Bought a Chinese fiber laser? The software side of the first month

What comes with the machine

Not sure what yours runs? Look at the screen when the machine starts. Hypertherm's ProNest page lists makers whose models run CypCut, HypCut or Raytools CNCs — Advanced Cutting Systems, BesCutter, Bodor, Boss, C&G Systems, Koike, Lone Star Cutting Solutions, Shop Sabre and STV among them — so even one brand can ship different controllers. Which FSCUT card runs CypCut and which runs CypCutE is on the FSCUT page; the rest of this post uses CypCut, because its manual is public.

Week one: the dongle, a second install and a backup

• The dongle is the licence. CypCut's manual says it controls a machine only with its “encryption dog” and control card. On BMC1204 and BMC1205 PCI cards the dog is a separate USB key; on BMC16xx cards and later it is built into the card. Without it, CypCut starts in demo mode.
• Demo mode is useful. It runs every function except machining, and the manual itself suggests installing CypCut on a laptop to prepare jobs. That is your first office seat, at no extra cost.
• Install notes from the manual: on Windows Vista, 7 or 8, run CypCut as administrator, and close antivirus software such as 360 Security Guard while installing.
• Back up the parameters. File → Backup param saves all parameter settings in one compressed file. Do it after the installer leaves, and again after every change that works; keep a copy off the machine's PC.
• Updates: Bochu publishes CypCut builds and changelogs per controller on its CypCut page. Back up before installing one.

Getting customer files in at the right size

CypCut imports AI, DXF, PLT, Gerber and its own LXD, plus standard G-code. On import it can remove duplicate lines, join unclosed segments, drop tiny shapes and tell inner from outer contours. What it cannot fix is the scale. A DXF stores numbers without units; the drawing's unit lives in a header value, $INSUNITS, where 0 means unitless, 1 inches and 4 millimetres. A file drawn in inches and read as millimetres arrives 25.4 times too small; the reverse, 25.4 times too big. Measure one known dimension on every new customer's first file, and see DXF units. CypCut's own unit switch only changes the units it shows you.

• Dimensions, title blocks and bend lines are drawn geometry: delete them or move them to a layer you will not cut. See clean a customer DXF.
• Open contours cannot be cut as a part; find the gap before the operator does. See open contours.
• Text is outlines only once it is converted; CypCut can turn text into curves. See DXF text for engraving and marking.
• Splines and polylines made of hundreds of tiny segments are where importers differ most; true arcs and circles are the safe choice. See splines, polylines and arcs.

Our free DXF checker shows the units, size and open contours of a file in the browser, without uploading it.

Layer mapping: set it up once

When a DXF has more than one layer, CypCut's layer mapping assigns each DXF layer to a CypCut layer, and each CypCut layer carries its own cutting technique. Bochu's tutorial adds the rules worth learning in week one:

1. Import the DXF and assign each DXF layer to a CypCut layer.
2. Send text, dimensions and frames to layer 0: graphics on layer 0 are not processed.
3. Put marking on layer 15, which is processed first; layer 16 is processed last.
4. Open the layer parameters and set the cutting technique for each layer you cut.

Neither the manual nor the tutorial says whether a mapping is remembered between imports. Make it easy anyway: ask your regular customers for the same layer names every time, and keep your own exported files on a fixed set of layers. Zorocut writes every sheet on the same five layers — ZC_CUT, ZC_MARK, ZC_ENGRAVE, ZC_SHEET and ZC_LABEL — for exactly this reason; the mapping is in Export DXF for CypCut and FSCUT. Lead lines, kerf (cut seam) compensation, micro-joints and bridges are set in CypCut too; see lead-in and lead-out, kerf width and micro-joints.

What the built-in nest will and will not do

CypCut's nest is good for its job and limited by design. The parts library holds at most 50 part types, CypCut nests at most 20 plates at a time, and the nest strategy “only supports array”. Within that, you set part gap, plate margin, allowed rotation, co-edge and remnants. Right-click a nested plate and the nesting report asks for pricing settings and estimates the cost from the layer parameters. For a run of identical brackets that is all you need. For a customer order with thirty different parts and holes big enough to hold small ones, it is not: that needs true-shape and part-in-part nesting. The step-by-step is in the CypCut nesting tutorial, and the options beyond it are in best nesting software for CypCut.

Quoting the first jobs

The controller tells you how long a sheet took after you cut it; a customer wants the price before. CypCut's File → Report exports machining, nesting and running-status reports — keep them, because your first month's real cut times are the best speed table you will ever have. Until then, price from cut length, pierces and material with starter values, and replace them with your own times as they come in. How other shops do it is in how job shops price laser and plasma cutting; the hourly rate is in machine hourly rate, and you can try numbers in the cost calculator.

Where Zorocut fits

• In the office, before the controller: it cleans the customer's DXF and reports every repair, nests true-shape with part-in-part, and prices each part and the order.
• It hands CypCut one DXF per sheet — R2000 or R12, in mm, only lines, arcs and circles on five fixed layers — that you open like any other file.
• It never drives the machine and never writes G-code. Lead lines, compensation and micro-joints stay in CypCut, with your operator.
• Status for CypCut and FSCUT is beta: the file follows the manuals, but we have not yet imported it on a real controller. Cut a scrap sheet first. See CypCut.

A first-month checklist

1. Write down the controller, card and CypCut version, and keep the dongle somewhere you can find it.
2. Back up the parameters with File → Backup param, and keep a copy off the machine.
3. Install a second copy in demo mode on an office PC for preparing jobs.
4. Import one file from each regular customer and check its size against a known dimension.
5. Agree layer names with those customers, and set up your layer mapping and techniques.
6. Save the reports of your first jobs and turn the real cut times into your own speed table.
7. Write a price list — hourly rate, per metre and per pierce, material markup, set-up and minimum — before the first quote request arrives.