FAQ & Troubleshooting
This page covers the most common questions and issues reported by CutOptim users. Topics are organized by category. If your question is not answered here, contact support via the in-app chat or email support@cutoptim.com.
Getting Started
Q: I just signed up. Where do I begin?
Start with the Getting Started guide. The quickest path to your first result: select a mode (2D, 1D, or Wood), add at least one stock sheet/bar and one part, then click Run optimizer. Most users have their first result within 5 minutes.
Q: Do I need to create an account to use CutOptim?
No — you can optimize without an account. What you cannot do without one is save: project saving requires signing in, and there is no guest project store in your browser. Your work stays in the page until you leave it. Create a free account to save a project, and upgrade for Pro features.
Q: What is the difference between Free, Pro, and Workshop?
The free plan limits you to 3 optimizations per month and 1 saved project. There is no cap on how many pieces a single run may hold — a free run can be a whole kitchen or a full steel frame. PDF and CSV export are free; free PDFs carry a small CutOptim footer line. Pro removes the run and project limits, adds cloud sync, and unlocks the Excel workbook, SVG and DXF exports, panel labels, the offcut and material inventories, edge banding, cost-based optimization, custom fields, and company branding. Workshop adds quotation PDF export and grain matching groups (2D Panel mode only), plus a team workspace for up to 3 members — see the Team Workspace article for what that does and does not yet include. See Getting Started for the full comparison table.
Optimization Issues
Q: I clicked Run optimizer and nothing happened. What is wrong?
The Run optimizer button is never greyed out and it has no hover warning — clicking it either runs, or shows a short message at the bottom of the screen. CutOptim performs exactly one check before running: the active mode must have at least one stock row and at least one part row. An empty run never costs you an optimization from your quota.
| What you see | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| ”Enter stock and demand!” | The Stock or the Parts table is empty (2D and 1D modes) | Add at least one stock sheet/bar and one part |
| ”Enter wood materials and pieces!” | The wood stock or parts table is empty | Add at least one wood material and one part |
| ”⚠ Stock not found” on a result card | A part’s cross-section matches no stock entry (wood mode) | Add matching stock in the wood stock section |
| The upgrade dialog opens instead of a run | Your monthly free-plan run quota is used up | Wait for the monthly reset, or upgrade to Pro |
A part that is larger than every stock sheet is not blocked beforehand. The run goes ahead and the piece is reported afterwards in the results as one that could not be placed.
Q: The optimization runs but yield is very low (below 70%). What should I do?
Low yield usually has one of these causes:
- Kerf is too large — Check Settings and verify your kerf. A 10 mm kerf instead of 3 mm on a small-piece job will destroy yield.
- Rotation is locked on all pieces — If grain or face direction doesn’t matter, unlock rotation for more flexibility.
- Stock size mismatch — Very large sheets or bars relative to your pieces leave big unusable remainders. If you have smaller offcuts, add them as stock and star them so they fill first.
- Pieces are disproportionate — Very long narrow pieces are hard to pack efficiently. Consider whether they could be ganged differently.
- Too few pieces to fill sheets — If you’re only cutting a few pieces, they may not fill a sheet well. Add more pieces from upcoming jobs to batch the cut.
Q: The optimization takes a long time or freezes the browser.
Optimization is much faster than this question assumes: measured on the 2D packer, 500 distinct pieces take well under a second and 1000 take about a quarter of a second. It runs on the main thread, so the tab does stop responding while it works — but at those sizes you barely see it. Around 2000 pieces a 2D run takes roughly a second on a desktop and noticeably longer on a phone. 1D and wood stay fast even at several thousand pieces. If a run genuinely does not finish:
- Try splitting the job into two separate cuts
- Reduce the number of distinct piece sizes (identical pieces run faster than many unique sizes)
- Refresh the page and try again (your data is auto-saved)
Q: Some of my demand pieces are missing from the result — they were not placed.
This happens when a piece cannot fit on any remaining stock. Check:
- The piece dimensions — is it larger than the stock?
- The quantity of stock — did the optimizer run out of sheets?
- Lock rotation — is the piece locked in an orientation that prevents it fitting?
Unplaced pieces are listed in the results, in a red-bordered box headed ⚠ Unplaced panels, naming each piece and how many of it could not be cut. In wood mode a separate box lists parts whose cross-section matched no stock.
Export & PDF Issues
Q: My PDF download doesn’t start.
Try these steps in order:
- Check your browser is not blocking pop-ups or downloads from CutOptim
- Try a different browser (Chrome is most reliable for PDF generation)
- Disable browser extensions that block downloads (ad blockers can sometimes interfere)
- Reload the page and run the optimization again — the PDF is built in your browser, so a script that failed to load on first visit is the usual cause
- If the issue persists, use the CSV export as a temporary workaround and contact support
PDF generation runs entirely on your own machine — your cutting plan is never uploaded to a server to be rendered. That is why the preview appears instantly and why the export works the same on every plan.
Q: The PDF is generated but the layout diagram is blurry or cut off.
The PDF is always generated as A4 portrait — there is no paper size or orientation setting in CutOptim, so the fix is in how you print or view it:
- In your PDF viewer’s print dialog, choose Fit to printable area (Adobe Reader) or Fit (Chrome) rather than Actual size
- Print the diagram pages on A3 if your printer supports it — the viewer scales the A4 page up cleanly, because the diagrams are vector, not images
- For a very wide sheet, read the Detailed cut list page instead: it carries every piece with its size and position as text, so nothing depends on the diagram being legible
Q: DXF file doesn’t open in my CAD/CNC software.
CutOptim exports DXF in the R12 format — the most widely supported DXF revision. If your software can’t open it:
- Check that your software can read DXF R12 (virtually all CAD and CNC software can)
- Try opening in LibreCAD (free) as a test — if it opens there, the issue is with your specific software’s DXF importer
- Contact support with the name and version of your CNC software
Q: The CSV export opens with garbled characters in Excel.
This is a Unicode/encoding issue. In Excel:
- Do not double-click the file to open it
- Open Excel, go to File → Open
- Change the file type filter to “Text Files”
- Select the CSV and click Open
- In the Text Import Wizard, set “File origin” to UTF-8
Alternatively, open the CSV in Google Sheets (File → Import, encoding: UTF-8) and re-export from there.
Account & Login Issues
Q: I can’t log in — it says my email/password is incorrect.
First, try the Forgot Password link on the login page to reset your password. If you signed up with Google or Apple SSO, use that login method instead of email/password — CutOptim does not create a separate password for SSO accounts.
Q: My projects have disappeared.
Saved projects live on CutOptim’s servers for every signed-in user, so clearing your browser does not delete them — sign in again and they are there. If a project is genuinely missing, check you are signed in with the same account you saved it under. Work you never saved is not recoverable: it only ever existed in the page.
Whatever your plan, exporting a PDF or CSV of a finished job is still worth doing — it is the copy that does not depend on an account at all.
If a saved project is genuinely missing from your account, contact support with your account email — saved data is never deleted without explicit user action.
Q: I upgraded to Pro but still see the free plan limits.
Try logging out and back in to refresh your account status. If the issue persists, clear your browser cache and reload. If Pro features are still unavailable after 10 minutes of upgrading, contact support with your order confirmation number.
Plan Limits & Billing
Q: How many pieces can I add on the free plan?
The free plan allows 3 optimizations per month and 1 saved project. Any single run may hold any number of pieces. Upgrading to Pro removes both limits.
Q: Can I downgrade from Pro to free without losing my data?
Yes. Downgrading does not delete your data, and nothing becomes read-only — you can still open, edit, re-run and export everything you saved. What comes back are the free-plan caps themselves: 3 optimizations per month, and saving a new project once you are over the 1-project limit is refused until you delete one.
Workshop Plan
Q: What does the Workshop plan include that Pro does not?
Three exclusive features: (1) Quotation PDF — generate a client-facing pricing document with tax, validity date, cutting charges, and your company branding; (2) Grain matching — group panels that must share the same grain character so the optimizer keeps them on one sheet (2D Panel mode only — it has no effect in 1D or Wood); (3) Team Workspace — invite up to 2 colleagues and manage the roster; note that a shared project library and plan inheritance for members are not yet implemented. All Pro features are also included.
Q: How do I set up the Quotation PDF?
You need two things in place: (1) enable Show price columns in Advanced settings and enter unit prices in the Stock or Parts table; (2) run an optimization, then open Actions → Quotation PDF. A short form asks for the customer, tax rate, validity and any cutting, labour or margin charges before the file is built — there is nothing to configure in advance. See Quotation PDF for the full walkthrough.
Q: I run a small workshop with two employees. Is Workshop worth it?
Be aware of what the team workspace does today before you decide. You can invite up to two colleagues and manage the roster, but projects are not yet shared between members, and an invited member does not inherit your Workshop plan — both are known gaps we are working on. So if your reason for Workshop is a shared job library, it is worth waiting for those to land. If you want it for the quotation PDF or grain matching groups, those work now.
Data & Privacy
Q: Is my cutting data stored on CutOptim’s servers?
Saved projects and cuts live on CutOptim’s servers for every signed-in user, free plan included — the plan caps how many you may keep, not where they are stored. If you are not signed in, nothing is saved anywhere. Your cutting data is only ever sent when you save; the optimization itself runs in your browser. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
Q: Can I export all my data and delete my account?
Yes. Go to Settings → Account → Data and Privacy:
- Export All Data — Downloads a ZIP file containing all your projects as JSON and all cuts as CSV
- Delete Account — Permanently deletes your account and all associated cloud data after a 7-day grace period
Q: Does CutOptim share my data with third parties?
No. CutOptim does not sell or share your cutting data. Aggregate anonymised statistics (e.g. average yield %, popular material sizes) may be used internally to improve the product. See the full Privacy Policy at cutoptim.com/privacy.