What exactly is the best optimization software out there?
Of course, this can be a question that has many answers, according to the priorities of your company or activity.
First though, to clarify that we are looking at cutting optimization here. If you’d like to consider the merits of nesting optimization, please check out this cutting vs nesting guide.
The fact is that cutting optimization is a concept that depends entirely on what element in the process you are trying to optimize.
One has a tendency of forgetting that optimizing the cutting parts from materials is not simply a matter of economising material and minimizing waste. Real optimization must take into account the other economic aspects of the whole process of cutting parts from raw materials.
This means that for certain situations it might be more important to gain time over material. In other situations it will be more important to minimize wear and tear on machinery or tooling than saving material, and yet again in another situation, it might be more important to maintain reusable offcuts rather than minimizing the material use on one project.
So it can be seen that the notion of optimization will be specific to each industry, each production process, and in the end, each and every company according to their specific priorities, and even often, according to each specific project.
So what then is the Best Optimization Software?
Well, taking into consideration our previous analysis, the answer would be software capable of adapting itself to all the different situations listed above and more.
We can honestly say this is where OptiCut is has the possibility, the power and the flexibility to adapt itself to all industrial cutting processes. Because OptiCut can manage and optimize according to different priorities.
Fine tuning OptiCut’s optimization settings
It is possible to set up the optimization algorithms according to whether you wish to prioritise material savings, cutting time, machine time and wear and tear, reusable offcuts and more. Priorities can be given to each of the key optimization parameters going into your cutting process, and for each different project if that’s what you need.
Different aspects of the cutting process can be prioritised on a sliding scale in relationship to one another to get the best optimization for your company and your project. This makes OptiCut one of the best possible cutting optimization software solutions on the market today.
Other Factors To Consider
The key functionality you need to look for is a powerful and flexible optimization algorithm as mentioned above. Here though are a few other important features that you need to consider at a secondary level before choosing your solution:
- Ability to accommodate multiple materials, multiple panel or profile sizes, and output final optimized cutting maps that define the sequence of cuts as well as the sizes.
- Optimization across panels and bars, certainly an important requirement if you are manufacturing bars, moulding, batons and other profiles as well as sheet material.
- Optional management of your stock levels…because this part of the manufacturing process really is all about using your stock of material, the software is perfectly suited to deal with your stock control.
- Even better, look for a solution that adds user defined off cuts back into your stock. These can then be called upon for future projects. This is a massive money saver.
- Advanced features like grain orientation control, pre cut trim management, panel turnaround functionality, and the ability to accommodate edging measurements.
- Simple integration into your workflow, so easy and automated input of your cutting lists, and quick and seamless output to print or to CNC (and of course label printing).
- Finally, a solution that is easy to learn, quick to set up, that is fully supported, and proven in even the toughest of industrial setting.
In summary, even though OptiCut is one of the best cutting optimization software solutions for saving material, this is not what makes it so special. Instead, it is its capacity to be set up to optimize different aspects of the cutting process relative to one another, and the accompanying feature set that satisfies all of the items in the list above.
For more information, please click here, or download your OptiCut FREE DEMO from the sidebar on the right. We’ve also got a large range of training videos available and if you’ve any questions at all, please feel free to contact us.
