Configuration

Setting the units

Navigate to the Projects screen and tap on the Gear button

Tap on the unit style and select the type of unit to match your needs

Setting the blade/kerf width

Navigate to the Projects screen and tap on the Gear button

Tap on the Saw Blade Width edit box. You can override this value on a project by project basis via the Cut List Option screen

Note

Blade width must be less than 1/2 an inch or 12mm

Project Management

Creating a project

Tap on the Add Project button

Enter the project name and optionally the project's description.

Note

The project name must be unique

Copying/duplicating a project

Swipe right on the project you want to copy

Tap on the Duplicate button.

A copy of the project has been created.

Renaming a project

Swipe right on the project you want to rename

Tap on the Edit button.

Enter the name and/or description for the project.

Note

The project name must be unique

A copy of the project has been created.

Delete a project

Swipe left on the project you want to delete

Tap on the Delete button.

What are Assembly Groups

When you have a project comprised of several parts, just the part's name may not give you a good indication of where or how the piece is used. For example, assume we have a bookcase that contains 76 parts. Which parts are for the frame? Which are for the drawers? How about the doors? This is where Assembly Groups help.

Assembly Groups allow you to organize your parts into groups, making it easier for you to visualize your project. Using the example above, we can create an assembly group for Frame, one for Drawers and a final one for Doors. When parts are added or modified, we can assign each piece to a group. Of the 76 parts used in the project, the Frame group would have 34 parts, Drawers having 18 parts, and Doors have 24 parts.

Assembly Groups are not only useful for the parts list. When you look at each of the cut lists, assembly groups will color-code each part, making it a breeze to see where the parts are used.

Create

Tap on the Groups button

To add a new group:

Tap the Add New Group button
Enter the group name
Tap on the checkmark button

Assign a part to a group

To change an existing part to use the new group, swipe to edit the part

Select the new group and tap on save

The modified parts are displayed within the new group. If there are no parts in a group, the group name will not be displayed

Collapsing Assembly Groups

Tap on the arrow button

The contents of the group are now hidden. Tap on the arrow again to show the items

Project Parts

The Part screen is where you enter all the parts for your project.

Add a part

Tap and the Add button

Enter details for the part

Edit a part

Swipe right on the part you want to edit

Tap on the Edit button

Edit part details

Duplicating parts

Swipe right on the part you want to duplicate

Tap on the Duplicate button

Copy of the part is created

Deleting parts

Swipe left on the part you want to delete

Tap on the Delete button

Sorting Columns

Tap on the column heading to sort. Tap multiple times for ascending, descending or natural order

Renumber Parts

In the following example, the parts aren't in sequential order.

Tap on the reorder button

Parts are now ordered sequentially based on the assembly group

What is Ignore Grain?

When a part ignores the grain, it informs Offcuts when generating a cut list to try and rotate the part to minimize waste from the plywood sheet.

What is the warning icon and why are the length and width red?

You can get the warning icon and red text when Offcuts can't find any material in the inventory large enough to cut from.

Check the inventory tab, make sure the material still exists, and add a large enough size to cut the parts from.

Inventory

Inventory is where you define the supplies for each of your projects. The Inventory is broken down into three major categories:

Sheet Goods. This is rectangular material. For a woodworker, this would be plywood. However, you're not limited to just one type of material. You can create other materials such as Glass, Metal or fabric.
Lumber. Offcuts works with dimensioned lumber, not rough-cut nor parts that are to be resawn from each piece.
Other Items. A project isn't just made up of material that you mill out. You may need to consider and price items like Hinges, Glue or labour. These items fall into the other category.

You can add and remove items inventory at your leisure. If the material you need isn't in stock, add it.

Not all of us have an unlimited amount of material at our disposal. For each item in the list, you can define how much of that material you have available. Offcuts will do its best to make use of all available items in stock.

Inventory items are shared between all projects. If you delete an item from inventory used by another project, you may cause the other projects to have a part that can't be placed when creating a cut list.

Adding

When you install Offcuts, a small number of raw materials is included in the inventory. Depending on your project, the material or sizes of these stock items may not exist.

It's easy to add new items to the inventory. Just follow the following steps. Remember, all items in the inventory are shared amongst all projects.

Tap on the Add button.

If the material you want isn't listed, tap on 'Add new material' and type in the material name

Fill in size and quantity. Price and Vendor are optional though pricing information will you understand the total cost of the project.

The new stock item is now in inventory and can usable by all projects.

Edit inventory

Swipe right on the stock item you want to edit and tap on Edit

All projects share offcuts inventory. When you modify the inventory, it affects all projects. If Offcuts determines that the stock item you're adjusting is in use, it will not allow all attributes to be changed. In this example, the 'Material Type' and 'Thickness' can't be changed.

Delete

Swipe left on the item you want to delete and tap on the delete button

Sorting columns

Tap on the column heading to sort. Tap multiple times for ascending, descending or natural order

Amount of material available

Most of us don't have an unlimited amount of wood to cut from. You may have only one 4x8 sheet of plywood but multiple 4x4 sheets. In Offcuts, you can tell it how much material you have, and Offcuts will work through your inventory making the best use of the inventory levels you have.

In the following example for 1/4 inch Baltic Birch plywood, we don't have any 4'x8' sheets in inventory and only one 4'x4' and ten 4'x2' sheets. When Offcuts calculates the cut list, it will ignore the 4'x8' sheet and only use one 4'x4' before moving on to the 4'x2' sheets. If Offcuts runs out of materials to cut from, a warning message is displayed on the cut list screen.

It's important to note, Offcuts DOES NOT maintain inventory levels for you. This is a manual process left up to you to manage.

To adjust inventory levels, swipe right on the selected stock item, adjust Quantity and press save

Generating Cut lists

Warning Icon

The warning icon will be displayed when Offcuts cannot generate a cut list for all your parts.

To see what parts were not able to be placed, tap on the Warning icon.

The list will display all the parts and the reasons. In this example, there were two problems. I ran out of material, and a piece is too large for the material I have available.

This list is scrollable, so swipe up and down to see more items - if applicable.

The Inventory screen will show that I don't have enough material available for my project. Once I increase the quantity, the error will go away.

The Parts screen will show that I made an error when entering the width of the part. Instead of 58 inches wide, it should have been 38 inches. Once fixed, the error will go away as it will fit the material I have available.