Glass · Production
Glass cutting optimiser: free optimization software in your browser
What it does and how it is worked out
Glass cutting software built for the way glass is cut, free and in your browser. A sheet is scored and snapped, so every cut has to run edge to edge — panel nesting tools ignore that, and that one constraint changes the whole layout. Jumbo or DLF sheets, your own offcuts first, and the plan for the table at the end.
Free, no sign-up, no email. Everything you type stays in this browser — your cutting list never reaches us, because there is nowhere for it to go.
This page nests your list the way a cutting table actually works: you take a strip off the sheet, then cut pieces out of the strip. Strips, guillotine cuts, edge trim and breakout width — and at the end, how many sheets you need, what yield you get, and what the offcut is costing you.
- sheets
- —
- used
- —%
- waste
- —%
The plan is the shop-floor version of this: every piece labelled on the diagram, the cuts in the order the table makes them, and each offcut with its real size for the rack. It stays in your browser like everything else here.
Working out the cut is free and stays free. Pro holds 400 offcuts on the rack instead of 25, prints a label for every pane and keeps your saved jobs, for €29 once. What Pro adds →
What the software does in a glass shop
More than the nesting. What a workshop needs around a cutting list is here too, and none of it leaves this browser:
- Each pane carries its own data. A reference, a shape (rectangle, circle or triangle) and the glass it is cut from; a list pasted from a spreadsheet keeps them, and the plan groups the panes by glass.
- A rack of offcuts that knows where they are. Each offcut can have its place in the shop and a photo, and the next job is cut from the rack first.
- The plan and the labels for the table. The cutting plan can carry your logo, and every pane can get a label with a QR code.
- A log of what was cut. Today's jobs stay listed, to print the plan or the labels again.
To see it on a real order, open the example job. With Pro the rack holds 400 offcuts instead of 25 and every pane gets a label.
What to compare in glass optimization software
Before choosing glass cutting software, a glazier checks the same few things. Here is each one, what this optimiser does with it and where it stops, so you can hold it against any other program, a desktop one included.
| What you compare | What this optimiser does |
|---|---|
| Stock sheet sizes | Jumbo (PLF) 6000 × 3210, DLF 3210 × 2250, half 2550 × 1605, quarter 1605 × 1275, or any size you type. One stock size per run: to compare jumbo with DLF, run it twice. |
| Your own offcuts first | The rack: list the offcuts you own with their size and glass, and the job is cut from them before a sheet is bought — only offcuts of the same glass, and only when opening one saves a whole sheet. 25 pieces free, 400 with Pro; on a big rack the 40 largest that match are tried. |
| Guillotine cuts | Three-stage guillotine: a strip snapped off the full width, the strip cut into columns, the columns cut across. Every cut runs edge to edge. Six orderings of the list are tried and the best one is kept. |
| Breakout (kerf) and edge trim | Both in millimetres: the strip lost between two pieces, and the damaged rim taken off each side of a new sheet — not off an offcut, whose edges are already clean. A leftover of at least 150 mm on both sides counts as offcut for the rack; the rest is scrap. |
| Rotation | Pieces may turn, or the orientation is fixed for patterned, coated or directional glass. The list is worked out both ways, and the page says what the choice costs in yield. |
| Labels | A label for every pane, straight from the nest: code, size, glass, sheet and whether it was rotated, on plain A4 or 70 × 37 mm label sheets. Twelve free, every pane with Pro. |
| Order list and Excel | Width, height and quantity, typed row by row or pasted straight from Excel or a CSV file: one size per line, separated by spaces, commas, semicolons, tabs or an x. Headings are ignored, and a line that cannot be read is reported with the reason, never dropped in silence. There is no file upload for the cutting list: copy the cells and paste. |
| Stock file | The rack saves to a CSV file that opens in Excel, and loads back from one. |
| Printing the plan | The cutting plan: a labelled diagram for each sheet, the cuts in the order the table makes them and every offcut with its size, on A4. |
| Offline, nothing to install | It runs in the browser, on a phone or a PC. Once you have opened it, it keeps working without signal: the browser keeps the page. Nothing you type is uploaded. |
| Jobs and sharing | Save a job under a name (one free, fifty with Pro), or copy a link that carries the sheet and the list — never your glass price. |
| Output for a cutting table | A DXF drawing of the plan, from the cutting plan page; no direct program for a CNC table. It is for planning, ordering and checking a quote. |
| Price | Working out the cut is free. Pro is €29 once. Desktop programs are not priced here: compare any of them, this one included, with what the waste costs you on your own jobs — the last card above. |
Standard glass sheet sizes and what they weigh
The stock sizes the optimiser offers, and the weight of one sheet at each thickness: area × thickness × 2500 kg/m³, the density of float glass in EN 572-1, the same as the glass weight calculator. Weights in kg.
| Sheet, mm | m² | 4 mm | 5 mm | 6 mm | 8 mm | 10 mm | 12 mm | 15 mm | 19 mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jumbo / PLF, 6000 × 3210 | 19.26 | 193 | 241 | 289 | 385 | 482 | 578 | 722 | 915 |
| DLF, 3210 × 2250 | 7.22 | 72 | 90 | 108 | 144 | 181 | 217 | 271 | 343 |
| Half, 2550 × 1605 | 4.09 | 41 | 51 | 61 | 82 | 102 | 123 | 153 | 194 |
| Quarter, 1605 × 1275 | 2.05 | 20 | 26 | 31 | 41 | 51 | 61 | 77 | 97 |
The weight matters for handling as much as for ordering. With the usual guideline of about 25 kg per person on suction cups, which the schedule checker also uses, anything over 100 kg needs a lifter: every jumbo, and a DLF from 6 mm. For pounds, multiply by 2.2.
Why glass needs its own optimiser
Search for a cutting optimiser and you will find a dozen free ones. They are all built for plywood, MDF, aluminium or vinyl, and they will happily hand you a layout with a small piece tucked into a corner. On a panel saw that is fine. On a glass table it is impossible, because glass is not cut — it is scored and snapped, and a snap runs the full length of whatever you are holding.
So a glass layout is built in strips. You take a strip off the full width of the sheet, snap it away, then cut your pieces out of that strip with cross cuts. Every cut is edge to edge on the piece it is dividing. That is what this page does, and it is why its answer is lower than a free panel nester's — and why the cutter will not throw it back at you.
The optimiser runs the list through six orderings — tallest first, widest first, largest area first, longest side, shortest side and perimeter first — and keeps the best result. It says which one won in the line of working underneath the layout, because on some lists the difference is a whole sheet.
What good looks like
| Yield | Waste | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| > 90 % | < 10 % | What optimization software is sold on. Hard to beat by hand. |
| 80 – 90 % | 10 – 20 % | A good manual cutter on a friendly list. |
| 75 – 85 % | 15 – 25 % | The published industry range for shops cutting without optimization. |
| < 75 % | > 25 % | Either the list is awkward against this sheet size, or the sheet is wrong for the job. |
The number that matters is not the percentage, it is the invoice. Multiply the waste by what you pay per square metre and then by the number of jobs you cut in a year. That is the figure to compare any tool against, including this one.
Worked example you can check by hand
The list this page opens with, on a 3210 × 2250 sheet.
The panel above is generated by the same code that draws the layout, so it cannot drift away from what the tool actually does. Change any input and it changes with it.
What this page does not do
- One stock size at a time. Real shops mix jumbo, DLF and offcuts from the rack, and choosing between them is a large part of the saving. This page nests onto one size and tells you the truth about that size — run it twice and compare.
- The offcut rack only knows this browser. «Cut this job» puts the usable leftovers on the rack and the next job is packed onto them first, but the rack lives on this machine and knows only what you cut here: not your real stock, your other orders or your machines. Tying it to those is the kind of thing we build for a company rather than something a free page can do.
- Strips only, no rotated sub-strips. A production optimiser will turn a strip ninety degrees and cut it the other way when that pays. This one does not, so treat its yield as a floor, not a ceiling.
- Rotation is all or nothing. You cannot lock one piece and free another. On a mixed job with some coated and some clear, run the two lists separately.
- Shapes are nested as rectangles. A circle, triangle or trapezoid is placed as the rectangle around it and the glass trimmed off counts as waste; no cut-outs, no holes, no arrises, and no thought given to which pieces should be cut first so the table is not blocked.
- No program for the cutting table. The cutting plan downloads as a DXF drawing, for CAD and for the tables that import one, but nothing here drives a CNC table directly: the plan and the labels are printed, for a cutter to work from.
- It does not know your glass. Coating side, tong marks, distortion direction, heat-soak batching and which rack the sheet is on are all decisions a cutter makes and this page cannot.
See it in use, in 35 seconds
A cutting list pasted in, the plan with its yield and the cost of the scrap, and an offcut on the rack used before a new sheet. A recording of the tool as it is, no voice.
Questions people ask
- Is there free glass cutting optimization software?
- Yes: this glass cutting optimiser is free and runs in the browser, with nothing to install and no sign-up. It nests rectangular panes on stock sheets with guillotine cuts, allows for breakout width and edge trim, cuts your own offcuts first and prints the cutting plan. Pro, for €29 once, adds a bigger offcut rack, a label for every pane and more saved jobs.
- Can it cut from my offcuts before using a new sheet?
- Yes. List your offcuts on the rack with their size and glass, and the job is laid out on them before any new sheet is bought: only offcuts of the same glass, and only when using one saves a whole sheet. When you press «Cut this job», the offcuts used come off the rack and the new ones go on.
- Can I import a cutting list from Excel or a CSV file?
- Copy the cells and paste them: one size per line, width, height and quantity, separated by tabs, spaces, commas or semicolons. Headings and blank lines are ignored, and a line that cannot be read is listed with the reason. The offcut rack, unlike the cutting list, also saves to a CSV file and loads from one.
- Does it work offline?
- Yes, once it has been opened: the browser keeps the page, so it works in a van or a shed without signal. There is nothing to install, and nothing you type is uploaded; saved jobs and the rack stay in that browser.
- Can it send the layout to a CNC cutting table?
- Not directly. The cutting plan downloads as a DXF drawing, which CAD programs and many cutting tables import, but nothing here drives a machine. It is for sizing an order, checking a quote and planning the cut; the plan and the labels are printed, for the cutter to work from.
- How much does a sheet of glass weigh?
- Glass is 2.5 kg/m² for every millimetre of thickness. A jumbo sheet of float glass, 6000 × 3210 mm, weighs 289 kg at 6 mm and 482 kg at 10 mm; a DLF sheet, 3210 × 2250 mm, weighs 108 kg at 6 mm.
- What size is a jumbo sheet of glass?
- In Europe the full float sheet, called jumbo or PLF, is 6000 × 3210 mm: 19.26 m². The split size DLF is 3210 × 2250 mm, and a half sheet 2550 × 1605 mm.