Your screen shows an image, the laser reads a file. Usually, these are the same, but not always. A line can appear twice, a circle can consist of two hundred separate segments, and a hole might be a tenth smaller after export than in your model. You won't see any of this on your screen.
For those moments, we've extended the product editor in your cart with two new functions. 'Clean up design' removes redundant lines from your file before we calculate the price. 'Measure' lets you check distances and hole diameters directly in the preview. The first ensures you pay for what is actually cut, and the second ensures what you intend is cut.
Automatically clean up designs
Double lines almost always appear unnoticed. You copy a component and paste it in the same spot. You place a row of rectangles tightly together to save material, and now every shared side is present twice. Or you mirror one half, and the centre line overlaps itself. In any CAD package, this looks like a single line. The laser follows both, heating the same edge twice and counting the length twice.
Something else applies to engravings and freeform shapes. Many programmes convert curves into sequences of short straight segments when exporting to DXF. A letter you drew as a single shape then arrives as dozens of separate objects, and each object means a new plunge. Since each plunge incurs a small surcharge, this adds up significantly for text or a logo.
In preparation, we used to remove these issues before your parts went to the machine. However, you didn't see this reflected in your price. We've changed that: the editor now cleans up your design before the price calculation. Identical lines that lie exactly on top of each other within the same layer become one. Split line segments and curves are reconnected to form continuous contours. Nothing changes in your design itself: no line shifts, no shape is adjusted.
The result is a price based on the actual path the laser takes, and a machine that can follow that path in one fluid motion instead of hundreds of short starts.
Measure in the preview
The moment you want to check a dimension is often not when your CAD programme is open. From now on, you can simply measure in the editor.
The measuring function snaps to the points you typically measure: line endpoints and circle centres. Two clicks on two holes give you the centre-to-centre distance, without needing to aim. Because the distance is also split into X and Y, you can directly read the pitch in a hole pattern instead of just the diagonal distance.
For the final check, there's the hole list. This shows all round holes in your design, grouped by diameter, with the quantity per size. This is exactly the list you'll want to place next to your bill of materials or assembly. Should your M4 through-holes be ⌀ 4.5 according to ISO 273, and is there a group at ⌀ 4.2? Then something went wrong during export. Does your assembly count eight mounting holes and the list seven? Then you'll know that too, long before the parts are on your workbench.
Why this update?
Our website was developed with one promise: you upload a design and know immediately where you stand. To deliver on this promise even better, we constantly improve our product editor. With these updates, you can be sure that the lines in your design have been checked before you order them. And you can review the dimensions in your design to ensure everything is correct.
Cleaning up and measuring both move something forward. What we previously corrected in preparation is now included in your price. What you would otherwise only discover during assembly, you now see in the editor. This way, you make your decision at a point when it costs nothing to make an adjustment.
