Release notes
Updates on our latest improvements to ToolBox
Admins now have the ability to allow users to set the following attributes in the Processes section of ToolBox settings:
· Linear acceleration (mm/s2)
· Radial acceleration (mm/s2)
· Rapid acceleration (mm/s2)
· Rapid traverse rate (mm/min)
Admins can toggle the visibility of the settings on and off in the Organisation settings:
This will enable users to edit the settings in the Processes section of ToolBox settings:
Important notice regarding acceleration rates:
Existing organisations with existing Processes were setup with the following acceleration rates:
· Linear acceleration: 5,000 mm/s2
· Radial acceleration 5,000 mm/s2
· Rapid acceleration 5,000 mm/s2
· Rapid traverse rate 50,000 mm/min
To reflect the increased power of more modern laser machines, any new processes will be setup with the following rates:
· Linear acceleration: 25,000 mm/s2
· Radial acceleration 10,000 mm/s2
· Rapid acceleration 15,000 mm/s2
· Rapid traverse rate 175,000 mm/min
Admins have the choice of adopting the new rates or editing them to maintain consistency.
· Clearer error messaging when no etching rate is set.
· Resolved issues with display of customer supplied material information in part price details.
· Restricted the ability to edit part library parts when bulk editing.
· Restricted the ability to move into Review Quote stage before calculations are completed.
· Enabled org users to edit quotes generated through the Web Store.
In this release we resolved the following bugs:
• Issue with every second time the Calculate button is pressed
• Issues when parts are adjusted to $0.
• Issue with % adjustment field. When an adjustment is entered, the quote will now automatically calculate.
• Issue with the input field for secondary processes with a quantity input.
• Issue when trying to export a quote in Firefox
• Provided visual warnings on mandatory fields to users placing order in Web Store
Parts that have been added to a quote from the part library are now easily identifiable. When a part is expanded, a message is displayed to show that it is from the part library:
When a part is collapsed, the part library’s Part ID will be visible:
It is now easier to locate and switch between different materials and rate tables. Available Materials and Rate Tables are now displayed on a secondary side panel, rather than having to search for them in the search field:
· Improvements to back-end calculations.
· Improvements to the responsiveness of the user interface.
· Vendor quote notes and part notes are now displayed on the Quote and Order confirmation documents.
· Part and Quote notes are now displayed on the Delivery docket, Work order and Work order Summary documents.
· Added primary actions to the top of the Actions dropdown.
· Ability to generate a quote document on an uncalculated quote resulting in $0 totals.
· Issue with % Adjustment field.
· Issue with viewing draft quotes in old quoting experience.
· Issue when trying to duplicate a quote.
· Issues with updating values when changing folding source to Drawing.
· Inability to change sort order of secondary processes on the Processes page.
· Issue causing duplicate quote numbers.
· Issue with bulk deletion of thicknesses in the rate table.
· Issue with the display of accented characters in ToolBox part names.
· Issue with the default material consumption mode being ignored.
· Issue with price adjustments modal displaying incorrect values.
· Issue with assigning material to multi part drawings.
· Issue with bulk changes to secondary processes not saving.
· Issue with Web Store logo upload and drag & drop functionality.
As quotes get filled with 10s or 100s of parts, performance issues with automatic calculations are slowing down the quoting experience.
While we work hard to improve the speed of updating quote items and calculating prices, automatic calculations have been turned off and replaced with a Calculate button.
After any change has been made to the quote that will affect the price, prices are cleared and the Review Quote button becomes a Calculate button. Pressing the Calculate button will calculate prices as normal.
This lets you load in your parts and set all the material and process information with speed, and then calculate at the end to get a price.
Now you can add quote-level notes, instead of just part notes. In the top-right of the quote page, there is a Quote Notes button that lets you add vendor notes that appear on the Work Order, Work Order Summary and Delivery Docket documents, as well as private notes that only appear on the Work Order and Word Order Summary.
A future enhancement will be to show vendor notes on the Quote and Order Confirmation as well.
- Parts loaded into a quote from a customer's part library are locked from having their physical properties edited, to ensure the customer receives what they received last time. Price-only properties can still be changed, and if you need to adjust the physical properties, you can download the DXF and upload it again as a new part.
- Navigate between parts without having to close the Drawing Doctor with new arrow navigation and a drop-down selector.
- In the Drawing Doctor's Cut Path view, hovering your mouse over a path will highlight that path before you click on it, indicating what path will be selected if you click.
- If you have a combination of flat and rotary cutting technologies, they are now grouped separated on the Processes page.
- Duplicating a quote no longer counts as a modification of that quote, for the purposes of 'last modified' name and date.
- If two tabs are open and a new quote is created from each tab, the next quote number now increments without creating a duplicate quote number.
The new quoting experience has arrived!
The new Toolbox quoting experience has arrived! Based on our customer's continued feedback and with the help of our designers and developers, the new quoting experience will help you to deliver faster, more accurate quotes in an improved and more user-friendly interface.
Some of the new features include:
- Collapsible and expandable part details with live calculation
- Custom and pre-set sorting options
- Time and price views
- Parts notes that can be displayed or hidden from customer documentation
- Improved drawing doctor layout
- Sheets, time and parts quote summaries
- An active header with additional fields, that will change depending on the quote’s status
Please watch our demonstration video for a complete overview of the new functionality:
Overview of the ToolBox Laser Cutting Quoting Software
Our development team has been focussing on the development of the new quote experience, which will be launched in August 2023. The new experience will enable ToolBox users to deliver accurate, detailed quotes in even less time!
Some of the new features will include, collapsible and expandable part details with live calculation, time and price views, and an issues summary. An active header will change depending on the quote’s status and consolidated quote summaries will enable the user to understand the quote’s dimensions in a simplified view. To give you even more control over the quote, various sorting options will be available for you to set out the quote in the order you would like your customers to view it.
To facilitate the transition of a quote through various statuses in the upcoming new quote page, two new quote statuses have been introduced, Voided and Issued. The new status flow of a quote is shown below, with changes marked in yellow:
We now persist prefixes and numbers, so that all relevant quote, order and invoice numbers can be seen against a quote in the quote list.
Additional selection options have been added to assist with the selection of multiple paths in the Drawing Doctor. The selection options now include:
- To select path(s) and discard all other selections, click or drag on one or more paths that are not yet selected.
- To add additional paths to currently selected paths, hold shift and click or drag on an unselected path(s)
- To deselect multiple paths, hold shift and click or drag on selected path(s)
- To deselect all paths, click outside of any path.
For Chrome and Edge users, each Production label is now printed on a separate page, so that you can lay out how they are printed on the labels that you are using. To manipulate the layout of the labels, follow these steps:
1. Generate the Production labels report from a quote that has been ordered,
2. Select Print and Print to PDF (or Save as PDF),
3. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat or whichever PDF viewer you are using,
4. Select Print,
5. Select Multiple to print multiple labels on a page and select the layout of your labels (1x5 is show as an example below):
The following minor enhancements have been made:
- Improvement to the layout of parts on the work order, so that when there is a long list of parts with the same material and thickness, the first page of the work order does not appear blank.
- Enhancement to the default calculation of the formula that produces the rate cutting speeds for Mild Steel for new users.
- Various performance improvements to the fetching of quote and organisation data
The following bugs were resolved:
- Rate tables unable to be unassigned from a material.
- Certain labels were not being translated for customers with different language settings.
- Correction to the measurement of a Tube’s dimensions.
- Correction to the measurement of a Rotary material’s dimensions.
- Improvement to the interpretation of drawings with elliptical arcs.
- Issue with the validation of certain UK addresses in the Web Store.
- Issue causing inconsistencies quoted and displayed thickness for Web Store orders.
The new production documents are already making an impact to ToolBox-enabled laser job shops. We’ve received fantastic feedback and many customers are starting to use these documents in their production process. We’ve continued to enhance these documents to take them to the next level!
The documents now have an additional protection layer so that they cannot be accessed by external parties that should not have access to them.
There is no longer a limit to the number of secondary processes a user can detail on a production label.
Our users have told us that it is more useful to see who last modified a quote, rather than who quoted it originally. All documents in ToolBox now show who last modified a quote.
A tax invoice can now only be downloaded if the quote has been invoiced.
Part icons now have a grey fill on screen and in all documents to help distinguish various elements in the part.
Part thumbnails with a grey fill
To make identification of documents easier and more accessible, the quote list now provides the work order number and invoice number (where available) of each quote on the quote list.
The quotes list page showing the new Word order # and Invoice # columns
In the organisation settings, a user can now define the next work order number, similar to next quote number and next invoice number.
Settings for specifying the next work order number, the same as for quotes and invoices
- Removed Order confirmation number from the Organisation settings and the Order Confirmation document. It now shows the Quote number and Work Order number.
- Improvements to the handling of the Work order in web view and print.
- For customers using our Xero integration, we now trigger the creation of an invoice in Xero when the quote status changes to Invoiced instead of when it is marked as Ordered.
- Enhancements to handling of Tube files.
- Implemented graceful handling of CAD files with no resulting paths.
- Restored drag and drop functionality for parts in Web Store.
- Restored drag and drop functionality for secondary processes in organisation settings.
We've got some exciting news for you! Toolbox just got even better with a brand new feature that'll take your productivity to the next level. Introducing our latest game changer - the ability to produce a Work Order, Work Order Summary, Delivery Docket and Production Labels, all in one easy-to-use platform. This feature will help you save time, reduce errors, and boost your profitability. Check out the new feature and move your production to the next level!
Printable work order and summary enhances your production process by giving your team the information they need to produce an order.
A work order summary document
A work order document
No more missed steps or short counts. With a comprehensive checklist and production part tickets, you have everything you need to track parts and ensure quality and completeness.
A delivery docket document
A collection of production part labels
To make all documents more accessible, you can now download your documents directly from the Quote list, using the new download document button. The available documents will depend on the status of the quote.
Download documents directly from the quote list with the download icon
The download button is also available from within each quote:
Open documents within the quote page with the download button
Within the Organisation Settings, you now have the ability to define the prefixes you wish to use for your Quotes, Tax Invoices and Work Orders:
Set the prefix for quotes, tax invoices, and work orders
To provide you with added flexibility, you can now also define the next tax invoice number to increment by in the Organisation Settings:
Set the next number in the sequence for your quote and tax invoice
- Added “Quoted By” to quote PDF document.
- For rotary parts, displaying the material’s profile dimensions on PDF reports, not the part’s profile dimensions
- Resolved an issue relating to the conversion of Tube Splines
- Resolved zoom and rendering issues with the Cad View of some large multi part files
- Corrected an issue whereby flat patterns that the tube module was exporting didn’t have the correct size, so the cutting distance and the cutting time was wrong directly affecting customers quote
New AI assistant based on ChatGPT
Introducing our very own AI assistant!
Access the ToolBox AI from the Help widget in the right-hand corner and type in any ToolBox question you might have.
The ToolBox AI assistant can answer your laser cutting quoting questions
New accounting documents
Go beyond the quote with new accounting documents accessible from the download icon for quotes in the dashboard, as well as the download button within each quote:
- Order confirmation: send your customers a record of order acceptance.
- Proforma invoice: for if you require payment upfront.
- Tax invoice: send a professional tax invoice that matches the branding of your quote and order documentation.
Bug fixes
We fixed a part importing issue for 3D and rotary files that were failing if they contained some special characters.
Summary of feature releases prior to this date:
Quote document improvements
New information can be displayed on quote documentation in a new footer:
- Company details (e.g. name, tax ID, address)
- Details for payment (bank details or other payment options)
Speed improvements
Very complicated parts are now loaded into ToolBox much faster.
Quote document improvements
Improved quote document styling to match the modern look and feel of the newer parts of ToolBox.
Drawing Doctor improvements
The lasso selection tool has been brought back, new and improved. Left-click and drag while in the Drawing Doctor to select multiple paths of a part at once.
Email customers from within ToolBox
If a quote has a customer assigned to it, and it is calculated, you can now send an email to the customer with a link to the quote.
Use the drop down option next to 'Open quote' to select 'Email customer', modify the templated email text if needed, and send to your customer.
New nesting option
Previously, all parts in ToolBox are single-part nested as a true shape. Now, you have the option to single-part nest with rectangular bounds. This is useful for some quoting scenarios, particularly if your customer is requesting a single quantity of a particular part.
Use the Organisation Management page to choose whether to nest with:
- True shape all the time;
- Rectangular bounds all the time; or
- Rectangular bounds for a single quantity and true shape at all other times.
Note, if rectangular bounds nesting is used, the nest view icon on the Calculator tab is disabled.
Improved drawing handling
Parts with a very small z-axis coordinate (3D entity on a 2D part) will be ignored and processed without error.
Usability enhancements
Various improvements for creating a new ToolBox account, including providing a default quote, customer and contact, and populating initial rate table speeds based on machine power.
Tooltips have been added throughout ToolBox to explain what each element does. You can toggle these on or off from the left hand menu.
Part price details popup
Access the price and time breakdown for each part by clicking a new icon next to the part on the quote tab. It displays the inputs and outputs used to calculate the cutting price, material price, and other price components.
Use this to understand how the price is calculated, and whether you want to tweak your pricing rules.
ToolBox Web Store
Sell online and offer your customers the means to produce their own quote from your website!
Add a link on your website to take customers to your own branded web store where customers can load their parts and calculate a price before placing an order.
Find out more and read about planned features such as adding a payment portal for online purchases.
Xero integration
If you use Xero as your accounting software, ToolBox now integrates with it, saving you time and reducing the risk of manual entry errors.
Marking a quote as Ordered (soon: Invoiced) will automatically create a matching invoice in Xero for you.
Tube quoting
Load tube or pipe part files into a quote through the new 'Add rotary parts' option on the quote page.
Accepted part types include rectangular, circular or oval profiles. Parts must be sheet metal based (not extrusions) and can't be folded. Learn more about file requirements.
To facilitate quoting of tube, there is now a "rotary" type of cutting technology and material. Find out pricing, and reach out to sales for a demo or for assistance with setting things up.
Part Library
Advanced plan users now have access to a part library. Parts ordered by a customer are stored in a library for that customer, ready for re-ordering in the future.
View the parts in the customer's Customer Central file, and add them to a quote via the 'Add from Part Library' option in the quote. The library shows the part's definition (material and secondary processes), last quoted price, and a history of all quotes the part has been used it.
Optionally send parts to the part library before the quote is marked as ordered by using the new Actions option of 'Send to Part Library'.
PDF part extractor
Now you can load vector-based PDF files into ToolBox for one-click part extraction of parts into your quote, ready for pricing or exporting as CAD files.
The PDF part extractor will ignore all other lines in the document. Just select the outer path of the part and the parvt and all internal geometries are ready to be sent to the quote after you scale the part to the required size.
Optionally set the material and thickness while you have the PDF open, and change the internal geometries to line types of folding, etching, or information.
Export and import material sheets and rates
Use the new import and export buttons on the Materials page to export the sheets of a material as a CSV, make changes to the spreadsheet, and then re-import them for bulk changes.
Do the same on the Rate Tables page for the rates of the selected rate table for faster editing of rate table speeds.
Various improvements and bug fixes, plus work on upcoming new features.
Price adjustments after calculation
After a quote has been calculated, there is now a Price Adjustments button that lets you modify the cutting rate and the material prices for the parts in the selected quote.
Bulk edit sheets on the Materials page
After selecting two or more sheets of a material, you can :
- Set the expiry date
- Set the $/kg cost
- Apply a +/- percentage change to the sheet cost (e.g. increase all sheet costs by 10%)
- Archive
Bulk edit rates on the Rate Tables page
After selecting two or more thicknesses of a rate table, you can :
- Alter the hourly rate multiplier
- Delete
New version of ToolBox with advanced materials structure
A new version of ToolBox has been released, with a big upgrade to the materials and rate tables structure. New users get this by default, and existing users should reach out to us to start the process of migrating to the new version (it's free to migrate).
Instead of a flat table with a sheet of material in each row and all properties for that sheet in different columns, there is now more structure:
- Materials: Sheets are now gathered into material groups (e.g. material, grade and finish) where all the sheets for that group sit.
- Cutting technologies: Define the machine you are cutting your parts with. Users on the new Advanced plan can add multiple cutting technologies for quoting with different machines.
- Rate tables: Each cutting technology has its own set of speeds. Define a table of cutting and piercing speeds and then assign this rate table to one or more materials (e.g. define a Mild Steel rate table once, and assign it to all your mild steel material groups).
With this upgrade comes a bunch of new material and rates capabilities:
- Price sheets by weight.
- Bulk edit sheet prices by percentage (increase/decrease).
- Customer-supplied material.
- Fine cutting speed rates.
- Small hole limit warnings.
- Non-stock extra markup %.
- Material sheet expiry.
Customer Central
View all customers in a central place with tabs for different aspects of that customer:
- Summary: account code, address information.
- Contacts: the contacts linked to this customer.
- Pricing: discounts for this customer.
- Quote history: all quotes created for this customer.
Nest view
On the Calculator tab after calculating a quote, you can now click on the nest icon to open up a view of the nest ToolBox calculated when determining the 'parts per sheet' output.
Various improvements and bug fixes, plus work on upcoming new features.
Material consumption mode per part
The material consumption mode for a part loaded into a quote defaults to the value set on the material, which can now be overridden on a per-part basis.
Improved error and warning handling
All parts are shown on all screens now (even if there is a red error), and parts are sorted with errors at the top:
- Parts with errors (red).
- Parts with warnings (yellow).
- Parts that are fine but won’t calculate because there’s no material selected, or the part is too big for the sheet.
- Parts that are fine and have no calculation/material issues.
Parts that have warnings are now calculated instead of preventing calculation. If a part has an open outer path, ToolBox will revert to using rectangular bounds for nesting.
Highlight the ends of open paths
You can now see the end points of open inners and open outers, and you can toggle these highlights on and off.
Auto-healing of gaps in parts
Gaps up to 0.1mm (instead of 0.01mm) are now healed automatically, saving you time from fixing parts manually in CAD programs.
CAD view
Toggle from the part's cut path view to the new Original CAD view while quoting. Read valuable information like the material and quantity requirements straight from the original file instead of having to open up the original in a CAD program.
Duplicate a quote
You can now duplicate a quote from the quotes list or from the Actions button inside the quote.
New area-based secondary processes
Now you have three options for your area-based secondary processes:
- Rectangular area - 1 side no edges
- Surface area - 1 side no edges
- Surface area - 2 sides plus edges
New default quote names
There is now a setting for a quote prefix and an incrementing number for each new quote created. Set the prefix and the next number in your sequence from the Organisation Management settings.
Customer assignment
Assign a customer and contact to a quote from within the quote page.
View the assigned customer name and quote amount of each quote in the quotes list.
No release notes before 2022