Comparison · structural & architectural metalwork
Nesting software for metalwork — what wood-oriented tools do not do.
Historical nesting software was built for cutting panels and boards. They are excellent at that. But manufacturing a tube frame or a folded sheet metal part requires five things they have never had to do — and that is what decides whether your cutting plan holds up in the workshop or not.
What a general-purpose nesting software does well.
A well-made wood- or panel-oriented nesting software does three things very well:
- 2D nesting — placing rectangles into a wooden sheet to minimise waste.
- Basic 1D cutting — distributing straight lengths into bars or boards.
- Saw kerf accounting — so that the cutting plan stays true on the output of a circular saw.
If your trade is furniture, fit-out, joinery or timber framing, these tools do the job — often better than what one would do on a spreadsheet. This page is not here to tell you to switch.
It is here to tell you when they hit their limit: when the material is no longer a board, when the cut is no longer straight, and when the input file is no longer a hand-typed list but a design office STEP.
What metalwork has on top
Five things that are missing when you manufacture in metal.
The cut angles.
A metalwork cut part rarely has two 90° cuts. A stair handrail, a welded frame leg, a wheeled chassis: nearly every part comes off the cut-off saw with a different left and right angle. Wood software reasons in lengths; in metal, length alone is not enough to describe the part.
Paired miter cuts ⋈
Two consecutive miter cuts can share a single saw kerf: the outgoing angle of one part and the incoming angle of the next are cut in one pass. A software that ignores miters cannot see this saving — and leaves 3 to 8 % of material on the table for runs welded at 45°.
The offcuts that come back.
An 800 mm tube offcut does not go into the scrap bin — it waits for the next job. A metal bar nesting software records these lengths, with their profile, and feeds them back into the next calculation. On wood it matters less — boards come in standard formats and offcuts get ripped; on 40×40 tube, every reused offcut is a whole bar saved over the year.
The STEP file as input.
The design office of a metal project does not deliver a typed list: it delivers a STEP file or a technical drawing. The cut list has to come out of it, without re-entry; that is where the most time is lost, and that is where mistakes come in that produce tubes at the wrong length. See STEP analysis.
Sheet metal unfolding.
A folded sheet metal part only makes sense in the workshop once laid flat : developed outline, dimensioned bend lines, radius, angle. Without automatic unfolding, the sheet has to be re-drawn by hand in a CAD software — or sent outside the workshop. See sheet metal unfolding.
Recap — two tools, two trades.
| Feature | General-purpose nesting (wood, panel) | Cut to Fab (metal) |
|---|---|---|
| 1D placement (straight lengths) | Yes | Yes |
| 2D placement (rectangles in a sheet) | Yes, often the speciality | In development |
| Independent cut angles | No, or marginal | Two angles per cut part |
| Paired miter cuts | No | Yes |
| Reusable offcuts fed back in | Rare | Yes (Pro, Workshop) |
| STEP / IGES / BREP import | No | Yes |
| Sheet metal unfolding | No | Yes |
| Configurable saw kerf | Yes | Yes, per project |
| Where the computation runs | Variable — often local | Browser, except unfolding |
How to choose without regret.
Stay on a general-purpose nesting software if you mainly build furniture, fit-out, casework or timber framing — your materials come in standard formats, your cuts are mostly straight, your gain comes from 2D placement in panels. A tool dedicated to metalwork would be over-tooled for your need.
Look at a metal-dedicated software like Cut to Fab if you build frames, handrails, welded assemblies, tube or profile structures, or if you work with folded sheet metal: the gain lies in miters, paired miter cuts, offcut recovery, and direct entry from a STEP. This is not the same optimisation.
Use both if your workshop does both — it is a frequent case in architectural metalwork. Cut to Fab does not replace a wood software on its own ground, and the reverse holds too.
Frequently asked questions on the comparison
What we get asked at trade shows.
Can a wood software be used for metal?
Technically yes, for straight 1D cutting: the material matters little to a solver that distributes lengths. In practice, the metalwork shop loses half of the possible gain as soon as miters, paired miter cuts and offcut recovery come into play — that is, on nearly every real job.
Does Cut to Fab replace my CAD software?
No. Cut to Fab reads the STEP produced by your CAD (SolidWorks, Inventor, Fusion, Onshape, FreeCAD, TopSolid…) and converts it into a cut list and DXF flat blanks. You keep drawing with the tool you know: Cut to Fab slots in between CAD and the workshop.
Does Cut to Fab do 2D nesting for sheet metal?
The 2D nesting module — placing DXF flat blanks into your sheet formats — is currently in development. It runs, you can try it, but we do not yet sell it as a production tool. For immediate 2D nesting in production, a dedicated 2D tool remains the right choice.
How long to evaluate the gain on my jobs?
One morning. The Free plan accepts STEP import with no size limit and unfolding. You take three past jobs, replay their cut lists, and compare the number of bars used and the workshop time. Zero commitment, no account to create for the first evaluation.
Is Cut to Fab suitable for a small workshop?
Yes — it is even the primary use case. The Free plan fits a small real job (30 cut parts, 2 projects); the Pro plan at €59/month (€29 for the 20 founders) is enough for a solo craftsperson or a workshop with one person on cutting. There is no hardware to install, no server to administer: everything runs in the browser, on the machine already in place.
Do I need a subscription to try Cut to Fab?
No, and you do not even need to create an account. The Free plan is usable anonymously, with no credit card, and it never expires. It is deliberately sized so that a small real job fits entirely (30 cut parts per calculation, 2 saved projects) — enough to judge for yourself before considering a subscription.
Can Cut to Fab be used offline?
1D cutting, STEP reading, the 3D view and every export (PDF, CSV, DXF) run in your browser : once the page is loaded, an Internet outage does not stop them. Two features are exceptions and say so on screen: the unfolding of sheet metal and the multi-machine sync go through our servers and need a connection. Cut to Fab can also be “installed” as an app from the browser (PWA), to open in one click on the workshop machine.
Replay three past jobs. That is what decides.
A comparison software is worth nothing without your real files. Take the cut list from a recent job, drop it in or drop in the STEP: the cutting plan that comes out tells you in five minutes whether there is a gain to chase.