Why does a scanner need a profile?
Every scanner vendor names its layers in its own way. Lescut already recognises common names, such as HIDE or OUTLINE for the outline and DEFECT or SCAR for defects (the full list is in the leather guide). A profile maps your scanner’s own names once, and every batch you upload with it is read the same way. Layers a profile does not map are matched by name, and otherwise ignored.
Which roles can a layer have?
| Role | What Lescut does with it |
|---|---|
| Outline | The hide’s edge; the largest closed outline is the hide |
| Hole | A hole in the hide, which no part may cover |
| Defect | Kept clear by every part; points and lines are widened by the margin |
| Grade zone B, C, D or E | An area of that grade; leather with no zone is prime, grade A |
| Information | Text such as ID: for the hide’s name and COST: or PRICE: for its price |
| Ignore | Left out |
What does the defect margin do?
Scanners often mark a scratch as a line and a pinhole as a point. The margin, 3 mm unless you set another, widens each defect line and point into a small zone that parts keep clear of. Closed defect shapes are used as drawn.
The margin is separate from the gap between parts set in the nesting profile, which is also kept from defects and the hide edge.
Where does a hide’s price come from?
A COST: or PRICE: text on an information layer gives a hide its own price. Without one, its price is its area times the profile’s default hide price per square metre. Prices only matter when the job’s goal is the lowest leather cost; with the fewest hides as the goal, they are not used.
Can I change a profile after uploading?
A batch keeps the reading it was uploaded with, so jobs already nested on it never change. To read the same scans with another profile, upload them again; the old batch can be deleted at any time. Lescut keeps no stock, so uploading again only creates another set of hides to nest on.
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