Parts
Layout Settings
Layout settings control how a part appears in the 2D cutting layout.
GCrafter’s part packer is smart, but it does not know everything you know about the project. It will try to arrange parts efficiently and use the least amount of sheet area possible. Sometimes that means rotating parts, flipping parts, or placing them in ways that are technically efficient but not ideal for your material, grain direction, pockets, drill holes, or assembly plan.
Layout settings let you override some of those choices.
Flip X
Flip X mirrors the part horizontally in the 2D layout.
This is useful when two parts are physically mirrored, such as a left side and a right side.
From a simple 2D outline perspective, those parts may look identical and interchangeable. But once you add pockets, cutouts, labels, drill holes, or PartLab edits, the orientation may matter.
Use Flip X when the part needs to be mirrored left-to-right in the layout.
Flip Y
Flip Y mirrors the part vertically in the 2D layout.
Like Flip X, this is useful when the outline is technically the same, but the details on the part need to face the other way.
Use Flip Y when pockets, cutouts, labels, screw holes, or other features need to be vertically mirrored.
Allow Rotation
Allow Rotation lets the part packer rotate the part when arranging it on the sheet.
This usually improves material usage because the packer can fit parts more efficiently.
However, rotation is not always what you want.
For example, if you are cutting plywood, hardwood, veneer, bamboo, or any material with a visible grain, you may want the part’s vertical direction to match the material grain direction.
In that case, allowing rotation may cause the part to fit better on the sheet but look wrong in the final build.
Disable Allow Rotation when orientation matters more than material efficiency.
Force Rotation
When Allow Rotation is turned off, Force Rotation becomes available.
Force Rotation rotates the part 90 degrees in the layout.
The part packer will respect this setting and treat the rotated part accordingly, swapping the width and height for packing calculations.
Use Force Rotation when you know a part should always be laid out rotated, but you do not want the packer deciding rotation on its own.
Screw Holes
Screw Holes adds circles that can be used as drill holes when a part has fingers on an edge.
This can make assembly faster and more repeatable, especially if you want to use screws instead of glue.
A useful CAM workflow is to split these into two operations:
- A drill toolpath with a small drill bit.
- A second drill or chamfer operation with a V-bit for countersinking.
This can create clean countersunk holes that reduce screw visibility.
And when screws are precisely positioned and evenly spaced, they can actually look very good as part of the design.
When to Adjust Layout Settings
Use layout settings when:
- Grain direction matters
- A mirrored part has pockets or holes
- A part needs to be forced into a specific orientation
- The packer rotates something you wanted fixed
- You want screw holes for assembly
- You need more control over the exported layout
The Main Idea
The packer optimizes for sheet usage.
You optimize for the actual object.
Layout settings give you the control to make the 2D output match how the part should be cut, assembled, and seen.