If you cut bar, tube or profile for one job at a time and someone types the lengths in, a desktop 1D cutting optimizer such as CutLogic 1D or 1DCutX will do the job for free or close to it, and LineSight would be overkill. If you are a metals distributor cutting from mill lengths and drop across hundreds of open orders that live in an ERP, the problem gets bigger than a cut list, and that is the case LineSight's long-products planning is built for.
One more group lands on this page: people searching for a free slitting optimizer. A 1D tool works in length only. It cannot plan widths across a coil, so it will not build a slitting plan, whatever the price.
At a glance
What 1D cutting optimizers do well
They are cheap, fast and honest about their scope. CutLogic 1D from TMachines says it "helps you save material, time, and labor when cutting linear materials", covering profiles, tubes, bars, pipes and beams. There is a free version, a paid version, and a Server edition "for automated optimization and integration". It handles leftover pieces and keeps an inventory of stock and reusable remnants.
1DCutX from Optimalon runs inside Excel. It cuts "any one-dimension (1D) stock material (bars, pipes, wires, etc.)", accounts for saw kerf, and can favor cheaper stock lengths to "minimize the total project cost". For a shop that already lives in spreadsheets, that is a short step.
Prices are low. 1DNest, a comparable Windows tool, lists a perpetual license between $173 and $675 on AlternativeTo, with a limited free version. For a fabricator cutting a dozen lengths of tube for one job, nothing more is needed.
Where they stop short for a metals distributor
They optimize the list in front of them. Someone has to gather the orders, check what is on the rack, type or import it, run the tool and carry the result back to the ERP. None of the pages we read describe reading open orders or inventory from a metals ERP, weighing due dates, or choosing between mill-length stock and existing drop across many orders at once. CutLogic's Server edition mentions integration, without naming systems.
And none of them mention coils, widths or slitting. Searching for a free slitting optimizer and landing on a linear cutter is an easy mix-up. Length along a bar and width across a coil are different problems.
How LineSight plans long products
LineSight builds saw cut plans that get more sold pieces out of every bar and leave less drop behind. It combines lengths from different orders on the same bar, follows your end-crop and minimum-remnant rules, and returns only the remnants worth keeping to stock. Its inputs are the ones a distributor works with: grades, sizes, mill and stock lengths, end crop, remnant rules and the saws you actually run.
The orders and inventory come from the ERP in real time, and the plan goes back after a person approves it. Long products run on the same optimization engine LineSight built for flat-rolled processors.
One honest caveat: LineSight has published no long-products customer or result yet. Its public case study, Elite Steel's 2.9-point scrap reduction and about $850K in added annualized revenue, comes from slitting. Treat the free three months as the test.
Three cutting jobs and the right tool for each
Twelve pieces of 2-inch square tube from 24-foot sticks
One job, one size, one saw. A free 1D optimizer gives you a usable cut list. Use it.
A week of bar orders across six grades, with drop on the rack
Now the question is which orders share a bar, whether to pull a new mill length or use last week's drop, and which saw runs what. This is the order book problem LineSight's long-products planning addresses, with the orders already in the ERP.
A 48-inch coil to slit into 10, 12 and 15-inch strip
No 1D tool will plan this. It needs widths, knife setups, PIW and coil weights, which is LineSight's flat-rolled planning. Our guide to reducing slitting scrap explains the planning half of that loss.
Pricing
| LineSight | 1D cutting optimizers | |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | First three months on live orders | CutLogic 1D and 1DNest offer free versions |
| Paid | Based on measured value; never more than it saves | 1DNest perpetual license $173 to $675 |
| Published price list | No | Varies by tool |
Can you use both?
Sure. Plenty of shops keep a desktop cut list tool on the saw station PC for walk-in jobs and one-offs. A planning system earns its place on the recurring order book, where the combinations multiply and the decisions repeat every day.
The bottom line
A 1D optimizer answers how to cut this list from these lengths, and answers it well for almost nothing. LineSight answers what to cut, for which orders, from which stock, across the whole book, and hands the plan to a person to approve. If you have one saw and a short list, keep the free tool. If you run a distribution business on mill lengths and drop, or you slit coil, compare it with LineSight on your own orders. For coil-specific tools, see LineSight vs Fast-Square and LineSight vs CoilTrim.
Which to choose
Choose LineSight if
- You cut bar, tube, pipe or beams against a full order book held in an ERP
- You want to decide between new mill lengths and existing drop across many orders
- You also slit or cut coil to length
- You want a person to approve plans before they reach the ERP
Choose 1D cutting optimizers if
- You cut one job at a time from a known list of lengths
- You need a cut list now and the budget is close to zero
- You already work in Excel and want the tool there
- You do not slit coil
Sources
- TMachines: CutLogic 1D, accessed October 16, 2026
- Optimalon: 1DCutX linear nesting software for Excel, accessed October 16, 2026
- AlternativeTo: 1D Cutting Optimizer (1DNest), accessed October 16, 2026
- LineSight: Long products, accessed October 16, 2026
- LineSight: Production planning for metal service centers, accessed October 16, 2026
- LineSight, How to Reduce Scrap on a Slitting Line, accessed October 16, 2026