This guide takes you from a new account to your first part cost. It takes about five minutes if you use the built-in generator, and the setup only has to be done once.
Create your account
Go to app.cutl.online, provide an email and password, and verify your email. Registration is free, it exists so your materials and pricing are saved to your own database and reused in every calculation.
Set up your environment
At a minimum, a calculation needs three things in place:
- one machine,
- at least one material,
- and its cutting modes.
You can create all three by hand, set them up from the CUTL catalogue, or press Generate on the Equipment / Equipment Type form to have CUTL create a sensible starter set of machines, materials and cutting modes for you.
Set up from the catalogue
The quickest start for a laser shop is the starter catalogue. On the Materials, Equipment or Equipment types list, press Set up from the catalogue (once you already have dictionaries, the same button reads Add from the catalogue). A short wizard walks you through four steps:
The catalogue does not yet have published data for diode machines. You need permission to create materials to use the wizard.
Because CUTL also plans machine load and generates shift jobs, a little classification is expected:
Define cutting modes
For each material type and thickness, create a cutting mode with price and, if you have the data, cutting and piercing time. Cost is expressed per linear metre of cut and per pierce. Most shops end up with a handful of modes covering their common material/thickness combinations.
If you're not sure where these numbers come from, the Introduction walks through measuring real cutting time and costing an hour of machine time.
Add materials
When you add a material you can:
- enter a price from your price list so it's applied automatically, or
- set the price to 0 if you enter material cost manually each time or work with customer-supplied material.
Assign each material a default cutting mode. That one step is what makes later quoting a two-click job.
Price your first part
With the databases filled, pricing a part is quick:
That's the whole loop:
- Upload the drawing.
- Select the material.
Next, Quoting & cost calculation covers coefficients, contour analysis and turning an estimate into a commercial offer. To make sure your files quote cleanly first, see Preparing files.