Make It: One-Click Output

Make It does your trade's usual last step in one click: it checks the design, then writes the files the machines take and the lists the shop works from, beside the drawing. Click Make It at the top right of the window, press Ctrl+Shift+M, or choose File › Export › Make It.

What it makes for each industry

Each industry has a usual final step, made with the machine profiles and the reports that come with ParametrIQ CAD:

A General drawing has no usual step: the first time, Make It asks you to choose what it makes.

Presets

Make It writes with a preset: a named set of the files for the machines, the lists, and the folder they go in. Keep as many as you need for each industry, such as Proof only for the customer's approval, Production for the die maker and the shop, and Customer pack. One of them is the default: the one Make It and Ctrl+Shift+M use.

Each industry comes with presets: Production, its usual step (in the table above), and for packaging Proof only too (the printer's dieline PDF alone). A General drawing has none until you make one.

To make with another preset:

• click the arrow beside the Make It button: the drawing's industry's presets are listed, the default marked. Click one;
• or, in the command palette (Ctrl+K), type make it: each preset is listed as Make It: Production, Make It: Proof only ….

The pointer over the Make It button shows the default preset and what it writes.

Choosing what it makes

Choose Make It Uses… from the arrow beside the Make It button (or at the foot of File › Send Using Machine Profile). It lists the presets for the drawing's industry, each with what it writes and where:

Edit… shows, for the preset:

• Files for the machine: a switch for each machine profile for the industry (the others are under Other machine profiles). Each one switched on writes a file, just as File › Send Using Machine Profile writes it: its format, its options, its layers and its file name;
• Lists: a switch for each report. Each one switched on is saved beside the files, with its options as you last chose them in File › Reports…, as Reports saved as says: CSV, an Excel workbook (which Numbers and Google Sheets open too) or an OpenDocument spreadsheet (LibreOffice's);
• Where the files go: a folder. Left empty, the files go beside the drawing.

Reset to Defaults puts back the industry's usual step. Your presets are kept for you, for each industry. To change a profile itself (its layers, options or file name), use File › Extensions › Machine Profiles….

Sharing presets with a team

Export… writes a file like this one:

{
  "format": "parametriq-makeit-presets",
  "version": 1,
  "industries": {
    "Packaging": {
      "default": "Production",
      "presets": [
        { "name": "Proof only", "profiles": ["printer-dieline-pdf"], "reports": [] },
        { "name": "Production", "profiles": ["printer-dieline-pdf", "rule-bender-cf2"], "reports": [],
          "folder": "\\\\server\\jobs" }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Put it where the team can reach it, and each person chooses Import… in Make It Uses…. The profiles are named by their ids (see machine profiles) and the reports by their names; a profile someone hasn't got is left out when they make. A preset's folder (a shared folder on the network, say) goes with it.

The design is checked first

Before it writes anything, Make It checks the drawing against the design rules, as File › Check Design does:

• Errors stop it. Show Problems lists them, selects what they are about and offers a fix where there is one. Put them right and click Make It again;
• Warnings are listed and Make It asks whether to make the files anyway.

The exports don't ask about the design rules again while Make It writes.

Where the files go

The files are written beside the drawing, or in the folder of the preset it makes with. A drawing that hasn't been saved yet asks for a folder each time. A file of the same name is replaced, so making again after a change updates the files.

When it is done

A summary lists each file written and its size, and anything that wasn't written and why. From there:

• Open Folder opens the folder the files are in;
• Send by Email sends them all (one ZIP when there are several), as File › Send by Email does.

The messages say what was written, too.

The full Export

Make It uses your usual choices. For anything else (another format, other options, one file at a time) use File › Export › Export… or File › Send Using Machine Profile, which are unchanged: see Export by Industry and Machine Profiles.

See also: Export by Industry and Machine Profiles, Reports, Design rules, Emailing Exports, Industries.