Materials, colours, thickness and edge banding

Tasks

Can we make everything dark grey?

Model › select a board › right panel (a bottom sheet on a phone) › Manage materials › press the colour square and pick a colour. All its boards change. A generated board follows its feature: set the material in the feature's settings, or in Furniture.

I want the back in 3 mm MDF

Manage materials › Add material; rename it MDF. Then select the back and set Material MDF and Thickness 3 mm: a back made by the furniture has them in Part settings, a hand-placed board in its own fields.

Do the materials reach the cut list?

Plan › Parts (N) › Make the cut list. A part reads MDF · 3 mm, and Stock (N) gains a 2440 × 1220 mm sheet per material without one; set your size in that row. Any later model change, a colour included, makes the list stale: press Update cut list, or the Plan cannot optimize or cut.

Is every edge banded?

No. The model stores no banding, so every model part starts unbanded, and its Parts (N) row is locked with no editor. To band, add a part by hand: Parts (N) › Add, same size and material, then press its chevron (Expand details). In Edge banding, each arrow marks one side (↑ top, → right, ↓ bottom, ← left); Color and a thickness set the band. Mark only visible edges. Your part stays when you press Update cut list.

Does the cut list subtract the banding?

No. The cut size is the net size plus the allowance you type. Banding shows in the report Edge banding column and the DXF part list, not in the cut guide. For 1 mm banding, type the finished size less 2 mm.

Which way does the grain run?

• Model: a hand-placed board › Advanced › Grain: Along length, Along width or No grain. A generated board has no grain field; convert it to an independent board first.
• Plan: Grain Lengthwise, Crosswise or None, plus Allow rotation; the part width follows the grain.

A side, top or front with grain across its long side raises a warning in design issues.

Facts

• Materials hold no thickness, finish or grain. A deleted material moves its boards to the first remaining one; the last cannot be deleted. A new model starts with Plywood; Add material makes New material.
• Type Automatic reads the name and shows the match. Solid wood skips the oversize check.
• Thickness defaults to 18 mm and remembers your last choice; the quick buttons offer 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 19 and 25 mm.
• The material text is name · thickness mm; a name already ending with it stays.
• Weight: 650 kg/m³ plywood, 750 MDF, 680 particleboard, 600 solid wood, else 700. A selected board of a piece reads 12 parts · ≈ 42 kg.
• A generated sheet is 2440 × 1220 mm, grain along the long side, count = area ÷ sheet area × 1.5, rounded up, plus one. A board over 2430 × 1210 mm is oversize.
• Banding starts off, #000000, 0 mm.

What the assistant does itself

• Sets material names, colours and types, assigns materials, changes thickness and the grain of hand-placed boards, each in one undo step; reads materials and grain.
• Counts sheets per material and lists solid wood separately with its sheet tool.
• Cannot mark banding, edit the Plan parts, click, download, print or see Plan, Cut and Assemble; it gives the path instead.

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