Main Outcome 4: Supervisor Level

1. Navigate to the Member List tab of the job file you wish to modify.

2. To create a new member, right-click in the blank space at the right of the list and select Add New Member from the context menu, or to modify an existing member, double-click on the member in the list. This will bring up the Complete Member Editing window.

   

3. Select a type of typical member from the drop-down menu.

   

4. Give the member a Job name, Truss name and Member name.

   Note: although the Job and Truss names can be the same as other members, the Member name has to be unique.

5. Fill in the necessary information for the chosen member type, select a material and overall length.

6. To add some special features, click . Simply highlight the special feature you wish to add and click . For a birdsmouth cut, just follow the wizard on the pop-up and click  when complete.

   

7. When you are happy with the member, there are three options:

   • Click  to create the member in the Member List.
   • Click  if you only wish to modify the current member.
   • Click  to save the member in the macros file. A pop-up will ask you for a brief description, type it in and click .

Note: to load a member that has been saved, simply click , select any of the previously saved members and click .

Add new material when opening a job file

When opening a job file and Simple is asked to optimise a material it does not recognise, the Add Materials window will pop up. The most common approach is to either change the value in the Length column to the longest length of that material you have in stock and click , or If you do not wish to add any new materials, click . The window consists of ten columns, the fields with a white background are editable and the ones with a grey background are not. These are listed as follows:

• Material (non-editable): material name used for identifying that material
• Min Length (non-editable): minimum suggested stock length required to at least cut the longest member in the job file
• Action (editable): action to take on that particular material
  Clicking this will open a dialogue box with four options:
  • New: will add the new material to the materials database.
  • Reassign: will show another pop-up to choose a material that is already listed in the database.
  • Pick (only active if a disabled material already present in the database matches the description): will re‑enable the matching material.
  • Ignore: will ignore the material entirely and not add it to the database.
• Chosen Material (can only be changed with the Reassign action): name of the material that will be used
• Length (editable): length (in mm) of the material that will be added to the database
• Width (non-editable): width (in mm) of the material that will be added to the database
• Thickness (non-editable): thickness (in mm) of the material that will be added to the database
• Bin (editable): bunk the material is located in if an automated timber retrieval system is installed
• Priority (editable): priority value for this material (see further in the document for more details)
  Unless you know what to choose, leave as 1 for now.
• Cost (editable): cost of that piece of material (see further in the document for more details)
  Unless you know you will be optimising by cost, leave this as 0.00.

Once you are happy with all the new materials and changes, click to confirm.

Add new material using the materials database window

Open the Options window and select the Materials tab. This provides access to the materials database that contains information relating to the timbers used in the plant.

Add a new material

1. Click Add New Material to add a new empty row to the materials table.
2. Copy and paste the entire line of the material you wish to add a new length of.
3. Change the length field for the newly created material.

Note: it is advisable to only add new lengths of an existing material as the description must match the exact description contained in the job file.

Change material properties

To change a property of any of the materials in the database, simply double-click the value in the current field and enter the new one. The following properties can be modified in the table:

• Material: material description to be used to match with material descriptions in a file

• Length (in mm): length of the timber
• Width (in mm): width of the timber
• Thickness (in mm): thickness of the timber
• Bin: bunk the timber is located in if an automated timber retrieval system is installed

• Priority: priority each type of timber is to be used in

  Notes:A priority of "0" disables the material.A material with a priority of "1" will try to be used first.It is not advisable to have two lengths of the same material with the same priority. The best practice is to start with the longest stock length at priority "1" and work in descending order to the shortest one.

• Cost: cost per metre of the timber

Open the Options window and select the Offcuts tab. This provides access to the offcuts database that contains information relating to the offcuts you wish to produce from waste timber. You can choose to produce standard offcuts (blocks or wedges) or custom offcuts.

Add or delete an offcut

Standard offcut (block or wedge)

To add a standard offcut, click to add a new row to the table, then fill in the data fields for the new offcut.

• Offcut: name of the offcut (e.g. Block255)

• Material: material to be used for the offcut

  Notes:If a material is specified in this field, the description must be exactly the same as the one in the Materials tab, and the width and thickness specified in the next two columns must match this material.If this field is left blank, the optimising algorithm will use any material that matches the width and thickness specified in the next two columns.

• Width (in mm): width of the material to be used for the offcut
• Thickness (in mm): thickness of the material to be used for the offcut
• Length (in mm): length of the block (for blocks only)

• Rise (in mm): rise of the wedge (for wedges only)

  Note: this value should be equal to the width of the material.

• Run (in mm): run of the wedge (for wedges only)

To delete a standard offcut, select the row of the offcut you wish to delete, then click .

Custom offcut

To add a custom offcut, you must use the Complete Member Editing window to create the desired custom member and save it to the macros file by clicking . It will automatically show up in the offcuts table when the Custom option is selected.

To delete a custom offcut, do the following in the Complete Member Editing window:

1. Click .

2. The following window pops up:

   Select the custom member you wish to delete and click .

Enable or disable offcuts

To turn specific offcuts on or off, use the activation status checkbox in front of each offcut. Check to enable or uncheck to disable the offcut.

To enable or disable the offcuts feature, check or uncheck the Offcuts Enabled checkbox located in the Options window at the lower left of the Offcuts tab. If unchecked, no offcuts will be added the next time a job gets optimised.

Understand the offcut optimisation settings

The following settings are located in the Options window at the bottom centre of the Offcuts tab:

• Maximum offcut blocks / wedge pairs / custom offcuts per length of timber: specifies the maximum number of offcuts (or pairs of wedges) allowed per stick.

• Maximum waste length to include offcuts (in mm): specifies the maximum length of the waste capable of getting offcuts inserted into the stick.

  Note: If the waste associated with a stick is greater than either of these two previous values, no offcuts will be inserted and the waste will be spared for future use. To ignore one of these options, "0" should be entered into the associated field.

To change the sorting settings, open the Options window and select the Sorting tab.

The Sorting tab contains two lists that are used to group certain members together based on different criteria before and after the optimisation.

Note: the following rules apply:The number "0" will not perform any sorting based on that field.A number different from "0" will define the position of that field in the sorting order ("1" being first, "2" being second, "3" being third and so on).A positive number will perform the sorting based on that field in ascending order (lowest first) and a negative number will perform the sorting in descending order (highest first).

• Pre-Optimisation: determines the order in which the members are fed into the optimising algorithm.

  Using pre-optimisation sorting will have very different effects on waste reduction and cutting order depending on how it is set up. This does not help control the infeed side of the saw, only what members are more likely to be cut first.

• Post-Optimisation: determines the order in which the optimised sticks are listed in the Optimised tab at the end of an optimisation.

  Using post-optimisation sorting will not affect the waste in any way, it will simply re-arrange what order the timber is loaded on the infeed, making the loading process simpler and more efficient. It will however affect the order in which members are cut.

EXAMPLE 

In the Pre-Optimisation list, if the Truss field is set to "1", the Length field to "-2" and the other fields to "0", all members will be grouped by truss first and then sorted by length in descending order within each truss before being processed by the optimising algorithm.

Common types of setup

Setting up optimisation settings really depends on your workshop flow, how job files are organised and the logistics of your workshop. There are four types of setup that seem to be the most common:

• Balanced: This setup attempts to not go to any extremes, but to get the best possible combination of waste reduction, production efficiency and desired cutting order.
  • Modest trusses Look Ahead value (set to "4" or "5")
  • Modest variety of stock lengths for each timber grade/dimensions (two longs, and one or two shorts)
  • Stacking turned on (to increase productivity of the saw)
• Truss or production order (i.e. cut all components of one or the truss you wish to build first before starting the next): This setup is good for plants that have a specific build order and where sorting/stacking the cut members is the most critical aspect. This may come at the cost of waste and infeed complexity as the optimising algorithm will have a smaller pool of members to fill in unused timber and the loading order will need to be very specific.
  • Low trusses Look Ahead value (set to "2" or "3")
  • No sorting at all (to avoid spoiling the order in which the members will be selected to cut)
• Maximum waste reduction: This setup is good for plants that hold timber waste reduction as their highest priority. This may come at the cost of outfeed (sorting) complexity by increasing the variety of trusses being sorted at one time, and infeed efficiency by having to deal with numerous stock lengths of timber. You will also need to have many lengths of timber on hand.
  • Highest trusses Look Ahead value (set to "999", to allow the optimising algorithm to select from all of the members in the job)
  • High variety of stock lengths for each timber grade/dimensions (around five, varying in priority from longest to shortest, longest being highest priority)
  • Pre-optimisation sorting by length in descending order (i.e. longest first)
• Maximum loading efficiency: This setup is good for plants with limited space where there is no room to keep multiple packs of timber next to the saw, or plants that wish to unburden the operator of loading complexity, as this is one of the largest factors in saw downtime. This may come at the cost of increased timber waste, and outfeed or sorting complexity.
  • Low variety of stock lengths for each timber grade/dimensions (two or three)
  • Post-optimisation sorting to suit the desired loading order (e.g. Width, Length, Material then Stack)
  • Stacking turned on (to increase productivity of the saw)

Understand the optimisation settings

Open the Options window and select the Optimisation tab. This provides access to the optimisation settings for the saw.

• Look Ahead: specifies how far the optimising algorithm should look ahead in the file to find members to combine. The entity or field that will be looked at (most commonly truss) can be selected from the drop-down list.

  EXAMPLE 

  If set to "0" and "Trusses" is selected from the drop-down list, the optimising algorithm will only consider the current truss to combine members into the stock length before selecting a new stick. If set to "1", the algorithm will consider the current truss and the next one in the list to combine members into the stock length before selecting a new stick and so on. Increasing the Look Ahead value will therefore improve the optimisation.

  • Members: This will look at the member name for combining members. If all members to be optimised have a quantity of "1" and the Look Ahead value is set to "0", only one member will be placed into each stock length. However if the Look Ahead value is increased to "2", there is a potential that there will be three members with different names combined into each stock length.
  • Trusses: This will look at the truss name for combining members. However it can only consider members of that truss and subsequent trusses with identical material. If there are five members with identical material in each truss and the Look Ahead value is set to "0", there is a potential that all five members of the same truss will be combined into one stock length (members of a different truss will be ignored for that stock length). If the Look Ahead value is increased to "1", there is a potential that members of two different trusses will be combined into the same stock length.
  • Pieces of same material: This will look at the material name for combining members. If all members to be optimised have a quantity of "1", they are all the same material and the Look Ahead value is set to "0", only one member will be placed into each stock length. However, if the Look Ahead value is increased to "2", there is a potential that there will be three members combined into each stock length.

• Scaling: relates to the priorities associated with any particular piece of timber.

  • Priority Emphasis: specifies the weighting that is placed on the material priority as defined in the materials database. Changing this will affect what timber will be chosen based on the priority of the timber. If set to "100", the algorithm will always select the top priority timber where possible. If set to "0", the algorithm will always select the configuration with least amount of waste regardless of timber priority.

    Note: the highest priority timber may also produce the least amount of waste.

  • Auto Waste: uses the most waste-efficient optimisation that is found according to the Min, Max and Cnt values defined below. With this enabled, the algorithm will be run many times with the different Priority Emphasis values as defined by Min, Max and Cnt. At the end of the process, the algorithm will choose the optimisation of highest Priority Emphasis that also produces the least amount of waste. This means you will always get the best waste reduction regardless, but it increases the chances of also getting the best timber utilisation possible based on preferred timber.

  • Auto Cost: uses the most cost-efficient optimisation that is found according to the Min, Max and Cnt values defined below. This works exactly the same as the Auto Waste feature, but will look at minimising total cost of the job rather than waste.

    Note: to use this feature, all stock materials must have an entry greater than $0 in the Cost column of the materials database, and this must be up-to-date to provide accurate results.

  • Min: lowest Priority Emphasis scale value (0 to 99) used by the algorithm while iterating through optimisation scenarios for the Auto Waste and Auto Cost features.
  • Max: highest Priority Emphasis scale value (1 to 100) used by the algorithm while iterating through optimisation scenarios for the Auto Waste and Auto Cost features.

  • Cnt: number of iterations performed by the algorithm in even increments between the Min and Max values while trying to find the best optimisation scenario for the Auto Waste and Auto Cost features.

    EXAMPLE 

    If Min is set to "20", Max is set to "80" and Cnt is set to "4", the algorithm will be run four times at a priority emphasis of 20, 40, 60 and 80 of which the scenario with the lowest waste or cost will be selected.

• Stack: enables the optimising algorithm to use stacked materials.

  • Thickness: enables the materials to be stacked one on top of the other.

    • Before stick optimisation: attempts to create stacks of individual members and then to combine those stacks in a stack of timbers.
    • After stick optimisation: attempts to combine members in a timber and then to stack that timber with another one.

    Note: The Before stick optimisation may cause more stacking and thus be more time-saving, but may also produce slightly more waste. On the contrary, the After stick optimisation may cause less stacking and thus be more time-consuming, but may also reduce waste.

  • Top/Bot. Plates: enables the top and bottom plates of a same frame to be stacked one on top of the other or cut side by side in case of trenching.
  • Mitred Members: enables side-by-side stacking of mitred members where possible.

Optimisation is a complex process and there are multiple factors that affect the end result. Having a basic understanding of the optimising algorithm will allow a supervisor to not only help reduce waste timber but also organise the cutting order to suit the flow and process of the plant.

1. Simple will first take the list of members in the order shown in the Member List tab and re-sort the list based on the preferences in the pre-optimisation sorting. If they are all set to "0", no sorting will occur.
2. Simple will then take the first unoptimised and uncut member from the sorted list and places it into all possible stock lengths from the materials database with the member's particular grade and dimensions.
3. Simple will search through the list for other members of the same truss, grade and dimensions to fill the remaining timber of each possible combination of stock lengths.
4. When all the members of the same truss, grade and dimensions are exhausted, if the Look Ahead value is greater than "0", Simple will select the first member of the same grade and dimensions (if any) of the next truss in the list and continue to add members into each possible combination.

5. Simple will repeat this process until it has searched through as many trusses as specified in the Look Ahead setting.

6. For each possible combination used to cut all members selected in the previous steps, Simple will calculate the waste percentage and scale it based on the priorities and priority emphasis set in the optimisation settings.

7. Simple will choose the most desirable combination based on the scaled waste percentage, add the optimised sticks to the optimised list and remove the members from the sorted member list.

8. Using the new reduced member list, Simple will repeat this process for the remaining members until they are all optimised into stock lengths.

9. Once the process is complete and if offcuts are enabled, the optimising algorithm will attempt to put offcuts into any remaining waste, starting from the longest offcut to the shortest.

10. Simple will re-sort the list of optimised sticks based on the preferences in the post-optimisation sorting and generate the list you see in the Optimised tab.

There are numerous ways the operator can attempt to reduce waste.

Note: by adjusting any of the optimisation settings, there may be other positive or negative effects which the supervisor needs to be aware of.

• Increase the Look Ahead value for trusses: This will also increase the pool of trusses (and therefore members) the optimising algorithm can choose from to fill in space in the stock lengths, which will cause a more inconsistent stream of outfeed trusses and therefore make sorting more complex.
• Change the pre-optimisation sorting to use longer members first: This will mainly work with jobs with lots of long and short members. The optimising algorithm will fill stock materials with longer members first, so the remainder will more likely be filled with usable shorter members as it will search the shorter members secondary to the longer ones. If the stock materials are filled with short members first and they are exhausted before all longer members are optimised there will likely be more waste. This will also re-arrange the truss order which will cause an inconsistent stream of outfeed trusses and therefore make sorting more complex.
• Increase the variety of stock lengths: This will allow the optimising algorithm to choose from a greater variety of stock lengths and select the combination that produces the least amount of waste. This will also increase loading complexity as a greater variety of timber will need to be held in stock and loaded.
• Increase the variety of offcuts: Although this does not directly decrease waste generated by optimising usable members, it will turn the waste into predefined pieces. These can be blocks, wedges or custom members. These are added after optimisation and will not increase the amount of timber used just to add offcuts.

The Member Designation Label can be changed in the Printer Setup window. To access it, click on the Control Bar.

This section of the Printer Setup window is used to specify what information is automatically printed on the members and how it is printed.

Note: The Member Designation Label defined here is the default one. It may be overridden if different settings are present in Simple's configuration files.

The following options are available:

• Leading End: prints closer to the leading end of the member.
• Trailing End: prints closer to the trailing end of the member.

• Font Size: specifies the size of the text printed.

  • Small: allows two line(s) of information to be printed.
  • Large: allows only one line of information to be printed (Line 1).

• Line 1 & Line 2: each line can contain a combination of four pieces of information to choose from the following:

  • Job: designation of the job the member belongs to
  • Truss: designation of the assembly the member is part of
  • Member: designation of the member within the assembly
  • Type: abbreviated type of member (top/bottom chord, top/bottom plate, web...)
  • Length: overall length of the member including any automatic length adjustment
  • Nominal Length: overall length of the member as it appears in the job file
  • Quantity: member number out of the total quantity of the same member (e.g. "1 of 2")
  • Total Quantity: total number of the same member to be cut

  • Truss Order: order number of the assembly according to the position of its first occurrence in the job file

    Note: sorting the members in the Member List tab based on a particular column will not change the truss order.

  • Filename: name of the job file without the extension

  Notes:To leave a field empty, click it and press the Delete key, or right-click it and select Delete from the context menu.You can also type in a custom entry in any box that will appear unchanged on all members.You can enable or disable the Member Designation Label, and choose its printing location in the Marking Settings window.

Click to apply the changes and close the window.

To add/edit a user, do the following:

1. Click on the toolbar.

2. Log in as a supervisor or engineer.

   Note: if you do not currently have a supervisor or engineer account, contact Vekta Automation.

3. Select User Management... from the Tools drop-down menu in the Simple menu bar.

4. The User Management window pops up:

   Click , or select the user you wish to edit and click .

5. The following window pops up:

   Type in the name of the new user (or change the name of the existing user if wanted).

6. Assign the appropriate access level to the user. (For more details, see User Access Levels.)

7. You can also type in a password for the user account, or leave the fields blank if you do not want to attach any password to that user. You can check Show Password to make sure it is correct.

   Note: Passwords can be disabled for certain user access levels. For more details, see Password Level.

8. You can check Set as Default user to automatically log in as that user when Simple starts.

9. Click .

To change the access level of a user, do the following:

1. In the User Management window, select the user you wish to change the access level of.
2. Click .
3. Select the new access level from the drop-down list.
4. Click .