It is the everyday problem behind any cutting list for material bought and cut by length, and it goes by several names — linear cutting, bar cutting, stock length optimization all describe the same job.
It applies to aluminium and steel profiles, extrusions, box section, pipe and timber — anything where the question is which required lengths to take out of which stock bar.
Done by hand or in a spreadsheet, it's easy to under- or over-order stock, forget kerf, or miss a combination of parts that would have fit on one bar instead of two. A cutting optimizer searches many more combinations than is practical manually and returns the plan with the least waste.
Three things decide whether that plan holds up on the shop floor: the blade width lost at every cut, any trim your machine takes off each bar end, and the length below which a leftover stops being useful.
Nothing in the list below is an optional extra. They are the settings that decide whether the returned plan is achievable, and all of them are yours to set.
Enter part lengths, quantities and optional labels — paste straight from a spreadsheet, one row per length.
List every stock length you hold, each with its own available quantity or left unlimited. The optimizer chooses which to use.
The width of material the blade removes on every cut. Deducted per cut, so the plan matches what the saw actually produces.
A calibration offset removed from both ends of every bar, for machines that need a clean, squared reference edge before the first real cut.
Your threshold for what is worth racking. A leftover at or above it is reported as a reusable offcut — a remnant you can cut from on a later job — rather than counted as scrap.
The share of the stock you consumed that leaves as finished parts. Yield and waste are complementary: the two always sum to 100%.
An aluminium profile cutting list — 2150mm × 6, 1400mm × 8, 980mm × 10 — against 6500mm and 6000mm stock, at 4mm kerf, 20mm end trim and a 250mm minimum useful offcut. Run through Barcut Pro’s actual engine.
Full breakdown in the aluminium extrusion write-up, or see the same job in context on the aluminium cutting page.
Aluminium profile cutting for window, door and curtain-wall systems. Steel and box section fabrication. PVC and timber. Cut-to-size profile supply. Anywhere a cutting list needs turning into a bar-by-bar plan for the saw — and a finished plan exports as an Optimizer Report and a machine cutting list, ready for the floor.
One-dimensional (1D) cutting optimization, also called linear or bar cutting optimization, decides how to cut a set of required piece lengths from available stock bars so that the fewest bars are used and the least material is wasted. It applies to any material sold and cut by length: aluminium and steel profiles, extrusions, pipe, timber and similar linear stock.
It treats each required length as demand and each stock length as supply, then searches for combinations of pieces per bar (cutting patterns) that satisfy all demand using the least total stock. The engine also accounts for saw kerf, machine end trim and a configurable minimum useful offcut, so the plan it returns matches what actually happens at the saw.
Yes. Enter every stock length you have on hand, each with its own available quantity, or leave the quantity blank for unlimited. The optimizer chooses which of those lengths to use for each cutting pattern, mixing lengths within one job when that reduces total waste, rather than requiring you to solve each stock length separately.
They are reported explicitly, separated by cause. A part longer than any stock length you hold can never be cut, however much stock you buy, and needs a longer bar. A part that fits but ran out of stock just needs more bars. Both appear in the app and in every export, rather than being dropped from a plan that then looks complete.