Cabinet & Workshop Cut List Tutorials

Master the art of project planning. Learn how to transform complex cabinet, furniture, and workshop designs into perfectly optimized, waste-free cut lists using CutWize.

Getting Started: Creating Your First Cut List

Before you make a single cut on your table saw or CNC, a proper plan is required to avoid costly mistakes. A digital cut list optimizer completely eliminates the need for manual graph-paper layouts. Here is how you start:

  1. Setup Your Profiles: In CutWize, create a profile for the material you are using (e.g., 18mm Birch Plywood). Set your blade thickness (kerf) to ensure accurate real-world yields.
  2. Add Stock Inventory: Tell the software what you have available. Usually, this is full sheets (like 2440x1220mm), but you can also add leftover offcuts from previous jobs.
  3. Enter Your Cuts: Add the dimensions and quantities of all your required parts. Make sure to use descriptive job names or labels.
  4. Watch It Optimize Live: As soon as you add or change a cut, CutWize re-optimizes your layout on the fly — no button to press, no waiting. Your cutting plan updates in real time.

Ready to try it? Jump into our cutting optimiser and run your first calculation.

Tutorial: Kitchen Cabinet Cut List

Let's walk through a standard base kitchen cabinet. A typical frameless base cabinet involves several sheet goods requiring 2D nesting. Here is an example parts list for a standard 600mm wide cabinet:

  • Cabinet Sides (x2): 720mm × 580mm (16mm White Melamine)
  • Cabinet Bottom (x1): 568mm × 580mm (16mm White Melamine)
  • Top Stretchers (x2): 568mm × 100mm (16mm White Melamine)
  • Adjustable Shelf (x1): 566mm × 550mm (16mm White Melamine)
  • Back Panel (x1): 720mm × 600mm (3mm MDF / Masonite)

If you are building an entire kitchen or planning furniture cutting layouts, manually calculating 50+ of these parts across multiple sheets of melamine is impossible to do efficiently. By inputting this directly into our sheet cutting tool (or a specialized MDF & melamine optimizer), the system automatically groups all the 16mm parts together onto your 2400x1200mm sheets, and groups the back panels onto your 3mm stock.

Tutorial: Bookshelf Project

Not every project uses flat panels. For a solid timber bookshelf, you might be working with linear lengths of lumber. This requires 1D linear optimization rather than 2D nesting.

Suppose you buy standard 2.4-meter lengths of Pine. You need:

  • 4 uprights at 1800mm
  • 6 shelves at 800mm
  • 2 trim pieces at 850mm

Using our length cutting tool, you simply enter 2400 as your stock size, and list the cuts. The system will instantly tell you exactly how many 2.4m boards to buy at the hardware store, ensuring you don't overspend or end up with awkward, unusable 500mm scraps.

Working with Multiple Material Types

A complex project rarely uses just one material. A custom workstation might involve a plywood desktop, a welded steel frame, and even a fabric roll for an acoustic divider screen.

CutWize handles this elegantly through its Profile system. You simply create a separate profile for "18mm Ply", "40x40 Steel Tube", and "Acoustic Fabric". You can then manage the inventory and optimizations for all these entirely different materials under one roof. No more jumping between different spreadsheets and calculators! If you already have your list in a spreadsheet, you can speed up the process by using our import from Excel feature.

Workshop Tips for Cut List Management

  • Label Everything: Always utilize the "Job Name" and "Label" fields in CutWize. When you print out the PDF, these labels match the visual diagram, making it trivial to stack the correct parts on your workshop cart.
  • Track Your Offcuts: Treat your offcuts like cash. Configure your "Offcut Threshold" in the settings to automatically save large remnants back to your digital stock.
  • Batch Your Work: Optimize all parts of the same thickness/material simultaneously, even if they are for different projects. This massively improves material yield.
  • Account for Edge Banding: If building cabinets, remember to subtract the thickness of your edge banding (e.g., 1mm or 2mm) from your panel sizes before running the optimizer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Plan Your Next Project with CutWize

Stop sketching on paper and start building faster. Set up your material profiles and generate your first optimized cut list today.

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