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Set the clearances your factory works with

Describes RotoSpider Desktop 0.8.13 · checked 2026-09-13 D5

The clearance is the gap the app keeps between neighbouring molds on one spider: the room your people need to reach the clamps, open the mold and take the part out. You set two numbers once, in Settings, and every layout keeps them.

Target and minimum

Target clearance is the gap you want. The app lays out with this gap first.

Minimum clearance is the gap you can live with. When the requested molds do not all fit with the target gap, the app is allowed to close the gaps down towards the minimum, not below it, to fit more molds.

Type the two numbers in millimetres and press Apply; every open layout is recomputed. The trial ships with a target of 240 mm and a minimum of 120 mm.

Reading what a layout used

The layout tab shows it in two places. The Clearance scheme line at the bottom right says what was requested and what the layout certifies, with the count placed:

The status strip shows the smallest gap in the layout as MIN CLEARANCE:

If the certified clearance is below the target, the app had to close the gaps to place the request; if it equals the target, every mold has the full gap. In the plan view (2D), the clearance is drawn as a dashed box around each mold, so you can see where two boxes touch.

Overhang past the spider edge

A mold's foot normally stays inside the plate. If your practice allows a foot to reach past the edge, the layout tab's staging area has the allowance Ignore spider edge for placing a mold by hand in that layout. It is a temporary allowance for one layout, not a setting, and the mold must still stay inside the envelope.

The web app

The web app has the same two values in its machine block, Target mold-to-mold clearance and Minimum mold-to-mold clearance, plus Allow molds beyond the spider edge as a switch for the whole layout.