Getting started

What the tool does

Above the input are Parts, Sheet material and Settings. Use them to jump straight to the corresponding card. On a wide screen this bar stays in place while the input scrolls below it. Below the buttons you can read the current goal and changed settings. See Settings.

You enter the parts you need and the sheets you buy. The tool works out how those parts come out of those sheets with the least waste, and draws that as a cutting plan. You also get a cut list, a cutting order, labels and a PDF to take with you.

Every cut runs from edge to edge. That is called a guillotine layout, and it is exactly what you can make with a circular saw on a guide rail, or at a store cutting service. So there is no cut-out in the middle of a sheet, because a saw cannot make one.

The tool runs entirely in your browser. No account is needed, there is no limit on the number of parts, and your work stays on your own device.

Your first cutting plan in four steps

1. Under Parts, fill in a name, the length, the width and the quantity, and click + Add part. Repeat for every part. If your sizes are already in a spreadsheet, use Parts from Excel or CSV and paste them all at once.
2. Under Sheet material, check which sheet you are buying. One is already set up. With Library you pick a sheet exactly as a store really sells it, including size, thickness and price.
3. The cutting plan appears straight away. There is no Calculate button to press: every change recalculates immediately.
4. Take it with you. Under Export you find Cutting plan as PDF, Print labels and Cut list as CSV.

The screen

1. Parts

The list of what you want to cut. Each row is one size; the quantity sits behind it. See Parts.

2. Sheet material

The sheets to cut from, plus your offcut stock. See Sheet material.

3. The cutting plan

The drawing, one block per sheet. See Reading the cutting plan.

4. The result

How much sheet you use, how much waste there is, and below it the cut list and cutting order.

Your work is saved automatically

There is no button to remember. Every change goes straight into your browser storage, on this device. The top bar shows when that last happened.

There is one downside: if you clear your browser data, your work is gone. For a copy, or to continue on your phone where you left off on the computer, read Projects and Account and syncing.

Two layouts, the same controls

From about 1000 pixels, input, plan and lists sit in three columns. On a narrower screen they are stacked. Above the plan you find What do I need, Fullscreen and the View menu.

Set grain and edge banding on the part itself. Select a piece in the plan to adjust it manually. There is no mode switch; older projects open with the same controls.

Below your sheets is the collapsed Settings card. It contains Optimize for, Kerf (saw blade width), Minimum offcut, Trim (edge trimming) and Oversize (per side). Its heading summarises the goal and changed values. See Settings.

Making the columns wider or narrower

In the wide layout there are two thin vertical strips between the columns. Drag one sideways and the column next to it gets wider or narrower. The left one sets how much room your parts list gets, the right one how much the results column with Cut list and Cutting order gets. Whatever is left over goes to the cutting plan in the middle, with the fixed header above it. Open the details in the scrolling area with Statistics, see Reading the cutting plan.

The right one can close completely. Click the chevron in the strip (Collapse the results column) and the results column slides away; the drawing then gets a good deal wider. The strip stays put with the chevron the other way round (Expand the results column) to bring it back. You do not lose your place in a long plan: the sheet that was at the top is still at the top afterwards.

It works with the keyboard too. Tab to a strip (Drag to change the width of the parts column, Drag to resize the results column) and use the left and right arrows; hold Shift for bigger steps. Home and End set it to its narrowest or widest, and on the right strip Home closes the column. Double-clicking puts the strip back at its default width.