Materials

File › New asks which industry you are drawing for, and which of its materials to start with. The drawing then starts with that industry's materials as a SELECT block for the material's thickness, T, and the other values that go with each material:

// Corrugated board: the material, its thickness T
// CA: crease allowance: how much each fold adds to a panel's inside size
SELECT T,"Material"
    "E flute (1.5 mm)" = 1.5, CA=1.5
    "B flute (3 mm)" = 3, CA=3 DEFAULT
    …
END

Draw on T (and CA, K, SA …) and the drawing follows when another material is chosen, in the Variables panel's Run View or in Run Parametric. Choose None for an empty drawing. Your choice is remembered for next time.

The industries that come with the app

The values are starting points: check them against your supplier's figures and your own machines.

Board properties

A board's materials can also say what the board is, as values like the others, which drawings get as variables:

The board's caliper is its thickness, T. The app's corrugated board gives all three (its flutes along Y, up a slotted case's sides as the FEFCO styles are drawn), and its folding carton BOARD and FLUTE. Each material also gives CA, its crease allowance for that flute or board; the app's Run Parametric styles allow for the board with T itself.

A drawing can use them like any variable (GRAIN=="X" is TRUE when the grain runs along X), and Drawing Properties shows them. In the editor, Add Board Properties adds the three to an industry, each material's guessed from its name (B flute (3 mm): corrugated, B, along Y; anything else solid board, its grain along X): check them. A value that isn't one of these stops the file being saved. The Grain direction and Flute direction marks in the symbols show the direction on the drawing.

Changing the materials

File › Extensions › Materials… opens the materials editor. Pick an industry at the top: the app's are marked (the app's), yours (yours).

• The app's industries are shown but can't be changed. Make My Own Copy copies one to your own Materials folder, and from then on your copy is used instead of the app's (it is marked yours, instead of the app's).
• New Industry… asks for its name and starts it with one material. Its file is named from it (foam-inserts.json).
• Delete… deletes one of yours, after asking. Deleting your copy of one of the app's brings the app's back.

For one of yours you can change:

• its Name (as File › New lists it), Description and Units (mm or in: it is offered for drawings in those units);
• the Thickness variable (usually T) and what the choice is Asked for as (Material, Board, Sheet, Fabric …);
• the Material to start with;
• the Other values: each a variable every material gives (CA, K, SA …) and what it is, written above the SELECT block as a comment. Add Value adds one (each material gets a value for it to change), ✕ removes one, and renaming the variable renames it for every material;
• the Materials, in a grid: each one's name, thickness and other values. Add Material adds one like the last, ▲ and ▼ move one up or down (the order File › New lists them in), and ✕ removes one.

Values are numbers (typed as your language writes them: 1,5 or 1.5), TRUE or FALSE, or else text. What stops it being saved is said in red under the editor as you type: an empty or repeated name, a thickness that isn't a number more than 0, a missing value, a variable name the drawing language can't use (T2 and KERF can be; P1, which is a point, or 2X can't), or the same variable twice. Save writes the file; the next File › New offers it as it is, without restarting. Closing the editor with changes not saved asks whether to save them.

The files

Each industry is a JSON file in the Materials folder of an Extensions folder: the app's, and your own (File › Extensions › Open Extensions Folder). The editor reads and writes these files, so you can also copy them between computers or write them yourself. A file of yours with the same name as one of the app's (corrugated.json, say) is read instead of it; a file with a new name adds an industry.

{
  "industry": "Corrugated board",
  "description": "Cases, trays and displays in corrugated board",
  "units": "mm",
  "variable": "T",
  "label": "Material",
  "valueLabels": { "CA": "crease allowance" },
  "default": "B flute (3 mm)",
  "materials": [
    { "name": "E flute (1.5 mm)", "thickness": 1.5, "values": { "CA": 1.5 } },
    { "name": "B flute (3 mm)", "thickness": 3, "values": { "CA": 3 } }
  ]
}

Comments (//) and trailing commas are allowed in a file written by hand (the editor doesn't keep them). A file that can't be read is left out, and why is said in the new drawing's Interactive window and at the bottom of the editor.

Design tables

File › Import › Import Design Table… adds a spreadsheet's sizes to the drawing as a SELECT block. Save the sheet as CSV: its first row names the columns (what a row is, then the variable it chooses, then any that go with it), and each row after is a size:

Size,L,W,D
Small,200,150,100
Large,400,300,200

becomes

SELECT L,"Size"
    "Small" = 200, W=150, D=100 DEFAULT
    "Large" = 400, W=300, D=200
END

so choosing a size in the Variables panel's Run View, or in Run Parametric, sets L, W and D together. Commas, semicolons or tabs separate the columns. Variables the drawing has already take their values from the table.