Sheet Cutting Optimizer & Cut List Planner
Arrange rectangular parts across sheets with kerf, edge trim, quantities and optional 90° rotation.
Example: an 18-piece rectangular cut list
For 2440 × 1220 mm sheets, 3 mm kerf, no edge trim and rotation allowed, enter six 800 × 400 mm pieces, four 600 × 300 mm pieces and eight 250 × 200 mm pieces. The plan uses 2 sheets for all 18 pieces, with 51.1% useful material utilization. The 3,040,000 mm² of requested parts already exceeds one sheet, so two sheets is the minimum for this example.
Move from one cut plan to repeatable project work.
The standard rectangular optimizer stays free. Use the workspace for reusable product data, projects, saved results and professional operational context.
How the sheet cutting optimizer works
The engine expands your requested quantities into rectangular pieces, applies a conservative kerf allowance, then runs 35 deterministic combinations in general nesting or 14 combinations in guillotine mode. The result using the fewest sheets and best placement score is selected.
What “waste” means here
Material utilization is calculated from the actual requested piece area divided by the full area of the sheets used. Kerf, trims and unusable spaces therefore remain outside the useful-part area.
Frequently asked questions
What cutting problem does this tool solve?
PackMize solves rectangular 2D sheet packing. It places rectangular pieces into rectangular sheets and tests multiple deterministic heuristics.
Does kerf reduce available material?
Yes. The optimizer reserves the entered blade or cut width between packed pieces using a conservative spacing model.
Is this a CNC nesting program?
No. It produces planning layouts for rectangular pieces. It does not generate machine toolpaths or irregular-shape nesting.
Can I use it as a plywood or MDF cut list optimizer?
Yes, for rectangular parts. Enter the real sheet size, blade kerf and edge trim. Disable rotation on parts with a required grain or surface direction.
Does this produce guillotine-only cuts?
Select Guillotine mode for an ordered sequence of edge-to-edge cuts across each subpanel. General nesting uses MaxRects and does not guarantee that sequence. Check the selected plan against actual machine limits.