Managing materials in WOODEXPERT

In this part of the series I will discuss material managing tools of WOODEXPERT.

Our software enables you to quickly define and assign materials to many types of construction: plate elements (wood-based boards, stone, glass, plastics), steel profiles, solid wood, bent elements, glued composite boards and others.

Creating your own legend

No, it’s not about a Will Smith movie or spy operations. In WOODEXPERT, the legend is what we call a list of materials to be used in a project.

The kitchen set is ready. Time to assign the materials.

I start by defining the materials. I open “Add material” tool, select a type and fill in the parameters.

Material adding window. WOODEXPERT handles different types of materials.

Materials in WOODEXPERT can be divided into core and finishing.

1. Core materials constitute the volume of a part.
   • Plate – chipboards, blockboards, plywoods, MDF, HDF, stone worktops, glass, plastics etc.
   • Profile – weld constructions made of steel profiles
   • Sheet metal – elements made of bent sheet metal. We can also use this tool for bent plywood.
   • Solid – solid wood parts of irregular shape
   • Multilayer – glued composite sheets
2. Finishing materials
   • Edgeband – narrow edgeband
   • Wide cover – covers in wide sheets, e.g. veneer of laminate
   • Paint

In the editor I define material parameters including:

• Sheet size
• Internal material and plane texture
• Does it have grain direction
• Automatic technological surpluses
• Can edgeband be applied to it
• When applying edgeband, do we use a pre-mill

Once created, a legend can be saved in the database. It will be available to all users in the company for import in subsequent projects.

Nadawanie materiałów

With “Assign core materials” tool I can quickly apply materials do multiple parts simultaneously.

WOODEXPERT pozwala na szybkie nadanie materiałów na wiele części naraz.

After opening “Assign core material” tool, an empty list appears on the left side of the screen. I add to it parts that I want to modify. I can do so by just clicking them in the Graphic Area or I can use search tools.

I can, for instance, select one HDF part, check “Find components with same thickness” option and click “Find components” button. All HDF panels will be loaded onto the list.

I can also search for all parts containing a label “front”. Every panel in our library contains a couple of labels (e.g. “front”, “door”, “drawer”, “shelf”).

Lastly I select “Skip components with applied material”. This way I make sure that no components are left in the project with no material applied.

With a similar tool I assign finishing materials: edgebands, wide covers or paints.

Auxiliary tools

Material management does not end here. With our auxiliary tools you can, for instance:

• verify materials’ application
• edit grain angle
• edit technological surplus
• group fronts to preserve texture continuity
• apply one broader edgeband to multiple glued boards

Auxiliary tools allow you e.g. to verify materials’ application.

Now that the model is complete and materials are applied, it’s time to create some production data. In the next part of the series we will discuss nesting features.