Round pipe and square or rectangular tube, cut to length from fixed-length stock — mechanical, structural or plumbing runs all reduce to the same 1D cutting problem: given required lengths and available stock lengths, find the combination that uses the least material.
Pipe and tube of different diameters or wall thickness aren’t interchangeable stock — run each size as its own cutting list against the stock lengths you hold in that size.
Cold saws, band saws and abrasive chop saws remove different amounts of material per cut. Measure your actual kerf on the specific saw cutting the job.
A pipe offcut is only reusable if it’s both long enough and the right diameter for a future part — set your minimum useful offcut to a length that’s realistically usable for the sizes you actually run.
Yes. Pipe cutting reduces to the same 1D cutting stock problem as bar or profile cutting — enter required lengths and available stock lengths, and the optimizer returns a plan.
Yes — the optimizer works on length and quantity regardless of cross-section, so round pipe and square or rectangular tube are handled the same way.
Run each diameter or section size as its own cutting list against its own stock — different sizes aren’t substitutable for each other, so they shouldn’t be pooled into one solve.