Pages

A drawing can have several pages: a die line on one, its artwork on another, a nest of it on a third. Each page has its own elements and its own points; the drawing's variables, functions, notes, layers and parts are shared by all its pages, so every page follows the same sizes. Change L and every page changes with it.

Each page's points

Each page's points are its own, numbered on their own: P5 on one page and P5 on another are different points, and changing one leaves the other as it is. A new page starts with the points a new drawing has: P0 at the origin and P1 to P3 the other corners of the L × W box. The Points panel lists the points of the page worked on, and changes as you go to another page.

• Copy and paste between pages. Elements copied (or cut) on one page and pasted on another bring the points they are drawn on, and the points those are worked out from. A point keeps its number where the page has no point of that number (or one worked out the same way), and is given a new number where the page has another; the pasted elements are drawn on the new numbers. Cut on one page and paste on another to move elements there. Pasted on the same page, the copies are drawn on the same points.
• Placed, nested and folded pages are worked out on their own points: a page placed as a part, a nest of a page and a 3D page all show the page as it is on its own page, whatever the points of the page they are shown on. The nest's corner is a point of the page nested: the Nest Tool brings it onto the new page.
• Pages made by Make Die, Bleed and the other Production commands have points of their own too.
• Elements are named across pages: an offset or piece of an element on another page (OFFSET @7,@2,5,0), or a point on one (ONELEMENT(@2,0.5)), works that element out on its own page's points.
• A variable worked out from points (GAP=DISTANCE(P4,P5), as the Measure Tool makes) uses the points of the page worked on: on another page it is worked out again from that page's P4 and P5.

The page tabs

Under the drawing is a tab for each page; the page worked on is highlighted.

• Click a tab to work on that page. What is drawn, selected, edited, measured and exported is that page's.
• + makes a new page and works on it.
• Double-click a tab to rename it.
• Right-click a tab to rename it, delete it, or make a new page.
• When there are more tabs than fit, < and > after them (or the mouse wheel) scroll them a tab at a time.

The same are in the Edit › Page menu: New Page, Rename Page…, Delete Page, and Next Page (Ctrl+Page Down) and Previous Page (Ctrl+Page Up) to step through them; New Sheet…, Edit Sheet… and Insert Field… make and change sheets.

Deleting a page removes everything on it (after asking, if anything is on it, or it is placed on another page). A drawing keeps at least one page. Making, renaming, deleting and changing pages can all be undone; undo goes back to the page the change was made on.

Sharing parts between pages

• A page as a part: place a page on another as a PART, by the page's name (PART @5,P10,P11,"Die line"). It shows the page as it is now: edit the page and every placing of it follows. A page placed on itself shows nothing.
• The part library: drawings imported as parts are kept once in the drawing's library, by name (PARTDEF), and placed by that name on any page.
• Nests: the Nest Tool nests the page worked on onto a new page, placing the page by its name, so the nest follows the page as it is edited.

Renaming a page renames it in the parts and nests that place it.

Sheets

Edit › Page › New Sheet… makes a page that puts a border (a frame and a title block, filled in from the drawing) round another page, fitted or at a scale, ready to print: a sheet. It follows the page it shows as you edit it. Edit › Page › Edit Sheet… changes a sheet's page, scale and border inputs, and Insert Field… places a text showing the drawing's information (its title, a note, the scale, sheet n of m). See Drawing sheets and borders.

3D pages

3D › Fold in 3D adds a page showing the drawing's first page (its first that isn't a 3D page) folded up in 3D, and works on it. Nothing is drawn on a 3D page: it is made again from its page each time you go to it, so it always shows the drawing as it is now. Besides folding, a page can be made 3D by its layers' depths (solid bodies with pockets and cut-outs), by putting parts together, by wrapping and by sweeping: see Making drawings 3D. Drag to turn it, and use the slider to fold and unfold it.

• 3D › Build Mode chooses how the page is made 3D: Auto, or the modes ticked (Fold, Extrude, Wrap, Sweep, Assemble); see Making drawings 3D.

• 3D › Folding › Fold Order chooses how the folding runs as you move the slider:

  • Natural (the usual): as it would be made up by hand. The walls stand up first, then the flaps on them fold in, then the panels that close it: the bottom's before the top's, the smaller flaps before the larger ones over them, a lid after the flaps it closes over, its tuck last.
  • Together: every crease at once.
  • Base First: the panels nearest the base first, out to the tips.
  • Tips First: the tips first, in to the base.

  3D › Folding › Overlap says how much each step overlaps the next: None (one after the other), A Little, Some (usual) or Much (nearly together). It is greyed out for Together, which has no steps. Both are saved with the drawing and can be undone.

• 3D › Folding › Fold Steps lists the steps, and the creases in each. A crease the drawing gives a step (RULE STEP=2, see element settings) folds then, whatever the order; the others take the order's. To change one, click it in the 3D view (it lights up, and the Interactive window says its step) and choose 3D › Folding › Set Fold Step…, or pick it in the list and choose Set Step…: the step is written on the crease's line in the drawing's page, as one step to undo; left blank, it is taken off again. A crease made by a script block is given its step in the script.

• Parts put together. Separate blanks on the page each fold up from their own base. A part with a MATE that goes TO another's (face to face: a lid on a box) or IN it (a drawer in a sleeve) is put with it once folded: the parts fold over the first four fifths of the slider, and the last fifth puts them together. The mates are shown as small arrows (red the way each points, blue its inside).

• 3D › Folding › Play Steps folds the design up one step at a time, from flat, pausing after each; click the view or move the slider to stop.

• 3D › Folding › Adjust in 3D changes the drawing from the 3D page and shows the model change as you go (also the Variables, Timeline and Fold by Hand buttons on the view's toolbar): the Variables Panel beside the view sets the drawing's labelled variables, with sliders where the drawing keeps one in a range; Fold by Hand lets you drag a panel to fold it, writing its angle on its crease's line (RULE FOLD=120); the Fold Timeline under the view shows the steps as a strip, and dragging a crease to another step, or a step to another place, writes the steps (RULE STEP=2). Each change is one step to undo. See Live editing in 3D.

• 3D › Material chooses what it is made of, from the materials (appearances) available, grouped by kind: apparel and textiles, corrugated, metals, paperboard, plastics and rubber, rigid board, and wood. Automatic (for the drawing's material) chooses from the drawing's own material (its T choice, or a choice labelled Material, Fabric, Board or Sheet). The choice is saved with the drawing and can be undone. The appearances are read from the Appearances folder of the Extensions folders; change them, or make your own, with File › Extensions › Appearances… (see Appearances).

• 3D › Models and Products › Import Model… shows a 3D model with the folded drawing (a bottle in its carton, say), standing on its base panel: a glTF (.glb, .gltf), OBJ (with its .mtl colours and textures), STL, PRC, U3D or COLLADA (.dae, or .zae zipped) file. glTF is read in metres, STL in mm, OBJ in mm unless it is under 10 units across (then metres), PRC and U3D in the units they say (a U3D file that doesn't say is read like OBJ), and COLLADA in the units and with the up axis it says. The dialog takes a file or a web address, and Embed in drawing (ticked unless you clear it) keeps the model inside the drawing (a .gltf, .obj or .dae as one .glb, without its textures); cleared, the drawing keeps only its path or address and reads it whenever it is opened, so keep it where it is (see Linked files and web addresses). 3D › Models and Products › Remove Model takes it away again.

• 3D › Models and Products › Place Product…, Product Pocket in Foam… and Show Product Fit… put a product's model into the drawing itself, so it stands in the folded carton or the foam, is checked for fit and gets its foam pocket (see Products in the pack).

• 3D › Models and Products › Subtract Model cuts holes where the model passes through the folded drawing, as it is folded now. Each panel is taken as a flat sheet at its outside face, and where the model passes through that, a hole the shape of the model there is cut in the drawing's page, on the Cut layer, so the 3D page folds with it. A model that only presses into the inside of the board, without reaching its outside, cuts nothing. A hole across a crease is one hole, on both panels. It is one step to undo. Left out, and said:

  • cuts that would reach a cut edge or a hole already there (they would cut a piece off or change an outline, not make a hole): move the model, or make the cut yourself;
  • panels that bend (along a curved crease), which aren't flat;
  • where the model isn't a closed solid.

  The holes are drawn on new points, so they stay where they are if the drawing's sizes change. Where the model's cross-section has a hole of its own (a tube), the hole cut is its whole outline.

• 3D › Export › Export Proof Images… and 3D › Export › Export Proof Video… make pictures and video of the 3D page for people who won't open a 3D file: each view (front, back, left, right, top, three-quarter, the flat dieline with its artwork, the view as it is) as PNG or JPEG, or all on one contact sheet (an image or a PDF page), with a caption strip; and a turntable or the fold as MP4, animated WebP or GIF, or PNG frames. See Proof images and video.

• 3D › Export › Export 3D Model… writes the 3D page as it is shown (folded as far as it is now, with its model) as glTF (.glb, or .gltf with its data inside), OBJ (with a .mtl of its colours), STL or COLLADA (.dae, or .zae zipped), in mm whatever the drawing's units. glTF is written in metres with Y up, OBJ in mm with Y up, and STL and COLLADA in mm with Z up, as other programs expect; glTF, OBJ, STL and COLLADA read back with Import Model…. glTF has a part for each panel, hinged at its crease to the one it folds from, the fold as the animations Fold and Unfold, and the material with the artwork (and foil) as textures; OBJ has the outside, inside and cut edges as a part each, the artwork as PNG images beside it; STL has no colours. See glTF, OBJ and STL and COLLADA. For Cape Pack, see Cape Pack and TOPS Pro. PRC (.prc, for 3D PDF) is written with a part for each panel, placed where it is shown, and the artwork as textures; it reads back too. See PRC. U3D (.u3d) is written with a part for each panel, the fold as its animation and the artwork as textures, in mm with Z up; it reads back too. See U3D. USDZ (.usdz) is written for AR Quick Look on iPhone and iPad, in metres with Y up and a part for each panel. See AR proofs on iPhone and iPad.

• File › Export › Export Proof (HTML)… (in the 3D menu too) writes the 3D page as one HTML file to send for approval: it opens in any web browser, offline, with the model in a 3D viewer to turn and zoom, the fold to play, pause and scrub, augmented reality on phones and tablets, a light or dark background, saving a picture and printing, and the title, sizes, material, classification and notes you choose. See HTML proofs.

• File › Export › Export 3D PDF… (in the 3D menu too) writes the 3D page as a PDF page with the model on it, in 3D: Adobe Acrobat and Reader show it to turn and zoom, folding up when the page opens; other PDF viewers show a picture of it. See 3D PDF.

• 3D › Export › AR Proof for iPhone and iPad… writes the 3D page as a USDZ file that folds up from flat and stays folded: tapped on an iPhone or iPad, AR Quick Look plays the folding and stands the pack life-size on a table or the floor. See AR proofs on iPhone and iPad.

• 3D › Display › Show Ground turns the floor, and the shadows on it, on and off. Like the renderer, it is a setting of the app. Folding never takes the model into the floor: when a part folds below where the blank lay, the whole model is lifted to stand on the floor, and set down again as it unfolds.

• 3D › Display › Renderer chooses the graphics used to draw it: Direct3D 11 (Windows only), OpenGL or Vulkan. It is a setting of the app, used for every 3D page. If the one chosen can't start on this computer, another is used and the page says so.

The 3D page's right-click menu has the same commands: Import Model…, Remove Model and Subtract Model; Fold Order, Set Fold Step… (for the crease clicked), Fold Steps… and Play Steps; Export Proof Images…, Export Proof Video…, Export 3D Model…, Export 3D PDF… and Export Proof (HTML)…; and Material. A right-drag turns the view instead of opening the menu.

Renaming the page a 3D page shows keeps it showing that page. In the drawing file a 3D page is a line PAGE "3D","Page 1","kraft": its name, the page it folds and its material, then its model and fold order when it has them (PAGE).

Exporting pages

Exports write the page worked on. A PDF or Illustrator file can hold several: in the export options, choose All n pages, or Pages … and which (1-3, 5). Each is a page of the PDF (an artboard in Illustrator), named after it.

Pages in the drawing file

A drawing is saved with what its pages share first (its layers, variables, functions and part library), then each page in turn: a PAGE line with its name, its points, then its elements. Typing PAGE "name" in the Interactive window works on (or makes) that page.

See also: PAGE, PARTDEF, PART, Nest Tool.