Free tool · flat glass
Window film cut optimizer
Type in your panes and your roll width. The optimizer nests them onto the roll, tells you how many linear feet the job actually needs, how much of the film ends up as waste, and gives you a drawn layout plus an ordered cut list you can print. Free, no login, nothing leaves your browser.
Runs on the same eighth-inch packing engine as PeelBoard's Cut Planner
Your job
Sizes are the finished glass, in inches. The trim allowance is added to every pane before nesting, so enter the glass, not the film.
The roll
Added to each pane's width and height for bleed and blade kerf. Set 0 to nest bare glass sizes.
The panes
Up to 500 panes per run. The layout updates as you type — the button is there for when you would rather force it.
The plan
- Linear feet needed —
- Waste —
- Pieces —
Cut list
| # | Pane | Cut size (along × across) | Orientation | Position on roll |
|---|
Cut sequence
Straight edge-to-edge cuts, in order. Follow them top to bottom and the layout above is what you end up with.
How it works, and what the numbers mean
What it is doing
Every pane gets the trim allowance added, then rounded up to the nearest eighth of an inch — all the geometry runs on an eighth-inch integer grid, so nothing drifts. The optimizer then nests the pieces with two different packers (shelf rows and guillotine free-rectangle) across several sort orders and keeps whichever result uses the least length of roll.
Every cut it reports is a straight edge-to-edge cut, which is the only kind you can actually make on a table, and the sequence is ordered so following it reproduces the layout exactly.
Linear feet and waste
Linear feet needed is how far down the roll the last piece reaches — the length you are consuming, whatever the roll is wide. Buy the rounded-up figure; film is sold by the foot.
Waste is the share of that rectangle (roll width × length used) that no piece covers. A wide roll running narrow panes wastes film along the edge, so if one width shows a high number, try the next size down.
Oversize panes and seams
If a pane is wider than the roll in both directions it cannot be cut in one piece, so the optimizer splits it into equal seamed panels with a half-inch overlap and lists them as panel 1/2, panel 2/2 and so on. If a pane is too big even for that, it is reported as unplaced rather than silently dropped.
This free page is deliberately simpler than the Cut Planner inside PeelBoard: it does not keep a remnant library, does not check the film against your roll inventory and does not deduct what you cut. Run your shop on PeelBoard and it does all three against your real stock.
Cut optimizer questions
How much trim allowance should I add?
Most flat-glass installers cut a half inch over on each dimension and trim to the gasket on the glass, which is the default here. If you squeegee to a hard edge and cut on the pane, a quarter inch is usually enough; if you are wet-shrinking or working around frit bands, go up. The allowance is added to both the width and the height of every pane, so it changes nesting as well as size.
Why did my waste percentage jump when I changed the trim?
Because nesting is a fit problem, not an area problem. Two 30-inch panes sit side by side on a 60-inch roll exactly; add a half inch to each and they are 61 inches together, so only one fits across and the run doubles. When a small change moves the number a lot, that is the tool telling you the job is right at a width boundary — try a different roll width or shave the allowance.
Does it handle rolls of a fixed length?
This free version nests onto an unlimited length and tells you how much you need, which is the number you want when you are buying film or checking a job against a fresh roll. Fitting a job onto the specific partial rolls sitting on your shelf, and deducting what you cut, is what the Cut Planner inside PeelBoard does.
Can I use it for automotive tint?
Only loosely. Car glass is curved and cut from patterns, so the rectangle this tool nests is the blank you pull off the roll, not the finished shape. It is built for flat glass — storefronts, residential windows, glass partitions — where the pane really is a rectangle.
Planning aid, not a guarantee. Measure your own glass, check the layout against your film before you cut, and remember that a nesting plan assumes square panes and a flat, square-edged roll.