Cutlist and Layout plugin for Sketchup

Most awesomeness! Your plug-ins all grown up and get its own fourm!

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

Q. Is it easy to add multiple units?
I mean, sometimes you want to make two units and each one takes about 1.5 sheets.

A. There’s no way to multiply the number of units through the plugin, but if you cut and paste a second copy of your model and select it for the plugin, then it would lay out all of the pieces from both.
It’s an interesting idea, however, and I may add this option later.

-- If you can't joint it, bead it!

Thanks for setting this up. A great plugin and one that I have used to help me build (in the process right now) my bathroom vanity.

-- "Checking for square? what madness is this! The cabinet is square because I will it to be so!" Jeremy Greiner LJ Topic#20953 2011 Feb 2

I have problem importing cvs into CutListPlus. When the names of the parts or materials have non english names they are not recognized properly in CutListPlus, but are okay in CutList.

!http://img26.imageshack.us/i/26471606.jpg/(http://img26.imageshack.us/i/26471606.jpg/)!:http://img26.imageshack.us/i/26471606.jpg/

-- M.A.N.

I checked already and CutListPlus recognized cyrillic names properly. The problem is with cvs from CutList. I had to disable ”.” as a separation symbol in the ruby code to use ”;” instead. I’m trying to adapt SketchUP for furniture design and here in East Europe things are different – we are using mainly MDF, MDF profiles, aluminum profiles and melamine faced boards. Profiles are charged per lineal meters not cubic meters and there is no way to set banding, different sheet goods sizes and profile sizes in CutList.

-- M.A.N.

Thanks, but this is easy in CutListPlus – the problem is with the export of the cvs into the program. I need to use the same names of the materials, hardware and joinery as my suppliers to be easy to order.

-- M.A.N.

Hi dedov,

Thanks for the feedback.

I have made some changes to Cutlist to accommodate language issues already in the past.

The following rules are applied for cvs files:

If the sketchup language is british or american english, then the cvs separation character is ’,’
If the sketchup language is anything else, then the separation character is ’;’ This is to accommodate the use of the ’,’ to represent the decimal in languages other than English.

Note that I made these changes to accommodate sketchup decisions on what to display and to make it easier to import the cvs file. I key the decision on the language selected in sketchup.

As for the part name, I merely take what it received from Sketchup and write it to the file with no modifications.

Now, having said that. I feel your pain. There are improvements which can still be made which are more sensitive to the needs of CutListPlus specifically. I did not have a licensed copy of CutListPlus, only a very old version when some of the changes were made and I was flying ‘blind’ as it were. I rely on people like you to point out inconsistencies to make improvements.

I am happy to hear your suggestions and to incorporate them into the next version and have you as the guinea pig to try out a beta version in the meantime.

Contact me via PM using the LJ site and we can discuss what changes are required.

Now the other thing which I might add to reassure you a bit is that I have recently made contact with Todd Peterson, who is the author/owner of CutListPlus and he has provided me with a license for CutListPlus and I have arranged to have a closer cooperation with him to make sure CutList keep up to the capabilities of CutListPlus.

I am aware that the two tools are being used together and I can see why it is useful to do so and I hope to sort out any issue which you may have which might be under my control.

The last thing which is important to know is that i make no money off of Cutlist or my work on collaborating with CutListPlus. I do it in my spare time because I believe strongly that technology should help to save some wood if possible.

Your comment about including linear metres is loud and clear. I had intended to put an option in the next version which would then list in both metres and cu.m.
Also, the ability to customize sheet sizes in on the todo list. In any case if you are using CutListPlus, you need only to import the correct details of your parts and let CLP do the rest.

Feel free to contact me and we can discuss further the changes which you would like to see.

Steve

-- If you can't joint it, bead it!

Hi daltxguy,
And thanks for your help.
I thought that the choice of the cvs separation character is based on the locale of the Windows, not SketchUP.
I replaced ’,’ with ’;’ in the code to always use it because in my country we are using ’,’ as a decimal symbol.
For the profiles (moldings) maybe another check mark Include-Profiles, field for Profile Word and option to give length in lineal meters. For the banding I can include in the name of the component banding abbreviation as in CutListPlus, separeted with the cvs separation character – Nameofthecomponent;1W-2L.
If you can somehow use this to put additional column in the cvs for import in CutListPlus. I see a lot of potential for SketchUP and CutListPlus here in East Europe in furniture design. Most of the specialized software is based on AutoCAD – it costs around 4500 euro in my country. SketchUP is easy, free, flexsible and perfect for our type of work – 80% melamine faced boards here in Bulgaria. The most used low cost program here and in Russia is Pro 100 – http://www.pro100usa.com/
But it is closed – no import-export and no longer in development. I have program that translates text files produced by Pro 100 into format to import in CutListPlus and it works perfectly with cyrillic names. Sory, but i don’t have 5 messages to send you PM. And sorry for my english !

-- M.A.N.

You may have answered this in previous posts, but has the problem with displaying the layout using Safari on a Mac been solved, other than using SVG output then opening the file in Firefox? I’m sorry is this is an old question.

-- Tim, New York

Hi formerflyer/Tim. Thanks for your question. I’ve answered your question below along with some related questions that may arise from my answer.

Q. Does the Cutlist plugin layout work with Mac with the Safari browser?
The short answer is no. The only option is to generate the svg file and view it in a svg capable browser like Firefox or with an open source program like Inkscape

Q.Will the layout in a web browser window be fixed for a Mac?
Unfortunately, there is no real solution without a redesign. The utilities I use to draw the layout creates an html script which must then be executed by the browser. Safari doesn’t allow it to be executed. It’s a security thing because this method is a common and very simple way that viruses sometimes use to infect your computer.

Q. Can I select the browser to use for Sketchup?
A. No. Sketchup doesn’t allow this, otherwise that might have been a solution, though I think Google Sketchup people have received an earful about this already. I think it should use the default browser for your computer or at best be settable to the browser of your choice. It’s not there yet, however.

-- If you can't joint it, bead it!

Steve,

Thank you so much for your reply. The plug-in is excellent even with this glitch. I go the route of generating the .svg file then opening with Firefox or Safari (both seem to open the file O.K.) then print it out from there. Your work surely saves all of us a great deal of effort. It is greatly appreciated.

Tim

-- Tim, New York

Thanks for the link. I downloaded the file and I will install it in a few days.

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!

Thanks for your comments formerflyer(Tim) and Innovator
The svg format turned out better than I thought it would. It’s quite easy to generate and it gives you many options for printing etc.

Another idea that has been suggested by several people is to generate the layout inside the sketchup model putting the actual parts inside the board/sheet and creating a view. This is something I’d really like to try but it’s going to take some work, so feel free to encourage me if you think this is a good option, but also be patient!

-- If you can't joint it, bead it!

Hi daltxguy,
I meant no offense – it is just really hard to me writing in english. I also would like to thank you for this wonderful tool and your effort helping us!

-- M.A.N.

Hi dedov,

No offense taken. My apologies for not getting back to the discussion yet. Your comments covered a lot of ground and I haven’t had a chance to get through it yet to see what might be changed as a result. I was away for several days on business. I promise I will comment in greater detail within a few days.
Your English is very good, btw and just as a note, English was not my first language either as I grew up in French-Canada with Hungarian parents but then eventually went to an English school!

-- If you can't joint it, bead it!