Optimizing Cutting Length

[silentwolf]

Hi guys,

I have been looking into threads about cutting length here in the forum but not really found exactly what I am after or the issue I am having to get startet with a cutting optimizing tool.

Following situation:
There are different Profiles and different materials which need to be cut to size for several Projects.

On YouTube I found a good video of a similar issue.. but it misses a few things what would be required in my situation.

Stock Items like offcuts:
There are different lenght in Stock like offcuts from previous projects. For example: 3 pieces of 3250 mm of ProfileA, 25 pieces of 2000mm of ProfilB, and 30 pieces of full lenght of 6000mm of ProfileA and so on..

There are several projects to be cut to length :
Project_001:
12 pieces 1250mm ProfileA
10 pieces 1830mm ProfileB

Project_002:
5 pieces 2000mm ProfileA
8 pieces 1200mm ProfileB

And of course there is a cutting blade thikness of 5mm that needs to be taken to account

So is there a way of putting it all into Excel for the Stock Items and Cutting length of each Profile to optimize those cutting length?

Perhaps with Solver or via Code?

Great would be if it could work via VBA and with a GUI ..

Just not sure how to go about take all those variables into account to solve this situation.

Maybe someone could give some ideas on how to go about it?

For the Data I did also try to use Access but I guess for the calculations I would need Excel or Excel Solver or OpenSolver ?


Many thanks

Albert

 

[silentwolf]

Hi guys,

I have looked further into my issue and came accross Dynamic programming which looks promising for the issue descriped above.

Maybe I be able to put something together with that approach )

Cheers

 

[HighAndWilder]

Hi guys,

I have been looking into threads about cutting length here in the forum but not really found exactly what I am after or the issue I am having to get startet with a cutting optimizing tool.

Following situation:
There are different Profiles and different materials which need to be cut to size for several Projects.

On YouTube I found a good video of a similar issue.. but it misses a few things what would be required in my situation.

Stock Items like offcuts:
There are different lenght in Stock like offcuts from previous projects. For example: 3 pieces of 3250 mm of ProfileA, 25 pieces of 2000mm of ProfilB, and 30 pieces of full lenght of 6000mm of ProfileA and so on..

There are several projects to be cut to length :
Project_001:
12 pieces 1250mm ProfileA
10 pieces 1830mm ProfileB

Project_002:
5 pieces 2000mm ProfileA
8 pieces 1200mm ProfileB

And of course there is a cutting blade thikness of 5mm that needs to be taken to account

So is there a way of putting it all into Excel for the Stock Items and Cutting length of each Profile to optimize those cutting length?

Perhaps with Solver or via Code?

Great would be if it could work via VBA and with a GUI ..

Just not sure how to go about take all those variables into account to solve this situation.

Maybe someone could give some ideas on how to go about it?

For the Data I did also try to use Access but I guess for the calculations I would need Excel or Excel Solver or OpenSolver ?


Many thanks

Albert

I've been thinking about this.

How many projects do you have on the go at the same time?

Is there a minimum length that you need to leave as an offcut?

How small a length is it likely that you may use in the future?

Are you able to mark offcuts so that you can easily find the right one?

 

[silentwolf]

Hi,
there are about 4 to five projects that need to be managed for a day.

What I have been thinking of is to put the stock present in a database to track it.
If the orders come in I like to check if there are those lenght in stock..

The oders for future project are not known but it is likely that below 1000mm are not able to be used for future projects.

The offcuts I would also keep in the database with a StockLocation so I could use it again easily.

But for the calculation I did try different things one way of thinking about it was to keep create objects for StockItems and an object for OrderItems.

So two classes representing, ProfileType, Lenght, Amount one clsStockItems, clsOrderItems

Keep the StockItems in a database and create arrays to fill the Klass Object and the same for OrdterItems Object.

And then somehow compare those two arrays to find the Profile and Length with the least amout of offcut.

Not sure if that would be a way of going about it.. Talked to a friend of mine which is a programmer and he thought about that way of doing it.

 

[NdNoviceHlp]

Seems like a search of this Board has some potential solutions. HTH Dave

Optimized Cut List

I managed to find this nice simple cut list optimizer macro that someone made. It was on another forum site, and I can't find the original post to save my life. Original file was called BoardFeet. I'm not that well versed in VBA code, but I'm trying to figure out a way to output the cut...

www.mrexcel.com

 

[silentwolf]

Seems like a search of this Board has some potential solutions. HTH Dave

Optimized Cut List

I managed to find this nice simple cut list optimizer macro that someone made. It was on another forum site, and I can't find the original post to save my life. Original file was called BoardFeet. I'm not that well versed in VBA code, but I'm trying to figure out a way to output the cut...

www.mrexcel.com

Hi Dave,

yes I did not forget to search the board and found also different threads.

I have seen this one before but can not quite understand what you need to fill out in what worksheet to get the solutions.

InpStock seams to be a named list.

    'Make sure cuts have been entered
    If rLastEntry.Address = "$A$1" Then
        Exit Sub
    Else
        Set rInputCuts = wksCuts.Range("A2", rLastEntry.Address).Resize(, 2)
        lRowCount = rInputCuts.Rows.Count
    End If

What is that suppose to mean and what worksheet should I put it into

Currently I got following:
I did create a worksheet with worksheet Name "Cuts" and codeName wksCuts. and update the code accordingly

In Range A of that worksheet I have StockSizes from A1: A6 in the same worksheet I have in Range B1:B6 Required Sizes. No headers!

I have difficulties to understand the code without seeing what information need to be inserted into the worksheets to make this Code run.

Maybe someone could spot what this code does and what Info need to be inserted into what Worksheet.

Cheers

 

[NdNoviceHlp]

The name of the worksheet is wshCuts. Trial changing the sheet name. Dave

 

[silentwolf]

The name of the worksheet is wshCuts. Trial changing the sheet name. Dave

Hi Dave,

well as I am always calling my worksheets wks I changed it to wksCuts

And of course the code too!

However but what I am suppose to insert into the worksheet?

in wksCuts range "A" all the Sizes needet? And where the sizes I have?

And what does 'Make sure cuts have been entered mean in Range A1

it is difficult not seeing any data just code ..

 

[NdNoviceHlp]

http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/author/****-kusleika/page/120/

Scroll down and it shows where to put the input info and you can down load the file if you want. Dave
edit replace the **** with "D"I"C"K" without the parenthesis in the URL

 

[silentwolf]

http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/author/****-kusleika/page/120/

Scroll down and it shows where to put the input info and you can down load the file if you want. Dave
edit replace the **** with "D"I"C"K" without the parenthesis in the URL

Hi thanks Dave,

that makes it more understandable yes!
Got it working no problem!

However what if I like to do the same thing but with different Cut Sizes?
As for I got different lenght in Stock?




Cheers