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CutList Plus

CutList Plus is a cut list and pick list generator, board foot calculator, panel optimizer, and project estimator all wrapped together in one product. It comes in several versions ranging from Lite Edition to Gold Edition making it useful and cost effective for both hobbyist woodworkers and commercial woodworking shops.

Bridgewood Design, the developer of CutList Plus, continually improves the product with new releases coming out at least yearly. Here are some of the current features:

It generates optimized plywood and other sheet goods layouts and dimensioned lumber cutting diagrams. No more scratching your head to figure out the best way to cut out parts from raw stock. The optimizer also allows a "first cut" direction for sheet goods.
It creates materials requirements lists and project cost estimates based on your cut list.
You can print part labels to keep your parts organized as you work.
It keeps track of your raw materials inventory, and automatically adjusts it based on your projects. You can also adjust your expected lumber yield at any time to instantly see your new project cost estimate.
A variety of pricing systems are supported, including board-feet, cubic feet, cubic meter, square feet, square meter, lineal feet, and lineal meter. Costs can be based on whole sheets or partial sheets. You can also track labor costs as a completely separate category.
A price estimating tool is included with the Gold Edition. Specify the markup for each item and let CutList Plus calculate a selling price for you. You can tell the program how you want to figure overhead and other indirect costs. You can also specify two different tax rates.
A customer proposal generator in the Gold Edition will print out a professionally formatted proposal that you can give to your customers.
The stock trim feature allows you to specify a waste area around the outer edge of a sheet of plywood.
You can keep track of which vendor supplies you with each item.
Cutlist Plus imports parts lists from Excel spreadsheets and CAD software. It also exports layout diagrams and "take-off" lists.
Allows specification of dimensions in inches, cm, or mm.

Even if you don't use the panel optimizer, CutList Plus is a handy estimating tool and lumber tabulator. To simplify your trip to the lumber yard, you can use the Pick List feature to list by species and material (lumber, sheet stock), the amount of material and estimated cost. Just print it out, and off you go. A capability is also available for specifying other project items and their costs - hinges, drawer pulls, finishing supplies, etc. Fortunately, it's a simple process to update the database of material costs and save it for future use.

The software run on Windows platforms and is available in four different versions that mainly differ in terms of number of parts handled and custom report features. A trial "Reader" version with a 5-piece limit is also available for free if you want to kick the tires a bit.

Bottom line: If you like tackling projects that involve many pieces and sub-assemblies, CutList Plus can save you lots of time and headaches. It's easy to learn, it has an intuitive interface, and is plain fun to use - especially the panel layout feature.

http://www.cutlistplus.com

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