Entering Sources for the Plan
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When general information about the plan is entered, you can start to enter the sources, one of mandatory input for the optimization.


You can enter sources in one of the following ways:



Entering sources directly


Click the Sources tab to open Plan Sources form. To add new cutting source, click the button in the Data navigator.



Now you can enter data in the fields "Length", "Qty", "Cost/unit", "Mnf. Date", "Description", "Note 1" and "Note 2". "Length" and "Qty" are mandatory fields. First, enter length of one source to the field "Length". Next, fill in the number of pieces available for cutting to the field "Qty". Fields "Used" and "Storage" are not editable.


TIP! How to use CutLogic 1D for estimation of optimal quantity of sources in the plan? If you know what parts you want to cut, what dimensions of sources are going to be used, but you do not know how many sources of given length you should order, just select "unlimited" value in the field "Qty". Program will automatically find optimal usage of that source during optimization. Consequently, you can order only the material you need for the plan and you don't need to keep material in storage.


Next, you can enter the unit cost of the source to the field "Cost/unit" according to pre-defined Costs format in Program options.


IMPORTANT! You can leave field "Cost/unit" blank – this is not mandatory field for optimization. CutLogic 1D optimizer is based on cost optimization – it means the optimizer is trying to find "the cheapest" cutting plan (layouts). In the case when "Cost/unit" fields are blank or contain the same value for all sources within given plan – in other words if cost priority is not used – we talk about yield optimization which is a special case of cost optimization. In such case optimizer finds optimal cutting plan with the maximal yield and minimal physical waste. Because of the same cost of all sources it is also the cheapest cutting plan. In case when you set different costs for different sources the optimizer finds the cheapest cutting plan, which isn't necessarily the plan with maximal yield/minimal waste.

TIP! You don't need to assign the real cost to the "Cost/unit" field. "Cost/unit" field can be also understood and used as a priority – sources with lower cost are used in optimization process with greater priority.



Copying stored or predefined sources from Materials


The second way how to enter the sources to the plan is to load them from Materials.



By clicking the button [Material], the Material Sources form with predefined sources opens.



You can mark one or more sources and copy them to the plan by clicking the button [Copy to plan].


TIP! Click the button [Mark all] to mark all available sources.


After clicking the button [Copy to plan] following confirmation form appears:



After clicking the button [Yes] the sources are copied to the plan.



IMPORTANT! Keep in mind that sources with defined quantity represent real sources of real Inventory and you can not edit them in this form, while sources with "unlimited" quantity represent predefined sources – templates. Such kind of source is virtual one and it can not be stored in Storages so that Storage field is blank. You can edit and change the same fields as in manual mode of entering the sources.



Importing sources from external data files


The third way how to enter the sources to the plan is to import them from the external data files.


It is possible to import sources from any of following structured files: TXT, CSV, MS Excel file, MS Access file, from clipboard or from an external database via connection string definition.


You can import sources from external source by clicking the menu "File > Import" or by pressing [Ctrl+I] keyboard shortcut. Read more about import in chapter Import.


TIP! It is possible to combine all above mentioned ways of entering the sources, however keep in mind all consequences especially for Inventory management!


Field "Storage" represents physical store where the sources used in the plan are stored. (Applicable only for stored sources loaded from Inventory).

The field "Used" informs about number of sources planned by optimizer to be used for cutting.