Questions

Yes. Planning is free and needs no account: unlimited sheets and parts, all three layout methods, Cut mode, the cut sequence for Sheet 1, CSV import and export, metric, edge banding, cost estimates and the printed shop report. Free keeps 3 saved projects, and the four examples don't count toward them.

The 3D assembly preview, Generate in the wizard, the step-by-step cut sequence on every sheet (Sheet 1's is free), offcut tracking, part labels, unlimited projects, shop-branded printouts and cloud sync between your devices. Pro is $69 a year or $9 a month. The Project Pass is $7 for all of it on one project for 7 days: one payment, never renews, and another pass adds 7 more days to that project. Shop Lifetime is $159 once: Pro forever, including every future Pro feature.

No. Open the planner and start; your projects save in the browser as you work. An account is only for syncing projects between devices with Pro, and you sign in with your email and a 6-digit code, no password.

Yes. On a phone the sheet sits on top with the cut list below it, and Cut mode turns the list into a big checklist you tap at the saw. Add it to your Home Screen and it opens full screen, like an app.

The planner does. Once you have opened it on a device it keeps working with no signal, in the shop or the garage, and sync catches up when you are back online. These pages need a connection.

In the browser on your device, saved as you work. With Pro and an account they also sync to your other devices, and you can export any project as a file to keep or share.

Yes. In the More menu (the ⋯ button), set the Units switch to mm and every size shows in millimetres; set it to in to go back. Wherever you type a size you can use millimetres (1335mm), fractions (52 9/16), decimals, or feet and inches (4' 2"). In inches, Project settings sets how fine the fractions go: 1/8", 1/16" or 1/32".

Kerf is the width of wood the saw blade turns to dust. PanelPlanner leaves that much space between parts when it lays them out, so every part comes off the saw at full size. It starts at 1/8"; to change it, open the More menu (⋯), choose Project settings… and type your blade's width in Blade kerf. A test cut measured with calipers tells you the real number. Edge trim, in the same place, takes a strip off every factory edge before the first part.

The arrow next to Optimize lists all three, with the sheets, yield and big cuts each one gives for your project, so you can compare before you choose. Picking one lays the sheets out again at once, and Undo goes back.

• Max yield packs the parts onto the fewest sheets. Good for a CNC or a panel saw.
• Table saw lays the parts out so that every cut runs straight through, the way a table saw cuts.
• Few big cuts lays the parts out in full-length strips, so the whole sheet needs the fewest long cuts. It is for working alone, when the full sheet is the hard part to handle, and it can use a little more plywood than Max yield.

Yes. Choose Import cutlist (CSV)… in the More menu (⋯), then paste rows from Excel, Google Sheets, SketchUp or CutList Optimizer, or drop a CSV file. Columns are matched by their headers: Label, Length, Width, Qty, Material and Grain. Export goes the other way: a grouped cut list CSV, a layout CSV with positions and joinery, or the whole project as a file.

Use the wizard. Start a new project and choose Work out the sizes for me, or take the Generate the sizes for me door on the home page. Tell it the width of the wall and your stock, add your cabinets, and it asks about each one with a sensible answer already filled in, drawing the run as you go. Pick your joints, then Generate cut listPro turns the answers into a cut list, a lumber list and nested sheets, with a note for every joint. The single cabinet and the wall of cabinets show it from start to finish.

No. Open this example, on any example's page, opens it in the planner as your own copy, named like Bookshelf (example). The copy doesn't count toward the 3 projects Free keeps, and opening the same example again reopens your copy instead of making another. Free can open and look through every example; changing a wizard example and generating it again is Pro.

Yes. Print (or P) makes a shop report: a summary page with the materials, cost, the grouped cut list and a joinery table, then a page for each sheet with its diagram, a table of its parts and their notes. A project from the wizard adds its drawings, the lumber list and the hardware it needs. Every sheet page can add its numbered cut sequence: Sheet 1's prints free, every sheet's with Pro. Part labelsPro print on Avery 5160 sheets from the arrow beside Print.

Email [email protected]. Say what you were doing and what you expected to see. If a layout or a size looks wrong, attach the project file: More menu (⋯), Save project file.