Sheet optimization

This window figures out how to lay your sheet-good parts on full sheets with the least waste — plywood, MDF, melamine, slab panels, and the like, straight from your cut list. Solid frame parts stay over in Advanced wood optimization.

Sheet optimization window showing the Layout, Setup, and Parts tabs
The Sheet optimization window with its three tabs. Drop sheet-opto-window.png into Help/images/.

The tabs

Layout
The sheet-by-sheet pictures of how parts fall on each sheet, plus buttons to print or save once you have run it.
Setup
Sheet width and length, how many sheets, blade width, edge trim, and how you want to cut. These start from your Materials Library settings.
Parts
A read-only list of the sheet parts DoorCut pulled from your cut list. To change a size, edit it on the main cut list and reopen this window.

How to read a sheet diagram

Every layout picture follows the same legend — orange border for the trim you can't place on, kerf gaps between parts, and a labeled color block for each placed part:

Sheet legend — trim band, kerf between parts, drop area Panel A — 24 × 12 Panel B Panel C Panel D Panel D Panel E — 22 × 7 leftover — counts toward waste ■ orange band = edge trim ■ dashed = kerf (blade width) ■ hatched = drop / waste
Each placed part shows its label (× size). The orange border is the edge trim — nothing is placed on it. The dashed line is the kerf left between parts; the hatched area is whatever the packer could not fill.

How to run it

  1. Build your cut list on the main screen (frame panels, slab + edgeband, and so on).
  2. Click Sheet optimization.
  3. Look over the parts, fix the setup if you need to, then run Optimize sheet layout.
  4. Check the layouts on the Layout tab.

Keep jobs separate

When you can, keep slab edgeband jobs apart from solid frame jobs. Mixing them in one list can muddle the materials and columns — DoorCut will warn you if you try.

Where the defaults come from

Set your usual sheet size, blade width, and edge trim on each Sheet Stock row in the Materials Library. The Setup tab loads those for the job, and you can override them here without touching the library.

Help on the Setup tab

Every box on Setup has its own ? button — sheet size, blade width, edge trim, cut workflow, and grain. Click whichever one you have a question about.

Which tool for which parts

Advanced wood optimization is for solid frame parts and glue-up planning. Sheet optimization (this window) is for plywood, MDF, melamine, slab panels, and edge band. Run the one that matches the parts in your list.

MDF reminder: MDF dulls steel-tipped blades quickly. Use a carbide blade for sheet stock if you cut MDF or melamine regularly, and reset the kerf on this tab to match it — thin-kerf carbide is typically 0.09–0.11 in, full-kerf carbide closer to 0.125 in.