How to make a cut list for plywood or timber
- 1Choose sheets (plywood, MDF, chipboard, plasterboard) or boards and lengths (timber, battens, skirting).
- 2Enter the sheet size or the stock lengths you can buy, with prices if you want the cost.
- 3Set the saw cut (kerf) and any edge trim, and pick the unit for every size.
- 4List your parts — name, length, width and how many; tick grain to keep a part's length along the sheet's grain.
- 5Follow each sheet's numbered cuts, keep the offcuts, and save, print or share the plan.
How the cutting plan is worked out
- 01Each part gets one saw cut added to its length and width; so does the sheet, after any edge trim.
- 02Sheets: parts go into free rectangles, biggest first; each placement makes two straight cuts that run right across a piece (guillotine cuts).
- 0340 combinations of sort order, split rule and fit rule are tried; the plan with the fewest sheets, then the biggest offcut, wins.
- 04Boards: parts go longest first into the board they leave least spare in; each board then becomes the cheapest stock length that still holds its parts.
- 05Waste = 1 − part area (or length) ÷ what you buy.
Guillotine cuts are the kind a panel saw, table saw or track saw can make: every cut goes from one edge of a piece to the other. Plans with stop cuts can pack a little tighter, but you can't make them safely by hand.
The saw cut matters more than people think: with a 3 mm blade, eight 610 mm squares no longer fit on one 2440 × 1220 mm sheet — only three per sheet do. A track saw blade is about 2.2 mm (Festool TS 55) and a circular saw blade about 2.4–3.2 mm. Check the sheet's real size too: many are a few millimetres off or not quite square, which is what the edge trim is for.
Tips before you buy
- Measure the sheet first, and trim the factory edges if they are damaged or out of square.
- Mark every part before the first cut, and saw on the waste side of each line.
- Tick grain for doors, panels and anything where the wood figure should run the same way.
- Parts of the same width cut fastest from one long strip: rip the strip, then cross-cut it.
- Keep big offcuts flat and labelled — the plan lists the ones worth keeping.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a part limit?
No sign-up and no fee, and up to 600 pieces in one plan — enough for a whole kitchen. Everything is worked out in your browser.
Why does the saw cut change the number of sheets?
Every cut turns a strip of wood into dust. Eight 610 mm squares fill a 2440 × 1220 mm sheet exactly with no cut, but with a 3 mm blade four squares need 2452 mm, so only three fit across and one row down — three sheets instead of one.
What does grain do?
It keeps that part's length along the sheet's length, so the wood figure (or the long direction of a laminate) runs the same way. Without it the optimizer may turn the part a quarter to save material.
Can I mix stock lengths for timber?
Yes. Add every length the yard sells, with prices, and the plan buys the cheapest mix that holds all your parts.
Can I follow the plan with a track saw?
Yes. Every cut runs right across the piece it is in; make them in the numbered order and measure from the edges the plan names.
Can I save or share the plan?
Download a PDF with every sheet drawn and the cut order, add it to My renovation, or copy a link that opens the same parts.
Sources
- Jukka Jylänki, A Thousand Ways to Pack the Bin – a practical approach to two-dimensional rectangle bin packing (guillotine algorithm)
- Rockler: Festool 48-tooth fine crosscut blade for the TS 55 track saw, 2.2 mm kerf
- Sheet and board packing: the same unit-tested code on every RoomCalcs page (worked examples in the tests).
Formulas last reviewed: September 30, 2026 ·How we check our formulas