Align and Consolidate Sheathings

In the sheathing settings there are three fields that allow differentiation between two fundamental manufacturing techniques:

• The sheathing is produced from left to right (or right to left) across the entire wall. In the primary sheathing a full panel is started and panels are placed side by side. This method is used mainly when the wall is manufactured with a nail bridge. Whole panels are laid on the wall and the openings are cut out of the panel layer by the machine. For this case, alignment to windows and doors and usually also restarting at T-joints is set to 'No'.

• The sheathing is aligned to windows and doors. In this case, the program begins the primary sheathing with a full panel at the left (or right) end of the wall and ends at the next opening edge. Then a new panel is started again until the end of the opening. There a new panel is started again. This ensures that all panel pieces are rectangular and do not develop recesses. This method is used, for example, when panels are to be prefabricated on a panel cutting saw. However, this increases the administrative effort in the material flow from the cutting saw to the wall table.

Alignment to windows and doors quickly leads to a new "problem." Narrow panel strips are created in the secondary sheathing (sheathing that refers to the primary sheathing with a half-panel offset) that are narrower than the panel width. Narrow panel strips also appear in the primary sheathing, as can be seen in the image above. The next setting helps here.

With the option "Combine remnants of neighboring panels" the program automatically analyzes the existing panels of a layer and combines them according to various rules:

• With the option 'Yes' the panels retain their orientation and if two strips stand side by side that are both narrower than the configured panel width and, when combined, do not exceed the panel width, they are merged into a single panel. This generally occurs only in secondary sheathing, where the offset to the primary sheathing produces two narrow panel strips below or above an opening.

• With the option 'Yes with rotation' one can go a step further and allow the program to rotate the combined panel by 90°. If a panel may generally be rotated (e.g., OSB, gypsum board), a simplification can also be achieved in the primary sheathing. If there a panel strip with full panel width exists alongside a narrow panel strip whose length is not greater than the configured panel width, a rotated panel can be produced there. See here the panels under the openings and at the upper edge of the areas between the openings (compare with the image above):