Introduction
cutlist.aklinker1.io is a passion project I built on the weekend. I got frustrated that there wasn't a existing solution for generating optimal board layouts/cutlists for projects designed in Onshape.
It is meant to be an alternative to other popular cutlist websites:
- https://www.cutlistoptimizer.com/
- https://www.opticutter.com/cut-list-optimizer
- https://cutlistevo.com/
- ...
cutlist.aklinker1.io is unique because instead of importing or managing a list of parts manually, the parts are pulled real-time from your design in Onshape. That means as soon as you change your design, the changes are reflected on your cutlist!
The main drawback to this approach is that you need to design your parts and project so that the website can properly load them. More on this in the next section, Creating Cutlist-friendly Designs.
To see what the tool looks like, you can use one of my designs:
Visit https://cutlist.aklinker1.io, click "+ Add", and enter the above URL in the "Assembly URL" text box. Once entered,a BOM will appear in the bottom left and the board layouts on the right of the project's tab.
When you hover over a part in the preview, information about the part, it's dimensions, and it's placement on the panel will appear.
And that's it! Just enter a URL and the cutlist will be generated for you automatically.