Can I work out a cut list in Excel?

Excel is good for keeping the cut list and poor at deciding which parts come out of which bar. The usual formula works out bars per part size, so every size is cut from its own bars and the gaps between them are wasted. Sorting longest-first does better but still misses bars. Keep the list in the spreadsheet, paste it into a cut list optimizer, and let that do the grouping.

The job

6000 mm bars, a 3 mm blade, three sizes: four parts at 2600 mm, four at 1650 mm and six at 1050 mm. 23300 mm of parts plus 14 cuts is 23342 mm, which is 3.89 bars, so the job needs at least 4.

Method 1: one formula per size: 6 bars

A column for parts per bar, =INT(6000/(A2+3)), and a column for bars, =ROUNDUP(B2/C2,0). The 2600s go two to a bar: 2 bars. The 1650s go three to a bar: 2 bars, the second holding a single part. The 1050s go five to a bar: 2 bars, the second holding a single part. 6 bars, and two of them are mostly offcut.

Method 2: longest first: 5 bars

The better spreadsheet method, and how most people plan by hand: sort the parts longest to shortest, put each one on the first bar it fits, and start a new bar when none has room. It is called first-fit decreasing, and on this job it gets 5 bars:

Longest-first fills the first bars with the big parts, and by the time it reaches the short ones there is nowhere good left to put them.

Method 3: a cut list optimiser: 4 bars

Four bars, which is the floor, so the plan is proved optimal. One 2600 on every bar, filled out with the shorter parts. Simple to look at, and no amount of sorting a column will find it: a formula follows one rule, and an optimiser searches the combinations.

Keep the spreadsheet, drop the formulas

Copy two columns, length and quantity, straight out of Excel and paste them into the calculator's cut list: it reads them as rows. Add a third column for labels if you want them on the cutting sheets. The plan comes back as a PDF for the saw and a CSV for the quote, so the spreadsheet stays where it is useful.

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