How to read a cutting plan and its cutting sequence

A cutting plan tells you which parts come out of each sheet, where each one goes and in what order it is cut. Here you will see what each colour and each number on a SliceLab plan means, what the columns of the cutting sequence tell you and, with an example desk, how to follow it cut by cut.

One plan per sheet

Each plan is a sheet seen from above: the length runs from left to right and the width from top to bottom, as the rulers along the edges show. Positions are measured from the top left corner. If several sheets share the same layout, it is shown only once, with the note “×2 identical” and the numbers of the sheets that repeat it.

What everything means

• The parts, each with its colour, its name and its size: length × width, as in the parts list, even when it is rotated. Parts rotated 90° carry ↻.
• The red lines are the cuts, as thick as the saw kerf.
• The dark band around the edge is the edge trim.
• The hatched areas are waste: what is left over and too small to be an offcut.
• Green with a dashed border: the usable offcuts, leftovers whose shorter side reaches the minimum offcut in Cutting settings (100 mm unless you change it).
• An orange strip along the inside of a side: that side gets edge banding.
• The grain lines, if the sheet or the part has grain, always run lengthwise.

The buttons above the plan show or hide each of these. Cuts puts a circle with its number on every cut: grey for the trim and red for the rest.

Guillotine cuts

In SliceLab every cut is a guillotine cut: each one runs from one edge to the other of the piece it cuts, as on a panel saw, a table saw or a circular saw with a guide rail. The sheet is split into two pieces, each piece into two more, and so on until only the parts are left. That is why the order matters: a cut can only be made once the piece it cuts exists.

They are named after the paper guillotine, which cuts from one side to the other in a single stroke. A saw is not a guillotine, but the cut it leaves is the same: straight and from edge to edge, because the blade cannot stop halfway across the sheet and turn. Some layouts use the sheet well but cannot be cut that way, like this “pinwheel”: no straight line crosses it from side to side without splitting a part. A CNC router can cut it; a saw cannot. That is why SliceLab only gives guillotine plans: all of them can be cut with a saw, one cut at a time.

The cutting sequence

Below the plan, under Cutting sequence, are the cuts for that sheet in the order they are made. Hover over a row and its cut lights up on the plan. The columns:

• #: the cut number, the one in the circle on the plan.
• Phase: phase 0 is the trim. The cuts in phase 1 cut the trimmed sheet, and every cut in a phase cuts a piece left by a cut in the phase before. Cuts in the same phase are on different pieces, so their order among themselves does not matter.
• Direction: “Lengthwise ↔” runs along the length, left to right on the plan; “Crosswise ↕” runs across the width, top to bottom.
• Measure: the one you set on the fence. It is the distance from the edge of the piece being cut (the top or the left edge, on the plan) to the cut: the size of the part or strip that comes off that side.
• Position: where the cut falls on the whole sheet, X along the length and Y across the width, from the top left corner. It helps you find it on the plan; to cut, use the measure.
• Length: how long the cut is, from one edge of the piece to the other.

The example: a desk

A desk in 19 mm white melamine: a 1200 × 600 top, two 720 × 580 side panels, a 1162 × 300 modesty panel and a 1162 × 280 shelf. With a 3 mm kerf and 10 mm of trim, it all comes out of one 2440 × 1220 mm sheet, with a 494 × 1200 offcut to spare. This is its plan, just as SliceLab gives it:

And this is its cutting sequence:

Cut by cut

• 1 to 4, the trim: 10 mm off each edge. The sheet is left at 2420 × 1200.
• Cut 5, the only one in phase 1, goes right across the sheet 1200 from the left edge. That leaves a 1200 × 1200 piece on the left and a 1217 × 1200 piece on the right.
• Phase 2, one on each piece: cut 6 takes the top off the left piece, 600 from the top edge, and cut 7 cuts the right piece 720 from its left edge: that leaves a 720 × 1200 strip for the side panels and, to its right, the offcut.
• Phase 3: cut 8 trims the 1200 × 597 piece under the top to 1162 (the 35 mm left over is waste), and cut 9 takes off the first side panel, 580 from the top edge of the strip.
• Phase 4: cut 10 takes off the modesty panel at 300, and cut 11 the second side panel, at 580, from what is left of the strip.
• Phase 5: cut 12 takes off the shelf at 280. 11 mm is left over.

Look at cut 7: its measure is 720, but on the sheet it falls at X = 1933. The measure is taken from the edge of the piece you are cutting, and after cut 5 that edge is no longer the edge of the sheet: 1210 + 3 of kerf + 720 = 1933. The same goes for cut 10: measure 300 and position Y = 913, because the modesty panel starts at 613.

The part is what stays between the fence and the blade. What the saw takes falls on the other side, in the rest of the piece, so the part comes out at its exact size.

Try it with SliceLab

The button below opens the desk in the optimizer with a 3 mm kerf and 10 mm of trim, and works it out: you will see this same plan. Press Cuts above the plan to see the numbers, open Cutting sequence below it and hover over the rows. To take it to the workshop, the printed or PDF report has each plan with its cutting sequence beside it (it needs a free account). For a single size, the parts per sheet calculator draws its plan too.

You can also paste this into Import sheets and parts (CSV / Excel):

Sheet;Length;Width;Quantity;Grain;Material;Thickness
S1;2440;1220;0;0;White melamine;19

Part;Length;Width;Quantity;Rotate;Grain;Material;Thickness;Edge L1;Edge L2;Edge W1;Edge W2;Sheet
Top;1200;600;1;1;0;White melamine;19;1;1;1;1;S1
Side panel;720;580;2;1;0;White melamine;19;1;0;0;0;S1
Modesty panel;1162;300;1;1;0;White melamine;19;1;0;0;0;S1
Shelf;1162;280;1;1;0;White melamine;19;1;0;0;0;S1

Common mistakes

• Measuring from the edge of the whole sheet: the measure is from the edge of the piece you are cutting.
• Cutting on the wrong side of the mark: the blade goes outside the measure, on the side of the rest.
• Skipping the trim and measuring from the factory edge.
• Ignoring the order between phases: each measure assumes the piece already has the earlier cuts.
• Throwing the offcut away: the plan gives its size, and for the next piece of furniture it is board you have already paid for.