Special Cutouts are essentially additional machining that can be added to various parts of the cabinet. They can be set up and saved into the Library Catalog Manager and turned on with a check box when needed. Especially useful and quicker for one off things like cable entries.

At Cabinet level, the Cabinet Machining > Special Cutouts page makes it possible to add one special cutout to each cabinet component. Special cutouts can also be exported to custom tables to save and re-use!

  Watch the 6 minute video first because when you first look at this screen it can feel a little bewildering. However, once familiar with it, it is not as bad as it looks. For a more detailed discussion, watch the webinar.

We will first discuss the rules and then the options associated with each selection and examples of cutouts.

Special Cutout Rules

Use

Turn on to Use Additional Flatbed Machined Cutouts to apply required cutout.

Up to five separate cutouts can be applied to each cabinet.

Type

These cutouts can either be Circles (half circles and quarter circles), Rectangles or Slots (open ended).

Click to Expand

Circles and Rectangles

Specify the dimensions and the position of the centre.

• The centre of a Rectangle, Circle, or the end point of a Slot is specified either as exact co-ordinates or relative positions on the component, from a chosen starting corner.

Example of Position

Here we want to centre a circles positioned 100mm across a component from its bottom left and half way up.

Do this by selecting BotL as the start position (green dot),  x Fraction = 0 (left to right), x Pos = 100mm and y Fraction = 0.5 (half way up).

Note that circles need to be on the part entirely in order to machine - see Other Rules.

Click to Expand

Depending on their position, Circles are reduced to arcs if the circle would otherwise be part of the component. If the centre is within the radius of an edge, the centre automatically moves itself to be on the edge. Thus only full, half or quarter circles are actually cut.

A similar approach is taken for Rectangles, as for Circles, regarding their size (using the Width or Height instead of the Radius). For rectangles, the radius is applied to the corners.

Slots

Specify (1) the Width, (2) Side i.e. which edge it is cut from and (3) the x,y location of its end.

Example

Click to Expand

Slots are always cut with a semicircular end, beyond the selected end point.

Other Rules

The centre of a Rectangle, Circle, or the end point of a Slot is specified either as exact co-ordinates or relative positions on the component, from a chosen starting corner.

Holes for centres placed off the component will be positioned as if centred on the edge of the component.

If a specified width, height or radius exceeds the width or height of the component, it will be ignored.

These cutouts are undertaken without any regard to any other machining options (for example screw holes drilled to fix the component to another). The user is therefore responsible for the effect this may have.

Cutouts applied to Shelves will be applied to ALL shelves in the cabinet.

The cutout will not extend beyond the border of the part by more than half the diameter of the cutout diameter specified on the Mach.General > Tool page of your drawing properties.

Example of Cutout diameter

Here the Cutout Diameter is 10mm and the cutout extends beyond the border by 10/2 i.e. 5mm.

 

Circles need to be on the part entirely in order to machine.

Example of Circle Cutout

The circle is entirely within the part and is displayed as a solid colour.

 

Options

Part

To which part (component) the cutout is to be applied.

Layer

What layer name to use for machining, this can be selected from the drop list, or typed manually.

If you type a layer name manually, ensure that there is a corresponding strategy in EzyNest.

Through

Will set depth to Part thickness plus machine penetration value.

Depth

If Through is unchecked, then you can specify the depth of the layer.

Radius

Required by the Circle and rectangles corners.

Width

Required by the Rectangle and Slot.

Height

Required by the Rectangle only.

Side

Required by Slots only. Determines the side in which the slot is cut from.

Start

The start position from where to calculate the centre/end point.

The options are ‘TopL’, ‘TopR’, ‘BotL’ or ‘BotR’. These refer to the corners of the component as it is viewed from the chosen machining face defined on the Mach.General > Face page.

x Fraction

One way of specifying the position of the centre/slot end point.

It represents a fraction of the component’s width, from the chosen start position. Values can be between 0 and 1 (up to 4 decimal places).

Example

Here the resulting position would be halfway across the component (regardless of the components size.)

Regardless of the start position, the ‘x Fraction’ always positions away from the chosen start point, there is no need to try and use negative numbers. (e.g. 0.5 from TopR would result in the same position as from TopL).

x Pos

The alternative method of specifying the position of the centre/slot end point. It represents an actual distance from the chosen start position.

Example of x Pos

Here the resulting position would be 100mm from the bottom left hand corner.

 

Regardless of the start position, the ‘xPos’ always positions away from the chosen start point, there is no need to try and use negative numbers. (e.g. 100mm from Top Right would result in a position 100mm towards the Top Left).

x Pos can be combined with x Fraction

To centre circle 30mm from the centre use ‘0.5’ as x Fraction and ‘30mm’ as xPos, from the appropriate starting corner.

y Fraction

Similar to x Fraction but dealing with the position of the centre/slot end point in relation to the component’s height.

y Pos

Similar to xPos but dealing with the position of the centre/slot end point in relation to the component’s height i.e. up/down.

y Pos = distance from front + (cutout height / 2)    e.g.  formulas can be entered in edit boxes (See Step 3 of Tutorial)

This allows you to export your special cutouts to custom tables to save and re-use! This makes it quicker and easier to get special cutouts that you use commonly. And the best part: you don't need to know how to use custom tables. CabMaster will do it all for you.

When you are working on a special cutout in the cabinet properties page all you need to do is put your desired cutout details in, make sure the Use tick box at the top is ticked, and then click the Export To Custom Tables button.

The Export to Custom Tables button, when pressed, opens a Wizard which allows the user to select the cutouts they which to export.

Click to Expand

Cutouts without a Type or of the "Slot" type cannot currently be exported.

 

Step 1: Which cutouts would you like to save?

Enable by ticking the Use checkbox of the cutout that you want to save.

• In this example, only Cutout 1 has been selected, which is the same as the Circle in above Examples.

Click the Next

 

Step 2: Change the Cutouts Enable

Cutout radio button

Allows the user to select the cutout to edit.

• In this example, as we only selected 1 cutout in the previous step, only Cutout 1 radio button available.

Enable Conditions

You can enable conditions for when the cutout is used - machining is on by default. (You don't need to add any further conditions to save your special cutout, but the option is available if you want to use it.) With no alteration, the cutouts enable will be "yes".

Users edit the enabled condition by adding terms, as discussed below. When complete, press Next.

Add Condition

To add a new Condition, press the  (green plus button)

Condition

To build a Condition select the drop list left to right do the following:

• the Property to check -
  • in this example, Part Thickness
• the Comparator
  • in this example, Greater Than
• the Value to compare to (depending on the Property can be a drop list or edit box)
  • in this example, 16mm was typed into edit box.

AND / OR

Additional selection boxes allows the user to chain conditions with AND or OR.

Remove

To remove a Condition, press the  (red minus button). A confirm 'remove' message will be presented, click Yes if you wish to continue.

 

Step 3: Choose FileName for Export

Type in your required filename. 

• In this example the File name typed in is 'Sample My Cutout' (click on image)
• This file will be exported with this name to the <your CabMaster folder>\Table\Machining\Custom\ folder.

Type in your File name  -  Click to view example

Press Next and you will be asked to confirm 'export'.

Click Yes if you wish to continue and export the table. This will save your special cutout for later use.

Be careful not to overwrite existing tables unless you are completely sure that this is what you want to do.

 

Export Complete

Now you can either open the table that has the cutout saved in it, or you can click Finish to complete the process of saving your special cutout.

If export is successful, open the export using the Open Table button.

Open Table to view. Click Finish when completed.

 

Open Table

This file will be located in <your CabMaster folder>\Table\Machining\Custom\ folder.

Table Example

Example of file created for Circle Cutout where Rows 21-30 are used.

 

Applying Custom Cutout

You can now use this Custom Table and apply settings to other cabinets parts in any cabinet on your drawing/job by going to the Cabinet Machining > Custom page.

Follow the link to the topic on Cabinet Machining > Custom page where we will apply settings in the table to another cabinet part.

 

Video

This video discusses special cutouts in CabMaster. (5:55mins)

Webinar

In this webinar, 'Using Special Cutouts and Pipe Chases in CabMaster', we will show you how to create a special cutout, how to customise your pipe chase and more. [28:58 mins]