Recording what goes on each of the four edges — and keeping it attached to the part all the way to the saw.
Edge banding is not something you can read off a 3D model. The solid knows its size; it does not know that three edges get 0.8 mm and the visible front edge gets 2 mm ABS. That decision has to be recorded somewhere — and for most workshops that somewhere is a handwritten note next to the cutting list.
The cutting list is usually generated first, and the banding is added afterwards from memory or from a marked-up printout. Two things go wrong with that:
The result is the classic workshop problem: a door that comes back from the edgebander with the wrong edge finished, on a part that was cut correctly.
In WoodPrep the banding is entered at the moment each part is processed, not afterwards. Every part has four edges, and each edge can get its own material and thickness — you can mix freely on the same part.
The same dialog also handles grain direction: you can lock it, so the part must be cut with the grain running a fixed way, or allow it to rotate, giving the cutting optimization freedom to save material. On a part where the grain does not matter, letting it rotate is often the difference between one board and two.
The size is read from the solid. The dialog then asks for the production data the geometry cannot supply.
Assign material and thickness edge by edge. Same material all round, or four different ones — whatever the part actually needs.
Lock the direction where it is visible, or let it rotate where it is not, so the optimization can nest more tightly.
The banding travels with the part into the cutting list — it is a column of the sheet, not a note beside it.
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