Cutting vehicle patterns with HAUT software

From downloading the program to sending the job to the plotter.

Nothing matches

1.1What this program is

HAUT software lays out vehicle wrap and PPF patterns and cuts them on your plotter. It does three things and does not pretend to do more: it opens a pattern, it packs the parts onto the film you have loaded, and it sends the cut to the machine.

  • Patterns come from the HAUT catalogue. You pick a vehicle and the kit opens. You can also import a drawing of your own.
  • Nesting is automatic. The program packs the parts onto the roll width you tell it and reports how many inches of film the job takes.
  • Cutting goes straight to the plotter through the print queue the operating system already makes for it.
  • Quoting is built in. What the job costs the shop, and what it is sold for, on one screen and on one sheet of paper for the customer.

1.2Downloading and installing

There is one address, and it always gives the newest build:

Windows

  1. Open the Windows link. The browser saves a file whose name ends in -setup.exe.
  2. Run it. Windows may say the publisher is unknown — press More info, then Run anyway.
  3. The program installs and starts. There is nothing to choose during the install.

macOS

  1. Open the macOS link. The browser saves a .dmg file.
  2. Open it, and drag HAUT software onto the Applications folder.
  3. Start it from Applications. The first launch takes a few seconds longer while macOS checks the signature.

Updates

The program checks for a newer build every four hours and at every start. When one is there it says so and installs it on the next restart. You never have to go back to the download page.

1.3Applying for a shop account

An account is granted, not taken. You cannot sign up: you send an application, a person at HAUT reads it, and the shop and its licence come into existence when it is approved. Nothing is created for an application that is turned down, which is why there is no password to choose yet.

  1. Start the program. On the sign-in screen press Apply for a shop account.
  2. Fill the form in. Every field is required except the ones an honest business may genuinely not have — a VAT number, a resale certificate, a suite in the address, a separate delivery address.
  3. Give one link for each of the three: your website, one social profile, and a map listing. If you have none of a kind, tick the box that says so — that is a real answer, not a blank.
  4. Answer the declaration about whether you work for a company that makes PPF pattern software or catalogues. Answering yes does not refuse the application; it opens a field where the connection is named, and a person decides.
  5. Send it. The screen gives you a reference. Keep it: it is how you check what happened without having an account.

Checking on it

On the sign-in screen, Check an application takes the reference and tells you where it stands: in review, approved, or not approved with the reviewer's own words. If it was not approved you can edit and apply again once whatever was wrong is sorted.

1.4The invitation code and your first sign-in

When the application is approved, HAUT sends an invitation code to the email address on it. That is the moment you choose a password.

  1. On the sign-in screen press I have an invitation code.
  2. Type the code, the email address the invitation was sent to, and a password of at least eight characters.
  3. Read the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy and tick the box.
  4. Press Join the shop. You are signed in, the licence takes a seat on this computer, and the catalogue opens.

Seats

A licence carries two seats — two computers. The first two machines you sign in on take them. A third is refused by name rather than throwing somebody off, because the machine it would throw off might be cutting. To move a seat, sign out on the machine that no longer needs it, or ask HAUT.

If you forget the password

On the sign-in screen, Forgotten your password? sends a link to the address the licence was issued to. Open the link, choose a new password, then sign in here with the new one.

1.5Connecting the plotter

Do this now, before you ever open a pattern. It is set up once and never again, and it is the step that costs shops the most time when it is left until the film is already loaded.

The program talks to a plotter through the print queue the operating system makes for it, so the machine has to exist there before it can appear here.

Windows

  1. Plug the plotter in with the USB cable and switch it on.
  2. Open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners (or the old Control Panel → Devices and Printers).
  3. If the plotter is already there, open it, choose Printer properties → Ports, and note the port — USB001, USB002 or similar. Then skip to the naming step.
  4. If it is not there, press Add device, then The printer that I want isn't listed.
  5. Choose Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings.
  6. For the port pick the USB00… entry the plotter is on. If the machine is on the network instead, choose Standard TCP/IP Port, type its address, and leave the type as RAW on port 9100.
  7. For the driver choose manufacturer Generic and printer Generic / Text Only. That is deliberate — this program sends the cutting file to the machine untouched, and a real printer driver would rewrite it into something a plotter cannot read.
  8. Name it HAUT, then your own make and model. Do not share it. Finish.

macOS

  1. Plug the plotter in with the USB cable and switch it on.
  2. Open System Settings → Printers & Scanners. A USB plotter usually appears by itself — if it is already in that list, it is done.
  3. If it is not there, press Add Printer, Scanner or Fax… and wait a few seconds on the Default tab for the machine to appear.
  4. If the plotter is on the network instead of the cable, use the IP tab: type its address, choose protocol HP Jetdirect – Socket, and leave the port at 9100.
  5. Whatever it offers under Use: is fine — this program sends the cutting file untouched and the driver never sees it. If it offers nothing, choose Select Software… and pick Generic PostScript Printer.
  6. Give it the name HAUT … and press Add.

Why the name matters

The program reads the queue's name back. A queue called HAUT … is taken as the plotter and offered on its own, because that name was typed by somebody who could see the cable — which beats any guess the program could make from a make or a port. A queue named anything else still works; it is just in the longer list behind the button that shows every port.

1.6The test square — what proves it cuts

CutCutting Devices… lists the machines this computer is set up for. Once one is chosen, press Cut a test square.

The machine cuts a small square. Then the program asks one question: did the blade move?

  • Yes — the machine is marked as proved, with the date. That is what “connected” means here.
  • Nothing moved — the answer names the three things to check, in the order to check them: the panel is not in HP-GL, it is the wrong queue, or the blade is not down.

Which driver is used

A queue whose name the program recognises is put on that machine's own driver, if that driver is one that is proved to cut. Otherwise it goes on the standard HP-GL driver, which cuts — and the line under the machine says so, and says that the machine's own width limit is not used and the blank is what bounds the work.

2.1The Home tab

Home is the leftmost tab and it is always there. Everything that is about the shop rather than about a drawing lives on it, on faces you switch between:

Catalogue
The patterns your licence lets you see. This is where a job starts — see the next chapter.
Jobs
The quotes this shop has filed, searchable. A quote saved here is frozen: what the customer was told stands.
Settings
The shop's own figures — hourly rate, film prices, the material markup, masters, difficulty levels, tax, and the business name that goes on a printed proposal.
Billing
The subscription, and buying film and tools from HAUT where that applies to your shop.

2.2The shop's own figures, typed once

Home ▸ Settings holds what a quote reads live: change a rate there and every quote afterwards uses it, while a quote already filed keeps the figures it was costed at.

What an hour is worth
Two numbers: what you charge for an hour and what an hour costs you. The difference is the margin on labour.
Material markup
A multiplier over what the film cost you. ×2.5 sells a roll's worth of film at two and a half times what you paid. Nothing on a quote has a price until this is set — it is the one number the screen cannot work without, and it is typed once.
Film on the shelf
Each film you work with, and what you pay for it — not what you sell it for. The markup above does the selling.
Difficulty levels
A name and a multiplier. The level multiplies the work, not the total: the film costs the same whatever is being stuck to it.
Masters
Who does the work, and what their hour is worth if it differs from the shop's own. A master can be paid by the hour or by a percentage of the work — shops run both.
Tax
What the tax line is called on your proposals, and the rate. Leave the name empty and the market's own word is used.
Card fee
What the card costs you. Charged on the sum with the tax on it, and off unless a quote asks for it.
The letterhead
The business name that goes on a printed proposal. Without one, a proposal would carry no name at all.

2.3Licence, seats and devices

HelpAccount, Licence & Devices… shows what this computer is entitled to: the shop, the plan, when it runs to, which machines hold the two seats, and which of them is the one that cuts.

How the licence is checked

  • At every start, at every sign-in, and once an hour while the program is open. It also asks when you come back to the window after being away.
  • A licence that ends at lunchtime shuts at lunchtime, not the next morning. You do not have to restart anything.
  • Offline, the last answer is good for seven days. A machine in a workshop with no network keeps cutting; one that has been offline longer than that has to see the service again.

When cutting stops

If the licence has lapsed or been suspended, the catalogue closes and the shop's own saved drawings close with it — not just the list, the rows. The editor and the bundled library still work. That is the licence doing its job, and the fix is a payment or a word with HAUT, not a setting.

3.1Opening a pattern from the catalogue

FileOpen from Library…, or Ctrl+O, or the + on the tab bar.

  1. Narrow it down with the filters across the top: library, year, make, model.
  2. Or type into the search box — a model name, part of one, a part number.
  3. Press Open on the row you want. The kit arrives in a new tab.

What the columns mean

Library
Which catalogue the pattern belongs to. Which libraries you can see is part of the licence.
Part number
HAUT's own number for that kit.
Width
The widest the kit needs across the roll. A kit wider than your film cannot be cut in one piece.
Difficulty
How hard the fit is. It is the designer's rating, not a price.

3.2When the pattern is not there

If the vehicle is not in the catalogue, ask for it. The request goes to HAUT's own drawing office and comes back as a pattern in the library — you do not have to draw it yourself and you do not have to find it elsewhere.

The request form is on the catalogue screen. Name the vehicle as precisely as you can: make, model, the years, the body, and the trim where it changes the panels. A request that says «BMW» takes a reply asking which one; a request that says «BMW M3 CS 2024, coupé» takes a pattern.

4.1What the window is made of

Top to bottom:

Title bar
The file that is open. When a modal tool is running its name appears here too — HAUT software -[Edge Wrap] — …, which is how you can tell at a glance that a tool is still armed.
Tabs
One per open file, plus Home on the left and + on the right. Several patterns can be open at once.
Menu bar
Eight menus, in the order the work happens: get the file, change it, put it on material, arrange it, work the geometry, send it — then the view and the settings.
Toolbar
Buttons for the actions you press most. Fully rearrangeable — see Customize Toolbar & Palette….
Tool palette
Down the left edge: the modal tools. The one that is armed carries a blue ring.
Canvas
The drawing. The material blank, when there is one, is drawn under it with its size on a label.
Status line
Along the bottom: the size of what is selected, the interface size, the theme, the line colour, the units and the language.

4.2Moving around the drawing

Mouse wheelZoom, centred on the pointer. Nothing else is bound to the wheel.
Space + dragPan the canvas.
Middle button + dragPan the canvas.
F8Zoom to everything
F7Zoom to the selection
F9Zoom to the blank
F6 / Shift+F6One step out / one step in
+ / One step in / one step out

Grid, rulers and guides

  • Show Grid in the View menu draws the grid, and Grid Size beside it sets its step — 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 or 5 in.
  • Show Rulers puts a ruler along the top and left edges.
  • A guide is a line you place yourself: V drops a vertical one, H a horizontal one, both at the pointer. Parts snap to them.
  • To remove one guide, right-click it and take Delete Guide. Clear Guides removes them all.

4.3Theme, size, units and language

All four are in the View menu, and all four are also on the status line at the bottom of the window, where they are one press away.

Interface Size
Five steps from Small to Maximum. Everything scales together — menus, buttons, dialogs and the fields inside them. Ctrl+Alt+= and Ctrl+Alt+− step up and down.
Language
English, Русский, Español, Português. It changes at once and is remembered.
Units
Inches or millimetres. This changes every field and every readout in the program, including the ones inside tool strips.
Theme
Dark, Light, or Match System — which follows the computer's own setting and switches with it at dusk. Match System is what a fresh install uses.

The colour of the lines

The status line carries a Lines: black switch. On, every contour is drawn black whatever colour it came in as. That matters because the colours in a pattern file mean nothing — they are the designer's own, and the program never cuts by colour.

4.4Rearranging the toolbar and the palette

OptionsCustomize Toolbar & Palette… holds two lists: everything the program can put on a bar, and what is on it now. Add, remove, move up, move down, and a separator to group things.

Whatever you build is remembered on this computer. A shop that never uses the text tool can take it off; a shop that mirrors every job can put the mirror pair at the left end.

Keyboard shortcuts

OptionsKeyboard Shortcuts… lists every command that can carry a key and lets you bind your own. The built-in keys in the next chapters cannot be taken away, but anything without one can be given one.

4.5Importing, saving, and what leaves the program

Importing

FileImport a File… reads a drawing of your own: SVG, EPS, AI and PLT. It arrives in a new tab and behaves like any other pattern.

Saving

  • Ctrl+SSave, over the file you have open.
  • Shift+Ctrl+SSave As…, under a new name. A pattern that came out of the catalogue or out of an import has to be saved somewhere of its own the first time, so this is the save you need more often than the plain one.
  • A tab with unsaved work carries a dot beside its name, and closing it asks.

Autosave

OptionsAutosave… saves every open file that has unsaved changes, every few minutes. It is off until you turn it on.

What cannot leave

There is no export — no vector file, no image, no PDF — and there is no copy of vector data onto the system clipboard. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V move parts inside this program and put nothing where another program could read it.

What can leave is paper: CutPrint Layout… prints a numbered map of the parts on the blank, and the quote prints a proposal for the customer.

4.6Selecting and moving parts

ClickSelect one part. It is outlined in a thicker line so you can see which.
Shift + clickAdd a part to the selection, or take one back off.
Drag on bare filmA marquee — everything it touches is selected.
Ctrl+ASelect everything
EscSelect nothing
Drag a selected partMove it. Everything selected moves with it.
Arrow keysNudge. Shift makes the step bigger.
Ctrl+DDuplicate
DeleteDelete — but see the note below

Snapping

While you drag, a part snaps to the guides, to the edges of the blank, to the grid, and to the edges and centres of the other parts. The line it has caught is drawn dashed for as long as the drag lasts.

  • Hold Alt to turn snapping off for that drag.
  • Guides and the grid only catch while they are shown.

Delete over nested parts

A part's size cannot be changed

5.1Telling the program what film is loaded

A blank is the film you have on the machine, drawn on the canvas as a rectangle under the parts. Everything about nesting and about what gets cut is decided against it, so it is the first thing to set once a pattern is open.

LayoutMaterial Blanks….

  1. Pick the roll from Material — 60, 48, 36, 30, 24 or 12 in. The width across the roll fills itself in.
  2. Set the length if you want it different from the default.
  3. Press Apply. The sheet appears under the drawing with its size on a label.

5.2Several sheets, and two commands worth knowing

You can have more than one blank on the canvas — a 60 in roll and a 30 in roll, say. One of them is the active one, and every command acts on that one. To switch:

  • double-click the sheet, or
  • right-click it and take Use This Blank, or
  • LayoutNext Blank.
Widen Blank to Fit
Sets the blank as wide across the roll as the widest part needs — up to half an inch from the roll's own edge. A 60 in roll can genuinely be cut at 59.5 with a steady hand, and this is that edit made from where the problem is noticed.
Show Parts Too Wide
Selects and frames the parts that will not lie across the active blank, so you can see which ones they are before you find out at the machine.

6.1The tool palette

Down the left edge, top to bottom. Only one is armed at a time, and the armed one carries a blue ring.

Select
Pick, move and group parts. S arms it from anywhere. This is where you start and where you come back to.
Pan
Drag the canvas. You rarely need it — space and the middle button do the same thing without leaving the tool you are in.
Node Edit
Work the nodes of one part. Double-clicking a part arms it too.
Slice
Cut a part in two along a line you draw.
Measure
Draw a dimension between two points. It stays on the drawing until you remove it.
Text
Put a word on the drawing — a label on a part, a note for the fitter.
Shape
Square, circle, triangle, star, polygon. The button opens sideways into the five.
Zoom In / Zoom Out / Zoom to Selected Object
The view. The wheel does the first two faster.
Show Grid
The grid on and off.

6.2Edge Wrap — the PPF allowance

This is the tool the trade actually buys this program for. It grows the film past the edge of the panel so it can be tucked round it — and it does it on the stretches you pick, not on the whole part, because a bonnet is wrapped at its leading edge and cut flush at the shut lines.

TransformEdge Wrap…, or the button on the toolbar.

  1. Select the part.
  2. Click a line on it to pick that stretch. Shift-click adds another, or takes one back off. The readout in the status line says how much you have picked; with nothing picked, the allowance covers every contour of the part.
  3. Type the Wrap Amount — how far the film runs past the edge.
  4. Press Apply.

The fields

Wrap Amount
How far past the edge the film goes. This is the number the fitter's own habit decides.
End angle
Degrees. 0 stops the allowance square across the edge. A positive angle runs it out to nothing over its last stretch, so it does not leave a step where it ends.
Corner rounding
Rounds the corners the allowance makes — where it starts and stops on the contour, and the corners of the step it raises. None leaves them sharp, which is what the tool has always done. The choices are 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 in.
Inward
Takes the allowance into the part instead of outward. On a hole, inward opens the hole up.

The three buttons

Invert
Select everything on this contour except what you picked — and the long way round between two points.
Clear picks
Drop every picked stretch. Apply then covers every contour of the part again. This is the way out when you picked one stretch too many.
Reset to original
Take every allowance off and put the contours back the way the part was drawn.

6.3Outline / Inline — growing and shrinking a contour

TransformOutline / Inline…. It moves a contour outward or inward by an exact amount, keeping the shape: corners stay corners, they do not get rounded off.

Direction
Outline — grow adds the amount all round; Inline — shrink takes the same amount off.
Amount
How far. The default is 0.125 in.
Keep original
Leave the contour that was there beside the new one. Off by default, and that is deliberate — both of them would be cut.
Whole part
Drop the picked lines, so Apply covers every contour of the part again.

Like Edge Wrap, it can work on picked lines: click a line to pick it, Shift-click to add or remove. A sensor hole picked and grown opens up while the rest of the panel stays as drawn.

6.4The knife — cutting a part in two

Arm Slice in the palette, select the parts to cut, and drag a line across. Its strip has three fields, and they are independent of each other.

CutStraight or Arc
The shape of the cut. Straight: drag across the parts. Arc: drag the chord, then move to bend the cut and click. Both straighten onto horizontal or vertical near those angles; Shift holds the axis whatever the angle.
PathClose path or Open path
What the cut leaves. Close path breaks the part into whole closed pieces you can move away — this is the ordinary cut. Open path makes the same division in the same place but leaves the contours open along it.
ReachTo the edges or Only where drawn
How far the cut runs. To the edges: a short stroke divides the whole part at that place. Only where drawn: the cut is exactly the line you made and stops where your hand stopped.

What the knife refuses, and why

  • A stroke that does not cross the part is refused by name. A line drawn inside a window opening touches no film, so there is nothing to cut.
  • A cut is the stroke and nothing more. It never appears where you did not draw. A stroke over one island of a part leaves the other islands whole, holes and all.
  • Only where drawn may leave one piece, and that is an outcome rather than a refusal. A nick across a narrow bridge leaves the part in one piece and the cut is still in the drawing — the film will part along it under the blade.

6.5Node Edit — working the line itself

Double-click a part, or arm Node Edit in the palette. The part's nodes appear as small squares; a picked one is filled, an unpicked one is a ring. Drag a node to move it; drag its handles to bend the curve.

On the strip and on the right-click

Insert
Add a node — or double-click the line where you want it.
Delete
Remove the picked nodes. Delete does the same.
Corner
Make the picked nodes hard corners.
Smooth
Lay the picked nodes' handles along the curve, so the line runs through smoothly.
Break
Open the contour at the picked node.
Join
Join the two picked loose ends — or close the contour, if they are its own two ends.
Start Point
Begin the cut of this contour at the picked node.
Reverse
Cut this contour the other way round. It changes how the film releases, which is why it is here rather than filed under cosmetics.

On a dense part not every node is drawn

A delivered panel can carry four hundred nodes, and at the zoom where you can see the whole part the squares would touch each other and read as a solid band. So the program draws only the ones that have room, and the status line says how many of the total are shown. Nothing is hidden from the pointer — a node that is not drawn is still picked by clicking where it is, and appears the moment you do.

6.6Reduce Nodes

ArrangeReduce Nodes… takes out the nodes that can go without moving the cut line further than the tolerance you set. Nodes that carry real shape stay.

Tolerance
How far the cut line may move. A plotter step is 0.001 in (0.025 mm), so anything at or under that is invisible to the machine. The default is 0.002 in.

It is worth running after an offset or a boolean, which both return straight-segment lines with more points than the shape needs.

6.7Weed — the border that lets the waste come away

TransformWeed… draws a cut line around the selected parts so the waste film lifts away in one piece instead of being picked at.

Offset
How far outside the part the border runs. 0.10 in is the trade's usual.
Vertical cuts / Horizontal cuts
Extra cuts that divide the waste into strips, so a long job comes away in manageable pieces rather than one unwieldy sheet.

6.8Text, shapes and measurements

Text

TransformText… or the A button in the palette. Type the words, pick a font, set the Height (that is the cap height), and place it. Tracking spaces the letters out; a negative value tightens them.

TransformText to Graphics turns a piece of text into ordinary contours. Do that when you want to node-edit the letters, or before handing the drawing to somebody whose computer may not have the font.

Shapes

The shape button in the palette opens sideways into five: square, circle, triangle, star and polygon. Drag on the canvas to draw one. A shape you drew is the one thing in this program whose size you can set by hand — everything that came out of a pattern is protected.

Measure

Arm Measure and drag between two points. The dimension stays on the drawing; it is not cut and it is not part of the geometry. To remove one, right-click the part it was measured on and take Delete Measurement; ViewClear All Measurements removes them all.

6.9Contours: combining, breaking, closing, curves

Combine Paths
Makes several contours one part with holes. This is how a panel with a sensor cutout is put together: the inner ring becomes a hole rather than a second part.
Break Apart
The reverse — every contour becomes a part of its own. Use it when a hole needs to be moved or deleted on its own.
Close Open Contours
An open contour is a cut that does not come back to its start. This closes them.
Convert to Curves
Turns straight-segment lines back into curves. It reduces the node count a lot, but it can move the line further than an offset does — up to a sixth of an inch on a contour that came out of an offset. Look at the result before you cut it.
Group / Ungroup
Ctrl+G and Shift+Ctrl+G. A group moves, turns and cuts as one.
Lock Object / Unlock Object
A locked part cannot be picked or moved by accident.

6.10Mirroring, rotating and aligning

All in Transform and Arrange, and the four most used are on the toolbar.

Horizontal Mirror / Vertical Mirror
Flips the selection. A left-hand panel becomes the right-hand one.
Rotate 90° / Rotate −90°
A quarter turn. For anything else, drag the rotate handle at the corner of the selection.
Align
Left, centre, right, top, middle, bottom — and equal spacing, horizontally or vertically.
Cut in Half Horizontally / Cut in Half Vertically
Divides the selection along a line through its own middle. A long part that will not fit across your roll is split in two presses rather than by drawing a line.

7.1Auto Nest

This is what saves the film. Select the parts, open LayoutAuto Nest…, and the program packs them onto the active blank as tightly as it can in the seconds you give it.

The window

Clearance
The gap left between parts. Typed once and remembered — a shop nests with its own gap every time.
Seconds
How long the solver may think. Longer is tighter, with diminishing returns.
Where to put it
Beside what is already there leaves what is on the sheet exactly where it is and lays the new layout past it. Repack takes what is lying there together with what you picked and lays it all out again. Beside is the default because it is the one that cannot spoil work somebody arranged by hand.
Leave the original on the canvas
A copy goes onto the film and the original stays where it was, marked in a colour — so the fitter can see what has already gone into the blank and what has not.
Use the holes in other parts
Lays small parts inside the empty middles of bigger ones — a roof with a sunroof cutout, a door with a window. Off by default, because a sheet where one part sits inside another reads as an overlap to somebody who did not ask for it. It costs about twice the wait, because the sheet is solved twice.

What it tells you afterwards

The note names the inches of roll used and the density, and — when parts went into holes — how many did. A layout that suddenly came out a third shorter with a part apparently missing is work somebody would otherwise go and check by hand.

The two ways of putting one part on

Add to Blank
Finds the selected parts a place without moving what is already there. This is the one-at-a-time half: the fitter changed their mind and one more piece has to go in.
Group Nest
Makes everything on the active blank one object, so the layout drags, turns and cuts as one.

Taking parts back off

Clear Selected
Takes the selected parts off the film and puts them back where they came from. A copy is removed and the mark comes off its original; a part that travelled is turned back and set on its old centre. Delete over nested parts does this too, and re-packs what is left.
Clear All
Takes everything on the active blank off it.

7.2Checking the layout before you cut it

CutCheck Overlaps
Do any of the parts lie on top of each other? Two parts sharing film is two parts ruined, and this is the question to ask before the blade moves.
CutObject Total Area
The true enclosed area of the selection, or of the whole drawing if nothing is selected.
LayoutShow Parts Too Wide
Which parts will not lie across the active blank.

8.1Sending the job

CutPlot…. The window asks one thing first, in its own box at the top: what are we cutting? — the parts on the blank, or the parts you selected. Nothing else is live until that is answered.

Machine
Which plotter. If it says no plotter is set up, go to Cutting Devices… first.
Copies
How many times to cut the same job.
Cut order
The order the blade takes. Nearest — shortest hop between cuts takes the closest cut each time — short for the head, and what every job has been cut with so far. Serpentine works in bands along the roll, one band across the film and the next one back, which winds noticeably less film. Nearest is the default and no shop's order changes unless they ask.
Start at the film's leading edge
Shifts the job so the first cut is at zero, instead of the machine winding out to wherever the parts happen to sit on the canvas. Off by default: a part put further along the roll on purpose — to dodge a flaw in the film — must not be moved without being asked.
Cross cut at the end
Finish with the film presented under the cross-cut knife.

The two numbers to read before you press

  • Along the roll — how much film the job itself takes.
  • To the first cut — how much the machine will wind out before the blade touches anything. Over a foot, the program warns: on an offcut that is film that comes off the pinch rollers and cannot be got back.

The map

The window draws the parts in the order the blade will take them, with the travel between cuts dashed and the part number on it, and plays it back. That order comes from the same place the cut does, so the picture cannot disagree with the machine.

What the machine keeps for itself

Force, speed and blade offset are never sent. They are set on the plotter's own panel, where a fitter can see the film and feel the cut. At the end of the job the carriage returns to the origin.

8.2Printing the layout on paper

CutPrint Layout…, or Ctrl+P. It prints a numbered map of the parts on the blank, on A4, so a weeded piece can be told from its neighbour on the bench.

This and the customer's proposal from the quote are the only two things this program puts on paper. There is no print-and-cut and no RIP, and there never will be.

9.1Packages — grouping the parts the way you sell them

FilePackages…. A customer does not buy twenty-five contours, they buy a front end and a door kit. A package is that: a named group of parts that the quote prices and the proposal prints as one line.

  • Select the parts, open the window, and put them in a package.
  • Name the package the way the customer will read it.
  • A part can be named on its own too — what the customer reads on the proposal, rather than the drawing's own name.
  • Anything not in a package is priced on its own.

9.2The quote

FileQuote…. One screen: what the job costs the shop, and what it is sold for.

Two modes

With labour
Film and hours. This is a job you are fitting.
Just pre-cuts
Film only. The hours stay on the drawing and are not charged — so the difficulty level and the master are hidden, because with no hours they have nothing to multiply and nobody to pay. Switch back and what was typed is still there.

How the film is counted

Only what is selected

The quote is about the parts you selected and nothing else. A line beside the tick says how many parts of the drawing the quote does not count, so a part cannot fall out of the order quietly. Open the screen with nothing selected and it counts the whole drawing.

Discount, tax and the card

The order is fixed, and it is not the common one — getting it wrong is not a rounding error:

net    = sum − discount
tax    = net × rate
fee    = (net + tax) × rate
total  = net + tax + fee
  • The discount can be a percentage or a fixed sum, and it applies to the whole quote, before the tax.
  • Tax is not always applied — a private customer is invoiced without it, and the same shop bills a company with it. That is a fact about this quote, so it is stored on the drawing.
  • The card fee is taken on the sum with the tax on it, and is set by hand — not always.
  • A line that was not asked for is absent, not zero. “Discount 0” on a customer's proposal is a line somebody asks about.

A sentence to the customer

There is a box for one comment on the whole quote. It reaches the printed proposal — under the total, above the shop's standing terms — the filed copy, and the searchable archive.

Filing it

Saving to Job/Cost Notes freezes the quote: what the customer was told stands, whatever the rates do afterwards. A shop reopening the drawing months later may well see a different figure on screen from the one on the paper, and that is correct.

10.1If something is wrong

It says there is no licence on this computer, but the licence is paid and valid
Check the computer's date and time, and turn on setting them automatically. A licence is signed with the moment it was issued, and a clock that is behind makes that signature unusable here. This has happened to a real shop whose wall-clock time looked perfectly right — the time zone was an hour out. Nothing else fixes it and nothing is wrong with the licence.
The plotter is not in the list
The machine has to exist as a print queue in Windows or macOS first — see Connecting the plotter. Leave the Cutting Devices window open while you add it: it finds a new queue by itself within a couple of seconds. On macOS, if the machine never appears in the system's own list at all, it is a serial-adapter cutter, which cannot be driven this way.
I pressed cut and nothing happened at the machine
Three things, in the order to check them: the plotter's panel is not in HP-GL (or AUTO), it is the wrong queue, or the blade is not down. Nothing the program can read tells these apart, because a USB print queue never answers back — which is why the test square asks you whether the blade moved.
The catalogue is empty, or my saved drawings will not open
The licence has lapsed or been suspended. The editor still works; the catalogue and the shop's own files do not. Check HelpAccount, Licence & Devices….
Nothing on the quote has a price
The material markup is not set. It is the one number the quote cannot work without, and it is typed once: Home ▸ Settings ▸ Material markup. The quote screen says so in a box above the mode switch and counts how many lines are waiting on it.
The knife cut more of the part than I drew across
Reach on the knife's strip is To the edges, which divides the whole part at the place you drew. Set it to Only where drawn and the cut stops where your hand stopped. The strip remembers what you last set.
The knife did nothing and said the line does not cross the part
The stroke has to touch film. A line drawn inside a window opening or inside a hole touches nothing. Draw across the material itself.
Auto Nest refuses to run
It acts on the selection, so something has to be selected — and there has to be a blank to pack onto. The window names which of the two is missing rather than leaving the button dead.
Part of the window is blank when I maximise it
Fixed in version 1.0.1. HelpCheck For Updates. It showed up on screens running at 125 , 150 or on a Retina display.
I sent an application and heard nothing
Use Check an application on the sign-in screen with the reference you were given. If the program is an old build the application may not have been accepted at all — update first, then send it again.
I was signed out on the other computer
Somebody changed the password. That signs HAUT software out everywhere else, by design.
A part is too wide for my film
LayoutShow Parts Too Wide selects and frames them. Either Widen Blank to Fit — a 60 in roll can be cut at 59.5 — or divide the part with Cut in Half Horizontally or the knife.

10.2Getting help

HelpSupport… has a box for the message. Write what happened and send it — the four facts that begin every support call go with it automatically: which shop, which account, which build, which machine. You do not have to find them.

The address is under the box as a fallback, for the case where the service itself is what is not working.

Diagnostics

HelpDiagnostics… is the report to attach when something is wrong and nobody can see why. It carries the build, the licence state, the plotter the computer is set up for, and the log of what the program has been doing. Send it with the first message rather than the third — it usually contains the answer.

10.3Every menu row

Generated from the program itself, so it cannot go stale.

File
Open from Library…Ctrl+O
Import a File…Read an SVG, EPS or plotter file (.svg, .eps, .ai, .plt) into a new tab.
SaveCtrl+S
Save As…Shift+Ctrl+S
Packages…Group the parts the way you sell them, and name them your own way.
Quote…What this job costs the shop, and what it is sold for.
Close
Close AllCloses every open file, asking about each one that has unsaved work.
Edit
UndoCtrl+Z
RedoCtrl+Y Shift+Ctrl+Z
Clear Undo History
Clear Original Shadow
CutCtrl+XHolds the selected parts inside this application for Paste. Nothing is put on the system clipboard.
CopyCtrl+C
PasteCtrl+V
DuplicateCtrl+D
DeleteDelete Backspace
Select AllCtrl+A
Layout
Material Blanks…
Next Blank
Use Blank Under PointerMakes the sheet the pointer is over the one every command acts on — the same as double-clicking it.
Place Pattern on Blank
Widen Blank to FitSets the active blank as wide across the roll as the widest part needs, up to half an inch from the roll's edge.
Show Parts Too WideSelects the parts that will not lie across the active blank, and frames them.
Auto Nest…Lays the selected parts out on the active blank.
Group NestMakes everything on the active blank one object, so the layout moves as one.
Add to BlankFinds these parts a place without moving what is already on the material. Clearance and rotation come from the Auto Nest window.
Clear SelectedTakes the selected parts off the material and puts them back where they came from.
Clear AllTakes everything on the active blank off the material and puts it back.
Insert Vertical GuideV
Insert Horizontal GuideH
Show Guides
Clear Guides
Arrange
GroupCtrl+G
UngroupShift+Ctrl+G
Align
Align Left
Center Horizontally
Align Right
Align Top
Center Vertically
Align Bottom
Equal Horizontal Spacing
Equal Vertical Spacing
Combine Paths
Break Apart
Close Open Contours
Convert to Curves
Reduce Nodes…Removes only the nodes that can go without moving the cut line further than the tolerance. Nodes carrying real shape stay.
Lock Object
Unlock Object
Transform
Outline / Inline…
Edge Wrap…
Weed…
Horizontal Mirror
Vertical Mirror
Rotate 90°
Rotate −90°
Cut in Half HorizontallyDivide the selection along a horizontal line through its middle — a top half and a bottom half
Cut in Half VerticallyDivide the selection along a vertical line through its middle — a left half and a right half
Text…
Text to Graphics
Cut
Cut Line Color…
Check Overlaps
Object Total AreaTrue enclosed area of the selection, or of the whole drawing.
Cutting Devices…The plotters this computer is set up for. A print queue is chosen here, and a test square is what proves it cuts.
Plot…
Print Layout…Ctrl+PA numbered map of the parts on the blank, on A4 — so a weeded piece can be told from its neighbour.
View
Zoom InShift+F6
Zoom OutF6
Zoom to AllF8
Zoom to SelectionF7
Zoom to BlankF9
Show Grid
Grid Size
0.25 in
0.5 in
1 in
2 in
5 in
Show Rulers
Show Original
Clear All Measurements
Interface Size
Small
Medium
Large
Extra Large
Maximum
LargerCtrl+Alt+=
SmallerCtrl+Alt+-
Language
English
Русский
Español
Português
Units
Inches
Millimetres
Theme
Dark
Light
Match System
Home / Dashboard
Options
Customize Toolbar & Palette…
Keyboard Shortcuts…
Autosave…Save open files with unsaved changes every few minutes. Off by default.
Help
Account, Licence & Devices…
Check For Updates
Support…
Diagnostics…
About HAUT software…

10.4Keyboard and mouse

Anything without a key of its own can be given one in OptionsKeyboard Shortcuts….

Files

Ctrl+OOpen from the library
Ctrl+SSave
Shift+Ctrl+SSave As
Ctrl+PPrint the layout

Editing

Ctrl+ZUndo
Ctrl+Y / Shift+Ctrl+ZRedo
Ctrl+XCut (inside the program)
Ctrl+CCopy
Ctrl+VPaste
Ctrl+DDuplicate
Delete / BackspaceDelete — or take off the blank
Ctrl+ASelect all
EscSelect nothing
Ctrl+GGroup
Shift+Ctrl+GUngroup
ArrowsNudge — Shift for a bigger step

View

F8Zoom to everything
F7Zoom to the selection
F9Zoom to the blank
F6One step out
Shift+F6One step in
+ / In / out
Ctrl+Alt+= / Ctrl+Alt+−Interface size up / down

Tools and guides

SSelect tool
VVertical guide
HHorizontal guide

Mouse

WheelZoom, centred on the pointer
Space + dragPan
Middle button + dragPan
Double-click a partNode Edit
Double-click a blankMake it the active one
Right-clickWhat can be done here
Alt while draggingSnapping off
Shift while drawing a cutHold the axis

The green in this manual is #009846 — the colour every HAUT pattern's cut line arrives in.

Screenshots are taken from the running program in the language you are reading.