Glossary of cutting and cabinet terms
The words used in PanelCraft and in the workshop, defined in a sentence or two. Where a term has a number attached, it is the PanelCraft default.
Terms are listed alphabetically.
#
- 32 mm system
- A cabinet-making convention in which holes are drilled on a 32 mm pitch, so hardware and shelf pins line up.
A
- Assembly sheet
- A printable document with the front drawing and the build steps in order, with the parts and fittings of each step. Documents and drawings
B
- Back panel
- The thin board (often 3 mm HDF) closing the rear of a carcass. When it exceeds the sheet it is split into strips.
- Banding
- See Edge banding.
- Bounding rectangle
- The smallest rectangle around a shaped part. Shaped parts are cut from it, and the cut-away corners are waste.
C
- CAM
- Computer-aided manufacturing software that turns geometry such as a DXF file into machine instructions.
- Cam connector
- A common knock-down fitting (a cam and a dowel or bolt) joining two panels; quantity follows the joints.
- Carcass
- The box of a cabinet: sides, top, bottom, dividers and shelves, without doors, drawers or plinth.
- Compartment
- An interior section of a cabinet between sides or dividers.
- Contour
- The closed outline of a part, exported as a closed polyline in the machining DXF.
- Cut layout
- The arrangement of parts on full sheets of board, produced by the optimiser. Cutting and nesting
- Cut list
- The list of parts to cut, with material, size, quantity, grain and banded edges.
D
- Decor
- The colour and grain pattern of a board. In PanelCraft it affects only how the model looks. Materials and decors
- Derived
- Computed from the inputs by the engine rather than typed. Parts, cut layout, price and drawings are derived from the project.
- DXF
- Drawing Exchange Format, a CAD exchange format. PanelCraft writes DXF R12 (AC1009). File formats
E
- Edge banding
- The tape glued to the visible edges of a board. Priced per metre by type, with a 5 % allowance in PanelCraft.
- Estimate
- A price range shown while the cut layout is not final, with a true lower bound. Pricing and quotes
F
- Face (top, bottom)
- In the machining files, top is the face seen from above when the part lies unrotated on the sheet drawing; the other is bottom.
- Flip-up door
- A door hinged along its top edge. It gets no hinge cups in the machining export.
- Freeform
- The PanelCraft kind in which any furniture is built panel by panel. Design
G
- Grain
- The direction of the fibres or the printed pattern of a board. When both board and part carry it, the orientation is fixed.
- Guillotine cut
- A cut that runs from one edge of a piece to the opposite edge, which is what a panel saw makes.
H
- Hinge cup
- The 35 mm round recess bored in a door for a concealed hinge; 12.5 mm deep by default.
K
- Kerf
- The width of the saw cut, 3.2 mm by default in PanelCraft. Parts on a sheet are separated by one kerf.
L
- Label
- A printed identification for one physical panel with name, size, board and banded edges.
- Library
- A list of boards, edge banding, hardware or offcut stock with sizes and prices.
M
- Merchant of record
- The company that sells the software to you, collects taxes and issues the invoice. For PanelCraft this is Paddle.
- Minimum offcut
- The smallest side of a leftover that counts as reusable stock. 100 mm by default.
N
- Nesting
- Arranging parts on sheets so that they use as little board as possible. Cutting and nesting
- Notch
- An L-shaped outline made by removing a rectangle from a corner of a panel.
O
- Offcut
- A reusable leftover piece of board. PanelCraft keeps a ledger of offcuts and uses them first.
P
- Panel saw
- A saw for cutting sheet material in straight cuts across the whole sheet.
- Parametric
- Driven by a few dimensions and choices, like the wardrobe, TV unit and chest of drawers kinds.
- Part
- One piece cut from a board. A part with a quantity of four is four physical panels.
- Plinth
- The recessed base under a cabinet, or the board that closes it. The cabinet must stand at least 30 mm above the floor to add one.
Q
- Quote
- The priced document for a job: boards, edge banding, hardware, labour, margin and tax.
R
- Room view
- A presentation view that places the design to scale in a photograph of a room. Room view
S
- Sheet
- One full board as purchased, for example 2800 × 2070 mm.
- Sheet trim
- The strip along each edge of a purchased sheet that is discarded. 10 mm by default.
- Shelf-pin holes
- Rows of small holes in the sides of a cabinet for adjustable shelf supports. In the 32 mm system they are 32 mm apart.
U
- Utilisation
- The share of a sheet covered by parts. Waste is the rest.
W
- Waste
- The share of board that is not part of any part: the unused area of a sheet.
- Workshop pack
- The folder of documents and files for the shop floor: cut sheets, cut list, labels, assembly sheet, drawings, parts list and machining files. Documents
Y
- Yaw
- Rotation about the vertical axis, in degrees.
The program in pictures
See these terms in a real project
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