Sheet Cut List Optimizer

About the Sheet Cut List Optimizer

List the sheets you can cut from — plywood, MDF, particleboard, melamine, acrylic or any sheet, in several sizes and quantities, offcuts included — and the parts you need, with how many of each. The optimizer lays the parts out on as few sheets as it can, leaving the saw's kerf between them and an edge trim round each sheet, keeping each part's grain along the sheet unless you let it turn.

Every layout is made of guillotine cuts — straight cuts from one edge of a piece to the other — so it can be cut on a panel saw, a table saw or with a track saw, and the plan lists the cuts in order with where to set the fence. You get the sheets needed, a dimensioned drawing of each sheet, the waste, the offcuts worth keeping and, with prices, the cost. Without a pass the result is a free preview: the sheets needed and the drawings as watermarked pictures; a Pro pass unlocks the full tables, the PDF cutting plan, the CSV and the copied summary.

How the parts are laid out

The sheets are filled one at a time. Each part goes into the corner of an empty part of the sheet, and the rest of that space is split by one straight cut along or across it, so every layout stays cuttable edge to edge. Which space takes a part and which way the rest is split follow the guillotine rules of J. Jylänki, A Thousand Ways to Pack the Bin (paper and code): best area fit, best short-side and long-side fit, with shorter- or longer-leftover, minimum- and maximum-area splits.

For every sheet several of those rules — and every sheet size you have — are tried and the fullest sheet is kept; the whole job is laid out again for several orders of the parts, and a seeded search then shuffles the order to find a better plan. The best plan places the most parts, then costs least (when every sheet has a price) or uses the least sheet area, then uses the fewest sheets, keeps the biggest single offcut and needs the fewest cuts. The search counts its work, not seconds, so the same lists always give the same plan, on a phone or a computer.

Finding the best possible layout is a hard problem once there are two or more part sizes (guillotine cutting), so no tool can promise it for every job. When the parts’ area alone needs as many sheets as the plan uses, the page says the plan is the fewest possible.

Kerf, edge trim and grain

• Saw cut (kerf): the width of the slot the blade cuts (kerf). It is left between every two parts that a cut separates; a part that fills a piece exactly needs no cut on that side. Measure a test cut in scrap if the blade's width is not printed on it.
• Edge trim: taken off all four edges of every sheet before the layout, for factory edges that are chipped, out of square or not straight. It includes the saw cut that trims them; offcuts in stock are trimmed the same way.
• Grain: with follow the grain on, each part's length lies along the sheet's length, which is the grain on most plywood and veneered boards. Tick may turn for parts whose grain does not show (backs, drawer bottoms, hidden shelves). For plain MDF or particleboard, switch the grain off and every part may turn. A part whose grain must run across it: swap its length and width.

Which way the first cuts run

• Any order finds the fewest sheets.
• Along the length first rips the sheet into full-length strips, then crosscuts each strip: the usual way on a table saw, which can rip a full sheet more easily than crosscut it.
• Across first crosscuts the sheet into full-width pieces first, handy with a track saw or when a long sheet has to be made easier to handle.

The cut sequence lists the cuts stage by stage: first the cuts through the whole sheet, then the cuts through the pieces they leave, and so on. Each cut gives the piece it splits, how far from its top edge (cuts along) or left edge (cuts across) to cut, and the two pieces it leaves: measure the part side, and the saw cut comes out of the rest.

Several sheet sizes, materials, offcuts and prices

• List every size you can buy or have, with how many there are; leave the quantity empty for as many as needed. The optimizer picks the sizes, so a job can use one full sheet and two offcuts.
• Give the sheets a material name (such as “18 mm plywood” and “6 mm MDF”) and pick it for each part — a part without one is cut from the first material listed. Each material is laid out on its own sheets.
• With a price on every sheet size the plan with the lowest cost wins; without prices, the one with the least sheet area. An offcut you already have can be listed at a price of 0: it then goes into the plan whenever it saves buying a sheet (when the parts fit the new sheets anyway, the plan leaves it in your stock).
• Offcuts with both sides at least the smallest offcut to keep are drawn dashed and listed with their sizes, ready for the stock list of your next job.

Pasting or importing a list

Paste a table copied from a spreadsheet, a CSV file or plain lines. Columns are found by their headings — name, length, width, quantity, material, thickness, can turn, banded long and short edges — and a unit in a heading such as “Length (mm)” is converted to the job’s unit, so the cut list CSV of the Modular Kitchen Planner reads straight in. Without headings a row is read as name, length, width and quantity. Lines such as Shelf 600 x 400 x 2, 2 x Door 1796 × 398 or Side 1800x300 2pcs work too: the whole number after a second “x” is the quantity, while a thickness written with its unit (600 x 400 x 18 mm) is not. Lengths may be written 23 5/8, 8' 4", 600,5 or 600 mm; a length in another unit is converted to the job’s.

What the plan includes

• On the page: the sheets needed and of which sizes, the parts placed, the sheet area used and wasted, the offcuts to keep, the number and length of the cuts, the cost of the sheets and the edge banding; each sheet drawn to scale with its numbered parts and cuts; the parts and cuts of each sheet; the parts of the job and the sheets they are on. Sheets cut the same way are shown once.
• PDF cutting plan: a summary page with every layout at a glance, a page for each layout with its dimensioned drawing, its parts and its cuts in order, and the offcuts to keep, on A4 or US Letter.
• CSV: one row a part: the sheet, its number on the sheet, its size, whether it is turned and its position from the sheet’s corner (the trim included), for a spreadsheet or a panel-saw program.
• Project file: your own sheets, parts and settings, to keep or open on another device.

Limitations

• Rectangular parts only, cut edge to edge: no curves, angles or nesting of shapes, and no CNC tool paths.
• A good layout, not a proven optimum: on a large job a dedicated program that can try for longer may save a sheet. “Thorough” under the search setting looks harder.
• The plan uses the sizes as typed. Measure your sheets (nominal and actual sizes can differ by a few millimetres), and add the edge-banding thickness to a part’s size yourself if you cut parts oversize.
• Up to 5,000 pieces in one plan. A job of thousands of pieces takes several seconds on a computer and longer on a phone; Quick under the search setting plans it fastest. The page draws 20 layouts at a time, with buttons for the next ones.

Privacy

On this device: nothing is sent

Your sheets and parts stay in this browser: the layout is worked out on this device and nothing is uploaded. The lists are kept on this device for your next visit; a project file is saved only when you choose Save project.