Grain Direction
Plywood, veneered MDF and solid-wood panels have a grain, and on a visible part it has to run the right way: across a shelf, up a door, along a drawer front. In 2D Panel mode every row of the Stock sheets and Parts (2D) tables ends with a Grain icon: one click tells CutOptim which way the grain runs, and each part is turned so its grain follows the board it is cut from.
Available on every plan, guests included. Grain direction is a 2D Panel setting. To cut several parts side by side from one piece of board so their figure continues from one to the next, see Grain matching.
Reading the icon
The icon is a small picture of the row as you entered it — Width across, Length down — with lines along the grain. Hover it to read the exact side, for example The grain runs along the 24 side. The ⓘ in the column header opens this page.
| Feature | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Part: turn arrow | default | Free. The grain does not matter and the part may be rotated 90° to save material. Every new part starts here. |
| Part: lines across | option | The grain runs along the part's Width. The part is placed so its Width lies along the sheet's grain — turned 90° if that is what it takes, never against it. |
| Part: lines down | option | The grain runs along the part's Length, placed the same way. |
| Sheet: lines along the longer side | default | Every sheet starts with its grain along its longer side, the way plywood is made. |
| Sheet: lines along the shorter side | option | For boards whose grain runs across — some veneered panels are made this way. |
| Sheet: dashed outline | option | No grain (MDF, melamine). Free parts may turn freely on it; a part with a grain keeps its direction here too — use Material mode to keep grained and plain boards apart. |
One click moves a part to the next state: free → along the Width → along the Length → free. A sheet goes along the Width → along the Length → no grain.
Set it up
- 1
Check the sheets
In the **Stock sheets** table, the Grain icon shows each sheet's grain along its longer side. Click it if your board runs the other way, or until it shows a dashed outline for MDF, melamine or chipboard.
- 2
Mark the parts that show
In the **Parts (2D)** table, click the Grain icon of each visible part until its lines run along the side the grain must follow. Leave hidden parts on the turn arrow — they may still rotate to save material.
- 3
Run the optimizer
Every part with a grain is placed with its grain along its sheet's. The plan, the PDF and the Excel pictures show the grain as fine hatching.
An example. A sheet of 48 × 96 plywood has its grain along the 96-inch side. A shelf entered as Width 24, Length 15 whose icon shows lines across (grain along the 24) is turned so its 24-inch side lies along the 96 — the grain runs left to right across the finished shelf. Enter it the other way round (15 × 24) and click until the lines run down (grain along the 24 again): the plan is the same.
There is no switch to turn this on. Grain is taken into account as soon as one part has grain lines on its icon; while every part shows the turn arrow, nothing is turned or locked and the plan is exactly what it was before.
Several sheet sizes and materials
Sheets whose grain runs different ways can sit in the same job — a 96 × 48 and a 48 × 96, say. Each part still ends up with its grain along its own sheet’s grain. With Material mode on, a part is only held to a grain when its own material has a sheet with a grain: an MDF part next to oak plywood stays free.
First cut direction and Trim per side (Settings → More) apply to every sheet the way you entered it, also on a sheet whose grain runs the other way: a 20 mm trim on the left edge is on the left edge of each sheet, and “horizontal first” means horizontal on each sheet as it is drawn.
When a part does not fit
A part with a grain may not be turned against it. If it would only fit on your sheets turned 90°, the list of parts that could not be placed says so — its grain would then cross the sheet’s — and suggests the two ways out: click its Grain icon until it shows the turn arrow if the grain does not show on that part, or use a sheet whose grain runs the other way.
Projects saved before
The Rot. checkbox of earlier versions is gone from the 2D Parts table; the Grain icon took its place. A part whose Rot. box was ticked opens free (turn arrow). A part whose box was unticked opens with its grain along the sheet’s, which keeps it in the orientation you entered — so a saved project gives the same plan. Edge banding follows a part when it is turned: the banded edges are still the ones you marked.
On the plan, the PDF and the Excel file
A sheet that has a grain is drawn with fine lines in the grain direction, and so is every part cut from it — on the screen, on the PDF work sheets and appendix, and in the Excel pictures — whenever at least one part has a grain. The strip under each sheet and the PDF key figures name it (Grain: along 96), and the Plan check on the PDF summary page says how many parts were cut with their grain along the sheet’s.
To print without the hatching, untick Grain hatching under Export & drawing (in the PDF preview’s side panel or under Settings → More). Sheets without a grain, and offcuts from your inventory, are never hatched.
Grain direction or grain matching?
| Grain direction | Grain matching | |
|---|---|---|
| What it answers | Which way does this part’s grain run? | Which parts must sit next to each other on the board? |
| What it does | Turns each part so its grain follows the sheet | Cuts a set (a drawer front over two doors) as one block, one saw gap apart, so the figure runs on |
| Plan | Every plan, guests included | Every signed-in plan (Free within its monthly runs, Pro with a monthly allowance, Workshop unlimited) |
The two work together: a set has its own grain direction (along its height, along its width, or free), and inside the set it decides; a part’s own Grain icon still applies to any copies of that part outside the set.
Importing a cut list
A CSV or a paste with a Grain direction column (as exported by CutList Optimizer, for example) gives those parts a grain in the orientation they were entered — the Grain icon shows the lines. When the column holds both h and v (CutList Optimizer’s horizontal and vertical), the two are kept 90° apart: h parts keep the orientation they were entered in, v parts are the same parts turned 90°. A column with the same value on every row is the exporting tool’s default and is ignored. A Rot. column, when the file has one, always wins: 0 / no gives the part a grain along the sheet, 1 / yes leaves it free.