What a cut list optimizer does for a sheet-goods project
Before you buy plywood for a bookcase, cabinet or set of shelves, you need two answers: how many sheets, and where each part comes from. A cut list optimizer works both out from your parts list. Cut List Optimizer runs on your Windows PC, reworks the layout every time you change a part, and keeps the arrangement that needs the fewest sheets while leaving the largest usable offcuts.
The layouts are guillotine layouts, which is what makes them practical in a home shop. Each sheet is ripped into strips, each strip is crosscut into pieces, and a piece is only ripped again where narrower parts are stacked. Every cut goes from one edge to the other, so a table saw or track saw can make it without stopping mid-panel.
The result is drawn sheet by sheet, with Previous sheet and Next sheet to step through them, and a state line that sums up the sheet count, the yield and how many cuts the plan involves.
How to make a cut list for plywood
A project starts with a Parts table. Each row gets a Name, Length, Width and quantity, plus a Grain setting. You can type sizes the way they are written on a drawing: 11 1/4, 11-1/4, 11¼, 2' 6, 285.75mm or 28.5 cm all work. Choose Inches, shown to the nearest 1/16, or Millimeters under Units.
Then set the Stock. The presets cover a 4 × 8 ft plywood sheet, 5 × 5 ft Baltic birch, a 4 × 4 ft half sheet, a 2 × 4 ft project panel, 2440 × 1220 mm and 2500 × 1250 mm boards, 2800 × 2070 mm MDF, and 8 ft 1×6, 1×8 and 1×12 boards. Pick Custom size for anything else, and enter the Thickness and Price per sheet.
Parts larger than the stock are kept off the layout and listed under Not placed, so a typo never silently breaks the plan.
Saw kerf, edge trim and grain direction
A layout that ignores the blade is a layout that comes up short. Set Saw kerf to None (scored or laser), 1/16, 3/32, 1/8, 5/32 or 3/16 in, and every cut removes that width. Edge trim of 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 in takes the dinged factory edges off before anything else.
Grain matters on veneered plywood and visible panels. Each part runs With grain by default; click its grain button to make it Either way. On the sheet itself, click a part to Rotate it across the grain or Lock it where it is, and the rest of the layout rebuilds around it. Turn Respect grain off and every part is free to turn.
How many sheets of plywood do you need, and what is wasted
Alongside the layout, the cost card shows what your sheets cost, the area your parts actually use, the area left over and the Waste cost in money, which makes it easy to judge whether a design tweak is worth it. Offcuts above the Smallest offcut worth keeping setting are labeled with their size under Keep these offcuts.
Print cut list or Export PDF produces a shop copy: every part with its size and grain, then one page per sheet with its diagram, the parts on it, the offcuts and numbered Cut steps, rips first and crosscuts after. Save project keeps everything in a .cutlist file.
