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Cut list optimiser
Enter your board or sheet size, the saw blade width and the parts you need. You get a cutting layout for every sheet, how many sheets to buy, the waste, and a cut list to print for the workshop. Nothing you type is sent to us or stored, unless you ask for a PDF copy.
Cutting layouts
Each layout is drawn to scale. Every cut runs straight across the piece, so it can be cut on a panel saw or a track saw. Grey hatching is offcut. A part marked “turned” was placed sideways to fit. Download DXF for CNC saves a layout as a drawing in millimetres for your CNC router, plasma or laser software, with the sheet, the parts, the offcuts and the labels on separate layers.
Cut list
Every part, its size and which layout it is cut from.
| # | Part | Length | Width | Qty | Cut from |
|---|
Take it to the workshop
Prints the layouts and the cut list on plain white pages, with a tick column for each part. In the print dialog choose Save as PDF to keep it as a file.
Keep a copy
A one-page PDF of your figures and the result.
Your figures are used only to make the PDF. We don't keep them.
Cutting boards for real jobs every week?
Vali Business keeps your bills of materials, job cards and stock in one place, so the board a job needs is costed on the quote, taken off stock when the job is cut, and the job's real cost is there when it is done.
Also free: the markup, margin and job costing calculator, to price the job once you know how many sheets it takes.
How the layout is worked out
The optimiser places the biggest parts first and fills the gaps with smaller ones. It does this many times over, in different orders and with different ways of splitting the space that is left, and keeps the layout that uses the fewest sheets. Where two layouts use the same number of sheets, it keeps the one that leaves the biggest single offcut, because a big offcut is more useful for the next job than many small strips.
The saw blade. Every cut turns a strip of board the width of the blade into dust. The optimiser leaves that gap between every part, so the sizes on the cut list are the finished sizes.
Grain and pattern. A part that may be turned can be placed either way round to fit better. Untick Can turn for doors, drawer fronts and anything in woodgrain or a pattern, so the grain runs along the part's length like it does along the sheet.
Good, not perfect. Finding the very best possible layout is a famously hard problem once there are more than a handful of parts. This tool gives a good layout in a second, not a proven best one. On a big job it is worth trying the parts with and without Can turn ticked.
Cut list questions answered
01 How is the saw blade width allowed for?
Each cut turns a strip of board the width of the blade into dust. The optimiser leaves that gap between every part, so the sizes on the cut list are the finished sizes.
02 Can the layouts be cut on a panel saw?
Yes. Every layout is made of straight cuts that run right across the piece being cut, which is how a panel saw, a beam saw or a track saw works.
03 What about grain and patterned board?
Untick Can turn on a part and it is always placed with its length along the sheet's length, so the grain runs the same way on every door and drawer front.
04 Is it the best possible layout?
It is a good layout, not a proven best one. The tool tries many orders and ways of splitting the board and keeps the one that uses the fewest sheets, then the one that leaves the biggest offcut.
05 Is anything I type stored?
No. The optimiser runs entirely in your browser and nothing is sent to us.
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