Use this article when your shop trims multi-up sheets on a guillotine and you need Estimator to count an extra perimeter pass before the separation cuts so cut time matches how your operator actually works. After this you will have a guillotine that prices the perimeter pretrim correctly on multi-up quotes, with the right number of cuts appearing on the price breakdown.
Steps
1. Configure the guillotine
Open Estimate Setup → Finishing Machines → Cut, then add or open the guillotine you want to configure. Fill in the fields below.
Identification
Name — recommended format is brand and model, so the machine is easy to recognise on quotes (e.g., "Guillotine 1").
Tags — link this cutter to upstream presses and substrate groups it can run after. Estimator uses tags to pair the guillotine with compatible work.
Sheets this guillotine accepts
Sheet sizes — the press sheet sizes the cutter can take. Select from the drop-down (e.g., SRA1, B1, RA1). The options come from your configured substrates.
Width (min/max) and height (min/max) — sheet dimensions in millimetres or inches (e.g., 200–1100 mm, or 8–43 in). Only set these if you are not already restricting via Sheet sizes, to avoid double-constraining the same dimension.
Weight (min/max) — paper weight in gsm (metric) or lb (imperial) (e.g., 80–400 gsm, or 20–110 lb).
Thickness (min/max) — physical sheet thickness range in millimetres or inches (e.g., 0.1–0.4 mm, or 0.01–0.04 in).
Max sheet stack — the maximum number of sheets the operator clamps in one cut (e.g., 500 sheets). Estimator uses this to compute how many cuts the run takes.
Max stack height — physical clamp limit in millimetres or inches (e.g., 100 mm, or 4 in).
Speed
Output per hour — cuts per hour, where one cut is one pass of the blade (e.g., 170 cuts/hour for Guillotine 1). The output type is fixed at cuts for guillotines.
Max pages across — the maximum number of ups that fit across a single sheet (e.g., 16). Estimator uses this with the imposition to count the separation cuts.
Perimeter pretrim — particular to guillotines
The pretrim setting controls how many extra cuts Estimator adds before the main separation cuts when imposing multiple ups on a sheet. This affects built-in cut costing on guillotines; it is not the same thing as a perimeter-based custom price model.
Perimeter pretrim strategy — choose the value that matches how your operator trims multi-up sheets: - Separate only — trim only the separation cuts between ups. No extra perimeter pass. Pick this when your operator skips the perimeter and lets the bleed run to the sheet edge. - Trim 3 edges — add three perimeter cuts before separation. Pick this when your operator trims the gripper edge plus two side edges and lets the tail run off. - Trim 4 edges — add a full four-edge perimeter trim before separation. Pick this when your operator squares all four sides before separating ups. - Auto by margin — add a perimeter trim only when the bleed margin exceeds Auto by margin threshold. Pick this when your operator decides per job based on how wasteful the margin is.
Auto by margin threshold — the margin size in millimetres or inches (e.g., 5 mm or 0.2 in) above which a perimeter cut should be counted. Estimator ignores this field unless Perimeter pretrim strategy is set to Auto by margin.
Cost
Machine rate per hour — hourly running cost covering amortisation, electricity, and blade wear (e.g., €60/hour).
Make-ready minutes — minutes per cut section to set up the program (e.g., 10 minutes).
Minimum charge — floor amount. If the calculated cut cost is below this, Estimator applies the minimum instead.
Make-ready and spoilage
Running spoils % — extra sheets spoiled as a percentage of the run quantity (e.g., 0–1%).
Overs per section — extra sheets per section produced on top of the ordered quantity to absorb cut spoilage (e.g., 25).
Included steps
Included steps — operations performed in the same pass on this machine. When a step is included here, Estimator uses the higher make-ready of the two records rather than double-counting.
Save the change. The Pending Changes count increments by one in the sidebar.
2. Validate the pretrim on a quote
Create a test estimate that uses this guillotine and has a multi-up imposition. Open the price breakdown and find the cut step.
When you toggle Perimeter pretrim strategy between values and re-quote, the cut count and the cut time should change in the expected direction: Separate only is the cheapest, Trim 4 edges the most expensive, Auto by margin sits in between depending on the threshold.
Save the change. Pending Changes increments again.
3. Apply the changes
Open the Pending Changes panel in the sidebar and review the staged edits to the guillotine. Select Apply Changes to publish them to live setup.
The Pending Changes count returns to zero and the guillotine pretrim is now part of the active configuration.
Things to know
Perimeter pretrim affects the built-in cut step on guillotines only. If your shop sells perimeter-based cut work as an add-on with a different rate, that is a separate price-model question — see How price models work.
Auto by margin needs Auto by margin threshold populated to work. If you leave it blank, Estimator treats the strategy as Separate only on every job.
If toggling pretrim strategies does not change the cut time on multi-up jobs, check the imposition mode on the quote. Some economy imposition modes pre-bake the cut count, so the strategy field has no further effect.