ToolCrib.com Blog: "What if you could consistently determine the most efficient way to cut your wood stock down into project-ready pieces?
First off you’d save yourself money - quite a big chunk over time depending on how much wood you buy. Some other repercussions? You’d have no need for articles like: 11 Ideas for Wood Cut Offs, and you could strike the cut off storage plans off your list of wood storage plans."
11 comments:
Wow! What a nice program. I think we have all worked at theatres where there was no such thing as scrap wood and you had better make sure you use every single scrap to its fullest potential. This piece of software seems like it can only help with that. As for the argument that it makes carpentry involve less thinking, I would tent to disagree. I think all this does is provide you with a more efficient method for doing something you would do normally; Thereby increasing productivity, which is the ultimate goal is it not?
That's really awesome! I wish we could have had this for the PTM assignment. Very neat stuff. The ability to get the maximum out of your lumber and materials is so valuable, and it's good for when you need a quick plan when going to the shop. I still think that one needs to work the lumber and math out, but having this tool is good as a backup. Very neat.
For really big projects or complicated cuts, these seem very useful. Most of the time though, it seems like it would be faster for a person to just do the cut list. People with some practice can be quite efficient and do the figuring pretty quickly.
Why am i so excited about this? Maybe it is because I am a bit tired of hand drawing and writing out my cut list! we actually just finished doing an assignment in ptm dealing with this exact same stuff!! The program is awesome and its so inviroment friendly. The fact that you will use every scrap of wood it is more acceptable and I feel that it is something that is a great help in the theatre, along with a bit deteriorating... Not having to do that bit of extra math can be very helpful in the non consumption of time, then again you dont think about antyhing... Seems good though!
This tool sounds like it would be really helpful for complicated sets and designs, but like ethan noted, I think that the carpenter will understand the project more if he does the cutlist himself. Not only will the project be better comprehended, but I think it will go quicker than having to input all that material into the computer. Its great that someone figured it out, but I would much prefer figuring out the cut list myself.
awesome!! this sounds like the best program ever. it is a very timely article considering our last PTM project, so it makes you appreciate the application even more.
I have to agree with Ethan on this one, it seems like a cool idea for large projects, but most of the time it probably is inconvenient. I also wonder if the program takes into account human error of any kind. The image they showed seemed to grid everything a little bit too tightly together for a human to be able to pull off ever cut every time. It might be useful in situations where the CNC Router is used, but for a lot of hand cuts I see this being just a big time suck.
If you're going for speed, I definitely agree that that these two programs are incredibly useful. However, I'm one of those people who gets a little worried whenever there's a new advance in technology that makes us think a little less. The article even states at the end, "This program will do the thinking for you!" I think this would be a great aid as long as you do not become completely dependent on it to do your thinking for you.
Pretty darn cool. Wish i had this when i was making some furniture from some really nice poplar I had. Would've been cool to help organize my process.
We recently completed an assignment in PTM which consisted of figuring out the cut lists for various platforms. Throughout this process we all realized how easy it is to make simple mistakes as well as how many different methods exist for doing something "correctly". A program that would eliminate eliminate ambiguity, cut costs and increase efficiency sounds like a great idea.
So I think doing this depends on what type of environment you work in. Some places consider that making the cutlist, including finding the lengths and deciding how to cut the existing boards, is the carpenter's job, and should not be taken away from the carpenter. At some places though, it is common to give the carpenter a cutlist of the lengths, but he still uses his judgement to cut the boards. Full implementation of this software would involve giving the carpenter a drawing of each board and how it should be cut. This adds time for the draftsman, and probably more time for the carp to figure out the drawing and lay out the boards according to the drawings.
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