Free Cut List Calculator
Enter your parts and a sheet size — get a live optimised cutting layout. UK-metric default, no sign-up, works for plywood, MDF, melamine and any sheet goods.
Use the preview anonymously in your browser. Sign up only if you want to save or import this cut list into the full app — no card required.
Public preview: up to 5 cut-piece lines and 10 total parts. Sign up free to save bigger jobs and keep adding pieces.
Typical: 3 mm for a standard circular saw blade.
- 1×Back— 600 × 720 mm
- 2×Side panel— 560 × 720 mm
- 1×Shelf— 568 × 520 mm
- 1×Shelf— 520 × 568 mm
- 1×Shelf— 520 × 568 mm
Sign up free to save this preview, add more parts, edge banding, grain direction, and multiple sheet sizes. We'll carry your cut list into the full CutList app after sign-up. .
How this calculator works
Enter your parts
List every panel you need — width × height × quantity. Name them (Side, Shelf, Door) so the diagram stays readable.
Pick your sheet size
Start with a preset or enter a custom sheet size. Standard UK plywood is 2440 × 1220 mm; US 4×8 sheets are 2438 × 1219 mm.
Set your blade kerf
Kerf is the width of material removed by the blade. Default 3 mm is safe for a circular saw. Track saws run thinner.
Read the layout
The SVG diagram shows each sheet with parts placed to minimise waste. Sheet count, waste percentage, and total cut length update live.
Take it to the workshop
Print directly, or sign up for free to import this preview into the full CutList app — add grain direction, edge banding, and save it to your project library.
The cut list formula
A cut list calculator is a 2D bin-packing problem. You have rectangular parts to fit into rectangular sheets, with two extra constraints: each cut must cross the full sheet (“guillotine” constraint, matching how a panel or table saw cuts), and each cut removes a kerf of material equal to the blade width.
Our algorithm uses a Best-Short-Side-Fit rect-choice heuristic: for each part we search every free rectangle on the current sheet and pick the one where the leftover shorter dimension is smallest. Once a part is placed, we split the remaining free rectangle along the direction that preserves the largest usable area (MAXAS rule), subtracting the kerf. Parts are processed in area-descending order, which packs large parts first and fills smaller gaps with smaller parts.
Typical occupancy on mixed cabinet part lists is 85–94%, a few percentage points better than naive shelf-pack algorithms and within 1–2% of the best non-guillotine methods (which produce layouts you couldn’t actually cut on a panel saw). See Jylänki's A Thousand Ways to Pack the Bin (2010) for the benchmark study.
When to use this calculator vs the full CutList app
This page is a fast, zero-friction sketch tool. The full CutList app adds everything you need for a real project.
| Feature | Calculator | Full app |
|---|---|---|
| Live optimised layout | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inch-based entry and display | — | ✓ |
| Custom sheet sizes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works offline once loaded | ✓ | — |
| Grain direction | — | ✓ |
| Edge banding | — | ✓ |
| Multiple sheet sizes per project | — | ✓ |
| Material library | — | ✓ |
| Save projects | — | ✓ |
| Offcut inventory | — | ✓ |
| Printable cut plan + summary | — | ✓ |