Linear Cut List Optimizer
Tell it your board or bar length, your saw blade width, and the pieces you need to cut. It packs everything into the fewest stock pieces and draws each one so you can see exactly where to cut and how much you waste. Works in your browser, nothing uploaded.
Cutting Layout
Cut Sequence
Learn more: linear cut list optimization
How the packing works - First-Fit-Decreasing with kerf
This is a one-dimensional cutting-stock problem: fit a set of required lengths into the fewest fixed-length stock pieces. The optimizer expands your piece list (length times quantity), sorts every piece from longest to shortest, then drops each piece into the first stock piece that still has room. When nothing has room, it starts a new stock piece. Each cut also burns one saw kerf, so a piece really consumes its length plus the kerf. A stock piece holding n cuts uses sum(lengths) + n × kerf, and whatever is left over is the offcut.
A worked example
Say you have 2400 mm boards, a 3 mm kerf, and you need four 600 mm shelves, two 900 mm sides, and six 300 mm dividers. Each 600 mm shelf actually needs 603 mm of board, each 900 mm side needs 903 mm, each divider needs 303 mm. Sorted longest-first, the two 900 mm sides go down, then the 600 mm shelves and 300 mm dividers fill the gaps. The tool shows the resulting boards as horizontal bars with each cut drawn to scale, the leftover offcut shaded at the end, and a waste percentage so you can judge whether buying a different stock length would cut down on scrap.
Limits and tips
FFD is a heuristic, not a guarantee of the perfect minimum, but it lands close and the layout is easy to follow at the saw. This version assumes a single stock length for the whole job (a deliberate simplification for the common case of buying one standard length). Any piece longer than one stock piece, including its kerf, is flagged and skipped rather than silently dropped. Set the kerf to match your actual blade: a thin-kerf table saw blade is roughly 2 to 3 mm, while a bandsaw or angle grinder can be thinner or much wider.
FAQ
What is saw kerf and why does it matter for cut lists?
Kerf is the width of material the saw blade removes with each cut. A thin-kerf table saw blade is about 2 to 3 mm; a chop saw or bandsaw can differ. It matters because every cut turns a sliver of stock into dust. If you ignore kerf and cut four 600 mm pieces from a 2400 mm board, you come up short, because three kerfs of waste were never accounted for. This tool subtracts one kerf per piece so the layout actually fits.
How does First-Fit-Decreasing packing work?
First-Fit-Decreasing (FFD) sorts every required piece from longest to shortest, then places each piece into the first stock length it still fits in, opening a new stock length only when none of the current ones have room. It is a fast, well-known bin-packing heuristic. It does not guarantee the mathematically perfect minimum number of boards, but it gets very close and is easy to follow on the shop floor.
Does this assume every stock piece is the same length?
Yes. This calculator uses one stock length for the whole job, which covers the common case of buying boards, tube, or bar in a single standard length. Mixed stock lengths are a harder problem and are out of scope here. If your offcuts pile up, try ordering pieces so the longest combine cleanly, or split the run by stock length and optimise each batch separately.