Plywood Cut List Optimizer

Turn your plywood cut list into a sheet count before you buy. Enter each part's width, length, and quantity — the calculator packs them onto sheets with a greedy shelf-packing estimate and tells you how many sheets you'll need.

How to use this calculator

List every distinct part you need to cut: width, length, and how many copies. Leave unused rows blank (zero quantity) — they are ignored. Pick your sheet size from the presets or type a custom size.

The estimator packs the largest parts first and tries both orientations for every piece, filling each sheet row by row. Use the per-part table to see how much sheet area each part consumes, then buy the hero sheet count — and strongly consider one spare sheet on tight lists.

How it works

This is a greedy shelf-packing estimate, not true nesting: each part is placed on the first sheet where it fits, either alongside an existing row of parts or in a new row, in whichever of the two rotations fits best. That runs in milliseconds but can leave avoidable gaps that a human with a cutting diagram (or dedicated nesting software) would close.

The saw kerf — the ~1/8 in of wood each cut turns to dust — is not modeled, and real plywood sheets often measure a hair under nominal size. On a tight list those small losses stack up, which is why the tool advises adding ~5% or one extra sheet rather than buying the exact estimated count.