Arcline

Arcline is the first Machinist preset: a working interface for CNC plasma and sheet metal fabrication, installed on a screen at the machine and included in every plan. Open Machinist in the main navigation and it opens straight onto the machine, no menu in between.

The five views

One toolbar runs across the top of every screen. On the left it says which machine module you are in and which of its five views you are on: Shop, Parts, Orders, Nest and cut, and Setup. On the right it carries the counts that matter wherever you are, open cut orders, parts waiting to be nested and sheet stock running low, each one a link to the view that clears it, and a New button that starts a part, a cut order or a nest from any view.

Shop

Where the module opens. The state of the shop down the left, open orders and what is due, the nest queue by material and thickness, sheet stock under its threshold and what the library and the machines hold. Down the right, everything that has happened, from a part being drawn to a nest being cut.

Parts and the CAD editor

The parts library holds the profiles you cut. Each part opens in a 2D CAD editor where you draw and adjust the geometry directly, so a one-off bracket or a repeat profile lives as an editable part rather than a file on a memory stick.

Stock and remnants

Sheet stock lives in Setup and tracks your sheets by material and thickness, including the remnants left after a cut, so offcuts are usable stock rather than scrap leaning on a wall. Set a low stock threshold on a line and the shop is told when a cut takes it under.

Cut orders

A cut order collects the parts and quantities to be cut. Orders queue on the screen at the machine, so the operator always sees what is next and what it needs.

Nest and cut

The nest and cut screen lays the ordered parts onto a chosen sheet, simulates the result and exports the cut file as G-code or DXF. Completing a cut consumes the sheet and books any usable remnant back into stock, and tells anybody who is not standing at the machine that it happened.

Setup

One screen with three sections: the machines, their working area, controller and torch height control codes; the sheet stock and the remnants banked off it; and the cut chart, which holds feed, pierce and kerf per material and thickness. They were three separate places to go and they answer one question, what this shop has. A part can only be drawn on a thickness that has a cut chart row, so anything the shipped materials do not cover is added there.

Plans and limits

Every plan includes one connected machine screen, Free included. Extra screens are £49 a month each on any paid plan, added and removed from the billing page and prorated. AI features such as nesting assist and parameter suggestions draw on your monthly usage; everything manual is free. Caps enforce softly and never disable a running machine screen mid-job.

Why remnants are the point

In profile cutting the offcut is not scrap, it is stock. A 3 metre by 1.5 metre sheet that has had four brackets taken out of one corner is still most of a sheet, and whether the next job goes onto it or onto a fresh one is the difference between a good month and an average one.

That decision only gets made if the remnant is a record rather than a piece of steel leaning on a wall that only one person knows about. Completing a cut consumes the sheet it used and books the usable remnant back in, so the stock list reflects what is actually on the floor and the nest screen can offer it next time.

The loop this closes

1. A part is drawn or imported into the parts library and lives there as an editable profile rather than a file.
2. A cut order collects parts and quantities. It can come from an order raised in the platform, so nothing is retyped at the machine.
3. The nest screen lays the ordered parts onto a chosen sheet and simulates the result before anything is cut.
4. The cut file goes to the machine as G-code or DXF.
5. Completing the cut consumes the sheet and books the remnant back into stock, ready for the next nest.

Custom builds

Arcline is one module of three. Custom machine interfaces are scoped and built per project, and machine builders can take a module or custom build under special licence or as a full handover. Both are POA; ask from the Machinist area or the contact page. A workspace with no machine module switched on sees how to turn one on, and the same enquiry path, when it opens Machinist.