Material Cutting Optimiser

A material cutting optimiser works out how to cut required piece lengths from standard stock lengths — such as steel bars, timber, pipes or conduit, so you buy fewer lengths and scrap less material. KaelSite’s tool builds a cutting list and shows utilisation, kerf allowance and reusable offcuts.

By combining different required lengths on the same stock bar where they fit, the calculator reduces leftover scrap. Better packing means fewer bars purchased and a higher share of each bar used for productive cuts rather than waste.

Kerf is the width of material removed by the saw (or other cutting tool) on each cut. This optimiser applies kerf once per piece cut from a stock length, including a final cut at the end of the last piece. A single piece that exactly matches the stock length uses the whole bar with no kerf.

Enter your stock length (for example 6,000 mm), kerf, and every required cut length with its quantity, then run Calculate. The summary shows how many stock bars you need to buy, plus the cutting pattern for each bar.

Yes. Choose Steel, Timber, Aluminium, Pipe, Conduit or Other, then set the stock length and required cuts. The maths is the same one-dimensional cutting problem for any linear material sold in fixed lengths.

Offcuts longer than your minimum reusable length are classified as reusable and listed separately from scrap waste. You can also enter previously saved offcut lengths so the optimiser tries those before buying new stock. Full multi-pass inventory optimisation continues to improve in later releases.

For smaller jobs the solver can prove the minimum number of stock lengths. Larger jobs use proven heuristics (First Fit Decreasing with local improvement). Results always state whether the answer is verified optimal or heuristic — we never label a heuristic pack as mathematically guaranteed optimal.