Hi Guys

The day has arrived when I've got the support of the boss to get a cut list optimiser.  I know there are free ones knocking about but we're considering a paid solution.  The primary importance is it can do what we need in an efficient way.  I'm pretty sure it would soon pay for itself.

I was half thinking I could write one myself, but looking at the algorithms involved it's way too much math for me (Linear Programming??).

Our requirements are:

2d Length/Width only.

Input by csv, Excel, etc

Stock Lengths are random length and width.  Thickness is unimportant.

But we would like to have the ability to include extra properties for example

Boolean (Clean) Yes/No

Grade (Integer) 1 - 5

The Cutlist would be random lengths and widths along with any of these other properties.

ie Clean (Yes/No/Don't Care)

Grade (>4)

Cutlists are in the order of a 1000 items, with maybe a couple of hundred unique sizes.

Random Stock Lengths could be about 50 variations.

It doesn't matter so much if there's one that can't do the extra properties as this could be filtered out first.

I have absolutely no experience of any of this, just stating what I'd like.

For example we would like (as is good practise) to divide up any spare material between the lengths being cut to allow for machine run off / final scribe / mistakes etc, but again not essential as this can be done manually.

I know there's a lot of time and money to be saved with the right software that can solve these Herculean Combinatorial Problems.

Can anyone recommend a product that might tick some of these boxes?

Thanks in Advance