A Reply to Jeff Wright's CutList Question

Dave Richards

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I tried replying in the thread but I would get a message indicating my post was long enough and that I need more than 5 characters. Must be something with the forum software is screwed up. :dunno:

Jeff Wright said:
That cutlist plugin is powerful!! All the more reason to carefully name the component parts with something meaningful so that when the cutlist prints out it will be easier to decipher. Yes, indeed.

Question: A couple of the parts printed with approximate sizing, using the "~" symbol in front of the dimension. Why is that? It must be due to the way you drew the parts. To what do you have Precision set? (Window>Model Info>Units) Are parts with the apporximate dimensions drawn off axis? When you draw a part at an angle to the axes and make a component of it, the bounding box will be on axis and the plugin, because it reports the size of the bounding box is very liekely to display and approximate value. You might want to confirm whether or not those components are on axis. Turn on color by axis under Styles>Edit>Line Styles. (Click on the little wire frame box under the Edit tab in the Styles dialog.) There are probably some other reasons that could cause the problem but it isn't 6 am nor have I had my coffee.:eek: If you want to send me the SKP file, I'll take a look at it. PM me for my e-mail address.
 
Thanks Dave. I have units set to fractional and accuracy of 1/64's. I enabled the axis edge color option and see nothing except the three axis colors - blue, red and green.
 
Does the cut list just look like text when you use that plug-in or does it seperate it out in boxes with the component names?

Thanks
 
Jeff, did you open that in Excel and then make the titles or was all of that in the csv file? Guess I could just try a simple piece and see how it works, they have to be compents right?

As Dave said in his reply, yes . . . all that you see is generated automatically by the plug-in. With SU, I have gone from using just a sketch on the back of an envelope to taking my time to design the piece using SU. It is like a pre-build exercise. It forces me to think through the design of each joint and dimension choices. Now, with the cutlist plug-in, and can generate a list of sized materials and enter them in CutList Plus and save time and money buying materials.

Someone on this or another forum mentioned that he has gotten the bid on every project he has quoted on using SU. Judging from my wife's pleasure at viewing our intended family room cabinet renovations in the SU rendition, I can easily see why he has been so successful. Few of us are able to visualize the unseen in any meaningful way.
 
As Dave said in his reply, yes . . . all that you see is generated automatically by the plug-in. With SU, I have gone from using just a sketch on the back of an envelope to taking my time to design the piece using SU. It is like a pre-build exercise. It forces me to think through the design of each joint and dimension choices. Now, with the cutlist plug-in, and can generate a list of sized materials and enter them in CutList Plus and save time and money buying materials.

Someone on this or another forum mentioned that he has gotten the bid on every project he has quoted on using SU. Judging from my wife's pleasure at viewing our intended family room cabinet renovations in the SU rendition, I can easily see why he has been so successful. Few of us are able to visualize the unseen in any meaningful way.

I would love to use SU more but after sitting at a computer for 10 hours a day at work I somtimes don't feel like using one at home for more than 2 minutes. Wish I did so I could learn and use SU more, some nights it doesn't bother me, so mostly that leaves weekends.
 
just give it a try,arron

i too spend to much time in frt of one but using one for somethong you enjoy is differnt and sketchup is darn helpful added to the mix dave richards and its winnun combination.. it helped me out alot in my shop project.. being able to look at all the angles and postioning tools in proper porportion willallow me to move in and know that this goes there and that goes well where it will fit:dunno: :D so the next rainy day set down and play with it and get to know it as a freind and not another foe!!!
 
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