Plywood Cut Optimizer
List the pieces you need and it calculates the most efficient way to cut them from your sheet — minimizing waste.
Sheet settings
Mode
Cut list
List the pieces you need and it calculates the most efficient way to cut them from your sheet — minimizing waste.
Sheet settings
Mode
Cut list
Plywood is expensive and comes in 4×8 sheets. Give this your cut list and it works out how to lay the pieces out so you buy the fewest sheets and waste the least material.
The tool packs your required pieces onto standard sheets, accounting for the saw kerf — the material the blade turns into sawdust, typically about 1/8 inch — which is why cuts that look like they fit exactly on paper often do not fit in reality. It then reports the layout and how many sheets you need.
Example
Four panels at 24 × 30 inches look like they should fit neatly on one 48 × 96 sheet. Add a 1/8-inch kerf to each cut and the layout has to be planned properly or the last piece comes up short.
Lay out all the pieces before you cut any of them, cut the largest ones first, and allow for the 1/8-inch kerf on every cut. Planning the whole sheet routinely saves an entire sheet on a cabinet project.
Kerf is the width of material the saw blade destroys — about 1/8 inch. Across a sheet with several cuts it adds up to most of an inch, which is more than enough to leave your last piece short.
It depends entirely on the layout, which is what this tool is for. A good layout regularly fits a whole cabinet's worth of parts on one sheet where a careless one needs two.