Plot Options

Sorting before plotting/cutting happens at two levels. First, PatternSmith sorts the patterns on the table. Second, it sorts the elements of each pattern. Plot Options allows control over how the table sorts patterns and elements in patterns.

General

Scroll Plotting View To The Copy Currently Being Cut Automatically will scroll to the current copy that is being cut on the Plotting View.

Close Plotting View On Job Completion will close the Plot Window and return to the Nest View when the job is finished. If you want to plot the same table multiple times, do not check this. At job completion, a Repeat Last Table button will appear in both the Plot Window and the Cutter Keypad.

Show Overlap and Out of Bounds Dialog will enable the search for overlap or out of bounds before cutting.

Show Post Plot Options Dialog shows the post cut dialogs for removing a nest in HideShot and PrintShot and recut options.

Sorting

Sorting Column Width sets the width of columns where all patterns that have a start point within that width are cut before the sorting advances to the next column. Setting the column distance to the approximate size of your smallest pattern will give you good results.

Checking the Cutoff box, will cut off your material at the specified distance past the last pattern on the table. Use the
dropdown to select the tool to use for the cutoff. Use the Cut from Center Out option when use a straight blade tool. This will keep the blade from catching the edge of the material.

Job Finish Position

You have three options for parking the cutter at the end of a cutting job. Stop at Final Position will leave the gantry at its last position. Check Home When Finished to return the gantry to its starting point at the origin end of the table. Check Move Past End and enter a distance to park the machine that distance past the furthest X cut down the table.

Blower

Allows you to start the blower when the job starts, or stop the blower when the job is finished. You still have keypad control of the blowers if you need it.

Table

Sets the Repeat Last Table and Next Table starting points. Current Position is the current location of the cutting head. Local Home is the position where the last job started.

Special Sorting

**NOTE** Only use these features as needed, cutting will be less efficient and less predictable.

Enable Reordering

When you are cutting rectangular patterns, you may need to control whether the horizontal or vertical lines are cut first. For example, if you are cutting a table of horizontal strips, the material will be more stable if you cut all the horizontal lines first, leaving the vertical lines at the ends until last.

After you check Enable Reordering, each group below will become moveable. Adjust the plot order for elements by simply moving them up or down in the list.

Remove Common Lines

Removes common lines so that they aren’t cut twice. Only check this option if you are trying to remove common lines.

Line Tolerance will remove two lines (or a portion of one) that are within the tolerance you set here.

Don’t Cut Lines On Material Edge

Use this when you have Material Edge Spacing set to zero and you don’t want to cut lines that are right on the material edge. Awning panels typically can make use of this feature. Material Edge Tolerance will look in that range for lines to skip. This feature only skips lines.

Plot Order

For any internal elements on each pattern, the program uses a modified nearest-neighbor algorithm to try to minimize the cutting time. You have three choices that will affect sorting within patterns:

Cut Perimeters Last works best for most patterns. If your patterns are all as wide as the material you are using, change to Sort All Elements Together in order to minimize cutting time. The program will still move generally from left to right.

Cutting Notches With Internals is usually the fastest choice. If most of your patterns have only one or two notches, it may be faster to cut them inline. External notches are automatically cut inline, so you don’t need to change the setting to account for those.

Allow Element Reversal will always allow faster cutting but you may have other reasons for needing to cut elements in a specific direction.

Mark Order

With Normal Sorting the marking elements will be sorted with all other internal elements.

Mark Entire Table, Then Go Home And Pause: for some porous materials, you may need to do all of the marking, then cover the material with plastic in order to apply vacuum before cutting.

Mark Entire Table, Then Continue Without Pausing will simply do all the mark elements first and then continue with any remaining element types.

Mark First, On Pattern By Pattern Basis will do mark elements first for each pattern, followed by other element types.

Tool Pass Priority

When a nested table uses more tools than available mount points on the cutter, it will require multiple table passes to complete the cutting. PatternSmith will use the Tool Pass Priority to determine the order in which to fill mount points for table passes. Each tool can be dragged to a new position within its mount point group.

Conveyor Table

This section is only used if you have a Catalyst system.

Don’t Advance Conveyor will stop the belt from moving. This allows you to cut short jobs on a conveyor table as you would on a static table.

Don’t Coney Last Frame stops the belt from moving during the last frame of the job.

Convey Frame Manually allows the user to manually convey the material as desired and jog the gantry to the precise start position.

Framing

**NOTE** This feature is designed to cut single patterns longer than the table. Its intention is not to cut long nests that contain multiple patterns.

If you need to cut patterns that are longer than your (static) table, you have the option to turn on Framing. Set the Frame Size to any value between the Minimum and Maximum Size values. PatternSmith will divide the nest length into portions that fit that size.

You also need to set the Nest Length. This is done in the Tool Window under the Nest Tab. Set it to a value longer than your physical table, long enough to accommodate the patterns you need to cut.

The machine will cut as much of the pattern as it can, mark a small alignment line, and return to the home position. The operator can now move the material down the table and align the mark with the machine’s laser pointer and continue the process until the pattern is complete. Repeat until the pattern is completed. The length of the alignment line can be set with the Align Line Length field.

Recuts

As patterns are cut on the table, you have the option of clicking on a pattern in the Plot view to mark it for recutting. When you hover the cursor over a pattern it will turn pink. If you click it, it will turn red. You may deselect a pattern by clicking it again. 

When the Plot View is closed, the patterns selected will be placed in the Nest View. The patterns can be moved around as desired and then recut.

Custom Data

This feature adds data to the job log file that is created when using Synopsis reporting tool. It allows a user to report additional information each time a job is sent to the cutting machine. A maximum of 4 fields can be assigned. Click the + sign to add fields. A default value can be assigned to each field such as a prefix or lot number. Fields can be marked as required. If Required is set to On, the OK button will not be active and the job cannot be sent to the cutter without the user entering data in the field.