Who builds this
I am Mykola Hera , and Ruthen Systems is where I publish the layout tools I wish every shop had: free, in the browser, from Canada. They develop the shapes a plate and sheet-metal shop redraws by hand — cones, hoppers, pipe saddles, bent profiles, bolt circles — into flat patterns, printable templates and clean DXF.
Background
CAD and fabrication practice on one side: sheet metal, weldments and plate work, the drawings and cut files that go to a laser or a brake, and the questions a shop has to answer before cutting — which face was that diameter measured on, was it rolled or bump-formed, whose K-factor is this. Software on the other: TypeScript and Python for geometry, verification and data work, and C# for desktop tools.
The tools come out of that combination. So does the habit of writing the expected answer down before running the code, and of reading a generated file back with software that did not write it.
How the tools are made
- Textbook geometry only. Published development methods and closed-form trigonometry. Nothing from any employer or client is used, ever.
- Every output checked. A wrong flat pattern is not a bug report; it is wasted plate, wasted machine time and a part that does not fit. How each tool is checked is on the Verification page.
- Assumptions written down. Where a value depends on your tooling — springback, bend allowance, seam — it is labelled as yours to set, never quietly assumed.
- Your numbers stay with you. The calculators run in your browser; the dimensions you type are not sent to the server.
What this is not
Ruthen Systems publishes fabrication layout tools and references, and is not a licensed professional engineering practice. Engineering decisions belong to you or the responsible engineer on your side; the tools compute geometry and are tested to do that. The full statement of where responsibility sits is on the Verification page.
Get in touch
Found a result you do not trust, or missing the development you redraw every week? Say so. Requests decide what gets built next.
[email protected] — Every message is read, and I usually reply within 24 hours, often the same day.