Tools are the one-off items a job needs besides paper and machine time: cutting dies for cartons and boxes, flexo plates, foil and embossing blocks. Keep the ones you own in the Tools & dies tab of Equipment, and set one rate card per tool type so a quote can price a new one.
Tool types#
| Type | Used for |
|---|---|
| Steel-rule die (flatbed) | Cartons and flatbed-cut corrugated on a platen die-cutter. |
| Rotary die (corrugated) | Corrugated boxes on a rotary die-cutter. |
| Flexible die (labels) | Roll labels, on a magnetic cylinder. |
| Solid rotary die (labels) | Roll labels, for long runs. |
| Magnetic cylinder | The cylinder a flexible die wraps around. It is an asset: quotes never price it. |
| Counter / creasing matrix | The counter (creasing matrix) that goes with a steel-rule die. |
| Stripping tool | Strips the waste out of a die-cut sheet, with its die. |
| Blanking tool | Separates the blanks after die-cutting, with its die. |
| Flexo plate | Printing on a flexo folder-gluer or a flexo label press, one per colour and version. |
| Foil block | Foil stamping. |
| Embossing die | Embossing and debossing. |
The tool library#
Add tool asks for the type, your number (for example D-1042, unique in the team) and a name; the tool's page then takes the rest. To add a die together with its stations, use Import die file instead (see Importing dies). The Dies list shows each tool's station drawing, its ups ("6-up", or "8-up · 6 × Tuck box, 2 × Sleeve" on a combination die), its status, how much of its life is used and who owns it; filter it by type, status, customer or whether it has a station layout. Archive and Restore in a filtered list keep the filters.
Each tool has a status: On hand, At the die maker (with the date you expect it), Out for repair or re-rule or Retired. Only a die on hand is used without asking; one at the die maker or out for repair is listed with its date. A tool records its die maker, PO number and order date, where it is stored, what it cost, and its impressions: entered by hand for now, against a life in impressions when you set one. Life & history on its page keeps re-rules, resharpening, repairs and notes, with their cost; at 90 % of its life the page says a re-rule is due. Ownership is Shop-owned or Customer-owned; a customer-owned die can be kept for that customer's work only.
A box die priced by a quote remembers the box it cuts (style, inside size, board and how many up) and the sheet: on the box's card on the Production tab, Save as tool adds the die that box's plan prices to the library as At the die maker, with the box, ups, sheet and rule lengths filled in, and its stations where the plan nested the blanks on the sheet (not when the ups come from a grid count or a number you typed); mark it On hand when it arrives. Such a die also gets a single-up dieline of its box, so it matches by shape whatever sheet a later plan picks, and it follows the die: change its box or its ups and its single-up and ups change with it. A CAD dieline box (a single-up from a die file) saves its die the same way, cutting that single-up; a box whose die is already in the library (ordered or on hand) isn't saved twice. A label die remembers its shape, size, corner radius, how many across and around, its cylinder teeth and repeat, and the gaps. Archive hides a tool without deleting it; Restore brings it back.
Dies with stations#
A die imported from a file, given its file with Attach die file…, or saved from a quote's nested plan knows its stations: where each up sits and which single-up it cuts. Its page shows the station drawing (numbered, tinted by shape), the station table, the grid ("3 across × 2 around"), the whole die's rule with shared knife counted once, and its die board, with the stations measured from the board's corner. When a shape is one already in your library (drawn turned, or as the mirror twin of another shape), the stations draw that single-up where the file has it. Edit position on sheet places the die on the press sheet: centred, or a distance from the lead edge; it reopens as you saved it. It is the one place to change a die's sheet and grain: on a die with stations those fields, and the ups (the stations' count), are shown but not edited in the main form. A die without stations can still be priced by quotes from its ups, but imposition can't place work on it until its file is attached. The page also exports the station drawing as CF2 or PDF.
Companions#
A counter (creasing matrix), stripping tool or blanking tool is a tool of its own, linked to its die with Companion of. A die marked for stripping or blanking whose companion isn't on hand says so on its page, and a quote that uses the die adds that tool's cost from the die's rate card (its stripping or blanking cost) with the notice "Companion not on hand". With New counter every job in the tooling settings, every quote that reuses a die also adds a counter: the creasing matrix rate × the die's creasing rule. Mounts on lists the die-cutters a die fits; leave it empty for any. A quote never uses a die the row's die-cutter can't mount: it prices a new die instead and says "Die doesn't mount".
Single-up dielines#
The Single-up dielines tab lists every distinct shape your dies cut, with its family, size and what uses it ("used by 2 dies · 3 parts"). A shape imported for one estimate stays out of the list until a die uses it or you click Add to library (tick Show unlisted to see those). Its page shows the shape and its measures, keeps its name, family and box facts, opens it in the Box designer and exports it. A single-up a die or a part uses can't be archived.
Rate cards: what a new die costs#
Open Rate cards from the Tools & dies tab. A rate card says how your die maker prices a new tool of one type:
- Dies: base cost + die board area × rate + the cutting, creasing, perforating, scoring and partial-cut rule × their rates + a fee per station + complexity units × rate + stripping and blanking tooling when the die-cutter strips or blanks + a CAD / layout fee + the creasing matrix per length of crease + a cost per nick. The die costs at least the minimum die cost; a die ordered as a rush adds the rush %; shipping per new die is passed on at cost, without markup. Scoring and partial-cut rates left empty use the creasing and cutting rates. The die board is the press sheet, unless you set a die board margin: then it is the stations plus that margin on every side. An imported die is priced on its own board and its own rule, shared knife once. Complexity units are the bends and nicks of the box: its inner cuts and corners.
- Units: each card's rule rates are per in or per mm, and its area rate per in² or per cm², as you enter them. Switching a card's unit converts the rates you see; the stored rates change only when you edit one. A card at 0.35 per in shows 0.013780 per mm; one entered at 0.0138 per mm prices 0.35052 per in.
- Re-rule and wear: a quote that reuses one of your dies adds, from that die type's card, the re-rule (per length of the die's cutting rule) when the job's die-cut sheets pass the die's life left, and wear per 1,000 impressions of the job. Without a re-rule rate the quote still says the die's life is passed, but prices no re-rule.
- Flexo plates: per colour and version, base cost + plate area × rate.
- Price = cost × (1 + markup %), rounded to the cent. The lead time dates a new die: a quote shows when a new die ordered today would be ready.
Example (example rates, not defaults): a carton die 8 up on a 28 × 40 in sheet, with 45.46 in of cutting rule and 38.97 in of creasing rule per blank, at a $250 base, $0.02 per in² of die board, $0.35 and $0.30 per in of rule and $150 of stripping tooling, costs $643.20; with a 25 % markup it is priced at $804.00. With a $5 fee per station and a $40 CAD fee it costs $723.20 (priced $904.00); $25 of shipping makes that $748.20 and $929.00. An imported 12-up tag die on a 200 × 150 mm board with 1,090 mm of cutting rule (shared knife once) costs $265.95 at the same base, board and cutting rates. One flexo plate of 204.14 in² at $0.15 per in² costs $30.62 and is priced at $38.28.
Magnetic cylinders, counters, stripping and blanking tools have no rate card of their own.
No rates are shipped: tool prices vary too much between die makers. Until a rate card exists, quotes that need a new tool say so, and so does a quote that reuses a die with extras to charge: its tooling row never reads "no charge".
Reusing a tool on hand#
A die is found by the single-up it cuts, not by its number: a box, a CAD dieline or an artwork whose shape matches one of the die's stations can run on it (see Matching jobs to dies). Same single-up, same die: the die then sets the ups (its stations of that shape) and the press sheet, rather than the layout a new die would use.
In a quote, the box's die policy decides between the dies that fit and a new die: Prefer a die on hand (the default), Cheapest all-in (compare), Use a standing die (the die you pick) or New die only (see Cartons and boxes). A die used from stock costs nothing but its extras: its missing stripping or blanking tool, a counter with New counter every job, a re-rule when the job passes its life, and wear. Only a die that is on hand, not archived, not kept for another customer, mounts on the die-cutter and is laid out for the row's sheet is used by itself; one at the die maker or in repair is used only when you pick it under Use a standing die, and a label tool is reused at no cost when it is on hand. When a die a quote uses is archived, retired or no longer on hand (out for repair, say), that box is planned again (it shows as pending until then), and a box that picked the die by hand drops the pick when it is next saved. Changing the estimate's customer or the tooling settings plans its boxes again too. A die you add re-plans nothing: the box's chip reads "On hand, not used yet: Re-plan to use it". A small update of the box generator keeps your dies matching.
Tooling settings#
Tooling settings (from the Tools & dies tab) set how dies are matched and compared:
- Exact match within (mm): a shape within this of a die's single-up is that die, used automatically. Near match within (mm) (at least the exact tier): a die within this, with the same creases and holes, is suggested but never used until you confirm it. A mirrored fit is a match lets a mirrored fit count in the library and in estimates; a mirrored die never places artwork.
- Box size tolerance (in): a die made for the same style as a box from the Box designer, with each inside length, width and depth within this, is suggested for it as Same box style and size, never used by itself. Caliper tolerance (in): a board caliper further off than this adds Different board caliper to that suggestion.
- The die-policy defaults Imposition die policy and Estimating die policy, Estimating ranks by, Fill empty stations, New die ups to try, Knife gap on a new die (mm), Spread a new die over orders and New counter every job are for comparing standing dies with new tooling. In quotes, Estimating die policy, Estimating ranks by, Spread a new die over orders and New counter every job are used now (see Cartons and boxes); the others take effect with standing dies in imposition, which is planned.
Tooling on the quote#
Tooling is billed once, as its own row under the line ("One-off: cutting die"), counted in the total and never multiplied by quantity breaks or rounded. Choose Included in the price on a line to fold it into the unit price instead.
The tool library, rate cards, single-up dielines, die imports and tooling settings are also in the API.