Just came across this thread. I am trying to optimise the process myself, I do a lot of custom shelving and cabinets in MDF, which I get cut at Arnold Lavers.
I use sketchup to design the items down to mm detail, made up of separate components (usually 18mm MDF). I name the components as I make them. I then draw a 1220 x 2440 rectangle and drag and copy each component onto it, rotating them into the horizontal plane where necessary. I can then easily label each component with 1 click of the annotate tool (it keeps the name i gave it), and run dimensions along the edge using the dimension tool. I then save this as a pdf for each sheet and email it to arnold lavers for cutting.
I have started using the free cutlist ruby script plugin for sketchup. It took me a while to figure it out, but I got it working and I have 2 observations:
- like other software mentioned above, it doesn't minimise wastage as well as I can by manually arranging the parts in sketchup.
- Annoyingly it doesn't show the dimensions on the layout diagram - you have to refer back to the list of dimensions for each item.
However, it is a quick way to get an estimate of sheets needed for quoting.