Article
What Is a Cabinet Cut List? Parts, Columns, and Shop Workflow
Cutlistor Team6 min read
Introduction
A cabinet cut list is the production document that turns a kitchen or casework design into every panel, stretcher, nailer, and stick you must cut. For professional cabinet makers, it sits between the shop drawings and the panel saw or CNC: part labels, finished sizes, quantities, material groups, grain flags, and edge notes on one list the estimator and the floor can both trust.
Without a clean cut list, quotes pad sheet counts, production runs short on gables, and pre-finished melamine gets wasted on wrong-grain rips. With one, the BOM feeds nesting, purchasing, and labeling in a single chain.
This guide defines the cabinet cut list in shop terms, lists the columns that matter on a production run, and shows how it connects to nesting on the cabinet making hub.
What Is a Cabinet Cut List?
A cabinet cut list is a structured bill of materials for cuttable parts. Every carcase panel, shelf, back, nailer, toe kick, face-frame stile, and filler strip gets a row with finished dimensions and quantity before stock is ordered.
It is narrower than a full project BOM (hinges, slides, and screws usually live elsewhere) and broader than a single nest diagram. The cut list is the source of truth for what leaves the sheet goods rack; the nest is how those rectangles pack onto 4x8 or metric sheets.
- Input: shop drawings, room elevations, or cabinet design software exports
- Output: labeled parts with L x W (or length), qty, material, thickness, grain, and notes
- Consumers: estimators, purchasing, panel saw / CNC operators, and assemblers
- Sibling docs: hardware BOM, edge banding schedule, and CNC boring maps (separate from Cutlistor)
Cabinet Cut List vs Generic Woodworking Cut List
| List type | Typical parts | Primary stock | Optimizer mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cabinet (frameless) | Gables, bottoms, shelves, backs, nailers | Melamine / plywood sheets | 2D sheet nesting |
| Cabinet (face frame) | Panels plus stiles and rails | Sheets + hardwood sticks | 2D + 1D linear |
| Furniture | Mixed panels and solids | Lumber + occasional sheet | Often 1D heavy |
| Millwork trim | Mouldings, scribe, fillers | Linear sticks | 1D linear |
Columns That Belong on a Production Cut List
| Column | Why shops need it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Part label / code | Matches drawings, stickers, and nest diagrams | BASE-03-GABLE-L |
| Finished L x W | Assembly size after joinery and banding | 34.5 in x 23.25 in |
| Thickness / material | Groups parts onto the same sheet SKU | 3/4 in white melamine |
| Quantity | Drives sheet count and yield | 12 |
| Grain / face | Protects show interiors and door blanks | Grain vertical on gable |
| Edge banding sides | Stops missing band on a front edge | Front + both longs |
| Cabinet / elevation ID | Batches by box for staging | Upper run A |
| Notes | Dado, hinge side, nailer location | Confirm wall thickness |
Sheet Parts and Linear Parts on One Kitchen
Most kitchen jobs are mixed stock. Carcase panels nest on 4x8 ft (1220 x 2440 mm) melamine or plywood. Face-frame stock, cleats, scribe fillers, and some toe-kick wraps cut from linear sticks. Treat each family as its own optimization problem so unlike materials never share a nest.
A practical shop rule: build the sheet cut list first for boxes, then a linear list for frames and fillers. Quote both sheet count and stick count before you buy.
Typical sheet rows
- Left and right gables (sides)
- Bottoms, fixed shelves, adjustable shelf blanks
- Tops or front/rear stretchers depending on construction
- Backs (full or partial), nailers, and hanging rails
- Drawer box parts when the shop builds its own boxes
Typical linear rows
- Face-frame stiles and rails
- Scribe fillers and filler strips
- Toe-kick face strips (when not cut from sheet)
- Cleats, nailers cut from solid, and light rail stock
From Drawing to Floor: A Shop Workflow
- Lock construction method (frameless vs face frame) and sheet thickness early
- Export or calculate finished panel sizes from elevations and openings
- Group by material and thickness; tag grain and banding
- Run sheet nesting with kerf set to the panel saw or CNC bit
- Run linear optimization for frames and fillers on the same job
- Export PDF cut plans for purchasing review and floor staging
- Label parts to match the cut list codes before assembly
Cut Lists and Quoting
Sheet goods are bought as full rectangles. Your margin depends on sheet count and yield, not on naive area math. A cut list that feeds an optimizer lets estimators show sheet count and waste percentage before the PO goes out.
When a designer changes base depth from 24 in to 21 in on a vanity run, every gable and bottom row changes. Regenerating the cut list and re-nesting is faster than redrawing layouts by hand, and it keeps the quote honest.
Building a Cabinet Cut List in Cutlistor
Cutlistor is a browser-based sheet (2D) and linear (1D) cut list optimizer. Enter rectangular carcase parts with quantities, set kerf and grain, and compare layout methods for sheet count and yield. Use the linear tool for face frames and fillers. It is not a full cabinet design suite: no hinge boring maps or room planner.
On the free plan you can edit parts and re-optimize without limit — those actions are never counted. What is counted is finished output: PDF exports and new projects draw down an allowance of 3 per day. The working list tops out at 20 rows, spreadsheet imports at 5 rows per file, and nothing persists once you leave.
Pro is $12/mo or $99/yr; Business $25/mo or $249/yr; Team $99/mo or $999/yr (up to 5 seats). Paid plans add saved projects, stock inventory, DXF export, higher AI plan scans, and 3D glTF/GLB/Collada imports for part extraction.
- Import CSV or XLSX when the BOM already lives in a spreadsheet
- Nest melamine, plywood, or MDF with kerf and optional grain lock
- Export PDF cut plans for the panel saw or CNC staging table
- Re-optimize unlimited times as field measures update sizes
FAQ
Is a cabinet cut list the same as a BOM?
It is a cuttable subset of the BOM. Hardware, finishes, and appliances stay on the purchasing BOM. The cut list focuses on parts that consume sheet or stick stock.
Do I need cabinet design software to make a cut list?
No. Many shops still build lists from elevations and spreadsheets. Design software can export sizes, but you still need nesting with kerf before you buy sheets. Cutlistor accepts manual entry or spreadsheet import.
Should I use inches or millimeters?
Match the shop floor. North American residential casework often uses inches (base height 34.5 in plus counter, base depth 24 in, wall depth 12 in). Frameless shops on the 32 mm system often prefer millimeters. Pick one unit per job and stay consistent.
When does a cut list become an optimized nest?
When you feed finished sizes into nesting software that packs rectangles onto stock with kerf. The list alone tallies parts; the optimizer answers sheet count and layout. See the companion article on cabinet cut list optimizers.
Conclusion
Start from the cabinet making pillar, then run your next kitchen BOM through the free sheet optimizer and compare sheet count to your usual spreadsheet pad.