Guillotine cutting calculator
Compare the same stock and parts under two different promises: dense rectangular packing, or a slicing layout with a dependency-safe cut sequence.
Live comparison
Choose a sample cut list. Both layouts are recalculated from the same stock, parts, kerf, margin, and rotation settings.
A practical 2440 × 1220 mm cabinet job with kerf, repeated parts, and rotation enabled.
free/maxrectsguillotine/multi-strategy→bounded-order-searchFree Nesting optimizes rectangular placement. Guillotine Cutting also requires every reported cut to span the current sub-sheet, so its result can be less dense but directly provides a dependency-safe sequence.
How to read the result
Choose it when the immediate question is whether the rectangular parts can fit with kerf, margin, stock count, and optional rotation.
Choose it when each reported operation must divide the current rectangle completely and you need cut count, cut length, and order.
Treat the sequence as geometric planning evidence, not a substitute for machine instructions, material support, safe handling, or operator judgment.
Free Nesting can place rectangles into open pockets around other parts as long as the final shapes do not overlap. A guillotine plan has a stricter history: the first operation must divide the entire usable sheet, and every later operation must divide one of the rectangular pieces created earlier. A visually compact group of interlocking rows may therefore fit geometrically but lack any first through-cut that preserves all parts. The guillotine result may rearrange those parts or use another sheet to maintain a valid slicing tree.
Cut count is the number of slicing operations in the reported geometric sequence. Cut length adds the distance travelled across the current sub-sheets for those operations. Use both as planning comparisons between results, not as promises of elapsed shop time: handling, repositioning, margin trimming, machine acceleration, clamping, and safe support are outside the calculation. Always review the ordered steps against your equipment and material.
Questions
A guillotine cut travels completely across the current rectangular sub-sheet. After that cut, each remaining rectangle can be divided again. This creates a slicing tree rather than an arbitrary nesting layout.
Free Nesting only needs non-overlapping rectangles. Guillotine Cutting adds a structural constraint: every cut must span the current sub-sheet. Some dense geometric arrangements cannot be produced by that sequence of through-cuts.
No. CutListEngine reports the slicing cuts inside the usable rectangle. Optional trimming needed to establish the outside margin is deliberately excluded and must be planned separately.
No. The sequence is dependency-safe for the geometric slicing tree, but it does not model machine limits, operator technique, support, clamping, grain direction, or site-specific safety procedures.
Review the sample inputs, measured results, and limitations behind this comparison.