Material

Material settings describe both the stock you are building from and how that stock should appear in the design.

The three main material dimensions are:

• Thickness
• Width
• Length

Of these, thickness is the most important for the 3D model.

Thickness

Material thickness affects how the project is computed.

Changing from 6mm plywood to 12mm or 18mm plywood changes how parts meet, how joints are formed, and how the assembled object fits together. A thicker material can affect intersections, finger joints, inside dimensions, outside dimensions, and clearances.

Finger counts may stay the same when you change thickness, but that does not always mean the joint layout is still ideal. If you make the material thicker, you may need to revisit the finger settings and adjust them slightly.

Most of the time, things will still work as expected. Just remember: when the material gets thicker, the model has more to account for.

If something looks odd after changing material thickness, check:

• Finger settings
• Corners
• Intersections
• Part fit
• Inside vs. outside dimensions

Width and Length

Material width and length affect the 2D layout, not the shape of the 3D model.

These settings tell GCrafter how much flat space is available when arranging parts for cutting.

You can think of width and length as either:

• The size of your machine bed
• The size of your actual sheet material

Use whichever matches how you want to prepare your cut files.

Machine Bed vs. Material Size

If your machine bed is the limiting factor, enter the bed size.

For example, if your CNC can cut:

48in × 48in

You may choose to set the material size to match that, even if your full sheet is larger.

If your material sheet is the thing you care about, enter the full sheet size.

For example, if you are working from a standard 4×8 sheet:

48in × 96in

Set the material width and length to 48 × 96.

Indexing Larger Sheets

If you want to index a larger sheet on a smaller machine, use the full material size.

For example, if you have a 4×8 sheet but a 4×4 CNC, you can set the material to:

48in × 96in

That lets the layout represent the full sheet, even though you may cut it in indexed sections on your machine.

Laying Everything Out Together

Sometimes you may have many parts across many sheets, but you just want to see them all laid out in one large workspace.

In that case, you can enter a very large material size.

For example:

9999mm × 9999mm

or whatever “ludicrously large” means for your project.

This gives the layout more room, so parts can be arranged together instead of being split across multiple sheets.

Appearance Settings

Material settings can also affect how the project looks in the 3D view.

You can apply:

• Material type
• Tint color
• Finish

Finish options may include:

• Gloss
• Satin
• Matte

These visual settings do not change the computed structure of the model the same way thickness does. They are there to help you get a better feel for the final result while designing.

For example, you might use a darker tint for walnut, a lighter tint for birch, or a satin finish to make the model feel closer to the material you plan to use.

The Main Thing to Remember

For the 3D model:

Thickness matters most.

For the 2D cutting layout:

Width and length define the available sheet space.

For visual preview:

Material, tint, and finish help the design look more like the final build.