Cut Recipes
At a glance
- Per-machine recipes for each material and thickness combination
- Built-in Hypertherm Powermax45 XP data: mild steel, stainless, aluminum — 16 gauge through 1"
- Two cut speed modes: Best Quality and Production (fast)
- Full parameters: kerf width, pierce height, pierce delay, torch-to-work distance
- Lead-in/out types: arc, line, or overcut — radius, angle, and length all configurable
- Cut direction: Conventional or Climb — controls kerf offset winding direction
- THC target voltage, edge start flag for material that cannot be pierced in the field
- Consumable set reference: nozzle, electrode, shield, retaining cap, swirl ring
Cut recipes (cut charts) are the material/thickness parameter sets your machine profile carries — one entry per material, thickness, and consumable set. Open them with the Cut Charts… button in the Plasma sidebar. Pick a material and thickness on the sheet and JetCad3 auto-selects the matching chart; everything downstream — kerf offset, pierce cycle, feed rate, THC target — reads from it.
Built-in manufacturer data
Select a Manufacturer → Model → Torch Type on the machine's Cutter tab and the factory charts load automatically: Hypertherm Powermax 45 XP, 65, 85, and 105 (standard cartridge and SYNC torches, including the FineCut high- and low-speed processes) and Thermacut EX-Trafire 45HD through 125HD. Coverage runs from 26-gauge sheet up to inch-plus plate depending on model, across mild steel, stainless, and aluminum. Entries carry the factory cartridge and ohmic ring part numbers so you can check what should be in the torch before burning a chart's numbers.
What each recipe holds
Every entry stores two cut speeds — Best quality and Production — with matching arc voltages; the sheet's Quality dropdown picks which pair is used. Alongside those: kerf width, pierce delay, pierce height, torch-to-work distance, and an edge start flag for thicknesses the machine can't pierce (the chart carries no pierce delay and expects you to start from an edge). All values are editable, you can add your own entries (custom material, consumable set, and thickness labels), and charts can be password-locked so shop-floor edits need sign-off. Each chart can also carry its own contour rules.
Leads and cut direction
Lead-in/lead-out and cut direction live one button over, under Parameters…: arc, line, or no lead-in with radius, angle, and length; line, arc, overcut, or no lead-out; and Climb or Conventional cut direction, which flips the side the kerf offset takes. Defaults persist and feed straight into toolpath generation.