SiluvoQuiet woodworking tools

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What Grainline Does

Maximize material yield and plan your plywood cuts with Grainline. A free online cut list optimizer featuring interactive dimensions and cut flow simulation. No installation required.

What Grainline Does

Grainline is a Cut list generator that answers two critical questions before you start a project: "How much material do I need to buy?" and "How exactly should I cut it?"

By inputting your parts list, Grainline calculates the most efficient way to fit them onto your boards, maximizing material yield and providing a clear, logical roadmap for every cut.

Maximum Yield, Minimum Waste

The best way to save money on a project is to not buy extra wood you don’t need. Grainline is built to be your pre-purchase strategist:

  • Aggressive Optimization: Our algorithm works to fit your parts into the smallest possible footprint. It helps you shrink your shopping list by ensuring every square inch of the board is used effectively.

  • Visualize the Remnants: See exactly what your offcuts will look like. Grainline aims to leave you with useful, manageable scrap rather than a pile of unusable slivers.

  • Compare Before You Buy: Test different board sizes (like 4x8 vs. 5x5) in seconds to see which one offers the best yield for your specific project.

Pro-Level Layouts, Beginner-Friendly Execution

A layout that looks good on paper is useless if it’s a nightmare to cut. Grainline bridges the gap between efficiency and practicality:

  • Interactive Dimensions: No more squinting at a messy drawing. Click any part in the layout to see its exact dimensions, its distance from the board edges, and the surrounding Kerf (blade thickness).

  • Simplified Cut Flow: We turn complex layouts into a sequence of continuous through-cuts. Our Simulate Cut Flow feature animates the entire process, showing you exactly where to make the first rip and how to break down the rest.

  • Safe & Logical Sequencing: The layouts are designed with shop reality in mind—prioritizing material support and avoiding dangerous or awkward "trapped" cuts.

Powerful, Professional, and Free to Start

We built Grainline to be a clean, high-performance tool that stays out of your way:

Instant Web App: No downloads, no installations. Use it on your office desktop to plan, then pull it up on a tablet at your workbench.

A Generous Free Tier: We are committed to the maker community.

  • Optimize up to 50 parts in a single layout.

  • Plenty of daily runs to fine-tune your strategy.

  • Unlimited PDF exports—no paywalls or watermarks on your final plans.

Project Management: Save your history and manage multiple projects in one place.

The Standard Workflow

  1. Create a Project: Select your units (Imperial or Metric).
  2. Add Your Parts: Enter dimensions manually or upload a CSV/XLSX file.
  3. Input Your Boards: Enter the sheet sizes available at your supplier.
  4. Optimize & Generate: Click to see the most material-efficient layout.
  5. Review & Simulate: Click the interactive parts and watch the cut animation to verify the flow.
  6. Export & Execute: Export the PDF and head to the shop with a foolproof plan.