Hi,
I’ve been struggling to coax OpenCutList (which is incredible - Thank you to the developers) to reflect the dimensions of the rough lumber required for a part.
I have a part that is a mitered rip cut along the length of a 2 x 6.
The resulting part is is about 3 9/16” wide and 1 1/2” thick.
I would like to have OpenCutList reflect that these pieces need to come from 2x6 stock. I cannot figure out how to do that. I have tried “Dimensional” and “Wood” types. I’ve checked axis orientation for the components and the resulting measurements that OpenCutList renders seem correct. I’ve even tried to orient the “thickness” dimension along the “width” and set up a material that has only one thickness (5.5”).
I have seen some other posts on this topic and tried some of the suggestions there but without success.
Hoping someone can help orient my axes toward resolution.
Thanks!
Hello, can you share a capture of your part ?
Otherwise, the dimensions read by OpenCutList are the dimensions of the bounding box.
So if your part section (width x thickness) doesn’t fill a 2x6 section, the Dimensional material type won’t be useful anyway.
Hi Boris,
Thanks for the super-fast reply. Yes, that’s exactly the style of part that I have.
My understanding (as shown in your figure) is that OpenCutList is going to the use the bounding box. Is there a way to make the cross section of the bounding box “2x6” (1.5”, 3.5”) so that OpenCutList will count it as 2x6?
I have not figured out a way to “pad” a bounding box to do this. Is there some trick? I guess one could put some hidden geometry but that would be a pretty ugly hack (and I’m not sure it would work).
Thank you!
Updated: He’s a picture showing the part (above) and the dimensional stock from which it would be cut (below). The bounding box the above would be 4 3/8” x 1 1/2”. The smallest common dimensional stock that you could cut that from would be 2x6. I’d love the cut list to be able to figure out that I need to order 2x6 stock with the lengths calculated as usual (bin packed parts).
Just wondering if OCL allows choosing between dimensional lumber stock or dressed (net size) stock ?
In the absence of a better solution, I have found a pretty awful hack that works by forcing the bounding box to a dimension that matches the rough lumber size. That gets OCL to give me the output I needed for materials and cut planning. I’m hoping the there’s a better way, because this is pretty heinous.
At the back of the component I added a zero-thickness plane that pads out the component bounding box to 2x6 nominal. A single line is not sufficient. If you hide the hack-plane it no longer works. I was trying to find something invisible that would pad out the bounding box but I couldn’t figure anything out. The wood is type “Dimensional” and OCL “just works” now and counts this thing as a something cut from a 2x6.
The Dimensional material type expects a geometric cross-section that exactly matches the one defined in the standard section.
In other words, the standard section must be equal to the final section.
Only the Solid Wood material type searches for the closest upper thickness to the geometry. But thickness only.
Yes OpenCutList compute bounding boxes by only counting visible faces.
Switching to “Solid” material type and by carefully aligning and locking my axes for the part so that the blue axis (thickness) aligns along the “Width” of the part, AND adjusting the material “Standard Thicknesses” to include on the thickness I want (5 1/2” for a 2x6”) THEN I can get OCL to reflect these rip cut parts as 5.5” material.
Unfortunately it doesn’t provide me with a Cutting Diagram!
This is very frustrating as the cutting diagram is the main thing I want to have.
It seems crazy to me that something that is rip-cut from standard dimensional lumber ends up being such a a hassle. Both approaches I’ve tried has problems.
Feature Request
Please would the developers of OCL consider adding support for components, like the one in this discussion, that do not have a cross sections that identically match standard dimensional lumber?
Perhaps if the user could add an attribute to the component (if that’s even possible) that tells OCL what dimensional material should be used for the component, OCL could honor that and consider it as dimensional lumber of that dimension and provide the cutting diagram as for regular dimensional lumber.
Thanks
Yes, OpenCutList is not designed for what you want.
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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. No cutting diagram.
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Sheet Good is lumber coming in sheets (MDF, Plywood, OSB, …). Such a material is not meant to be planed, just cut with fixed thickness. It is a fairly homogeneous material where grain direction may (Plywood, OSB) or may not be important (MDF).
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Dimensional is lumber or bar with a standardized cross-section and length. Its section is fixed, and it can only be cut lengthwise.
Thank you for explaining the various types supported by OpenCutList. I understand better now.
OpenCutList does seem to understand cross cuts (mitered or compound mitered) of dimensional lumber. This is awesome!
Do you feel that rip cuts and/or mitered rip cuts of dimensional lumber should not be supported by OpenCutList?
If so, how should users best use OpenCutList for such parts?
Thanks.
Have you tried using a fully transparent material for the “cut off”/waste material?
In the attached .skp I show:
Part “A” with full piece of 2x6 and outline of material to be removed.
Part “B” with allowance for kerf, leaving finished part at desired dimensions, but I have “painted” the waste with a fully transparent material and hidden edges.
Part “C” is just the finished part without any manipulation to trick OCL.
Maybe there is a solution here by concealing the waste portion of the material, and dealing with it as such by labeling it in layout as waste?
Please see all the scenes in the provided .skp
OCL_2x6_BoardTest.skp (103.9 KB)
Currently OCL Dimensional material type is not designed for that. Because it produce a 1D cutting diagram.
If you add the ability to consider rip cuts, we need a 3D cutting diagram (along length, width and thickness) …
