Sheet Nesting Calculator
Free tool
Sheet nesting calculator
Work out how many parts fit on a sheet, how many sheets an order needs, and how much material you are throwing away. Rectangular nesting with rotation, spacing and edge margin.
Parts per sheet—
Layout—
Sheets required—
Parts on last sheet—
Waste area per sheet—
Material utilisation—
Sheet layout — first sheet
Gold outline is the usable area inside the edge margin. Parts shown in their packed orientation.
How the layout is worked out
Columns = floor( (Usable length + spacing) / (Part length + spacing) )
Rows = floor( (Usable width + spacing) / (Part width + spacing) )
Usable = Sheet dimension − (2 × edge margin)
Utilisation = (Parts × Part area) / Sheet area
The tool tries both orientations, then checks whether a rotated strip fits in the leftover band along the long or short edge, and keeps whichever gives the most parts.Spacing is the web between parts. It is not the same as kerf. Kerf is the material the beam removes — typically 0.1–0.3 mm on a fibre laser — and it sits inside the spacing, not in addition to it. Set spacing from what your machine and material actually need for heat and part stability, not from kerf alone.
What this tool is, and what it is not
This is rectangular nesting. Every part is treated as its bounding box. For rectangular blanks that is exact. For L-shapes, discs, brackets or anything with a concave profile, real nesting software will beat this figure — sometimes by a wide margin, because it can interlock parts inside each other’s waste.
Use this for quoting, checking a supplier’s sheet count, or deciding whether a design change is worth it. Use CNCKAD, CypCut or your own nesting software for the actual production layout.
Use this for quoting, checking a supplier’s sheet count, or deciding whether a design change is worth it. Use CNCKAD, CypCut or your own nesting software for the actual production layout.
Common sheet sizes
| Size | Area | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| 3000 × 1500 | 4.5 m² | The default for most fibre laser beds. Standard stock across Europe and North Africa. |
| 2500 × 1250 | 3.13 m² | Very common in general fabrication and for smaller beds. |
| 2000 × 1000 | 2.0 m² | Small-format work and easier manual handling. |
| 4000 × 2000 | 8.0 m² | Large-bed machines. Fewer sheets, but check your crane and storage. |
A part that is 5 mm too long can cost you a whole column across every sheet in the order. Before you accept a size, try trimming a few millimetres here and watch what happens to the sheet count — that is the cheapest design change you will ever make.
Need the drawings as well as the numbers?
We are GMR3D Engineering, a mechanical design studio. We produce production-ready CAD and manufacturing files for sheet metal, laser cutting, CNC machining, 3D printing and injection molding.