Shopsmith Forums

Guess what? You can use this program to layout your shop. Just make each 'board' the size of each of your tools and workbenches as parts dimensions. Set your shop size in the 'Material Piece' listing. MOST IMPORTANT - on the 'Arrange parts manually' page, uncheck the '"Snap" dropped boards up and left' box. You can then arrange your shop any way you want. Right click to rotate an item.

Note: When manually arranging parts, the print didn't print the cutting diagram list. Worked fine when the program arranged the parts. Also, manually arranging is superior to programs auto function. Auto used 7 2x4x8 boards with much leftover when laying out picnic table legs, cleats and braces. I manually arranged the parts using 6 2x4x8's with almost no scrap. Auto didn't come up with my arrangement in 100,000 tries.

P.

Auuuhghh that is old school cutlist you need the new and improved cutlist that is free here. Its now in 3D with sketchup so its all free. That is if you like the way most popular woodworking magazines do there cutlist. You need to click on the picture and the arrows to see all the screen shots. http://steveracz.com/joomla/content/view/45/1/

And how do you install this plugin? No instructions, even in the Sketchup help files.

When you extract the zipped folder, extract to the "plugin folder" of Google Sketchup.

At least one of us is so old fashioned that up to a few weeks ago he used pencil and paper to make cut lists. Now he can use "Cut List" because all he has to do is click on the program that's found in "My Favorites. No more learning, just click and lay out. I wonder who that person could be?;)

BTW I have a pad or two of unused graph paper and a sharp pencil.

Sketchup looks really cool and I haven't used it a lot yet, but I'm fascinated by it.

However, for my upcoming trim work (simple linear cutlist), the previously posted Cutlist program is perfect. The learning curve is a few minutes.

- Chris

chrispitude wrote:Sketchup looks really cool and I haven't used it a lot yet, but I'm fascinated by it.

However, for my upcoming trim work (simple linear cutlist), the previously posted Cutlist program is perfect. The learning curve is a few minutes.

- Chris

Ditto here. I spend all day on a computer for work and when I'm home, I'm not on it as much although I tinkered with Sketchup a little. Just haven't wanted to spend the time to figure it out. "Cut List" does exactly what I need for now - I'm going to use it for an upcoming workbench since I have a lot of little cuts to make but I think I can squeeze the whole thing out of 2 sheets of 3/4" ply. Without it, it would be a nightmare trying to figure out how to best cut it and I'm sure I'd be wasting wood.

-Tim

charlese wrote:Thanks for that program, Tim. Put it in "My Favorites" in the 'wood shop' folder. I'll sure give it a try one of these days.

Here's another program that you might want to add to your "wood shop" folder:
It's called "EZ Wood Project Planner". The website is: http://www.ezwoodshop.com. Click on the "wood project planner".

It's got a free download to see what's it's all about. The whole program is only $4.95. It's simply numberous forms (graph paper, plywood cutting diagram, project shopping checklist, ruler, etc.). All at 1/10th scale. I use it all the time.

Jim in Arizona

To each his own, but it looks as if CutList and SketchUp will generate automatically what you're drawing manually with the EZDraw diagrams.

Thanks for the heads up, Jim! Coincidently, today I received an unsolicited e-mail from Andy's workshop featuring that software.