Cut lists from Autodesk Fusion 360

By Cutlist Evolution · Updated 14 August 2026

Autodesk has dropped the number, so what used to be Fusion 360 is now just Fusion. Most people still call it Fusion 360, and this page uses both.

Autodesk Fusion 360 already holds every dimension in your design. Getting those dimensions back out as cut lists you can take to the saw is the slow part, because it usually means reading numbers off the screen and typing them into a spreadsheet one at a time.

There is a shorter route. Export the model as STEP or OBJ, import that file into Cutlist Evolution, and the parts list is built from the geometry itself. Four steps, and nothing gets retyped.

Step 1: Designing Your Project in Fusion 360

Model the project the way you normally would. Fusion 360’s 3D modeling capabilities cover bespoke furniture, custom cabinetry and joinery at whatever precision you work to, and none of what follows asks you to design differently.

Rectangular components still give the cleanest handover, because a panel defined by length, width and thickness maps straight onto a board. But shaped parts are no longer a dead end. The import classes every part as Rectangular, Irregular or Not a panel, and draws each outline for you. In nesting mode an irregular part is imported as its true shape and cut that way on a CNC. In rectangular cutting it is squared off to its tightest enclosing rectangle, with the cost of doing so stated on the row as a percentage of area, so you can decide part by part rather than in advance.

Step 2: Exporting Your Model

With the design finished and every component in place, export it. Fusion 360 writes several formats and Cutlist Evolution reads most of them, but two are worth knowing about.

STEP is the one to reach for. A STEP file states its own units, so the sizes arrive exact and the import sets the unit for you.

OBJ also works, and keeps the geometric detail of the solids intact, but it carries no unit at all. You set the unit yourself on import, and getting it wrong is silent rather than obvious, because every part stays correct relative to every other. A whole cabinet can arrive in tenths of a millimetre looking perfectly consistent. The import guards against this by showing the size of the whole model in the unit you are reading it as, and by offering to re-read the file when the model turns out to be barely wider than your saw blade.

To export your model:

Navigate to File > Export.
From the “Type” dropdown menu, select STEP Files (*.step), or OBJ Files (*.obj).
Choose a location to save your file and click Export.

Before you run the export, check that every component you want on the cut list is visible, and selected if you are prompted to select. Anything hidden at that moment will not be in the file.

Step 3: Importing into Cutlist Evolution

Cutlist Evolution is purpose-built to read 3D model data and produce a cut list from it. Drop the file you just exported into the 3D model cutlist generator and it interprets the solids, extracts each part’s dimensions, counts repeats into quantities and organizes the result into something you can buy material against and cut from.

The generator is a page of its own rather than a panel in the corner of the app, which matters on a real model. You get the parts table beside a 3D preview, a Checks panel listing anything worth a second look before you cut, and a project name that titles the bill of materials you hand to a supplier, so it is not called cabinet_v3_final.

This is the step that removes the typing. Transcribing dimensions from a model is where most cut list errors start, and it is usually the slowest part of planning a job.

A job is rarely one export. Doors come from one file and carcasses from another, so several files dropped together are read as one model, with one merged parts list, and any part the file did not name takes its file’s name instead.

For a detailed guide on the import process, see importing a model.

Step 4: Refining and Optimizing Your Cut List

What arrives is a starting point rather than a finished list. A model file describes shape. It does not know that a part is oak rather than MDF, or that its grain should run along the length, which is what this step is for.

Assign a material to each component so that plywood, solid wood and MDF are counted separately and the take-off is accurate. Set grain direction where it matters, for appearance across a run of doors or for strength. Edit dimensions, add parts the model does not contain and drop parts you are not cutting, until the list matches both the job and what your workshop can handle. Then let the optimizer nest the parts onto sheets, which is where the material saving comes from.

What the Model Route Saves

The route is short and it asks little of you. Exporting is three clicks in a menu, so you do not need to be fluent in the more involved corners of Fusion 360 to get a usable cut list out of a model.

Accuracy is the larger gain. The file carries the precision of the model with it, so the cut list is as exact as the design is. Automating the extraction of dimensions and quantities takes manual data entry out of the process, along with the transcription errors and the wasted material that come with it.

The last part is the layout. Cutlist Evolution nests the parts onto your stock sheets to keep offcut waste down, so the material bill for the job falls. Design and fabrication run as one sequence rather than two, with the export as the handover between them.

Before you commit a whole project to this route, run one component through it. Model a single carcass, export it, import it, and check that the parts come back with the dimensions you expect. Once you trust that, designing in rectangular components from the outset costs you nothing and saves breaking the geometry down afterwards.

A YouTube video explaining the Fusion 360 import for Cutlist Evolution