A cutting machine tells the app how your cutter moves, how its bed and conveyor work and what an hour of cutting costs. Estimates and imposition jobs use it for cut time and bed limits when nesting on rolls. Estimates also use it for the Cutting line of a quote and write its spot colour names into their cut files.
Machine types#
| Type | How it works |
|---|---|
| Flatbed cutting table | A table with a fixed working area, often with a conveyor that advances the material bed by bed. |
| Roll cutter / plotter | Feeds material continuously from a roll. It has no beds and no sheet handling. |
A flatbed with no Working length is treated as continuous feed too.
Bed boundaries#
When a roll layout is longer than the bed, a conveyor cutter cuts it bed by bed. Bed boundaries decides what may happen at the seam between two beds:
| Choice | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Automatic (within beds on conveyor flatbeds) | Keep parts within beds on flatbeds with a conveyor and a working length; let them span otherwise. |
| Keep parts within one bed | Nesting leaves an empty band across the roll at every bed boundary, so no part crosses a seam. |
| Parts may span bed boundaries | Parts may cross a boundary; the cutter then splits the contour across the feed. |
Estimates and imposition jobs can override the cutter's choice for a single layout. More in Rolls, beds and lanes.
Settings#
The settings page groups the fields into sections.
Machine: Name, Manufacturer, Model, Type and Notes.
Motion
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Max speed (mm/s) | The fastest the tool moves while cutting (the published ceiling). |
| Acceleration (m/s²) | How quickly it reaches speed and slows down. |
| Default cutting speed (mm/s) | The practical speed for materials without their own. It can't exceed the max speed. |
| Travel speed (mm/s) | Tool-up moves between contours. |
| Travel acceleration (m/s²) | Acceleration of tool-up moves. |
Corners & tool
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Corner lift angle (°) | Tangential knives lift and turn at corners sharper than this. Leave it empty for a drag knife, which never lifts. |
| Corner lift time (s) | The time for one lift and turn. |
| Corner tolerance (mm) | How far the knife may round a corner it doesn't lift at. Larger values keep more speed through corners. |
| Plunge time (s), Lift-off time (s) | Added once for every contour. |
| Overcut (mm) | Extra length cut past the start point so closed shapes release cleanly. |
Bed & registration
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Working width (mm), Working length (mm) | The working area. Leave the length empty for continuous feed. |
| Conveyor | The bed advances the material. Without a conveyor, every bed is a separate sheet. |
| Bed boundaries | See Bed boundaries. |
| Conveyor advance (s) | Added for every bed after the first on a conveyor. |
| Sheet handling (s) | Added for every sheet on a flatbed without a conveyor. |
| Registration marks per bed, Time per mark (s) | The camera reads this many marks on every bed, taking this long each. |
| Job setup (s) | Added once per job. |
Rates: Hourly cost is what an hour of the machine costs you, Hourly rate is what you charge, and Minimum charge is the smallest cutting charge on a quote. Until you set an hourly rate, cutting adds nothing to quotes.
Cut files
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Thru-cut spot colour | The spot colour and layer name of through cuts in an estimate's cut files. Zünd uses Thru-cut; Roland, Mimaki and Graphtec RIPs use CutContour. Imposition cut files don't use it: they always carry Zünd's method names (see Cutting files and registration). |
| Kiss-cut spot colour | The same for kiss cuts. |
| Cut file format | PDF, DXF or CF2: the format a cut-file download gets when it doesn't ask for one. The Export menus always offer all three. |
Spot names may use letters, digits, - and _ only.
Calibration: Efficiency factor multiplies every motion time. See below.
How cut time is estimated#
The estimate follows the tool along every cut:
- Each contour is cut at the cutting speed with the machine's acceleration, slowing for corners. Corners sharper than the lift angle stop the knife and add a lift. Materials with several passes repeat the contour, then the overcut is added.
- Contours are cut in a short route, bed by bed: the nearest contour next, then the route is improved.
- Every contour adds plunge and lift-off time; tool-up moves between contours add travel time.
- The layout's length decides the number of beds. Each bed adds its registration marks, and each bed after the first adds a conveyor advance (or a sheet change without a conveyor).
- Total = setup + registration + bed changes + (cutting + corner lifts + plunges + travel) × efficiency factor.
- Cost = hours × hourly cost. Price = the larger of the minimum charge and hours × hourly rate.
Per-axis speed limits and tool changes aren't modelled. A contour that straddles a bed edge is counted in the bed that holds its centre.
Test cut and calibrating#
Test cut lays identical rectangles or circles in a grid on the bed and estimates them with the saved settings. Set the size, quantity and gap, and pick a material to use its cutting speed and passes (or the machine's default speed).
To calibrate:
- Cut that test job on the machine and time it from start to finish.
- In Calibrate from a timed job, enter the minutes and seconds and press Suggest.
- The app takes the fixed times (setup, registration and bed changes) off your time and divides the rest by the estimated motion time. Press Apply to save the suggested Efficiency factor.
The factor is limited to 0.2–5. If it hits a limit, check the measured time and the machine settings.
Guillotines#
N-up and strips layouts are cut on a guillotine: stacks of printed sheets, cut with the knife program each form comes with (see Methods: Auto, True shape, N-up, Strips). Add yours on the Guillotines tab of Equipment. Guillotines have no presets. A new one starts with generic values, so time a real job and adjust them.
| Setting | Meaning | Starts at |
|---|---|---|
| Max cut width (mm) | The widest pile the knife cuts. | empty |
| Setup (min) | Once per job: program, paper, first lift. | 5 |
| Time per stroke (s) | One knife stroke, including moving the back gauge. | 4 |
| Sheets per lift | How many sheets you cut at once. It depends on the stock's thickness. | 500 |
| Jogging per lift (s) | Jogging, loading and unloading one lift. | 30 |
| Hourly cost, Hourly rate, Minimum charge | What an hour costs you, what you charge, the smallest charge. | 0 |
How cutting time is estimated. Each form's pile is cut in lifts: lifts = sheets ÷ Sheets per lift, rounded up. Time = Setup + lifts × (Jogging per lift + knife strokes per lift × Time per stroke), where the strokes per lift come from the form's knife program. For example, 1,200 sheets with 8 strokes per lift and the starting values take 5 min + 3 × (30 s + 8 × 4 s) = 8 min 6 s. The cost is hours × hourly cost; the price is hours × hourly rate, never less than the minimum charge. Test cut on the settings page runs this with the saved settings.
The first guillotine you add becomes the team's default; N-up and strips work uses the default one.
Warning: Imposition jobs don't use guillotines yet
N-up and strips jobs are still timed on the job's cutting machine until guillotine selection reaches the imposition Production tab. See Equipment overview.