A free online cutting optimizer for sheet materials. Enter your part sizes and the calculator lays them out on a sheet of particle board, plywood, MDF or blockboard, shows how many sheets you need, how much goes to waste and in what order to cut. Print the finished cutting map, or send it straight to us for cutting.
Online cutting map — particle board, plywood, MDF
WoodWay Expert
wood-way.expert · +380 (67) 180-38-13 · [email protected]
Material
Parts
| № | Width, mm | Height, mm | Qty | Grain | Actions |
|---|
Tip: copy the “width, height, quantity” columns from Excel and paste (Ctrl+V) into any cell of the table.
Result
Sheets needed
—
Waste
—
Of which usable offcuts
—
Material cost
—
An approximate layout and sheet count. Confirm the final layout with a manager before cutting.
How to make a cutting map
- Choose the material. For a sheet from our catalogue, the size, thickness and price fill in by themselves. For melamine board, hardboard or any other sheet, choose «Custom sheet size» and enter the width and height.
- Pick the saw. A hand-held circular saw takes about 2.4 mm per cut, a panel saw 3.2 mm, an industrial beam saw 4.4 mm. If you know your own kerf, enter it.
- Add the parts — width, height and quantity. You can copy the list from Excel or Google Sheets and paste it into the table with a single Ctrl+V.
- Mark the grain. On veneered boards and plywood the grain direction matters: a part set to follow the grain is never rotated. Where the grain does not matter, the calculator rotates the part itself whenever it fits better that way.
- Get the result: sheet count, waste percentage, usable offcuts, material cost and a drawing of every sheet with its cutting order.
What the calculation accounts for
- Kerf. Every cut eats the width of the blade. Twenty cuts at 3.2 mm come to 64 mm — sometimes exactly the part that did not fit.
- Edge trim. A factory sheet edge is often chipped or slightly out of square, so it is trimmed before cutting. The default is 10 mm on every side; you can change it.
- Guillotine cutting. Every cut runs across the whole piece from edge to edge, the way a panel saw cuts. So the layout you see can actually be sawn, not only drawn.
- Usable offcuts. Leftovers with both sides of at least 100 mm are counted separately from sawdust: they are marked on the drawing and can go to small parts.
Which materials
The material list holds sheets from our catalogue with their real sizes and prices: plywood (birch, film-faced, marine, flexible, fire-retardant), veneered particle board, veneered MDF, blockboard and wood wall panels. Any other sheet material — melamine board, hardboard, OSB, acrylic — works through a custom sheet size.
Frequently asked questions
Is this cutting optimizer free?
Yes. No sign-up and nothing to install — the calculator runs in the browser on a computer or a phone.
Can I plan cuts for a board that is not in your catalogue?
Yes. Choose «Custom sheet size» and enter the board’s dimensions, for example 2800 × 2070 mm. Add the price per sheet and the calculator works out the cost too.
How accurate is the result?
It is an estimated layout: the calculator quickly finds a dense arrangement but does not try every possible one. That is usually accurate enough to order from; a manager confirms the final layout before cutting.
How do I send the layout for cutting?
Press «Order cutting» — the manager receives your request together with a link to your cutting map. You can also copy the link for the manager or save the map as a PDF.
Is my layout saved?
The whole layout is stored in the «Link to this cutting map» address. Keep it, and you can open the same calculation later or on another device.