Cut List Optimiser
The ParametrIQ Cut List Optimiser works out how to cut lengths - frame rails, steel members, timber - from the
stock lengths you buy with the least waste, counting the saw's kerf and keeping offcuts long enough to use again. It is
a separate, free program (PiQ.CutList.App).
Getting the Cut List Optimiser
The Cut List Optimiser is free: it needs a ParametrIQ account and its own licence, which costs nothing. Ask for it under ParametrIQ Cut List Optimiser on your account's Licenses page, download and install it, and activate it when it first starts, as Free Apps describes.
Pieces
Under Pieces to cut list each length: its Mark (what it is), its Length and how many (Qty). Pieces of different sections go in a Profile each, and each profile is cut from bars of its own; leave it blank if there is only one. Add adds a piece and ✕ removes one.
Import DSTV… (or DSTV files dropped on the window) adds the pieces of DSTV NC files from a steel detailing program: each file's piece mark, length, quantity and profile.
Stock lengths
Under Stock lengths list the lengths you can buy: a Name, its Length, how many there are (Qty: leave it blank for as many as needed) and its Price each. With several lengths, each new bar is the one that ends up cheapest, then shortest.
Cutting
- Saw kerf: lost to the saw at each cut.
- Trimmed off each end: cut off a bar's ends first.
- Keep offcuts from: offcuts this long or longer are kept for another job, not counted as waste.
The plan
The plan is made again as you type. Each bar is drawn as it is cut: its pieces in blue, labelled with their mark and length where there is room, then its offcut, green if it is kept and red if it is waste. Under each profile's bars are the bars bought, the yield (the share of the stock that becomes pieces), the waste, the offcuts kept and the cost. Pieces longer than any stock length are listed in red.
Each piece, longest first, goes in the bar it leaves least over in; then each bar is swapped for the shortest stock its cuts still fit.
Saving the list
Save cut list… saves the plan as a list (CSV) for the saw or a spreadsheet: a line for each cut, bar by bar, with the offcut at each bar's end. It needs the licence.