topic Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers in Inventor Forum

Best Linear Cut Optimizers

petestrycharske — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 14:38:58 GMT

All,

Good morning! I was recently asked by a client what the best linear cut optimizers are out there for Inventor. I didn't see anything in the Inventor App Store, so I some digging and found a couple of online calculators and a couple of Excel based options. However, it dawned on me that I should reach out to the community to see what everyone else has / is using. If you could please provide links to the optimizers below, I'd love to evaluate them. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Below is a list that I've at least taken a cursory look at:

https://smartcut.pro/

https://www.cutoptimizeronline.com/

https://www.optimalon.com/length_cutting_excel.htm

https://metalopt.com/free_optimizer.html

Thanks in advance for any thoughts! Hope all is well and have a most blessed day!

Peace,

Pete

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

petestrycharske — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 19:05:02 GMT

Oops, I meant to ask for others to provide links. I merely wanted to list the ones that I'd already looked at to see if others had any feedback on them. Sorry for any confusion.

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

johnsonshiue — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 16:46:35 GMT

Hi Pete,

I am sorry that I don't have much to offer here since I am ignorant of "Linear Cut Optimizer." I am not aware of an Autodesk solution. I think what you have found is much more information than I can offer.

There is a trick I use for inquiries like this. I usually search for a solution provided for our competitors. Sometimes, the same solution might be available to Inventor also. For example, there are some online viewers and robotic analysis tools. Please share what you find.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Many thanks!

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 23:27:47 GMT

For a single set of lengths to optimize the solutions are relatively narrow and limited to

the best combination that can be fit within a stock length to cut from.

However if the need is for multiple sets not all known at one time, now that's where there

is no absolute best as strategies come in to play. As with poker, odds and choice strategies.

I have extensive experience in this area, over 30 years and many thousands of optimizations.

Anyone with questions may feel free to contact me about some of these techniques

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 13:22:51 GMT

Hey Pete,

Another thought, would you be able to create a nesting template for bar stock(or whatever you/client is using) and use that?

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

paulZKN98 — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 21:20:54 GMT

@petestrycharske Did you have any success with this search? This would be HUGE for us, and I'm surprised that there aren't any options in the app store. We are always generating cut lists from our BOM and manually determining how many sticks of metal would be required for ordering / cutting processes in the shop.

@Anonymous Could you elaborate on what tools you could use for this?

Thanks!

Paul

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

swalton — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 13:06:17 GMT

I recently used Inventor Nesting to solve this problem for rubber strips. It is part of the PDMC subscription, but a separate install.

I followed the AU class here: https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Inventor-Nesting-Isnt-Just-Sheet-Metal-2020

Worked fine for my needs.

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

paulZKN98 — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 15:55:03 GMT

Wow, I've played around with Inventor Nesting but thought it was only for Sheetmetal. This is big! Thankyou!

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

mik_korepanov — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:58:52 GMT

Hello! I’ve been using smartcut.pro for a while — it provides decent results.

Recently, I started working on my own solution. It’s still in beta, but in my tests it already delivers very competitive (and sometimes better) results compared to other tools.

I would really appreciate it if you could try it out and share your feedback:

https://cut1d.xyz/

Benchmark setup

Stock length: 1250 (unlimited quantity)

Test Case 1 – Details

Length Quantity

250	35
460	53
620	6

Results (Test Case 1)

Tool Bars Max Waste Time

smartcut.pro	32	1000	5s
metalopt	32	750	3s
cut1d	32	1000	1s

Test Case 2 – Details

Length Quantity

250	35
620	6
460	53
1200	20
50	20

Results (Test Case 2)

Tool Bars Max Waste Time

smartcut.pro	57	790	5s
metalopt	52	750	3s
cut1d	52	1000	1s

These are simple test cases, but they already show promising performance.

Thanks in advance for your time — any feedback is highly appreciated!

Re: Best Linear Cut Optimizers

mgrenier1 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:17:45 GMT

It's still very much a work in progress but I'm trying to build one with iLogic

Option Explicit Sub Main() Dim app As Inventor.Application = ThisApplication Dim tg As TransientGeometry = app.TransientGeometry Dim srcAsm As AssemblyDocument = app.ActiveDocument Dim basePath As String basePath = Left(srcAsm.FullFileName, InStrRev(srcAsm.FullFileName, "\")) ' ---------------- Paramètres ---------------- Dim kerfMM As Double: kerfMM = 3.175 ' 1/8" Dim stockLenMM As Double: stockLenMM = 7315.2 ' 288" Dim gabaritPath As String gabaritPath = "C:\Vault WS\Designs\DIVERS\Mathieu G\Tests iLogic\OptiCutter\OptiCutter-Template.iam" ' ---------------- Préparer dictionnaire familles ---------------- Dim families As New Dictionary(Of String, List(Of Object())) Dim keywords() As String: keywords = Split("POUTRE|CORNIÈRE|TUBE|TUYAU|ACIER PLAT|ACIER ROND|HSS", "|") ' Collecter récursivement Dim occ As ComponentOccurrence For Each occ In srcAsm.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences CollectParts(occ, families, keywords) Next If families.Count = 0 Then MessageBox.Show("Aucun profilé détecté.", "OptiCutter") Exit Sub End If ' ---------------- FFD + génération ---------------- Dim fKey As String For Each fKey In families.Keys Dim parts As List(Of Object()) parts = families(fKey) SortByLengthDesc(parts) ' Optimisation: First-Fit Decreasing Dim bars As New List(Of List(Of Object())) Dim p As Object() For Each p In parts Dim L As Double: L = CDbl(p(1)) Dim placed As Boolean: placed = False Dim b As List(Of Object()) For Each b In bars Dim used As Double: used = SumLengths(b) + KerfTotal(b.Count, kerfMM) Dim extraKerf As Double: extraKerf = IIf(b.Count > 0, kerfMM, 0) If used + extraKerf + L <= stockLenMM Then b.Add(p) placed = True Exit For End If Next If Not placed Then Dim nb As New List(Of Object()) nb.Add(p) bars.Add(nb) End If Next ' Générer un assemblage par barre Dim barIdx As Integer: barIdx = 1 Dim b2 As List(Of Object()) For Each b2 In bars If Not System.IO.File.Exists(gabaritPath) Then MessageBox.Show("Gabarit introuvable: " & gabaritPath, "OptiCutter") Exit Sub End If Dim newAsm As AssemblyDocument newAsm = app.Documents.Open(gabaritPath, True) newAsm.DisplayName = "PlanCoupe_" & CleanName(fKey) & "_Barre" & barIdx Dim compDef As AssemblyComponentDefinition = newAsm.ComponentDefinition ' Plans assemblage (mapping) Dim asmXY As WorkPlane, asmYZ As WorkPlane, asmXZ As WorkPlane asmXY = compDef.WorkPlanes.Item(3) asmYZ = compDef.WorkPlanes.Item(1) asmXZ = compDef.WorkPlanes.Item(2) Dim offsetMM As Double: offsetMM = 0 Dim first As Boolean: first = True Dim q As Object() For Each q In b2 Dim path As String: path = CStr(q(0)) Dim Lmm As Double: Lmm = CDbl(q(1)) If Not System.IO.File.Exists(path) Then Continue For Dim occNew As ComponentOccurrence occNew = compDef.Occurrences.Add(path, tg.CreateMatrix()) Dim pDef As PartComponentDefinition = TryCast(occNew.Definition, PartComponentDefinition) If pDef Is Nothing Then Continue For ' Plans pièce (mapping) Dim wpXY As WorkPlane, wpYZ As WorkPlane, wpXZ As WorkPlane wpXY = pDef.WorkPlanes.Item(3) wpYZ = pDef.WorkPlanes.Item(1) wpXZ = pDef.WorkPlanes.Item(2) ' Proxies Dim xyProxy As WorkPlaneProxy, yzProxy As WorkPlaneProxy, xzProxy As WorkPlaneProxy occNew.CreateGeometryProxy(wpXY, xyProxy) occNew.CreateGeometryProxy(wpYZ, yzProxy) occNew.CreateGeometryProxy(wpXZ, xzProxy) ' Contraintes compDef.Constraints.AddFlushConstraint(asmXZ, xzProxy, 0) compDef.Constraints.AddFlushConstraint(asmYZ, yzProxy, 0) Dim offCM As Double: offCM = IIf(first, 0, offsetMM / 10.0) compDef.Constraints.AddFlushConstraint(asmXY, xyProxy, offCM) first = False ' Avancer offset offsetMM += Lmm If Not IsLastInBar(b2, q) Then offsetMM += kerfMM Next ' Sauvegarder et fermer Dim savePath As String savePath = basePath & newAsm.DisplayName & ".iam" newAsm.SaveAs(savePath, False) 'newAsm.Close(False) barIdx += 1 Next Next MessageBox.Show("Optimisation terminée: barres générées par famille.", "OptiCutter") End Sub ' ===== Helpers ===== Private Sub CollectParts(occ As ComponentOccurrence, ByRef families As Dictionary(Of String, List(Of Object())), ByVal keywords() As String) If TypeOf occ.Definition Is PartComponentDefinition Then Dim partDoc As Document = occ.Definition.Document Dim desc As String, dest As String desc = "" : dest = "" On Error Resume Next desc = CStr(iProperties.Value(occ.Name, "Project", "Description")) dest = CStr(iProperties.Value(occ.Name, "Custom", "Destination")) On Error GoTo 0 Dim keep As Boolean: keep = False If desc <> "" Then Dim up As String: up = UCase(desc) Dim k As Integer For k = LBound(keywords) To UBound(keywords) If InStr(up, keywords(k)) > 0 Then keep = True : Exit For Next End If If LCase(dest) = "scie" Then keep = True If keep And desc <> "" Then Dim Lmm As Double: Lmm = 0 On Error Resume Next Lmm = CDbl(partDoc.ComponentDefinition.Parameters.UserParameters.Item("Longueur").Value) * 10 If Err.Number <> 0 Then Err.Clear() Lmm = CDbl(partDoc.ComponentDefinition.Parameters.UserParameters.Item("G_L").Value) * 10 End If On Error GoTo 0 If Lmm > 0 Then Dim famKey As String: famKey = Trim(UCase(desc)) If Not families.ContainsKey(famKey) Then families.Add(famKey, New List(Of Object())) families(famKey).Add(New Object(){partDoc.FullFileName, Lmm}) End If End If ElseIf TypeOf occ.Definition Is AssemblyComponentDefinition Then Dim subOcc As ComponentOccurrence For Each subOcc In occ.SubOccurrences CollectParts(subOcc, families, keywords) Next End If End Sub Private Sub SortByLengthDesc(ByRef lst As List(Of Object())) Dim n As Integer: n = lst.Count Dim i As Integer, j As Integer For i = 0 To n - 2 For j = i + 1 To n - 1 If CDbl(lst(i)(1)) < CDbl(lst(j)(1)) Then Dim tmp As Object(): tmp = lst(i) lst(i) = lst(j) lst(j) = tmp End If Next Next End Sub Private Function SumLengths(lst As List(Of Object())) As Double Dim s As Double: s = 0 Dim it As Object() For Each it In lst s = s + CDbl(it(1)) Next SumLengths = s End Function Private Function KerfTotal(count As Integer, kerfMM As Double) As Double If count <= 1 Then KerfTotal = 0 Else KerfTotal = (count - 1) * kerfMM End If End Function Private Function IsLastInBar(lst As List(Of Object()), item As Object()) As Boolean IsLastInBar = (Object.ReferenceEquals(lst(lst.Count - 1), item)) End Function Private Function CleanName(s As String) As String ' Supprime caractères illégaux pour noms de fichiers Dim badChars As String: badChars = "\/:*?""<>|" Dim c As String For Each c In badChars s = Replace(s, c, "_") Next CleanName = s End Function