GNCutter Online Help
Overview
GNCutter helps you:
Minimize a waste when you cut small parts from rectangular stock of material (2D cutting task):
- Cutting glass, metal, plastic or wood sheets / planes;
- Cutting paper or metal coils / rolls;
- Sawing wood or metal sheets with taking in account the saw thickness;
- Manufacturing / punching parts from flat raw material.
Figure out how to fit small objects into a bounded space (nesting task):
- Room planning for building / house design;
- Stow cargo;
- Component placement for electronic manufacturing;
Minimize a stock requirement for cutting small pieces of different length from linear stocks (1D cutting task):
- Cutting metal or plastic pipes / tubes;
- Timber sawing;
- Cutting any types of linear bars that have fixed length and you need to get smaller pieces.
What does GNCutter exactly do?
GNCutter shows you how to:
- Place several rectangular shapes on a bigger rectangular
shape to occupy as little space as possible;
- Cut a rectangular piece by smaller rectangular pieces
with as little waste as possible;
- Place several rectangular parts on several bigger rectangular
sheets to take as few sheets as possible.
For the sake of simplicity let denote the smaller rectangular shapes and pieces as parts.
The bigger rectangular shape, piece and sheet let denote as a stock.
GNCutter calculates geometric locations of all parts on a stock and produces a visual presentation of the
parts called parts layout. GNCutter can export the parts layout to AutoCAD DXF or Ms Excel
comma-separated (CSV) files. GNCutter produces the sequence of cutting instructions for the current
parts layout that can be exported into CSV-file as well.
If you have a CSV-file with list of parts you can import it to GNCutter. It allows you to
save your time and re-use the same set of parts for several projects.
See also: File Formats.
Geometric System
The parts in GNCutter are placed on the stock. To define the exact location of the parts GNCutter
uses X and Y axes coordinate system.
Axis X is a horizontal axis and shows how far is a part from the left edge of the stock.
Axis X is used to define the width of a part.
Axis Y is a vertical axis and shows how far is a part from the top edge of the stock.
Axis Y is used to define the length of a part.
The left edge of the stock has coordinate X = 0.
The top edge of the stock has coordinate Y = 0.
Location of each part on the stock defines by coordinates of its left top corner and part's
dimension (width and length). All part coordinates are relatively to the stock.
Before you start...
- Select the measurement units. GNCutter supports two major types: Inches and Centimeters.
- You should know the type and dimensions of the stock. There are two stock types supported: Sheets and Coils.
Sheets are defined by the width and length. Coils are defined only by the width and the coils length is considered to be infinite.
- You should know the dimensions of the parts you would like to cut from or place on the stock.
If you have several parts with the same dimensions then you should know count of such parts to avoid unnecessary input.
- You should define the calculation method. GNCutter supports two calculation methods: Guillotine and Nesting.
Guillotine method requires all cuts will be complete side-to-side cuts. Good example is glass cutting that
allows only guillotine cuts. If your task does not require guillotine cuts then use Nesting method.
Specifying numeric values
GNCutter provides as easy way as possible to specify numeric values (width, length, count and etc.)
taking in an account the difficulties that users of mobile device experienced during inputting some
text or numeric information.
Every numeric text box in GNCutter has on its right side a small button with three dots caption (...).
When you tap on the button it shows the dialog to specify numeric value without using of the input panel.
The dialog provides the finger-size buttons on the whole screen that dramatically improve performance
of specifying numeric values.
If cursor is blinking on a numeric text box then you can invoke the dialog by pressing Enter key on
your Pocket PC device.
How to minimize pipes or tubes cut waste?
GNCutter can help you if you need to cut pipes, tubes or other objects that have only one dimension.
Let's denote these objects as linear stocks and pieces you need to cut as linear parts.
You should put the linear stock width to 1 and width for all linear parts to 1 as well.
After it you should specify the linear stock length and lengths for all linear parts as required
for your project.
Perform the calculation and check the results in Layout and Report pages.
Setup page
This page allows you to specify the name, measurement units and the calculation method for your project.
Project name is optional and will be assigned a default value when you create a new project.
If you want to work with your project in the feature we recommend specifying any distinguishable name.
It helps you to locate the project afterwards.
Measurement units by default are Inches. You can switch to Centimeters by tapping on "Centimeters" radio button.
If you already specify any parts or stock parameters in one units then switching to another one will result in
conversion all specified parameters to the new units.
Calculation method determines the way GNCutter cuts or places the parts on the stock.
Guillotine method tells GNCutter to cut the stock using only side-to-side cuts that means all parts
will be cut from their one side completely to another side. For example, this method is only one available
for glass cutting.
Nesting method is a general method which can produce nesting layout of the parts on the stock with
only one requirement - parts must not overlap each others. Nesting method is a default method for a
new project, but you can switch to Guillotine by tapping on "Material guillotine cutting" radio button.
Stock page
This page allows specifying the stock dimensions and the gap between parts.
Stock width is a mandatory parameter and must be more than zero.
If you place you cursor in the text box and press the Enter key on your Pocket PC or
tap the small button on the right side of the text box then you can specify stock width
value in an easy and fast way without using the Input Panel.
If your stock is sheet (plate) then you should specify the stock length as well.
Tap on the checkbox "Stock is sheet (has finite length)" if it was not checked yet.
The text box "Stock Length" should become enabled and you can specify the value in the
same way as you did for stock width.
In some cases you will need to take in account a gap between parts.
One of common cases is sawing a wood sheet. The saw results in a gap between the parts and
that gap equals to the saw thickness.
Another example is a room planning. If you place all you rooms one beside another without a consideration
of the walls thickness between rooms then you will loose some room spaces that
will be occupied by the walls.
To specify part-to-part gap you should check the "Part to part gap /saw thickness" if it was
not checked yet. The text box "Gap size" should become enabled and
you can specify the value in the same way as you did before.
Parts page
This page helps you to specify the parts you want to place on or cut from the stock.
Each part is as rectangular object defined by its width and length.
All parts can be rotated during the calculation by 90 degrees.
To avoid unnecessary typing you can specify number of parts with the same dimensions.
So, if you have 5 parts that have dimension 10 by 20 then you can create only one part
10 by 20 and specify number of parts 5.
There are four buttons that provide four operations you can perform on the parts:
Create a new part.
When you need to specify a new part you should tap on "New Part..." button.
The dialog pops up which has three numeric text boxes:
- Number of Parts. Specify how many parts of the same dimensions you have in your project.
- Length. Specify the length of the part in the same measurement units as you selected on Setup page.
- Width. Specify the width of the part in the same measurement units as the part's length.
To facilitate and simplify entering numeric values each numeric text box has a small button on its right side.
By tapping on this button you can easily specify any numeric value as describe in Specifying numeric values.
If you specified all information and want to create a new part then you should tap OK button in the dialog.
Edit existing part.
If you want to change some parameters of the existing part in the project you should select this part in
the table either by the stylus or Up/Down buttons on your device. Than you should tap "Edit Part..." button or
press Enter key on your device.
The same dialog as in "Create a new part" topic pops up. The numeric text boxes are filled with values from
the selected part and you can change them. After you are done with your changes you can tap OK button to
save changes or Cancel button if you don't want to save them.
Delete existing part.
If you want to delete the existing part from your project then you should select this part in the table
either by the stylus or Up/Down buttons on your device and tap "Delete Part" button.
The warning message comes that asks you to confirm the deletion and if you answer "Yes" then the part will be deleted.
Delete existing part.
If you want to delete all existing parts from your project then you should tap "Delete All" button.
The warning message comes that asks you to confirm the deletion and if you answer "Yes" then the parts will be
deleted and the part list will be empty.
Layout page
This page becomes visible after the calculation is done. This page contains the parts
layout viewer to visualize the parts layout for you.
The viewer displays the parts as blue rectangular shapes. Each part displays its ID
(center), length (left side) and width (top side). The viewer has Vertical (Y-Axis) and
horizontal (X-Axis) rulers to detect the positions of the parts on the layout.
The viewer provides several helpful functions:
- Scroll in vertical or horizontal directions by using scroll bars or navigation keys on your Pocket PC.
- Tap-and-drag the viewer in any direction you want to scroll by the Stylus or your finger.
- Zoom-In allows you to view any area of the parts layout under magnification for more details.
- Zoom-Out enables you to reduce the magnification level of the parts layout to view more parts.
- Zoom-to-Part allows you to get a close look at the selected part. It magnifies the part you selected to
occupy almost the whole screen.
- If your project has more than one stock sheet the viewer provides the possibility to navigate
through the sheets.
To make your work more easy and enjoyable there are several ways to use the viewer functions:
- If you tap and release the stylus then the viewer pops-up the menu containing all
available functions. You can tap on the menu item you want to execute or tap on "Cancel" to hide the menu.
- If you press "Enter" key on your Pocket PC then the same menu as described above pops-up.
You can use Up/Down keys to select the menu item you want and press "Enter" to execute it.
- You can use the toolbar to execute some functions by tapping on the buttons.
- If your project has multiple stock sheets (more than one) then the left upper corner of the
viewer contains the information button. This button shows you the current sheet number
and can be used to navigate through the sheets. When you tap on the button it pops-up the
menu containing list of all stock sheets. You can select desirable sheet by tapping on it.
You can navigate through the stock sheets by using the toolbar's buttons as well.
File Formats
Import Parts.
You can specify an external CSV-file that contains a list of parts to import these parts
into your project. This file consists of the header and the body.
The header describes the columns to be imported and has
the following columns:
- ID - text unique part's identifier
- Width - width of the part as float number like 2.45 or 0.78
- Length - length of the part as float number
- Count - number of part with the same dimensions.
Export Parts
You can export the list of parts from the current project to the CSV-file
with the same structure as described above in Import Parts.
Export Parts Layout
After the calculation is done you can export the parts layout to CSV-file.
The file has the following columns:
- Sheet - Number of stock sheet a part is located on
- ID - Text unique part's identifier
- X - Coordinate of the left part's side on X-Axis
- Y - Coordinate of the top part's side on Y-Axis
- Length - Length of the part (along Y-Axis)
- Width - Width of the part (along X-Axis)
Export Cutting Instructions
After the calculation is done you can export the instructions how to cut the stock.
A cut is done from a start location to end location:
- Sheet - Number of stock sheet a part is located on
- Start X - X coordinate of the start location
- Start Y - Y coordinate of the start location
- End X - X coordinate of the end location
- End Y - Y coordinate of the end location
