How to produce cutting lists from AutoCAD?

[patriciaslavovska@ymail.co]

Hello, I was wondering if it is at all possible to generate a cutting list from CAD drawings. For example I have designed a timber wall panel which would be produced from my drawing and the easiest way to give the information to our machinist would be through an excel or table format cutting list. I have read this can be done through Inventor and other possible plug-ins but have not found a way of just doing it through CAD. For reference I use AutoCAD 2020! any help with this would be hugely appreciated!

 

Many thanks,

Patricia

[mdbdesign]

There is NO and YES.

Plain AutoCAD wont generate BOM itself.

Assume you do bill of material (BOM) for each of your drawing.

Yes, you can do it manually. It is simply take off from drawing, (if no BOM) create list of timber sizes, add qty and length for each.

You can do it on excel sheet, easy to sorted after. AutoCAD work well with excel.

Another thing AutoCAD is not doing nesting of material.

I do it for years, without any problem with help of another software that work or not work with AutoCAD. 

[steven-g]

Inventor is designed to do just that, the programers have put in a lot of work in order for users to get information back out. You can do the same in AutoCAD but it means you have to put the work in first, by designing blocks that contain 'attributes' or some other usable data so you can read lengths and widths, or you need to come up with some Lisp routine that will work out that information from the types of geometry used. But both these require thought and planing, they are not built in to the software. I used to produce cutting lists for kitchen cabinets using LT and Excel but it is the preparation of the blocks that takes time. The good news is once done the blocks (dynamic blocks) are really quick to use.

[Dadgad]

I use the ProSteel addin for AutoCad, which spits out all the drawings and BOM from the 3D Model.

[SLW210]

AutoCAD 2020 toolset should include AutoCAD Mechanical, though you may need to redraw some things it does BOMs.

 

Depending on what you have now, it may be possible to generate something. Would need an example drawing. Used to make cut lists in AutoCAD, needs to be a block with information then use Excel. Full AutoCAD there maybe some LISP around, but no matter what, the information needs to be there to extract.

[BIGAL]

See the posts over at forums/Autodesk. Some suggestions about getting all 3 timber size values.

[mhupp]

If what your cutting is rectangular shaped you cant go wrong with this website.

https://www.cutlistoptimizer.com/

[BIGAL]

The post at forums/autodesk has dwg. My suggestion see image.

 

 

[devitg]

Hi patriciaslavovska@ymail.co

For better understanding, and  maybe get further help, please upload such sample.dwg

and the way you want the xls to be 

[BIGAL]

Devitg dwg posted at forums/autodesk

 

 

Panel example.dwg

[devitg]

- Gabriel CALOS DE VIT <devitg@gmail.com>	3:58 PM (3 hours ago)
to patriciaslavovska

Hi Patricia , did you solve it ?

I'm working with  this DWG , but it is not equal to the image at forum 

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by devitg
add images

[devitg]

please see attached the csv and xls as result from the dwg post at forum , it take the DISTANCEx , from each Dyn block at the dwg ,  by a SSGET "X" 

It show 3 distances , as there is no mor DISTANCES at the BLOKREFERENCES , but if there is  more distances it will be show at the csv , if you open the csv at EXCEL , you can handle it by . TEXT ON COLUMN XLS command 

 

  

 

 

 

Panel example.csv Panel example.dwg Panel example.xlsx

patricia size panel-01.lsp

Edited October 16, 2020 by devitg
add lisp

[BIGAL]

Hi Devitg I made the 2d+ objects as the timber does not have a 3rd size whilst they have a name it does not reveal the true timber size 245x45xlength etc. You are right need a extra size in the dynamic block the thickness and possibly the height hence the use of z scale.

 

Found a little gotcha anyone  else see it when using z scale may just be the sample dynamic block provided. 

 

Steven-G using thickness in dynamic block ?

Edited October 16, 2020 by BIGAL

[devitg]

The main fact , is that Patricia did not answer to my requirementment, to upload her dwg,  and the dwg you mention I do not know where it come from.

Usually I do not make any guess , so I work on such dwg  with no further assumption.   

Hope Patricia could submit her real and true on site dwg. 

Meanwhile I had fun doing the Lisp. It keep my neurons  working . 

Best regards. 

  

[steven-g]

4 hours ago, BIGAL said:

Found a little gotcha anyone  else see it when using z scale may just be the sample dynamic block provided. 

 

Steven-G using thickness in dynamic block ?

@BIGAL

Scaling blocks is a method I have used. But dynamic blocks are in a world of their own and scaling dynamic blocks has it's own set of problems

[SLW210]

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 6:37 PM, BIGAL said:

Devitg dwg posted at forums/autodesk

 

 

Panel example.dwg 123.91 kB · 3 downloads

Why not just link that to here?

[devitg]

The main fact , is that Patricia did not answer to my requirementment, to upload her dwg,  and the dwg you mention I do not know where it come from.

Usually I do not make any guess , so I work on such dwg  with no further assumption.   

Hope Patricia could submit her real and true on site dwg. 

Meanwhile I had fun doing the Lisp. It keep my neurons  working . 

Best regards. 

  

[BIGAL]

Re forums/autodesk had to go hunting https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/visual-lisp-autolisp-and-general/how-to-produce-cutting-lists-from-autocad/td-p/9791055

 

Patricia has not responded there either despite various others commenting. The dwg I posted was her sample dwg.

 

A thank you would be nice so we stop responding.