Progress Tracking
Once your cutting plan is optimised, you still need to actually cut the material. Progress Tracking gives you a simple way to mark each sheet or bar as you work through the job — directly inside CutOptim, without needing a separate spreadsheet or whiteboard. It is available on all plans including Guest, so there is nothing to unlock or set up.
How It Works
Every sheet or bar in your results has an independent status. As you move through the job on the shop floor, you update each card to reflect where things stand, and the card’s badge and border colour change to match.
Each sheet or bar can be in one of three states:
| Feature | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Not started | status | Default state. The sheet or bar has not been touched yet. Shown with a neutral grey indicator. |
| Partially done | status | Some pieces have been cut from this sheet or bar but it is not fully complete. Shown with an amber/yellow indicator. |
| Done | status | All pieces from this sheet or bar have been cut. Shown with a green indicator. |
The control is located in the header of each sheet or bar result card — the row that shows the sheet label, dimensions, and yield percentage. It is a dropdown: pick how many pieces of that sheet you have already cut, and the status updates to match. Beside it, a button marks the whole sheet done in one click.
Setting Status
- 1
Run your optimisation
Set up your stock and demand as normal, then click Optimise. CutOptim generates the cutting plan and displays the Results panel with one card per sheet or bar.
- 2
Locate the progress control
In the Results panel, find the header row of any sheet or bar card. The badge and its dropdown sit next to the sheet label — the badge starts grey (Not started).
- 3
Pick how many pieces are cut
Choose the number from the dropdown. The badge turns amber and reads 3/8 while the sheet is part-way through, and green with a checkmark once every piece is accounted for. To finish a sheet in one click, use the done button beside the dropdown.
- 4
Repeat for each sheet or bar
Work through the job sheet by sheet. Update the count as each one is completed — the card's badge and left border turn green immediately.
Reading Progress at a Glance
There is no aggregate progress bar. Progress is shown per sheet, on each result card, in three places at once:
- A badge in the card header reading
3/8while the sheet is part-way through, or a checkmark once it is complete. - The badge’s colour — grey for not started, amber while partially done, green when finished.
- A coloured left border on the card itself, amber or green, so you can scan a column of cards and see which are still open without reading any numbers.
To judge overall completion, run your eye down the card borders.
Data Persistence
Progress is always written to your browser’s localStorage first, so it is instant and works for guests and for cuts you have not saved. On top of that, if you are signed in and the cut is saved, CutOptim also syncs the progress to the server — so the same cut opens on your tablet at the saw with the statuses you set at the office desk.
The localStorage layer is what keeps Progress Tracking free and available to Guest users: no account is required to use it. The server sync is what makes it survive a cleared browser or a change of device, and it needs both an account and a saved cut. If you are tracking a job across days or machines, save the cut first.
Tips for Shop Floor Use
Progress Tracking is designed to be used right at the saw, not just at a desk. Here are a few practical workflows:
-
Use a tablet or phone next to the saw. Open CutOptim in a browser on a tablet or phone mounted near your panel saw or cut-off saw. As each sheet finishes, tap its status to mark it done — no paper checklist needed.
-
Use Partially done for sheets in progress. If you cut some pieces from a sheet and then stop to move to another task, mark it Partially done so you know at a glance which sheets still have work to complete.
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Scan the borders before breaks. Running your eye down the coloured left borders of the result cards tells you what is done and what is left before you step away.
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Progress sticks to the cut, not to the run. Re-running the optimization does not clear your statuses — they are stored against the cut and restored each time. That is what you want mid-job when you tweak a dimension and re-run. For a repeat job, clear the sheets you want to redo by setting their dropdowns back to 0; there is no reset-all button.
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Pair with PDF export for larger teams. For jobs with multiple operators, print the PDF cut sheet and use physical initials on paper alongside the digital status — the paper sheet is the operator’s detailed reference, the card badges are the foreman’s overview.