Alternatives
Cut Rite is Homag's optimizer for panel saws. Here is where a browser optimizer fits beside it, and where it does not.
By Cutlist Evolution ·
Homag describes Cut Rite as "the worldwide leading software for optimizing cutting operations for panel-shaped materials", a "powerful, user-friendly program" that "optimizes for speed or waste, thus reducing the overall cutting costs". They put more than 40 years of development behind it and tens of thousands of users in more than 70 countries. It installs on a PC and is offered on a 30 day free trial of version 12.
The published module list is a production shop's list: a part library with label printing, stock control, CNC processing and linking, order processing with variable parts lists, and destacking. Pricing is not published anywhere on their site, so it comes through a quote.
Start from the obvious point rather than around it. If your shop runs a Homag beam saw, Cut Rite is written by the people who built the machine, it speaks its control directly, and it handles destacking and CNC linking that a general purpose tool does not attempt. That is a real advantage and nothing on this page argues with it.
Machine software is licensed per installation and sits on the machine's side of the shop. The work that happens before the job reaches the saw often does not. Quoting a kitchen from a customer's house, checking whether a revised parts list still fits the stock you have, working out what to buy on a Sunday evening, showing an apprentice why the layout runs the way it does: none of that needs the beam saw, and all of it wants a tool that opens in whatever browser is to hand.
Cutlist Evolution is a free browser cutlist optimizer for sheet, linear and roll materials. The free tier allows unlimited calculations of up to 40 parts each, unlimited stock, 3 saved projects and PDF export. Paid plans add trim cuts, edge banding, printable part labels, CSV, SVG, DXF and PTX export, beam saw settings and a material and stock cloud database. It runs on a Mac, a phone or a shop PC without an install, and there is no seat to buy before you can see whether the layout is any good.
Free to use, nothing to install
Across 2,083 real production jobs it lands on the fewest stock the parts could physically fit into 82% of the time, with a typical result in under two seconds. Head-to-head results against other tools are published in full at smartcut.dev/benchmarks, including the jobs where a competitor ties or wins.
We have not benchmarked Cut Rite head to head. Homag publishes no sheet count or yield figures we could compare against either, so there is no number on this page claiming one beats the other. If you have both, run one real job through each and count the boards. That settles it far better than either vendor's page.
Shops that have outgrown typing parts lists twice usually want the optimiser called from their ERP or configurator rather than opened as a program. That is what SmartCut is: the same engine behind Cutlist Evolution, as an HTTP API you call with a parts list and get a layout back. It is machine neutral, so it does not assume whose saw is on the floor.