Library

Materials & Cost

Define material presets with densities for accurate cost calculations. Enable cost estimation on any optimizer to get a full material cost breakdown — total cost, good-parts cost, scrap cost, and cost-in-scrap percentage.

Overview

The Materials library stores material names and their densities. When you enable cost calculation on any optimizer (Coil Slitting, Nesting, or Cut to Length), you select a material from this library and the density auto-fills — saving you from looking it up every time.

Cost calculations are optional and do not affect the optimization results — they are an add-on layer for estimating material spend.

Adding Materials

Navigate to Materials

Click Materials in the left sidebar under the Library group.

Enter a name

Type the material name in the Name field (e.g., "Aluminum 5052" or "Mild Steel HR").

Enter density

Enter the density value and select the unit from the dropdown: g/cm³, lb/in³, kg/m³, or lb/ft³. The system stores density internally in lb/in³ for calculations but displays both lb/in³ and g/cm³ for reference.

Click Add Material

The material appears in the table on the right panel. It is now available in the material dropdown on all optimizer tabs.

Default Materials

CutFlow comes with a set of pre-loaded common materials. You can reset to these defaults at any time with the Reset to Defaults button.

Mild Steel

7.85 g/cm³ · 0.284 lb/in³

Stainless 304

8.00 g/cm³ · 0.289 lb/in³

Aluminum 6061

2.70 g/cm³ · 0.098 lb/in³

Copper

8.96 g/cm³ · 0.324 lb/in³

Brass

8.50 g/cm³ · 0.307 lb/in³

Titanium

4.51 g/cm³ · 0.163 lb/in³

Reset to Defaults replaces all materials including any custom ones you've added. Export a CSV or note your custom materials before resetting.

Enabling Cost Calculation

On any optimizer tab (Coil Slitting, Nesting, or Cut to Length), scroll below the action buttons to find the Include cost calculation checkbox. Check it to reveal the cost fields.

Field	Description
Material	Select from your Materials library. Auto-fills the density field.
Density	Auto-filled from the selected material. Edit manually if needed.
Thickness	Coil or sheet thickness in your selected unit. Required for all pricing types.
Material Price	The cost per unit of material — see pricing units below.
Price Unit	The basis for the price (per lb, per kg, per sq ft, etc.).
Coil Specification	Required for area and linear pricing — enter the coil length or weight to calculate total material.

Pricing Units Explained

CutFlow supports six pricing bases. Choose whichever matches how your supplier invoices you:

Unit	When to use
$/lb	Most common for steel and aluminum in the US. Price per pound.
$/kg	Metric equivalent. Price per kilogram.
$/sq ft	Area pricing for sheet goods (common for stainless or specialty alloys).
$/sq m	Metric area pricing.
$/linear ft	Linear pricing when the coil is priced by running length.
$/linear m	Metric linear pricing.

For area and linear pricing, you must also enter the Coil Specification (coil length in ft/m/in or coil weight in lb/kg) so CutFlow can convert the price to a total material cost.

Cost Results

After running Optimize with cost enabled, the results panel shows a Cost Estimate section with four cards:

Card	What it shows
Total Material	The total cost of all master coil material used in the job.
Good Parts Cost	The portion of material cost that ends up in saleable product.
Scrap Cost	The portion of material cost that ends up as trim or scrap.
Cost in Scrap	Scrap cost as a percentage of total material cost. Lower is better.

Benchmarking: Use the "Cost in Scrap" percentage to compare different cutting plans. A plan with 95% efficiency at lower cost-in-scrap is better than one at 97% efficiency using higher-cost settings.

Tips & Best Practices

★

Create materials for each alloy you run

Add specific alloys (e.g., "Aluminum 5052" and "Aluminum 6061" separately) so density auto-fills correctly for each — alloy densities can differ by up to 5%.

★

Update prices when material costs change

Material price is entered per job, not stored in the Materials library — so there's no stale price issue. Just enter the current price each time you run.

★

Include cost in templates

When you save a job as a template, the cost settings (material, thickness, price unit) are saved too — so recurring jobs with the same material automatically have cost pre-configured.

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