CNC Preferences

Overview

These options set your global preferences for CabinetSense.

Layout Orientation

This orientation will match how your CNC manages it's sheets. CabinetSense will orient the parts to match your machines view. Choose between:

• Horizontal: WxL (example: sheet is viewed as 4' high x 8' long)
• Vertical: LxW (example: sheeis is viewed as 8' high x 4' long)

Z-axis Zero

CabinetSense exports cutting depth information in the DXF export. In the event that your machines software can take advantage of this feature, it is crucial for you to set this field properly. Failure to do so will result in the wrong depth being sent. Options are:

• Spoilboard: The zero Z-axis position on your router is set to be the top of the spoilboard. CabinetSense will send the difference between the thickness of your material and your cut depth to your cnc.
• Material Top: The zero Z-axis position on your router is set to be the top of whatever material your are cutting. CabinetSense will send the actual cut depth to your cnc.

DXF Type

• 3D: The generated DXF will contain depth information that can be used by some toolpathing software to automatically control depth of cut for you.
• 2D: The generated DXF does not have any depth information. As such, all depth will be controlled through the layer names and the toolpathing associated with those layers.

DXF Granularity

You can export your DXF in one of three ways:

• Part organized by Material: Each part will create its own DXF file and files will be placed in folders organized by Material Type, Name, and thickness.
• Part organized by Type: Each part will create its own DXF file and files will be placed in folders organized by Material Type.
• Material: CabinetSense will create one file for every combination of Material, material type and thickness.
• Part and Material: selects both Material and Part organized by Material options.

Drill Optimization

There are two strategies that you can employ to reduce the number of parts that will be machined on both faces. Your options are:

• none: (default)
• Drill in One Pass (from interior face): All drilling actions will be reviewed and parts with drill requests to both the front and back faces will be moved to front face. If the moved drill point only required a partial depth (IE. shelf pin hole), the layer name for that particular hole is appended with "-DT" (Drill Through).
• Drill in One Pass (from either face). Same as above with the following exception.
• CabinetSense will determine the best face to drill from and move all drill operations to that face. The best face will result in the fewest drill through holes being drilled.
• Optimized Drilling: All drilling actions are reviewed and complete depth drillpoints (IE. confirmats) may be moved if it results in more efficent drilling. Partial depth drill points are not moved in this strategy.
• Front-Back Layers: All machining for a apart is placed in the same DXF definition. Front side machining is differentiated from back side machining by way of a CNC layer prefix. CabinetSense will place all interior side part machining on the front layer.
• This allows the operator to optimize their parts and use their CNC Software to handle part (or sheet) flipping.

Flip Operation Direction

When a part needs to machined on its secondary side, CabinetSense will flip the part based on the following options:

• Horizontal (default): The part will flipped left to right.
• Vertical: The part will be flipped top to bottom.

Place Dados on Primary Surface

CabinetSense can force the side with (the most) dados to machined first. By default, your drill optimization selection will determine the primary machining surface.

• Yes: dadoes will determine the primary surface to be machined
• Does not matter (default): drill optimization selection determines primary surface.

Blind Dado Orientation

Determines how blind dados will be positioned on your parts.

• Specified per Part (default): Use the machining database to specify if you want the tongue to placed on the inside or outside of the join.
• All Inside: blind dadoes (and lock rabbets) will be placed such that the tongue locks into groove.
• All Outside: blind dadoes (and lock rabbets) will be placed such that the tongue works like a rabbet and does not lock into the groove.

Cutlist Prep for CNC

You can cut your individual parts on your saw and finish machining them on your CNC. This is typically done when using a Pod and Rail type system. You have 3 options to choose from:

• Exact Size: all parts are dimensioned to requested size
• Oversize parts that need CNC Machining: Any part that needs further maching (such as drilling, dadoes, line boring, part shaping...) will be oversized. Furthermore, only these parts will have DXF generated. All other parts are cut to size on the saw and ready for edgebanding
• Oversize all parts: All parts are oversized for final processing on the CNC.

Cutlist Oversize Amt

The amount that the part will be oversized by. The length of the part will be increased by this amount as well as the width of the part.

Labels

Part information is exported along with the machining information. Your 3rd party software will typically display this information with the part... but it may not always contain the information within the part boundaries.

Label Height

The height of the label to be generated in the DXF output.

Label Part Number?

• Yes (default): Include the individual part number in your label description
• No: do not include.

Label Abbreviate

• Yes: CabinetSense will abbreviate the part names by taking the 1st character from each word in the parts name. These abbreviated names will be is the Cutlist export as well as to generate the DXF File Names.
• example: Left End ... LE, Drawer Box Back ... DBB
• No (default): the full name is used.

Small Part Are (sq.in)

If you specify an amount greater than zero, CabinetSense will use the "Onion Skin Cutout" layer name for any part that has a surface area less than or equal to this amount.

Overdrill Allowance

For holes that you want to drill completely through your material, this preference indicates how far past your material you wish to drill. This ensures that you have a clean cut through the material. Your CNC software must be able to take advantage of the drilling depth that is passed in the exported DXF.

3D Machining Preview

Drill points are drawn as 2D artifacts by default when you preview your machining within Sketchup. You can switch to 3D preview if you wish to review the depth that your holes will be drilled at. Please Note that the 3D preview takes considerably longer to render. 3D previewing is best viewed using the Sketchup Xray mode.

Database Engine

You have a choice of using the Microsoft Access database directly inside of SketchUp (Windows only option) or an in-house database structure (PStore) that can be used on both Windows and Mac PC's.

• Microsoft Access: In order to use the Microsoft database inside of SketchUp, you must download and install the Microsoft Access 2013 Runtime module.
• NOTE: As of this writing, You must install the 2013 runtime and not the 2016 version.
• NOTE: You must install the runtime even if you have the full version of Microsoft Access installed on your PC.
• PStore: The PStore is a copy of the data found in the Microsoft Access database. The PStore can only be generated by using the Microsoft Access version of the Machining database. This means that even if you are using a Mac, the only way to update the machining information is on a Windows based machine. From there, you can regenerate the PStore database that can then be used any other Windows or Mac based PC.
• You can refresh the PStore by clicking on the Refresh PStore tab (shown below). Upon closing the machininig application, you will also be asked if you want to refresh this datastore.

Database Folder

CabinetSense uses a Microsoft Access 2010 Database to hold the CNC machining information. This field will contain the folder where your database can be found. By default this will point to the CabinetSense plugins folder, but it's best practice to move the database to another location so that new versions of CabinetSense do not overwrite your data.

You can bring up an open file dialog box, by clicking on the dropdown and selecting Choose new database...