Last updated: May 29, 2026
Welcome to CutList Workspace, your dedicated material yield optimization platform. We provide craftsmen, professional woodworkers, cabinet makers, and DIY enthusiasts with the computational tools required to reduce material waste, plan layouts efficiently, and save hard-earned money on raw materials.
Our goal is to build the world's most accessible, reliable, and clean 2D sheet nesting and 1D linear cut list optimizer. We believe that professional-grade workshop utilities should be responsive, modern, and direct—requiring no heavy installations, account walls, or hidden fees. By keeping the vast majority of mathematical calculations local to your browser, we protect your data while delivering optimized cut maps in milliseconds.
At the core of CutList Workspace are high-performance computational geometry routines designed to solve the classic 2D Bin Packing Problem and 1D Cutting Stock Problem. Both are NP-hard mathematical challenges. Our engine offers three distinct algorithms, each tailored for different fabrication machinery and materials:
How it works: The Guillotine algorithm nests rectangular parts by ensuring that every division made to a sheet is a "straight-through" edge-to-edge cut (like a paper guillotine shear). Once a cut is completed, the resulting sub-sheets are recursively divided until all parts are placed.
Benefits: This algorithm is absolutely essential for standard woodworking shops using table saws, sliding panel saws, radial arm saws, or track saws. Because manual tools cannot execute internal "L-shaped" cuts or enclosed pockets, the Guillotine cut guarantees that the optimized cutting maps are physically possible to execute on your physical saw equipment safely and sequentially.
How it works: This heuristic tracks the remaining free areas of a sheet as a collection of overlapping maximal rectangles. It places incoming parts based on a Bottom-Left Fill strategy, rotating pieces dynamically (if grain direction permits) to tuck them tightly into available interior cavities.
Benefits: Ideal for automated fabrication equipment such as CNC routers, laser cutters, plasma cutters, waterjets, and vinyl plotters. Because these automated machines navigate along coordinates with zero straight-line limits, this algorithm nests parts freely inside cut holes, maximizing yield when guillotine shear limits do not apply.
How it works: This engine addresses linear lumber optimization. It sorts required parts by length and nests them onto linear boards using a hybrid greedy first-fit descending heuristic combined with dynamic programming, designed to solve the linear cutting stock problem.
Benefits: Perfect for planning dimensional hardwood/softwood lumber, baseboards, crown moldings, metal pipes, extrusions, trim, and edge banding. It calculates the most efficient linear spans to minimize board scrap, telling you exactly which parts to cut out of which board lengths.