tim
Established Member
I use Cutlist all the time. I bought it about 4 years ago when starting out to help with costing jobs. I find it invaluable particularly since materials can change markedly from one job to the next and I have (annoyingly) limited storage space so keeping extras can become a pain.
I have found that by making up component sets ie a 4 drawer cabinet I can quickly estimate prices by just altering a couple of dimensions and materials as required. Given that I now have components for most types of cabinet now I can combine these in any form (along with the required hardware etc) to suit any type of prospective job. Its also very useful for playing around with sizes eg sometimes making a piece 10mm smaller saves two or three of sheets of material. Customer price doesn't change but margin does.
In all these things I suppose it depends on what works for you but I can accurately price up a job inc hardware etc in a very short space of time. If you are able to do that quickly by another method or can visualise a cuttinglist laid out on sheet goods then you probably wouldn't want this type of software. I reckon it paid for itself in the first couple of jobs for me.
Cheers
Tim
I have found that by making up component sets ie a 4 drawer cabinet I can quickly estimate prices by just altering a couple of dimensions and materials as required. Given that I now have components for most types of cabinet now I can combine these in any form (along with the required hardware etc) to suit any type of prospective job. Its also very useful for playing around with sizes eg sometimes making a piece 10mm smaller saves two or three of sheets of material. Customer price doesn't change but margin does.
In all these things I suppose it depends on what works for you but I can accurately price up a job inc hardware etc in a very short space of time. If you are able to do that quickly by another method or can visualise a cuttinglist laid out on sheet goods then you probably wouldn't want this type of software. I reckon it paid for itself in the first couple of jobs for me.
Cheers
Tim
