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MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 16 Jul 2016, 13:58
by 9fingers
When I started using Maxcut a good few years back it was free for 30days and then a relatively expensive (for amateur use) annual license. I used install it on various PCs at work and delete it once the 30 days were up. Not so easy for home use now I'm not working.

However now they have a different commercial model with a "community" version which is free for ever and not filled with restriction on use either.

Although designed for sheet/panel cutting optimisation you can easily tell it the dimensions of your boards and it does not object. if you have defects to work round just give it the lengths of the good bits

You can also tell it to do the width cuts first which helps reduce the issues with longer twisted boards. This way you only need to straighten shorter pieces rather than whole boards.

I'm just starting on Barrister bookcases "Phase 3 - the Novel Bits" to include a tv/video unit, drawers and booze cupboard as well as a few more bookcase/display cases to the original design.

Max cut has easily worked out the optimum cutting list for 132 components..

http://maxcut.soft32.com/

Bob

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 17 Jul 2016, 14:53
by stephen.wood125
Thanks Bob,


Looks very interesting.

Also intrigued to see the new pieces!

Cheers

:text-goodpost:

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 17 Jul 2016, 17:30
by 9fingers
stephen.wood125 wrote:Also intrigued to see the new pieces!



Well that could be some time at my typical work rate :lol:

Bob

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 18 Jul 2016, 12:31
by TrimTheKing
Nice share, thanks Bob.

Cheers
Mark

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 18 Oct 2016, 05:45
by meccarroll
Good post Bob, only thing for me is that I think it only works on a windows based pc and I am all Apple. It looks like it would save money on expensive pre-finished sheet material (£100+ per sheet).



Mark

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 18 Oct 2016, 07:34
by 9fingers
Mark
I've not kept up with fruit powered computing since switching to PC around 20 years ago but I'd be surprised if there is not some sort of PC emulation to allow running of PC programs.
We have a number of Apple enthusiasts here who might be able to guide you.
Bob

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 18 Oct 2016, 20:58
by meccarroll
9fingers wrote:Mark
I've not kept up with fruit powered computing since switching to PC around 20 years ago but I'd be surprised if there is not some sort of PC emulation to allow running of PC programs.
We have a number of Apple enthusiasts here who might be able to guide you.
Bob


Bob, I could install a programme to run windows on my Mac but not sure if I really want to. I started out with a windows pc and had one (two or three) for about 8 years. I found all of them would become very slow and difficult to use after about two years of use. Since having a Mac I have not suffered the same degree of problems as my old windows PC's but Mac's can be more limiting when using business orientated software.

I may buy a windows based PC in the future so I can take advantage of all the great software available to window based systems, such as MAX CUT.

Thank you for the post and reply Bob.

Mark

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 18 Oct 2016, 21:07
by 9fingers
A used PC with an OS license should not cost you much. I've bought a number of machines in the sub £100 price range for dedicated tasks. Once you jump off the merry go round of perpetual OS changes and stick with one you like life becomes a lot simpler.

I have PCs in the wood shop, one ready for the metal shop to run the CNC mill, another for the car software and analysis, one linked to the TV for iplayer etc, one that I use on my lap to write this. There is a bigger screen machine up in the office for design work. All run XP and not troubled by microsloth updates.

Bob

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 18 Oct 2016, 22:30
by meccarroll
9fingers wrote:A used PC with an OS license should not cost you much. I've bought a number of machines in the sub £100 price range for dedicated tasks. Once you jump off the merry go round of perpetual OS changes and stick with one you like life becomes a lot simpler.

I have PCs in the wood shop, one ready for the metal shop to run the CNC mill, another for the car software and analysis, one linked to the TV for iplayer etc, one that I use on my lap to write this. There is a bigger screen machine up in the office for design work. All run XP and not troubled by microsloth updates.

Bob



Nice to hear your views Bob, worth looking into.

Mark

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 19 Oct 2016, 09:48
by TrimTheKing
The other option Mark is, as I think you alluded to, VMWare. I run a version of VMWare Fusion on my iMac inside which I have a number of Virtual Machines in different Windows OS's (XP, Vista, Win 7, Win 8 and now Win 10) which I use for different things.

Agreed that MS products bloat and slow but if you're only using one for a certain application then my approach is to build a version, say XP, fully update/patch it and then install my application. Then I clone it.

Keep the original saved under an _vanilla name and use the other one. Should anything go wrong with the live version then you just delete it, re-clone the _vanilla one and away you go again in minutes.

This way you can also turn the Win machine on/off in seconds, have it running in the background if you want or even use the Fusion element where the Win icon is on your mac desktop and to all intents appears to be a Mac app when you run in natively in your Mac OS.

It can be resource hungry though so I tend to open, use the close again.

Cheers
Mark

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 19 Oct 2016, 14:11
by Rod
When I was working, I used VMWare on my MacBook to run MS Word, Excel etc to comply with my office procedures.
The downside, apart from it running a bit slow, you had to buy a new version every time Apple upgraded their OS at £80 each time.

You can create a virtual drive to run MS stuff but you have to reboot each time.

Rod

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 19 Oct 2016, 21:06
by DaveL
I have used VirtualBox on a windows 7 machine to run XP and Linux, its free and there is a version for Apple machines, you could try that, it might solve your problem.

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 20 Oct 2016, 07:08
by meccarroll
Thank you for the advice chaps. Think I will look at all suggestions offered as being a Mac only user has its downside as well as the upside.

Bob, Dave,Mark and Rod, thank you all.

Mark

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 20 Oct 2016, 09:34
by Deejay
Thanks Bob.

I'll add it to the links file.

Cheers

Dave

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 21 Oct 2016, 21:10
by Tusses
9fingers wrote:A used PC with an OS license should not cost you much. I've bought a number of machines in the sub £100 price range for dedicated tasks. Once you jump off the merry go round of perpetual OS changes and stick with one you like life becomes a lot simpler.

I have PCs in the wood shop, one ready for the metal shop to run the CNC mill, another for the car software and analysis, one linked to the TV for iplayer etc, one that I use on my lap to write this. There is a bigger screen machine up in the office for design work. All run XP and not troubled by microsloth updates.

Bob


"Ears prick up"

ooh ! I didn't know you had CNC Bob !


as for some of the other stuff, have you looked at the Raspberry Pi ?
I bought the 1st one .. set it all up, and never used it :eusa-doh:
I think it would make a great home entertainment box

as for Mac / Windows
Never used Mac, so can't comment
Always Hated Windows :evil: :twisted: With a passion :evil: did I say HATE :evil: :evil: :evil: .. og ok .. sorry :-)

Liked DOS a lot (back in the day)
Use Linux as much as I can now

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 08 Nov 2016, 09:47
by Phil
9fingers wrote:. All run XP and not troubled by microsloth updates.

Bob



Bob, have you picked up any problems since MS stopped supporting XP?

My old backup laptop is XP and it keeps popping up with warnings about non-support. It's the one I picked up a virus on when connecting to the internet the first time.

Cheers, Phil

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 08 Nov 2016, 11:41
by 9fingers
Not had any problems with MS since support stopped. Java updates warn me but still allow the update and runs without any known hitches.

Maybe try a Google search for "turn off update messages win xp" and that might help give guidance what to do.
Hth Bob

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 09 Nov 2016, 07:19
by Phil
9fingers wrote:Not had any problems with MS since support stopped. Java updates warn me but still allow the update and runs without any known hitches.

Maybe try a Google search for "turn off update messages win xp" and that might help give guidance what to do.
Hth Bob



Thanks Bob, will try it when I haul that laptop out to do a backup.

Cheers
Phil

Re: MaxCut material cutting optimiser

PostPosted: 23 Jan 2017, 12:40
by Commander
This should be very handy Bob, thanks for sharing!