1 Quick start
- Enter the full stock length you buy from your supplier.
- Set the kerf allowance for your saw blade.
- Add each required cut length and quantity.
- Calculate, then copy, print, or manually adjust the result.
2 Optimising
BarNest compares several valid cutting sequences. Prioritise stock favours fewer lengths, then fewer saw-setting changes. Prioritise fewer angle changes may use more stock; the comparison shows the difference and any extra cost. These are the best plans found, not a guarantee of the absolute optimum.
Manual adjust lets you move, reorder and, when permitted, turn parts end-for-end. Every change is checked. Editing any input makes previous results outdated until you calculate again.
3 Angled parts
Enable Angled cuts for single-plane mitres on box section, round tube or flat bar. Enter the profile dimensions and select the dimension running near to far across the mitre plane. Enter each finished part’s overall tip-to-tip extent along the stock, as shown by its dimension line. This can differ from the length measured along either edge.
0° means square, or 90° to the stock length. In the top view, positive angles lean / and negative angles lean \. Set the saw’s actual left and right limits separately. Kerf is the slot width perpendicular to the blade; BarNest projects it along the stock for each angle.
Compatible ends can share one cut, with kerf counted once. Incompatible ends need a preparation cut and may leave a wedge. Additional starting trim is discard before the first preparation slot. Reserved tail is protected from cutting and excluded from usable offcut. Blank minimum useful offcut means no minimum threshold.
Allow end-for-end rotation only when swapping the part’s near and far reference faces is acceptable. It is a 180° turn in the cutting plane, not a mirror image or a roll of the section.
4 Workshop sequence
Follow the numbered operations for each stock pattern. Repeat the complete pattern for every listed stock ID. The angle summary is a reference, not an instruction to sort the operations by angle. Printed slot coordinates are drawing dimensions on the marked near edge, measured from the original square stock end; they are not machine stop or feed commands.
The model assumes straight, constant-section stock with square factory ends. Usable offcut is its full-width square-ended remainder, excluding the reserved tail and projecting angled tip. Machine-specific clamps, cutting capacity, distortion and compound angles are not modelled. Calculations stay in this page and are lost on refresh.