Optimising Packing
I have had to done this many many times, I am sure you have to had to. Trying to fit as much cuts as you can into as little materials as there are available. So, I thought to myself, surely there gotta be a solutions to this problem already. Sure enough, there already exist a program for it, and thanks for AI, they have found it for me and is called: OptCut
With this program, I can specify the material I have available and what I need to cut from it, and then it will produce a cutting drawing for me. Within the materials selection, I could also use it as a stock counter, which is amazing. On top of that, I could also specify, if a certain cut falls below a certain dimension, would be considered waste.
However, as you can see from my first iteration of this program, there are clearly still space for some of the planks to sit in some of the off cut, yet there isn’t.
I have found that “Rot“ stands for “Rotation“, therefore, by ticking this box, the cut can rotate. This option would be useful when what I am cutting here isn’t just for the box, and for something structurally important. As you can see, when it is put “Y”, for yes, I am yielding much less waste. This would be a useful tool for me from now on.
