FastCUT® cutting software produces optimized cutting plans for rectangular, linear & cut to length stock such as plate, wood/plywood panels and flat glass. Powerful nesting algorithms deliver substantial savings in seconds and the program also generates pick lists. Use for metal, wood, glass, marble, plastics and 'like' products for maximize yield. Handles multiple stock sizes and parts consolidation. Optimize on material or handling. Covers sheared and sawn processing with kerf width allowance for saw blade.
FastCUT® provides a means of nesting a set of rectangular shaped parts into a set of rectangular shaped sheets of stock material. The `grain' of any part may be preserved, preventing rotation of the part during nesting.
CutList Optimizer is an application targeted for panel cutting optimization. It generates optimized cutting patterns based on the available stock sheets by nesting the required. Generates optimized cutting layouts for sheet materials, including plywood, lumber, glass, metal, granite, fabric, and any other material in rectangular sheets. Specify the size parts you need to cut and receive an efficient cutting diagram. Save detailed reports to view the materials used. With this cutlist optimizer, you can automatically create optimal layouts to use the entire surface area of the material you’re working with without leaving unusable cuts and instantaneously calculate quantities and prices of the materials needed for your project.
FastCUT® assumes use of a shear or guillotine for cutting the parts. The essential feature of such a machine is that it does not cut re-entrant corners; it cuts completely through a workpiece at every operation, and every offcut is itself a rectangle.
Machines having such features are common in light metal fabrication, joinery using saws, glass cutting and many other applications. Other machines may be simulated, however, the nesting technique is unchanged. Shears with programmable backstops can also be linked to FastCUT®.
Affects your bottom line in such an easy, instant and dramatic way!
There's not a lot of software in this price range that affects your bottom line in such an easy, instant and dramatic way. FastCUT® lets even small job shops incorporate powerful nesting efficiencies into their business whether they use manual or automatic cutting. It gives the operator the complete graphics of the cutting required on a particular job. And as the program allows for dates of jobs and materials used, it can also be used as a very simple and basic quoting system.
While shearing will still be a manual operation, the FastCUT® program will take the tedium out of nesting the patterns, and maximize the use of the material. The program begins with entering the list of required widths and lengths. It will then process the part variations within sheets. It can, in fact, test a whole range of processes over a different range of sheets and the operator can see the sheet layout on the screen. Nesting can be terminated after a specified time has elapsed, or after attaining a specified scrap factor (scrap mass expressed as a percentage of total mass of parts). Nesting can also be interrupted at any time for review of results to date. The program will break down the amount of material into that being used, that which needs to be returned to stock, and that which is scrap. Stock consumption can be prioritized by nominating some items as pre-existing remnant, which forces the use of non-remnant stock where possible. Remnant can be defined by mass and/or width and/or length. Alternatively, all offcut can be defined as scrap.
Works with Coil as well as Sheet and Bar! FastCUT® also provides a means of nesting a set of rectangular shaped parts or bars into a set of coils, rectangular shaped sheets or bars of stock material. Choices for stockfeed are: 1. Lengths as given, 2. Coil cut to mixed lengths, 3. Coil cut to same lengths.
Summary of Features:
- 1D & 2D nesting - Rectangular, Linear & Cut to Length.
- Optimizes Remnant before using Standard size Stocks.
- Job costing calculator produces material cost and return to stock.
- Cutting list/plan calculator for factory staff.
- Produces simple reports for analysis.
- Simple job and quote tracking data.
- DXF Output.
- Kerf Width Allowance: For a shear, guillotine, cropper etc. there is normally no material lost in a cut, although an exception could be made if it were necessary to dress sheared edges as a secondary process. Other thermal or mechanical cutting processes usually result in a finite loss of material which can be specified as Kerf Width Allowance.
- Inch and Metric
- Multi language support (English, Spanish; Chinese [simplified and traditional]; Dutch; Hungarian; Italian; Russian; Thai)
- Add FastCUT® Labels and you can print sticky labels with the cut list data for part identification.
- FastCUT® operates on a single user Windows PC.
- A multi user network version is available for corporates who wish to deploy FastCUT® in a hosted environment such as Citrix or Terminal Services.
- Customized Editions for Metal, Wood and (Flat) Glass are available.
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What if you could consistently determine the most efficient way to cut your wood stock down into project-ready pieces?
First off you’d save yourself money – quite a big chunk over time depending on how much wood you buy. Some other repercussions? You’d have no need for articles like: 11 Ideas for Wood Cut Offs, and you could strike the cut off storage plans off your list of wood storage plans.
So if you’re willing to save money and give up your future cut off supply (you have probably saved more than you can ever use anyways ;) then you should give these two free programs a try. I found these two programs in the Woodnet thread: one of the best tools I have found in a while
1) Cutlist Generator
“This program creates a diagram showing the stock pieces and how the required parts may be cut from them. Data may created, deleted, modified and saved to a file for later use. Users can specify the width of material lost during cutting (saw blade kerf width), and the minimum dimension of waste material to report. Solution searches give priority to crosscuts (vertical on the screen) or rip-cuts (horizontal) first or will try a Combination approach using all possible mixes of both types of cuts.”
Cutlist Optimizer Free
This particular application – which you will have to download to your computer and run from there – has mentions from many many woodworking forums. It’s often compared to Cutlist Plus, a more polished program that costs between $90 and $500. Most say it’s not as good looking or quite as easy to use, but it’s free and “works well for my usage” according to most everyone. Pages linking to this program (might prove useful if you have any specific questions or problems…)
Free Cutlist Software
2) Solving “the Cutting Stock Problem”
“The Cutting Stock problem requires that we find the best (cheapest) way to cut one-dimensional stock pieces (pipe, dimensional lumber, wire, rolls of paper or other sheet material to be slit, etc.) in such a way that a given number of pieces of specified lengths or widths are created.”
Plywood Sheet Cut Layout
Like sheet stock, linear stock can pose thorny mathematical problems when trying to minimize waste. This program will do the thinking for you! For free. What’s not to love?