Who we are
Ruthen Systems works with fabrication shops from Canada. We find and fix mistakes in drawings, flat patterns and cut files before they reach the shop floor, make parts easier to build, and prepare complete shop documentation — see how we help shops.
On this site we publish the layout tools every shop should have, free and in the browser. They turn the shapes a plate and sheet-metal shop redraws by hand — cones, hoppers, pipe saddles, bent profiles, chutes, smokers — into flat patterns, printable templates, drawing sets and clean DXF.
What we bring
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.
Our 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 we usually reply within 24 hours, often the same day.