PLY recalculates material estimates using kerf, edge trimming and stock lengths

• PLY turns skate-park layouts into material lists, building plans and cost estimates, as demonstrated in the demo.
• Kerf, edge trimming and stock lengths drive real-time material recalculation, according to the creator’s explanation.
• Mini-ramp spacing updates with quarterpipe geometry, but parks with 300-plus parts can strain the builder, he says in a follow-up.

PLY began with a mini-ramp request from Linus Ekenstam’s children’s skate teacher; the browser tool also lets users skate their layouts. His separate “You can just make things” post pairs futuristic sneaker and safety-eyewear images.

Linus Ekenstam, PLY’s creator and a product/experience designer, demonstrated the builder in a roughly 15-minute video. He says layouts ranging from individual ramps to full parks generate four outputs:

• Bill of materials: the materials required for the design.
• Building plans: instructions for construction.
• Optimized material use: planning intended to minimize waste.
• Cost estimates: estimated spending on the build.

His introduction to PLY also describes printable PDFs and step-by-step 3D assembly guides that can run on a phone or tablet.

PLY’s best detail is its wonderfully unglamorous cutting controls. Three configurable inputs govern the estimates, Ekenstam explained in a reply:

• Kerf: the material lost to the saw cut. Changing the setting from 3 mm to 5 mm updates the estimates; inch-based settings are supported too.
• Edge trimming: both sheets and studs have settings that account for trimming.
• Stock lengths: users can specify a single purchased length, such as 4,200 mm studs, or a mixture of lengths.

He says changes recalculate the material estimates in real time, keeping the BOM tied to the current design and optimized for the selected settings.

Run-up and the flat area of a mini-ramp already have estimates, according to his reply about layout helpers. Those estimates update when the quarterpipes’ height or radius changes.

Ekenstam describes PLY as an AI-assisted development project, saying he has not manually touched a line of code. His posts introducing the project also describe the release plans:

• Access: he said he would share a link when PLY was ready to try.
• Release model: he was still deciding between releasing the whole tool as open source and making some parts paid.

Large parks with 300-plus parts can make the builder struggle, Ekenstam reported. He is working on an optimization that would stop rendering geometry invisible to the camera, expecting many studs to disappear from the rendered scene and smooth out larger parks.