Offcut Inventory

Every cutting job produces leftover material. A well-managed offcut inventory turns that leftover material into a resource — saving money on future jobs by reducing the amount of new material you need to buy. CutOptim’s offcut inventory tracks saved pieces from past jobs and makes them available as stock for future optimizations.

What is an Offcut?

An offcut is a piece of material remaining after all demand pieces have been cut from a sheet or bar. Whether an offcut is worth saving depends on its size relative to your typical piece sizes.

CutOptim classifies remaining material into two categories:

The minimum offcut size is your threshold for “is this piece worth storing?” Set it in Settings.

Saving Offcuts to Inventory

After running an optimization, offcuts are listed in the results panel with their dimensions and area. You can save any or all of them to your inventory.

1. 1

   Run your optimization

   Complete a 2D, 1D, or Wood optimization as normal. CutOptim calculates which remaining pieces qualify as offcuts based on your minimum offcut size setting.

2. 2

   Open the Offcuts tab in the results panel

   At the bottom of the canvas, click the **Offcuts** tab in the results panel. You will see a list of all offcuts identified in the run, with their dimensions, area, and which sheet or bar they came from.

3. 3

   Select offcuts to save

   Check the boxes next to the offcuts you want to keep. You can select all with the checkbox in the table header. Deselect offcuts you do not want to store (very narrow strips, awkward shapes, material you do not plan to use again).

4. 4

   Click Save to Inventory

   Click the **Save to Inventory** button. The selected offcuts are added to your Offcut Inventory with their dimensions, the source job, and today's date.

5. 5

   Label your physical offcuts

   Write the piece dimensions and CutOptim reference number on the physical piece with a marker, or print labels using the Panel Labels export (Pro feature). Store the material with its label so you can find it by size when it is needed.

Viewing and Managing the Inventory

Open the Offcut Inventory panel by clicking the Inventory icon in the left sidebar (or via the top menu: Tools → Offcut Inventory).

Filtering and Searching

Use the search bar and filter controls at the top of the inventory panel to find specific offcuts:

• Filter by material — Type a material keyword to filter rows
• Filter by minimum size — Show only offcuts of at least a certain size (useful when you need a specific large piece)
• Sort by — Size (largest first), date (most recent first), or label (alphabetical)

Using Inventory Offcuts in a New Job

Saved offcuts can be used as stock in any future optimization.

1. 1

   Start a new cut

   Create a new project or open an existing one and set up your demand pieces as normal.

2. 2

   Add stock from inventory

   In the Stock table, click **Add from Inventory** (the small icon to the right of + Add Stock). The inventory panel opens as a selector.

3. 3

   Select offcuts to use

   Browse or search for offcuts that match your material requirements. Select the ones you want to use as stock. Each selected offcut is added to the Stock table with quantity 1 and its stored dimensions.

4. 4

   Run the optimization

   Run as normal. CutOptim will attempt to place demand pieces on the inventory offcuts first (since they represent material you already have) before moving to new stock sheets.

5. 5

   Update inventory after the job

   After the job is cut and verified, return to the Offcut Inventory and mark the used offcuts as consumed. Partially used offcuts can have their dimensions updated to the remaining size and kept in inventory.

CSV Import and Export

Exporting the Inventory

Click Export CSV in the Offcut Inventory panel to download your entire inventory as a CSV file. This is useful for:

• Backing up your inventory data
• Sharing the inventory with a colleague or another CutOptim account
• Creating a reference document for your physical material storage

Importing from CSV

If you have an existing offcut list in a spreadsheet, import it with Import CSV. The required columns are:

Clearing the Inventory

Over time, some inventory items become irrelevant — material was used without updating the inventory, pieces were damaged, or they are simply too small for current jobs. Periodically clean up the inventory:

1. Open the Offcut Inventory panel
2. Review items not used in the past 90 days (filter by last-used date)
3. Check items manually and remove those that are no longer physically available
4. Use Select All + Delete Selected to bulk-remove stale entries