The optimization itself is the same 1D engine across every material. What differs is the practical detail around it — and those details are what decide whether a plan is worth cutting to.
Most aluminium suppliers stock more than one bar length per profile. Enter every length you actually hold — the optimizer chooses between them per pattern, which is where the real waste reduction comes from.
Kerf varies by blade and by saw, so a number carried over from another machine is a guess. Cut a test piece, measure the loss, and use that figure.
Aluminium offcuts above a useful length are often worth keeping for smaller parts on a later job. Set your minimum useful offcut to your shop’s real threshold, not a default.
A window run typically needs uprights, transoms and cills at different lengths — solve each profile’s cutting list against its own available stock lengths for that profile.
A profile cutting list — 2150mm × 6, 1400mm × 8, 980mm × 10 — against 6500mm and 6000mm stock, 4mm kerf, 20mm end trim, 250mm minimum useful offcut. Run through Barcut Pro’s actual engine:
| STOCK LENGTH | CUTS |
|---|---|
| 6500mm | 2150 + 2150 + 2150 |
| 6500mm | 2150 + 2150 + 2150 |
| 6500mm | 1400 + 980 + 980 + 980 + 980 + 980 |
| 6500mm | 1400 + 980 + 980 + 980 + 980 + 980 |
| 6000mm | 1400 + 1400 |
| 6000mm | 1400 + 1400 + 1400 + 1400 |
6 bars, 24 real cuts, all 24 required pieces placed, 89.2% material yield. The full breakdown is in the aluminium extrusion write-up.