Software
Turn a parts list into cutting plans that use the least material your stock allows, then send them to the saw. Sheet, linear and roll material, free in the browser.
You enter the parts you need and the stock you have. The software arranges the parts on that stock, sheet by sheet or bar by bar, and returns the layouts, the number of sheets or lengths the job takes, and the offcuts left over. A good optimizer does this in seconds and respects the rules of the machine that will make the cuts, so the plan on screen is one the saw can follow.
Free to use
Most shops cut more than one kind of stock. Sheet goods such as plywood, MDF, melamine, glass and metal plate are optimized in two dimensions. Linear stock such as timber lengths, steel bars, tubes and aluminium profiles is optimized along its length. Roll goods such as vinyl, film, fabric and flooring are fitted across the roll width and down its length. Cutlist Evolution handles all three, and irregular shapes go through its true-shape nesting optimizer.
Every cutting list has a floor: a number of sheets below which the parts cannot fit, however clever the software. The simplest version is the area floor. Add up the area of every part, divide by the area of one sheet, and round up.
The engine behind Cutlist Evolution is measured against that floor on every change, across 2,083 real production jobs from working factories. On 82% of them it lands exactly on the floor, which means no software could have used fewer sheets on those jobs. It reaches a typical result in <2s.
Take a kitchen with 9.4 square metres of carcass parts, cut from 2440 by 1220 mm sheets of 2.98 square metres each. The area floor is 9.4 divided by 2.98, which is 3.2, so no plan can use fewer than 4 sheets. If your current method buys 5, a fifth of the sheet order is waste the parts never needed. The optimizer's job is to close that gap, while still leaving every cut edge to edge so a panel saw can make it.
The same check works on any tool. Run one real job through the software you are considering and compare its sheet count with the area floor. The closer it gets, the less material you are paying for and throwing away.
A layout only saves money if the machine can cut it. Cutlist Evolution plans edge-to-edge guillotine layouts for table, panel and beam saws, accounts for blade kerf and edge trim, and exports PDF cutting diagrams on every plan. Paid plans add printable part labels, CSV, SVG and DXF, and PTX files for beam saws, so a plan reaches the machine as a file instead of being retyped.
Offcuts are tracked as stock. Anything worth keeping goes back into your stock list and is used before a new sheet on the next job.
Optimize a job now
Cabinet makers and joiners use it to cut carcasses and doors from sheet goods. Glaziers use it for score-and-snap glass layouts and window film. Metal fabricators use it for bars, tubes and plate. Sign and print shops use it for roll media. Material suppliers and cut-to-size retailers build the same engine into their own websites through the SmartCut API, so customers get an instant price for a cut list.
FAQ
Yes. Cutlist Evolution is free in the browser for calculations of up to 40 parts, with no limit on how many calculations you run and nothing to install. Paid plans raise the part limit and add machine files.
Cutting optimization usually means arranging rectangular parts on sheets or lengths on bars, with cuts that run edge to edge. Nesting means fitting irregular shapes together, as on a laser, plasma or router table. Cutlist Evolution does both, with nesting in its true-shape nesting optimizer.
Yes, if it writes a file the saw reads and plans within the saw's rules. Cutlist Evolution exports PTX files for beam saws on its Expert plan, and the SmartCut API behind it writes several saw formats directly.
It depends on how you plan today. The honest way to find out is the area floor: compare the sheets your current method uses with the floor for the same job. On real production jobs the engine behind Cutlist Evolution reaches that floor on 82% of them.
Yes. Dimensions can be entered as decimals or fractions, in whatever unit you work in, and the layouts come back in the same unit.