Cut list optimizer vs Excel

Keep Excel for what it is unbeatable at: the parts list itself, quantities, material costs, revision history and anything you need to send a supplier.

Add an optimizer for the geometry: nesting, kerf, offcut tracking and the cut diagram. These are not competing tools, and the common mistake is trying to make the spreadsheet do the second job with a formula.

Cutlistor recalculates as you type. Change a part width, add a sheet, adjust the kerf - the layout redraws immediately. There is no Calculate button in the interface, because there is nothing to wait for.

That sounds cosmetic until you price a real job. Cut lists are not entered once; they are edited twenty times as a design settles. A tool that recalculates on demand charges you a click and a pause for every one of those edits, and the cost lands precisely when you are iterating hardest.

It is also worth noting what Cutlistor does not do: charge for calculation speed. Every plan, including the free tier, runs the same solver at the same speed. Some competitors reserve faster calculation for a higher tier - so the customer who edits most, and therefore waits most, is the one asked to pay extra to stop waiting.

Typing a cut list by hand is where the time actually goes, and it is where almost every optimizer leaves you. Cutlistor accepts parts from four directions:

You do not have to guess the format. Download a sample below, replace the rows with your own parts, and import it - sheet files take name, length, width, qty, grain direction, material code, material name and a free-text column; linear files take name, length, qty, material code, material name and a free-text column. Column matching handles the common variations, so headings like “Width (mm)” or “Quantity” are recognised without renaming.

Most optimizers stop at rectangles and lengths. Real work has awkward parts, and these are the ones that usually get handled by hand on a notepad:

Worth starting here, because most comparisons on this topic are written to sell software.

A spreadsheet handles arbitrary columns - supplier codes, finish schedules, per-part notes - without asking anyone's permission. It costs nothing extra if you already have Office. It works offline, on any machine, forever, with no account. Everyone in the trade can already open one. And for costing a job with your own formulas, it is more flexible than any dedicated tool will be.

None of that goes away when you add an optimizer, which is why the sensible workflow keeps both.

You do not have to choose, and the transition costs about five minutes.

Build the parts list in the spreadsheet exactly as you do now - one row per part, with width, length, quantity and material. Import that CSV or XLSX straight into Cutlistor, which reads it directly rather than making you retype anything. Optimize, then export the PDF cut plan for the shop and, if a CNC is involved, DXF for the machine.

Costing stays in the spreadsheet, where your formulas already live. The optimizer tells you how many sheets you actually need, which is usually the number your costing was guessing at.

There are downloadable Excel templates that claim to optimize cutting, and they are worth understanding before you spend an evening on one.

The good ones lay out a tidy parts table with kerf columns and a bit of conditional formatting, which is genuinely useful as a parts list. The ones that claim to nest usually either solve a single simplified strip-cutting case, or require the macro-enabled Solver add-in and a model you have to maintain yourself.

Neither approach re-solves when you change a dimension, which is the thing you actually need it to do. If a template is doing the job for you, keep it - but check it against a real optimizer once on a job you have already cut, and compare the sheet counts.

The most convincing test is a job where you already know the answer. Take a cut list you have run, import the spreadsheet, set your real kerf and stock sizes, and compare the sheet count with what you actually bought.

The free tier runs in the browser with no account and nothing to install. Cutlistor's free tier meters something different: editing parts and re-optimizing the layout are unlimited, and only PDF export and starting a new project count against a daily allowance of 3. Cut lists are capped at 20 rows, CSV and XLSX import is limited to 5 rows per file, and nothing is saved between sessions. If the numbers match what you did by hand, your spreadsheet process is working and you should keep it.

Cutlistor is small enough that feature requests reach the person who writes the code. Several of the features above - laminate handling, miter-aware linear cuts, cross-section stock - exist because someone cutting material asked for them and explained why the workaround was costing them time.

If your workflow needs something that is not here, describe it and we will look at building it. That is a genuinely different proposition from filing a ticket against a twenty-year-old desktop product or a tool maintained as a side project, and it is worth weighing alongside a feature table.