The live Solutions list

While a run searches, the Solutions drawer under the viewer lists the layouts as they arrive, best first, with their sheets, utilisation, cost and when they were found. You can look at any of them, compare two, and choose the one the job uses.

The first workable layouts appear while the run continues looking for better arrangements. Increasing the time budget gives it more time to improve and compare alternatives, including cartons and wide-format rolls. A longer run does not guarantee more results: the list keeps useful alternatives and improvements, and skips repeated arrangements. You can stop the run and keep the results found so far.

The drawer#

The drawer has three views; switch with Bar, Cards and List, or press L to hide and show it.

• Bar: one line, "Solutions · 57 (12 distinct) · best 17 sheets · 0:23", with a spinner while the run goes on. When the bar is all you show, it pulses once each time a better layout is found.
• Cards: a row of cards you scroll sideways. Each card has a picture of the first sheet, the rank, the main figure ("17 sheets", "12.4 ft" or "2 plates · 2,335 printed"), the utilisation and cost, and a few chips.
• List: a table with every figure, which you can make taller by dragging its top edge (or with the arrow keys when the edge has focus).

The drawer remembers its view. It starts as cards, or as the bar on a short screen. When you start a run, a drawer that closed by itself opens again; one you hid stays hidden.

On a card or row:

• Best marks the best layout, New the ones that arrived since you last looked (they clear after a few seconds, or when you preview them), and Selected the one the job uses.
• Checking… means the final checks of the run are still to come; a tick replaces it once the layout passed.
• Chips tell what's special: "Splits 2 items" or "No splits" (see Keeping items together), "Breaks keep-together", "3 groups" and "2 passes" (see Ganging rules: what may share a form and Ink limits, press units and extra passes), the method, forms, strokes or slits, and "×4" when four similar results are grouped.
• The cost shows "≈ $12.40" (sheets × the sheet cost) until the full price, with printing and cutting, is loaded.

Duplicates, sorting and filters#

Different arrangements are shown separately by default, even when their sheet counts or material use are the same. Turn on Group similar results in List view to combine layouts with similar totals under their best result. The "×N" badge counts similar results found; the arrow shows the alternatives still available to preview. Exact repeats are skipped. The list keeps a bounded set of alternatives so longer and larger runs stay responsive. When a better arrangement arrives for a full group, it replaces a lower-ranked result that has no saved copy.

The list sorts by rank (the same order as the Report), sheets or length, utilisation, cost, time or newest. The filters keep Complete only (no unplaced pieces), No splits only, and on offset runs Within caps, No extra passes and a plate count. Respects preferences shows when the job has Prefer together rules. The sort and the filters are remembered.

While your pointer or keyboard focus is in the drawer, the order holds still, so a card never moves just as you click it. New layouts are added at the end and the bar says Order updated · Re-sort; the new order applies two seconds after you leave the drawer, or at once with Re-sort.

Preview and use a layout#

Click a card or row to show that layout in the viewer; the viewer then stops following the best layout. The viewer's toolbar says Preview and offers Use this layout.

Use this layout makes it the job's selected layout. The Production tab, the Report's summary and the job list then show that layout, even while you preview others; the Production tab says "Previewing #4 in the viewer" when they differ. Without a selection they show the best layout. Clear selection on the Production tab goes back to the best one.

The app asks first when:

• the job's most recent export (an Imposed PDF, cut file, cut program, run sheet or plate list) is of another layout: files already sent to the press or the cutter won't match the new choice;
• the layout splits an item set to keep together (an offset plan that couldn't meet the caps otherwise). Once you confirm, the item shows "Keep together waived" instead of an error.

Both questions come in one dialog. Cancel changes nothing.

A layout you saved and edited is selected with its edits, as "(edited)". Selecting a solution makes a saved copy of it; a copy nobody edited or exported is removed again when you choose another layout. If a better layout turns up after you chose one, the Production tab says "A better layout was found" with Use best: nothing switches by itself.

Exports from the viewer's Export menu are of the layout on screen; the menu says so when that isn't the selected layout. When the selected layout was edited after its last export, the Production tab shows Edited since export.

Pin and compare#

Pin up to two solutions with the pin button (a third pin replaces the oldest). Compare opens both side by side, each with its own sheet navigator and zoom kept in step, and a table of their differences; the better value of each line has a tick. Each side has its own Use this layout.

Dropped solutions#

A run's final checks can drop a layout that streamed in earlier, or a better one can replace it in the list. It fades out of the list; if it is on screen, the viewer keeps it with "This solution was dropped" and it can't be used.

Keyboard#

U, P and C only work while a solution in the drawer has focus, so a stray key elsewhere never changes the selected layout. None of these keys work in Edit mode, and the drawer's preview and Use wait until you leave it. Announcements such as "New best: 16 sheets" and "Run finished" are read by screen readers at most every few seconds.