Cut optimization for iPhone and iPad
Cut lists that actually add up.
Sawgrid turns a list of parts and a list of panels into cutting plans a workshop can produce. Guillotine cuts, real kerf math, grain direction on every single part. Everything runs on the device. No server, no account, no signal needed.
- Cabinetmakers
- Joiners and shopfitters
- Table saw and track saw workshops
- Serious hobbyists
iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 and later.
Calculating is free. Pro is a one time purchase or a subscription, your choice.
- 89.6 % parts
- 4.1 % reusable offcut
- 0.7 % kerf
- 1.7 % edge trim
- 3.9 % waste
Built against the complaints, not the feature list.
Every point below comes from a specific, repeated failure in this category. Some of them cost people real money in wasted material.
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Every part is placed or reported
If a part cannot fit, Sawgrid blocks and names it, with its size and the stock item it was measured against. It will not hand you a plan that is quietly missing a piece.
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The kerf is real
The blade eats material out of the free area beside a part. It is never added to the part size, and no kerf is charged at an outside edge of a panel, because there is no cut there.
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Grain direction per part
Three valued on every single part: free to rotate, forced lengthwise, forced crosswise. Inherited from the material, overridable anywhere. The stock panel carries its own grain axis.
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Several materials, one run
A carcass job mixes 19 mm plywood, a 6 mm back panel and solid timber. Sawgrid solves all of them at once, with a separate plan per material and one consolidated shopping list.
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Your offcuts are stock
Leftovers carry a size, a quantity and a priority. Give them a lower priority number than fresh sheets and the optimizer will use up the rack before it cuts into a new panel.
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No slivers pretending to be offcuts
A leftover strip narrower than your minimum is counted as waste, not as stock. Nobody can hold a 1.5 mm ribbon against a fence, so Sawgrid does not pretend you can.
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One field, any unit
No unit switch to forget. The same box understands 720, 18mm, 1,8 cm, 3/4", 0.75in, 24 1/2 and 2' 6 3/4.
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A PDF that actually prints
One page per sheet, drawn to scale and dimensioned, plus the cut list in cutting order and the area balance. Straight through the normal share sheet, so it prints, AirDrops and saves to Files.
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Offline, on device, no account
The optimizer, the drawings and the export all run on the device in your hand. There is no login screen, no sync, and nothing to fail in a basement workshop with no signal.
Three steps, then you cut.
No wizard, no gratis run to burn by mistyping a number, no paywall between you and the result you already typed in.
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Type the parts
Name, width, length, quantity, grain. Paste a room full of panels in one go, or add them one at a time. Every field takes any unit you feel like typing.
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Describe your stock
Full sheets, half sheets and the offcut rack, each with a quantity and a priority. Set the kerf of your blade and the trim your supplier leaves on the edge.
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Solve and print
Plans per material, a cut list in the order you will actually cut, a shopping list, and a balance that closes. Then a PDF for the wall next to the saw.
What is under the lid.
Not because you have to care, but because the plans are only as trustworthy as the arithmetic behind them.
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108
Candidate plans per run
Six split rules times three placement rules times six sort orders. No single heuristic wins consistently, the winner changes with every job, so Sawgrid runs them all and keeps the best one.
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0.1 mm
Integer arithmetic, no floats
Every length in the app is a whole number of tenths of a millimeter. One inch is exactly 254 of them. Same discipline that stores money as integer cents, for the same reason: drift is not acceptable.
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1 : 1
Deterministic by construction
Solve the same project twice and you get identical plans. The optional refinement pass is seeded from a fixed constant, never from the clock, so a plan you printed yesterday is the plan you get today.
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< 0.3 s
Fast enough to keep tweaking
A few hundred parts solve while your thumb is still on the button. Change one dimension, resolve, compare. That is the loop the category has been missing.
What is free, and what Pro costs.
Every competing app in this category meters the calculating. Sawgrid does not, and it says plainly where the line is instead of finding out at the paywall.
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Free, with no counter running
Calculating is free and stays free: as many parts and panels as a job has, as many recalculations as you like, all 108 strategies on every run, and the full cutting plan on screen with dimensions, part names and the area balance. Nothing is metered, and no attempt is burned by a typo.
The free plan works on one project at a time, with one material, at a fixed 3.0 mm saw kerf.
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Pro is the workflow around the plan
The multi page PDF, the label sheet and the CSV cut list. Your own blade kerf instead of the fixed one. A grain rule per part. Several materials in one project. More than one project at a time. Saw table mode. The offcut inventory that carries across projects. The slower, more thorough optimisation pass.
Pro is a subscription or a one time purchase. The lifetime price is the same as one year — pay for a year, or pay once and be done.
Questions
If yours is not here, write to us. A person reads that inbox.
Does Sawgrid need an internet connection?
No. The optimizer, the drawings, the PDF export and the offcut inventory all run on the device. You can plan a job in a basement workshop with no signal at all.
Do I have to create an account?
No. There is no account, no login and no server. Your projects live in the app's own storage on your device.
Can one project mix several materials?
Yes, and that was a requirement from day one rather than a later addition. A real carcass job mixes 19 mm plywood, a 6 mm back panel and solid timber. Sawgrid solves each material against its own stock, prints a separate plan per material and gives you one consolidated shopping list.
How does Sawgrid handle grain direction?
Grain is a three valued setting on every single part: free to rotate, forced lengthwise, forced crosswise. Each part inherits the setting from its material, and you can override it on any part without touching the others. The stock panel carries its own grain axis, so a cross grain sheet is handled correctly too.
Can Sawgrid use the offcuts I already have?
Yes. An offcut is simply stock with a size, a finite quantity and a priority number. Give the rack a lower priority than fresh sheets and the optimizer consumes your leftovers before it opens a new panel. Usable offcuts produced by a run can go straight back into the rack with their real dimensions.
Which units can I type?
One field, no unit switch. It understands 720, 18mm, 1,8 cm, 3/4", 0.75in, 24 1/2 and 2' 6 3/4. Metric and imperial can sit side by side in the same project. Anything the parser cannot read with certainty is rejected outright rather than guessed at.
What happens if a part does not fit?
Sawgrid stops and tells you which part it is, how big it is, and which stock item it was measured against. This is the single most damaging failure in this category: a plan that silently drops a piece sends you to the merchant with the wrong quantity, and you find out at the saw.
Does Sawgrid nest irregular shapes?
No, and that is a deliberate limit. Sawgrid plans rectangular guillotine cuts, which is exactly what a table saw, a track saw or a panel saw can physically execute. True nesting of arbitrary polygons needs minutes of compute on a desktop machine, which is not an honest thing to put in a mobile app.
Can it optimize linear stock as well as panels?
Yes. Trim, battens, tubes and profiles are optimized one dimensionally, in the same project as your panels, with the same kerf and the same balance guarantee.
Will the same project always produce the same plan?
Yes. Every heuristic in the portfolio is deterministic, and the optional refinement pass draws from a fixed seed rather than from the clock. If you printed a plan yesterday and solve again today, you get the identical plan.
Is there advertising?
No. This version shows no ads at all, free or paid, and it carries no advertising, analytics or tracking software. Nothing you type leaves the device. Details are in the privacy policy.
Which devices does it run on?
iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 and later. The typing is built for one hand at a bench, and the cutting plan takes the room a larger screen gives it.
Measure twice. Let Sawgrid do the rest of the arithmetic.
Sawgrid is a planning tool. It is very good at the packing and the bookkeeping, and it still cannot see your saw. Check every dimension against the drawing before the blade goes in.
iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 and later.