Shaping a sheet
A sheet does not have to stay a rectangle. A hole for a sink or a vent, a notch round a wheel arch, a worktop with rounded corners: each is a cutout, and a sheet can carry up to 64 of them. There are two ways to make them, working on the same shapes - numbers in the Inspector’s Shape block, and a draw mode where you drag them out on the piece itself.
How cutouts work
Section titled “How cutouts work”- Rectangles and circles. A rectangle’s corners can be rounded.
- Positions are measured from the middle of the piece, not from a corner: X across its width, Z along its length.
- A cutout may cross the edge of the piece on purpose. That is how a notch, or an L-shaped piece, is made.
- Some cutouts cannot be cut: one with no size, one left off the piece after it was resized, one that touches another cutout, and one that would cut the piece in two or leave no material along an edge. VanCAD keeps it, marks it with a warning and says why, so you can fix or remove it.
- The cut size stays the whole board. A hole does not make the board you buy any smaller, but the piece’s weight and cost count only the material that is left.
- Sheets only. Battens and extrusions are lengths cut square at both ends.
The Shape block
Section titled “The Shape block”What it is. A section headed Shape at the end of the Inspector’s Transform page whenever a sheet is selected. It lists the piece’s cutouts, one row each.
What it does. Every change here is made at once, as one step you can undo, like any other row in the Inspector. A change the piece cannot take is not made, and a line says why.
Options and limits. If a resize leaves cutouts that no longer fit, a warning says how many, with a Remove button that drops them all. The Shape block is an editing control, so a shared design’s viewer and a paused session show the shape without it.
What it affects. The piece’s outline in the 3D view, its weight and cost, and its drawing in the cut list.
Draw shapes
Section titled “Draw shapes”What it is. The button at the top of the Shape block. It reads Draw shapes while the piece has no cutouts, and Edit shapes once it has.
What it does. Opens the shape draw mode on this piece.
Options and limits. Only in the editor.
What it affects. Nothing by itself: the mode changes the piece only when you press Done.
Add a rectangle or circle
Section titled “Add a rectangle or circle”What it is. The + Rectangle and + Circle buttons under the Shape block’s list, and the + button beside Cuts in the draw mode, which adds whichever shape is chosen there.
What it does. Adds a cutout of that kind in a free spot on the piece, ready for its size and position: opened in the Shape block, selected in the draw mode.
Options and limits. Refused, with a line saying why, once the piece holds 64 cutouts or has no room left for another.
What it affects. The piece’s shape, weight and cost (in the draw mode, once you press Done).
Cutout rows
Section titled “Cutout rows”What it is. One row per cutout, naming its shape and its size.
What it does. In the Shape block, pressing a row opens its numbers - one row at a time, so a piece with many cutouts stays readable. In the draw mode, pressing a row selects that cutout, which is where the handles in the view go.
Options and limits. A warning sign on a row means that cutout is not being cut. Open or select it and a line says why.
What it affects. Nothing - it chooses which cutout you are working on.
Cutout size
Section titled “Cutout size”What it is. Width and Length for a rectangle, Diameter for a circle.
What it does. Sets the cutout’s size. Type a value in your working units, or step it with - and + by 10 mm.
Options and limits. Width runs across the piece and length along it. A circle is sized by its diameter, which is how hole saws are sold.
What it affects. What is cut out, and so the piece’s weight and cost.
Cutout position
Section titled “Cutout position”What it is. The X and Z rows.
What it does. Moves the cutout’s centre, measured from the middle of the piece: X across its width, Z along its length.
Options and limits. Nothing stops a cutout crossing the edge - a rectangle half off one side is a notch. One moved right off the piece, or so that it would cut the piece in two, is marked and not cut.
What it affects. Where the hole or notch is.
Corner radius
Section titled “Corner radius”What it is. For a rectangle: the Radius row in the Shape block, and the corner sliders in the draw mode, each with a small glyph showing which corner it rounds.
What it does. Rounds the rectangle’s corners. In the Shape block one radius rounds all four alike; in the draw mode each corner can have its own.
Options and limits. Up to half the rectangle’s shorter side. A circle has no corners.
What it affects. The shape of the cutout.
Link and Separate
Section titled “Link and Separate”What it is. The small button beside Corners in the draw mode, for a selected rectangle.
What it does. Separate gives each corner its own slider; Link goes back to one slider for all four. The button says what pressing it will do, not the state it is in.
Options and limits. After linking corners that were rounded differently, the one slider starts at the largest of them, and moving it rounds all four alike.
What it affects. Only how the corners are adjusted.
Remove
Section titled “Remove”What it is. The Remove button under an open cutout in the Shape block or the selected one in the draw mode, and the Remove button on the warning about cutouts that no longer fit.
What it does. Takes the cutout out of the piece. The warning’s button drops every cutout that no longer fits in one go.
Options and limits. In the Shape block, removing one cutout is refused while a different one no longer fits, because the piece still could not take what is left - use the warning’s button to clear those first.
What it affects. The piece’s shape, weight and cost.
The shape draw mode
Section titled “The shape draw mode”What it is. A mode for drawing cutouts directly on a sheet. The view turns to look straight at the piece’s face, and a panel headed Shaping with the piece’s name opens beside it - on a phone, a card over the view.
What it does.
- Drag on bare board to draw a cutout of the shape chosen in the panel.
- Drag a cutout to move it, or one of its handles to resize it.
- Shapes snap to a 10 mm grid. Hold Alt while you drag to place them freely.
- A cutout the piece can take is drawn green; one it cannot is drawn red, and the panel says why.
- Undo and Redo step through your drawing rather than your design.
- Enter is Done and Esc is Cancel.
The panel lists every cutout under Cuts, and under that the selected cutout’s numbers, which work like the Shape block’s.
Options and limits. Nothing reaches your design until you press Done. While the mode is open the catalogue is closed, since anything added would land somewhere you cannot see; the Object List stays open. On a phone, the view’s home button recentres on the piece.
What it affects. Nothing until you press Done.
Rectangle and Circle
Section titled “Rectangle and Circle”What it is. The two-way switch at the top of the draw mode’s panel.
What it does. Chooses what a drag on bare board draws, and what the + button beside Cuts adds.
Options and limits. Changing it does not change a cutout already drawn.
What it affects. The next cutout you draw.
What it is. The first of the two buttons at the foot of the panel, always in view however long the list grows.
What it does. Cuts every shape into the piece as one change, so a single Undo takes the whole session back. The piece stays selected.
Options and limits. Disabled while a cutout cannot be cut; the warning above the buttons and the red cutout in the view show which. Fix it or remove it to carry on.
What it affects. The piece’s shape, weight and cost, and its drawing in the cut list.
Cancel
Section titled “Cancel”What it is. The second button at the foot of the panel.
What it does. Leaves the mode and discards everything drawn since you entered it. The piece keeps the shape it had. Esc does the same.
Options and limits. Nothing to set.
What it affects. Nothing.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Adding raw materials - placing the sheet in the first place.
- The cut list - the drawing of a shaped piece, with its cut edges marked.
- Drawing an opening - the tool this one borrows its gestures from, for cutting windows into the van itself.