Transfering pieces from plans

[CesarFdez]

Hi everyone, looking for some advice.

I'm trying to make a CNC machine out of MDF boards. The design is already done in SketchUp and I know the different pieces dimensions.

My problem is that I want to minimize the waste of board so the pieces were draw on the board and when I sawed them, the pieces differ slightly on the dimensions. I didn't count with the gap left by the Jigsaw.

So the question is how can waste the less of the board and have the best accuracy.

Thanks,

Cesar

[Roger T]

I have never used this program, but CutList Plus will take your plans and arrange the pieces on either sheet goods or solid wood. I cannot answer to the part about minimize board waste though, maybe someone who has used the program can chime in.

Roger

[Bob Lang]

You can do that in SketchUp, if your parts are all Components. Model a sheet of your material and make it a group or a component (doesn't matter which, you just don't want it to be sticky). Then you can drag your other parts from the Components window into your model and lay them on the sheet. To optimize your cutting, just move and rotate the pieces to get the best yield, and leave a gap of at least 1/8" between the parts.

Bob Lang

[CesarFdez]

I have never used this program, but CutList Plus will take your plans and arrange the pieces on either sheet goods or solid wood. I cannot answer to the part about minimize board waste though, maybe someone who has used the program can chime in.

Roger

Thank you Roger,

The program looks nice, but is very expensive for making plans as the version that exporta DXF cost 499$ (http://cutlistplus.com/editions.aspx).

Do you know about a similar program opensource or cheaper than this.

You can do that in SketchUp, if your parts are all Components. Model a sheet of your material and make it a group or a component (doesn't matter which, you just don't want it to be sticky). Then you can drag your other parts from the Components window into your model and lay them on the sheet. To optimize your cutting, just move and rotate the pieces to get the best yield, and leave a gap of at least 1/8" between the parts.

Bob Lang

Thank you Bob,

I tried to do what you tell me, but finally, instead of leaving a gap (1/8" about 3mm), I draw a line in the middle of that gap, so the cut of the jigsaw is shared by the two pieces.

I upload an image of the final plan.

César