Free tool
Material Cost & Waste Estimator
How many parts fit on a sheet, what the material costs per part, and how much you throw away.
Sheet
The full sheet of material you buy.
Part
One part's bounding box — the smallest rectangle it fits inside.
Quantity
How many finished parts you need for this job.
Estimate
11 across × 4 down · part rotated 90°
$0.28 if every sheet packed full
1,800 cm² used of 2,400 cm² bought
A grid-packing estimate — real nesting software will usually do better with irregular shapes. Treat it as a starting point.
How the estimate works
Parts are laid out in a simple grid. Each part sits in its bounding box with the gap you set between neighbours — the gap covers the kerf (the width the beam burns away) plus any safe margin you want between cuts. The last part in a row or column needs no trailing gap.
The unusable edge margin is trimmed off all four sides of the sheet before parts are placed — use it for clamp zones, the honeycomb bed edge, or an area a previous job already ate into.
With rotation on, the tool also tries the part turned 90° and keeps whichever orientation fits more per sheet. Waste is the area you paid for (whole sheets) minus the area your parts actually occupy.
This is a grid-packing estimate for rectangular bounding boxes — dedicated nesting software will usually fit irregular or interlocking shapes more tightly. Treat the numbers as a starting point, and always confirm on your own stock.
Pricing the whole job, not just the material?
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