Quoting a part tells you what it costs. Making it needs one more thing: the order of the work. The Routing tab of the STEP viewer gives every position you make a route, the ordered list of operations that turns a blank into the finished part (or a set of components into a sub-assembly). CUTL fills in cutting and bending by itself, you add the rest, tie each operation to the faces it works on, and a technologist approves it. The result feeds the price, the expected lead time, your ERP and a printed route card for the shop floor.
What it is
Routing sits in the viewer's left strip, right after Quotation. Unlike the Quotation panel, it is there on every review: an assembly and a single-part model alike.
On an assembly it lists every position you make: the parts marked Make, the sub-assemblies you make and the product itself. It uses the same analysis as the assembly quotation, so analysing the model in one tab analyses it in the other. Bought positions have no route.
| Who | Routing tab |
|---|---|
| A member of the team that owns the review, any role | Shown, and every route can be edited |
| A member with the Technologist flag, or an administrator | Can also approve routes and keep route templates |
| A user from another team invited to the review | Not shown |
| An external reviewer or a supplier with a price link | Not shown |
Routes belong to the review: colleagues who open the same review see the same routes. Every change is saved at once; there is no Save button on a route.
The main flow
On a single-part model the tab analyses the model by itself the first time you open it, selects the part at once and shows no positions list. There is no Quotation panel on such a review, so the order quantity (In the order:) and Calculate sit in the route's title row.
The positions list
The list holds the product first, then every part and sub-assembly you make, in tree order. Each row shows the Position (with a lock icon when its route is approved), its Class (Sheet, Tube, Free form and so on), Per product · Order quantities and a Route badge:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| changed with Accept | A new version of the model changed this position; accept it before editing |
| needs input: 1 | That many lines of the route cannot be timed or priced yet |
| 3 ops · 87 min | The number of lines and the minutes for the whole batch |
| no route | No lines yet |
Hovering a row lights the position on the model; clicking it selects it and opens its route. ‹ and › step through the list, and Positions brings the list back. Tick several rows to get a bar with Apply template, Approve and Withdraw approval for all of them at once. The row menu also has Open in the «Quotation» tab, which jumps to the same item there.
A route, row by row
The route of a part is a grid. Row 0 is the blank: a sheet, a round bar, a tube or something else, with its size (for example sheet 6 × 120 × 120 · default). The operations follow in order, numbered 1, 2, 3.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Operation | The operation's name, an auto badge on automatic rows, and your note under it |
| Equipment | The equipment type and machine; for an outside service, the vendor and its lead time |
| Setup, min | Setup time, paid once per batch (or once per setup) |
| Per piece, min | Time per piece, typed or worked out from a formula (marked ƒ) |
| Reps/pc | How often the operation runs on one piece, for example the number of bends. Hidden while every line has 1 |
| Batch or Total, min/pc | The time for the batch or per piece, following the per pc / per batch toggle |
| Faces | How many faces of the model the operation works on (below) |
| Cost | The line's cost, worked out by CUTL from the rate. Hover it to see the rate and the minutes |
Rows CUTL adds by itself
- Cutting (the Laser cutting operation) appears once the part has been calculated in the Quotation panel. Its equipment and time come from the calculation and are read-only, and its cost shows in the cutting price: cutting is already in the part's price, so it is never counted twice.
- Bending appears on a bent sheet part. Its Reps/pc is the number of bends; you can edit the rest.
Neither can be deleted, and both take faces. Until a part is calculated, the grid says no cutting row yet and offers a link to calculate it.
Outside services
An Outside service is work a vendor does for you, such as galvanising, heat treatment or powder coating. It has a Vendor, a Price per unit on a Base (per kg (part mass), per m² (surface) or per piece) and a Lead time, working days. It takes no machine time, so it is left out of the hours, but its lead time counts towards Ready in.
Lines that need input
A line needs input when CUTL cannot price or time it: there is a time but no rate anywhere, a formula uses something the part does not have, or an outside service has no vendor or price. Its time cell reads input needed. A line with no time and no price at all, such as a visual inspection, is not a problem: the footer counts it as without a time norm.
The footer under the grid adds up the route: the time per batch and per piece, Operations (the cost per piece and per batch), Outside services and, for a free-form part, Material and Part.
Editing a route
Every team member can edit a route while it is a draft.
- Edit in the grid. Click a cell (or press Enter or F2), type, then press Enter or leave the cell to save. Escape cancels.
- + Operation opens Add an operation, inserted after the selected line or at the end. Pick an Operation from the dictionary (part operations on a part, assembly operations on a sub-assembly) or type a custom name, then set the Equipment type, Machine, times, Reps/pc, Setups and a Note. Switch the toggle to Outside service for vendor work.
- Copy from replaces this route's lines with those of another position of the same kind. Faces are not copied, and Undo brings the old lines back.
- Reorder by dragging a row by its handle, or with Up and Down in the row menu (Alt+Up, Alt+Down). The blank never moves.
- Edit…, Note… and Delete are in each row's menu. A deleted line comes back with Undo, faces included.
There is no lock on a draft. If a colleague saved the route while you were editing, your change is not saved: the tab reloads the route and says The route was changed by another user, so you can redo it on the current version.
Linking operations to the model
Faces tie each operation to the part: the holes Drilling works, the contour Laser cutting cuts. With a line selected, click faces of the part on the model, then press Add to «Drilling» (or Ctrl+Enter). A face can belong to several operations, for example drilled and then tapped. Tick Whole part for work such as inspection or painting that has no faces of its own.
When the part's PMI carries features such as holes, a Features chip offers them ready-made (Hole Ø8.5 × 5): Add all adds every face of that feature in one go. See PMI.
The chevron in the Faces cell lists the line's faces; × removes one and Add faces… picks them from a list instead of the model. After a new version of the model, faces it no longer has show as not found with pick again.
The steps strip
Under the model, a strip shows the route as steps: 0 Blank · 1 Laser cutting · 2 Drilling · 3 QC inspection. Clicking a step selects its line, and the model shows the part as it grows: at step 2 you see the blank's faces, the cut contour and, in orange, the holes being drilled, and nothing that a later operation adds. Sub-assemblies show the operation names only. Leaving the tab puts the full model back.
The blank
Click row 0 to set the blank: Round bar, Sheet / plate, Tube (round or rectangular) or Other, with its dimensions in millimetres. CUTL starts from the model's measured size, marked default.
- For a free-form part you also set the Material and a Price per kg, taken from the materials dictionary unless you type another. CUTL then shows the blank mass, the blank material cost and the material use, and the part's cost in the quotation follows.
- For a sheet or tube part the material is already in the part's laser price, so the blank only records the size.
Reset to default goes back to the model's size.
Hours and Ready in
A line under the header adds up the work, for example Hours: 12.0 h per order · approved 2 of 6 · needs input: 0. It counts every line with an equipment type on every route of the product (parts, sub-assemblies and the product itself) for the whole order. Click it to see one chip per equipment type, such as Lathe 1.9 or Welding station 4.3.
Next to it, Ready in ~6 working days estimates the lead time: the longest equipment queue (each type's hours in this order divided by its Hours per week) plus the longest outside-service lead time. Hover it to see which equipment sets the pace. The same chip appears in the Quotation panel.
Ready in shows no estimate until every equipment type with hours on the routes has Hours per week set. It is an estimate, not a shop schedule: CUTL does not plan jobs or machine load.
Approving routes
Approve the route is shown to members with the Technologist flag and to administrators. Approving freezes the operations, times and faces; the rates and the order quantity stay live, so an approved route's cost still follows a new rate or a new number of products. The confirmation warns when lines still need input or have no faces.
An approved route shows approved · name · date and a lock icon in the list, and nobody can change it. The person who approved it, or an administrator, presses Withdraw approval to make it a draft again. While a sub-assembly's route is approved, its assembly operations in the Quotation panel are read-only too.
Route templates
A route template is your shop's standard route, for example "Sheet: cutting, drilling, QC". Technologists and administrators keep them in Dictionaries › Route templates; everyone else can use them.
- Applies to sets which positions a template fits: Sheet, Tube, Free form or Assembly, an optional thickness range for sheet parts, and an optional Material group.
- The template lists its operations with any overrides of time and equipment, plus outside services, and two anchors, Cutting (auto) and Bending (auto), that say where the automatic rows sit.
- Apply template in the route's title row lists the Matching templates first. Applying one replaces the route's manual lines (the automatic rows stay) and cannot be undone.
- For many positions at once, tick them and use Apply template in the bar. By rule gives each position the first matching template; approved routes are always skipped.
ERP export and route cards
ERP export, in the tab's header and in the Quotation panel's menu, downloads the product for your ERP as JSON or XML. Choose the Whole assembly or the ticked positions, and what to include: the multi-level bill of materials, the part routes (operations numbered 005, 010, with setup and per-piece times and equipment), blanks and material norms, and costing. Operations, equipment types and materials carry their ERP code when you have set one. There is one universal profile for now.
Print route card… builds a PDF for the shop floor, for one position, the ticked ones or the whole assembly. Choose the layout, Traveler (a shop traveller) or the GOST 3.1118 route card, and the language. With Include step images ticked, CUTL photographs the model at every step first (you will see the model move; leave it alone until it finishes), so each operation on the card has a picture. Include costs adds the prices. Only positions you make that have route lines are printed.
What it depends on
Routes draw on your dictionaries and two team settings.
| Where | What routing uses from it |
|---|---|
| Dictionaries › Operations | Per operation: Equipment type, a fallback Rate per hour, Setup, min, and either Per piece, min or a Formula from geometry, Whole part, Scope (Part or Assembly) and an ERP code |
| Dictionaries › Equipment types | Rate per hour, Hours per week (for Ready in) and an ERP code |
| Dictionaries › Materials | Price per kg for free-form blanks, and an ERP code |
| User, team members list | The Technologist column, ticked per member by an administrator. Administrators always count as technologists |
| Team Settings, Route card | Route card fields adds Workshop, Labour grade and Tooling to the operation dialog, for the printed card and the export |
A line's rate comes from its machine first, then its equipment type, then the operation's own rate. Rates are read live, so changing one updates every route the next time it is opened, approved ones included.
A formula times an operation from the part's geometry, for example 0.6 * holes. It can use faces, holes, cut_length, pierces, bends, mass, blank_mass, removal_mm3, area_mm2, thickness_mm, bbox_x_mm, bbox_y_mm, bbox_z_mm and qty, with ceil, round, min and max. A part that lacks a variable makes the line input needed.
Do
- Calculate the parts in the Quotation panel first, so the cutting rows are in place before you build the rest.
- Set Hours per week on every equipment type, otherwise Ready in stays empty.
- Keep your standard routes as templates and apply them by rule to many positions at once.
Avoid
- Approving a route that still shows needs input: its cost and hours are incomplete.
- Clicking the model while route card images are being captured.
Limits
- Routing works on STEP reviews only, not on DXF project parts.
- Nothing is written into the STEP file.
- Ready in is an estimate from hours and lead times; there are no jobs, machine loading or ship dates.
- The model always shows the finished part's faces; the blank is a row with dimensions, not a shape on the model.
- Applying a template cannot be undone.
- The ERP export has one universal profile; profiles for specific ERP systems are not available yet.
Routes feed the part and product costs of the assembly quotation.