Free Cut List Optimizer for Plywood and Sheet Goods

You have a parts list for a set of garage shelves. You have one sheet of 3/4 plywood that cost more than you would like to admit. Between those two things sits about twenty minutes of arithmetic on the back of a receipt, and that arithmetic goes fine right up until the last three parts, when the sheet turns out to be full and you are getting back in the truck.

We have all done the version where you eyeball it, too. That one ends with a beautiful cabinet and a pile of offcuts that are all four inches too narrow to ever be anything.

Sheet Math Is Worse Than It Looks

Fitting rectangles into a bigger rectangle sounds like a puzzle you should be able to do in your head. Four things make it genuinely hard:

Kerf. Every cut turns a strip of wood into dust. An eighth of an inch does not sound like much until you have made forty cuts and your last shelf is short. If kerf is new to you, we wrote a whole post on it.

Grain. A cabinet side rotated ninety degrees packs beautifully and looks wrong forever. Some parts can spin and some absolutely cannot, and the layout changes completely depending on which is which.

Offcuts. Two layouts can use the same number of sheets and leave you in totally different places. One leaves a 40 by 12 remnant that becomes a shelf next month. The other leaves five skinny strips headed for the burn pile.

The saw itself. Ordinary saw work is made of cuts that run all the way across the piece in front of the blade, edge to edge, and every piece you keep is the result of another one of those. You do not free a rectangle from the middle of a sheet. Most pretty nesting diagrams you find online quietly ignore that, which is why they fall apart the moment you are standing at an actual saw.

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Saw Mode and CNC Mode Solve Different Problems

CutPlan has two cutting methods, and picking the right one is the first thing you do.

Saw mode respects the physics of a blade. CNC mode does not have to, because a router bit or a laser can drop into the middle of a sheet and cut a closed shape out of it.

You can switch between them and the whole plan converts. Going from CNC back to Saw drops any imported shapes, since a saw cannot cut them, and CutPlan warns you before it does that.

There Is No Optimize Button

This is the part that feels different from every other cut list program. There is no button. You type a part into the empty row at the bottom of the list and it lands on the sheet. Change a quantity from 4 to 6 and the layout rebuilds. Add a part that does not fit and a second sheet opens up.

Because it re-solves constantly, you can use it as a thinking tool instead of a reporting tool. Try 11 1/4 shelves instead of 12. Watch whether it saves you a sheet. It usually takes about four seconds to find out.

There is also a pager above the sheets when CutPlan finds more than one good answer. Those alternates use the same number of sheets but leave different offcuts. Nothing but you can judge whether one big usable remnant beats three small ones, so it hands you the choice instead of guessing.

The Cut Sequence Is What Saves Your Saturday

A layout diagram tells you where the parts go. It does not tell you what to do first, and at a table saw the order is not optional. Cut in the wrong sequence and you end up trying to balance a 3 foot offcut against a fence with nothing to reference off.

CutPlan writes the order out as instructions:

Take the sheet. Measure 24 1/8 from the left edge and cut top to bottom. Makes piece A and piece B.

Rips come first. Divider cuts come before a run of equal cuts. Every instruction names a lettered piece that matches a letter printed on the sheet diagram, so you always know which slab of plywood is the one being talked about. Leftovers get labeled as offcuts, so you know which pieces to set aside instead of cutting up.

One convention matters and it is worth reading twice: every measurement is a finished size. The blade removes its kerf on the far side of the line. Measure to the line, cut on the waste side, and the piece comes off correct.

The Settings Worth Getting Right

Kerf, in Saw mode. In plan settings, tell CutPlan how much wood your blade turns into dust. The 1/8 inch default is a common starting value for a standard table saw blade, and a thin kerf blade is usually nearer 3/32. Blades vary, so check the blade's spec or measure your own cut once and use that number.

Bit and spacing, in CNC mode. CNC mode does not use saw kerf. Instead, each material carries a bit diameter, plus optional extra spacing and edge clearance. CutPlan already keeps parts one bit diameter apart and half a bit inside the sheet edge, so those two fields add breathing room on top of that rather than replacing it.

Grain, in both modes. Each part row has a grain toggle. Locked means the part's length runs along the sheet grain and the optimizer cannot spin it. Unlocked means it is free to rotate.

Bringing In Shapes That Are Not Rectangles

Rectangles cover most sheet goods work, but CNC mode also takes imported artwork. Import one closed, filled SVG shape, confirm its real finished length, and CutPlan nests it alongside everything else with the proportions locked.

It is picky on purpose, and it tells you why when it refuses a file:

• Files over 5 MB, empty files, and anything that is not an SVG are refused up front
• Open paths and stroke-only paths are refused, because they do not enclose an actual part
• Scripts, links, and unsupported SVG features are refused to keep the file safe
• Multiple separate filled pieces are refused, since one imported file makes one part
• Artwork over 5,000 points is refused as too detailed to nest and export reliably

If your shape started life as an image, run it through MonoTrace first. It is free, and it gives you the closed filled outline CutPlan is looking for. If your shape is a DXF from someone else's CAD, File Converter converts it to SVG, though downloading the converted file requires a paid plan.

What You Actually Take to the Shop

Exports come as one ZIP. Saw plans contain a PDF and one SVG per sheet. CNC plans add a DXF per sheet.

The PDF is the one you print and clip to the wall: sheet diagrams with lettered pieces, the parts list, and the written cut sequence. The per-sheet SVG and DXF files are what you feed a router or a laser.

Part colors do double duty here. On screen and in the PDF they help you spot matching pieces at a glance. In the exported SVG they come through as stroke colors, which laser software can map to separate operations.

A Realistic Workflow

1. Add your stock. One material is one sheet you would actually buy: 96 by 48, 3/4 plywood. Set the thickness so parts from different stock never get mixed together.
2. Pick your mode and units. Saw or CNC, inches or millimeters.
3. Set your kerf. Thirty seconds now, no short shelves later.
4. Type your parts. Name, length, width, quantity. Watch the sheets fill as you go.
5. Fix the grain. Lock the parts that show. Unlock the ones that do not.
6. Look at the alternates. Same sheet count, better leftovers, no extra cost.
7. Print the PDF, or export the sheets as SVG or DXF for the CNC or the laser.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CutPlan free?

Yes. Planning, optimizing, and the on-screen cut sequence cost no credits. You need a free Craftgineer account to use it, and exporting the printable and machine-ready file pack requires a paid plan.

Does it work in millimeters?

Yes. Units are a plan setting, so you can work in inches or millimeters and type sizes the way you say them out loud, like 23 3/4 or 600.

Does it account for saw blade kerf?

Yes. You set the kerf in plan settings and every layout and measurement respects it. All the dimensions it gives you are finished part sizes.

Can I use it for laser cutting?

Yes, use CNC mode. It nests parts individually rather than assuming full-width cuts, and it exports a DXF and an SVG with color-coded contours for each sheet.

Can I import a DXF part?

Not directly. Import is one closed, filled SVG shape at a time, in CNC mode. Convert a DXF to SVG with File Converter first, then import it.

How many sheets can it plan at once?

Enough for real furniture and cabinet jobs. Very large plans are the only place you will hit a ceiling, and CutPlan tells you plainly when a plan is too big to optimize fully so you can split it into two.

Go Fill a Sheet

Open CutPlan, add a 96 by 48 sheet, and type in the parts for whatever is next on your list. The first thing most people notice is not the optimization. It is finding out that the project they were sure needed three sheets actually needs two.

That is a real sheet of plywood you did not buy, on the very first plan.