trimming size applied around the panel can also be configured. The trimming size reduces the effective size of the panel to account for any handling damages and rough edges of the panel.

With the Optimization Level, you tell OpenCutList how many variants it should calculate before selecting the best one. You can also configure a Preferred Direction for the alignment of the parts. This preference is just a hint and the final cutting diagram may look differently if OpenCutList found a better variant by stacking the parts differently.

Adhesive Labels

You may generate labels to be printed for any group of material. Our label editor lets you configure labels for any grid-shaped label format and save your personal formats for future use.

Reports

A report containing a summary of costs and weights can be generated.

For the material type Solid Wood, you can enter a waste ratio, a factor telling OpenCutList to increase the volume of wood you will need to buy to account for any defects in the wood, mistakes you may make or any good reason to buy a little more lumber than the projects eventually requires.

For Sheet goods, we assume that you need to buy at least one entire panel unless you use offcuts. If you have some offcuts, indicate the price per square meter in the attributes of the material.

A non-exhaustive list of YouTube tutorials is provided under the menu More of OpenCutList. The videos in your language will be listed first.

We do not actively track videos on YouTube, please send us an email if you have published a video and would like to have it listed in the extension.

Context

Shaper Origin is a handheld precision router that supports SVG file as input for tool paths.

Since version 6.0.0, OpenCutList could be a good companion for this machine, offering the ability to quickly export a part's geometry to SVG.

Getting Started

First of all you need to have SketchUp Make 2017 or SketchUp Pro installed on your computer. Then read the Installing page to find out how to install OpenCutList.

If you want to learn more about OpenCutList and the context of this Open Source project, check this page.

Exporting to SVG

OpenCutList offers multiples ways of exporting SketchUp drawings to SVG file. Each of these is fully customizable.

From Part (Component) to SVG

First, draw your project in the 3D model and create one component per part.

For the rest, we will use this toolbox as an example.

The easiest way to export parts shape is to use the Smart Export Tool.

Activate the tool and select the Export 2D part action and SVG file format.

Click on the More button and configure colors according to the Origin Cut Type encoding:

• Parts : Line color = none, Fill color = black

• Drillings : Line color = black, Fill color = white

• Paths : Line color = blue

You can now move the mouse over the face of each part you wish to export as a 2D SVG. As you can see below, a blue line wireframe preview of the part drawing projection is drawn in real time.

This tool is more than just a face exporter. It offers several useful options:

• Anchor point : This option preserves the location of the coordinate axes of the SketchUp component of the part in the exported file (Project the part's origin). Otherwise the smallest coordinate of the bounding box is used as location of the origin of the coordinate axes (Default). This option is fully compatible with Origin custom anchor (the little red triangle).

• Smoothing : Smooth circles and arcs ! Learn more.

• Merging Mode : Learn more

  • Default : The part shape is exported with a single layer per depth.

  • Outline + Drillings + Merge : Activates the separation of the outer contour of parts from their holes, as well as the merging of depths for each cavity.

• Paths : Allow edges not associated with a face in the part to be exported as a path. Learn more.

Each of these four options can be configured from the tool shortcut bar or from the full configuration panel. The selected configuration is stored and will be retained even if you close SketchUp. You can also create Presets.

In this use case, we will set Anchor point to Default, Smoothing to Smooth circles and arcs, Merge mode to Outline + Drilling + Merge and Paths to Use edges not associated with a face.

To export a single part, simply point and click on the face that will be under the Origin during machining, select a folder and enter the file name, then click on the Save button. That's all there is to it! Your first SVG is ready.

If you take a look at the generated SVG you can see that the encoded depth has been automatically extracted from the 3D model. In addition, you can see that the entire part drawing is encapsulated in a group called OCL_PART. And each path is named according to its cutting depth. This naming is compatible with Inkscape and Affinity Designer.

Second example with "pocket" portions.

More About Paths

Paths are a common terms for edges or curves that are drawn inside the part component and are not associated with a face.

Paths allows you to add extra geometry which will be exported with a color different from that of the solid geometry.

For example, the front of the toolbox features a heart that we want to engrave. This heart is drawn with four curved welded arcs in a subgroup of the long side component.

If the Paths option is enabled, OpenCutList will detect it and preview it with light blue line.

And export it as a simple SVG path.

A more advance example might be the engraving of lines that protrude from the shape of the part.

This does not alter the size of the part in the Parts List, as lines without faces are ignored by OpenCutList.

Paths can be useful for creating machining areas for autopass.

Imagine the following part where you want to use autopass at specific locations. Simply draw closed paths, weld them into a curve and export them.

From Face to SVG

If creating a solid component is too restrictive for your needs, you can also export the faces directly. In this case, however, only the pointed face will be exported.

Use the third Export Face action of the Smart Export Tool.

Batch Export

If your project contains several parts, you can export all the parts in a single operation. In this case, generate the Parts List, click on the three-dot button and select Export 2D projection of parts in group.

Then set the desired options and colors and click on the Export button.

In this example, 5 SVG files will be exported to the chosen folder, named by a combination of the part number and its name.

Export As Cutting Diagram

To be efficient in SketchUp, it is critical to reduce the number of times your hands go back and forth between keyboard and mouse. OpenCutList supports keyboard shortcuts for many operations.

Menu Shortcuts

The menu entries of OpenCutList make it possible to add SketchUp keyboard shortcuts. In the shortcut window of SketchUp you can filter by "opencutlist" to get a list of possible targets for a shortcut.

Minimize OpenCutList

To minimize the main window of OpenCutList, simply hit the <ESC> key. To maximize the window, add a keyboard shortcut for "Generate Parts List".

Smart Paint, Smart Axes and Smart Export Tools

Inside of a tool, you may use <TAB> to go to the next sub-tool or <SHIFT>+<TAB> for the previous tool.

To get to the next option inside of a sub-tool (Paint edges 1 2 4), you may use <CTRL>+<TAB>.

Right-click Menu

When a component is selected, a right-click menu to edit the parts properties or its axes is available.

Common Problems

Does OpenCutList do tiling?

Tiling is the process of filing a space or volume with elements. Usually the tiling area is larger than the area to be tiled, resulting in some waste. Typically tiling may also produce a pattern, depending on the orientation and placement of the tiles.

OpenCutList cannot do tiling, but Curic Face Array is compatible with OpenCutList.

How can I change the language?

Check Preferences.

How does OpenCutList know which dimension is the length of a part?

The local axes of a component are used to find out which dimension shall be considered the length, width or thickness of a part.

The dimensions of a component are wrong in the Parts List

The dimensions of components are taken from the bounding box. Depending on how you draw your component, the bounding box may not be aligned with the component axis. Check out SketchUp Skill Builder: Group axis and bounding box to learn about relocating the local axis to align the bounding box with your component.

The Option Automatic orientation of parts, tells OpenCutList to interpret the dimension of the part using the largest dimension as length, the smallest dimension as thickness and the remaining dimension as width. You can edit the properties of a part, change the order and lock the orientation of the local axes. If Automatic orientation of parts is not enabled, the length is read along the red axis, width along the green axis and thickness on the blue axis. Depending on how you draw your volume, SketchUp might not place the local axes the way you would like them.

These local axes can be changed in SketchUp, in the Properties of the Part or by using the Smart Axes Tool.

I cannot define material in the plugin

On the Materials tab of OpenCutList, add a new material and configure its type. Alternatively or if you already have material on your components, you may define the material within SketchUp, then it will appear in the Materials tab, where you will have to configure a few additional parameters. This information will be used to compute raw dimensions (using the oversize) and select the correct thickness. Also price and weight attributes can be added to the material.

Why is my material not configured?

If you have just applied material defined in SketchUp, OpenCutList lacks the additional parameters it needs to exactly compute the Parts List. Check out the tab Materials to enter this information for all materials used in your model.

The available thickness/size does not correspond to my material

It is not possible to make an exhaustive list of all thicknesses, sizes and personal preferences. For each material we have listed default sizes, which you have to adapt to your local market availability. There is one set for metric units in mm and one for imperial (fractional) units in inches listing a limited set of parameters. You can save your customization and restore it at any time. You can also revert to the original defaults.

How do I define the grain direction?

On material of type Solid Wood, the grain direction is assumed to run along the length, e.g. the first dimension (red axis) of your component.

On material of type Sheet Good, there may be no grain direction (like for MDF sheets) or a grain direction along the length of the sheet. Some material do have the grain running across the sheet (plywoods). In that case, simply swap length and width so that the first dimension represents the grain direction.

The highlight arrow shows the back, how do I change this?

Using the context menu Flip Along and selecting the blue axis (if the thickness is on the blue axis) will flip the front and back face of a part.

The highlight arrow points into the wrong direction, how do I change this?

Using the context menu Flip Along and selecting the red axis (if the length is on the red axis) will change the direction of the arrow.

I have a ~ (tilde) in front of some of the dimensions

This happens when the dimensions are not exact with respect to the precision of your model. See the menu Tools -> Model Info -> Units or the Preferences. Enable the length snapping and configure it to the same value as precision to minimize the effect. However there are situations where this will almost always happen (because you cut a curve or a bevel or because you changed the units of your model after creating your components).

How do I add texture to the OpenCutList material?

OpenCutList material is SketchUp material with some attributes attached to it. Textures cannot be added directly from OpenCutList to the material, but you can edit the material directly in SketchUp if you want to customize its appearance. It is important to configure the direction of your texture in OpenCutList.

I applied material to my component, but I want some faces to have different materials

OpenCutList selects the top level material of the component to assign the part to a group. You may define other materials to the faces of the component. If you do this on all faces of the part, the color of the component material will not be visible anymore.

I applied material to all the faces of my component, OpenCutList still says No Material defined

Material must be applied to the component, assigning it to all faces is cumbersome and unnecessary.

In the Options, you can enable Smart assignment of material, in that case material from a child (face) or parent (enclosing group) of a component will be selected as the material for a component.

My panel parts are displayed in different groups, even though they all have the same thickness

This may happen when your drawing is not precise enough. Increase the displayed precision in the model info to the maximum, menu Tools -> Model Info -> Units or in Preferences. You should now see that parts have different thicknesses. If you use fractional inches, and a ~ (tilde) is displayed in front of the thickness, switch to decimal inches to see the difference.

OpenCutList only uses one size of panels or length of board?

OpenCutList can either use panels/boards from a stock (we call them Panel Offcuts) or a Standard Panel. The offcuts have quantities associated with them and OpenCutList will use them in a particular order to place the parts. If OpenCutList cannot place a part in any of the offcuts, it will issue a warning.

If a Standard Panel is defined (only a single panel/board is possible), OpenCutList will generate as many panels as necessary to place all the parts in an efficient manner. If a part is larger than an offcut or the standard panel, it will issue a warning.

Due to algorithmic complexity/time constraints it is currently not possible to have OpenCutList select from multiple standard panels/boards to find the optimal mix of panels/boards. In general a larger panel/longer board will yield a better result.

North America only Problems

My model unit is fractional, do I need to enter nominal or actual dimensions?

In North America, there is a distinction between the nominal and actual size of many wood products (rough wood, dimensional lumber, wood panels). SketchUp and OpenCutList work with actual dimensions, therefore you need to enter actual sizes and not nominal sizes.

For dimensional lumber (softwood), when the nominal size is 2 x 4 (2 by 4), the actual size will be at least 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 at 19 % maximum-moisture content.

Here are a few examples from Archtoolbox.

See also American Softwood Lumber Standard, June 2010.

My model unit is fractional, do I need to enter nominal or actual dimensions for my panel?

When you plan to use a panel (OSB, Plywood, ...), make sure you note the correct dimensions. Often the hardware store will list the panel with an indication like this:

Birch Plywood (Common: 3/4 in. x 2 ft. x 4 ft.; Actual: 0.728 in. x 23.75 in. x 47.75 in.)

This means that instead of 0.75 in. the panel's thickness is only 0.728 in., not much difference, but 2 ft. x 4 ft. is missing 1/4 in. You need to take this into account when setting up the trimming size for the panel.

The volume of solid wood is labeled FBM, what does that mean?

Rough wood volumes are usually measured in FBM (for "foot, board measure"). One board foot equals 1 ft x 1 ft x 1 in or 12 in x 12 in x 1 in. A volume in FBM is 12 times larger than the volume in ft³. See also the National Hardwood Lumber Association Grading Rules.

Is 4 ft. x 8 ft. the same as 8 ft. x 4 ft.?

It depends! In OpenCutList, the larger dimension or the dimension of the grain direction is the length of the panel, the other being the width. If your material has no grain (like MDF) it probably does not matter. For material like Baltic Birch Plywood, the grain may run along the largest dimension or across the board.

Forum on OpenCollective

A good place to look for help is the Forum on OpenCollective, which is available under the More link. To be able to participate in the Forum, you will need to create a free account. Use the link Start a topic... to be redirected to OpenCollective.

Found a Bug

If you find bugs, consult Issues on github first. Open an issue if updating to the latest version does not solve your problem. If you are not familiar with github, you may also send an email via the link under Report a bug.

Translations for OpenCutList are managed in Transifex.

Helping as a Translator

If you wish to become a translator for a language not yet supported by OpenCutList, please contact us before asking for a new language in Transifex (you can send an email to opencutlist@lairdubois.fr). Be aware that we require a continuing support for the language after its first release.

If you would like to help improve translations, sign up with Transifex.

Source Language

The source language of OpenCutList is French, but it is translated/verified by the developers in English/German. Most translators will choose one of the three languages as a starting point for their translation. We want to make sure that the messages are as correct as possible in all supported languages.

Variants of Languages

Many languages have more or less significant variations. French is not the same in Quebec, Switzerland or France. For the sake of simplicity, we will only support a single two-digit language code. French is fr, Spanish is es, Portuguese is pt, ...

We hope that the translators will agree on a term that is understood by all users of a given language.

Conditions of Acceptance

A language will be accepted and released with OpenCutList, if and only if it is deemed complete. Languages that are only partially translated will not be released until completion.

If support for a language is discontinued, we will remove it from the releases until sufficient support for it is available again.

Developer Versions of OpenCutList

In the developer version of OpenCutList, there is an additional language zz with numbers prefixing the messages. These numbers correspond to the line number for the string in Transifex.

Clicking on the blue horizontal line in Transifex and ALT-e will show an input box where this line number can be entered.

Showing a second Language

It is possible to show a second language or a different language as source language.

Tools

Apart from his knowledge, there is a number of tools that can help the translator to select the most appropriate term.

• The Microsoft Language Portal.

• Deepl Translator.

• Google Translate.

Sometimes a short sentence must be translated back and forth a few times before the best translation is found.

Special Terms

Sentences may contain code that is used by OpenCutList to fill in information. In the example below, number should not be translated.

The number '{{ number }}' recorded on this part 
cannot be used because it is already assigned

We will check that the term '{{ number }}' remains intact in the translated version and correct possible mistakes.

Another example where the term in *$t(...)* should not be translated.

Waste ratio for *$t(tab.materials.type_1)*

Verification

We run a checker to avoid mistakes like adjacent spaces, unbalanced brackets, …, but there is always a slight chance that something was not detected.

History of Terms

Translated terms are kept in memory. When a term has changed in the source language, the translation will be removed. This may happen if we correct a typo that does not change the meaning of the term. In that case, the original translation can be reactivated from the History menu.