How to use Cladra

01 Getting started

Cladra works out the most material-efficient way to cut your panels from standard sheets, then shows you exactly which piece goes where on each sheet.

Open the app at getcladra.com/app. You can start optimising straight away on the free plan — no account needed to try it. Sign up (top of the login screen) when you want to save projects to the cloud and use the paid time-savers.

The screen has three parts: the left sidebar is where you set up the sheet, add panels, and enter cost; the large canvas in the middle shows the cut layout once you run it; the top stats bar summarises sheets, waste and efficiency.

02 Sheet & settings

Before adding panels, tell Cladra what sheet you're cutting from. These live at the top of the sidebar under the panel-set name.

Min Offcut vs your panel sizes

Min Offcut says "a leftover smaller than this isn't worth using." So if a panel in your design is smaller than your Min Offcut, the two settings contradict each other: Cladra throws away every strip small enough to hold that panel, and the job burns extra sheets instead.

Cladra checks for this before it runs. If it finds a conflict it stops and offers to lower Min Offcut to match your smallest panel. Your design always wins — you cut what the drawing says — so the setting is what gives way.

03 Adding panels

A panel is one finished piece you need to cut. Add them in the Panels section of the sidebar.

Add panels one at a time

1. Type the width in the W mm box and the height in H mm.
2. Optionally add an ID (a label like WF10-09) and a quantity.
3. Press Enter or click + Add. The panel appears in the list above.

Each row in the list shows its ID and size. Use the pencil to edit, the copy icon to duplicate, and the ✕ to remove a panel.

Kerf: general, or per panel

Cladra gives you two levels, and most jobs only need the first:

• General kerf — the Kerf (mm) box in Sheet & settings. Applies to every panel.
• Per-panel override — for the odd panel cut with a different blade. Click ✎ on a panel and fill the K field. Leave it blank and that panel just uses the general kerf.

Panels with an override show a small k5 badge in the list, so you can see at a glance which ones differ. You can also set this from the spreadsheet — see Excel & CSV import.

List tools

• Sample — loads a set of example panels so you can see how a job looks.
• Clear — empties the current panel list.
• Sort ↓ Area / ↓ ID / ↕ Rev — reorder the list by size, by ID, or reverse it.

04 Excel & CSV import

Have a cutting list already? Import it instead of typing. (Paid plans — see Plans.)

1. Download the template with ⬇ Download panel template (.xlsx) under the upload area in the sidebar, and fill it in.
2. Click ⬆ Upload Excel or CSV in the sidebar.
3. Choose whether to Replace list (clear then load) or Add to list (append to what's there).
4. Pick your file. Cladra reads it, reports how many panels it found, and fills the list.

Your sheet size and kerf

Row 3 of the template has three boxes — Sheet W (mm), Sheet H (mm) and Kerf (mm). Cladra reads these on import and sets them as your project defaults. Width is always first. Edit them to match the material you're cutting, or leave them blank and set them in the app instead.

What the spreadsheet needs

Cladra looks for a header row and reads these columns (header names are matched loosely, and it reads the sheet named Panels if there is one):

How Qty works

Cladra's rule is one panel, one unique name — a panel is a real piece that gets cut, labelled and tracked on site, so it can't share a name with another piece.

Qty is there purely so you don't type the same row out four times. On import it expands: WF13-01 with Qty 4 becomes four separate panels — WF13-01-1, WF13-01-2, WF13-01-3, WF13-01-4. You'll see four rows in the panel list, not one row saying "×4", and you can edit, rotate or delete each one on its own.

Blank or 1 keeps the panel's exact name, no suffix. Maximum 500 per row. If two rows end up with the same ID, Cladra makes them unique automatically (-2, -3…) — nothing is silently merged.

Older templates still import — nothing you already have stops working. They simply have no Qty column, so every row comes in as a single panel.

05 Measure from a PDF drawing

Pull panel sizes straight off an architectural PDF — set the scale once, then measure or auto-detect. (Paid plans.)

1. Click 📐 Measure from PDF drawing in the sidebar, then Import PDF and choose your drawing.
2. ① Set scale — draw a line along something of known length (a dimension line, a door, a grid spacing), type that real length in mm, and click Set scale. Everything you measure after this is calibrated to that.
3. ② Measure panels — drag a box around each panel to capture its width × height. Each one is added to the list, tagged with the drawing name and page.
4. ✨ Auto-detect — on vector PDFs, Cladra can find rectangular panels from the line work automatically. Review what it finds.
5. ▢ Limit area — draw a region first to restrict auto-detect to one wall or elevation, ignoring everything outside it.
6. When you're happy, Add to panel list brings the measured panels back into the optimiser.

Multi-sheet drawing sets are supported — use the page arrows, and the Bookmarks panel (if the PDF has them) to jump between sheets.

06 Running the optimiser

Once your sheet is set and panels are in, click the big ▶ Run Optimiser button at the bottom of the sidebar.

Cladra packs your panels onto as few sheets as possible and draws the layout on the canvas. It respects your kerf, min-offcut and rotation settings. For most jobs this is instant.

Multi-Start search

For a tougher, more exhaustive pass, Cladra can run several packing strategies against each other and keep the best result. This runs on a short time budget and reports which strategy won. Use it when you want to squeeze the last sheet out of a messy job.

07 Reading the results

The stats bar across the top gives you the headline numbers; the canvas shows the actual cuts.

Views

• Visual — the graphical sheet-by-sheet layout. Step through sheets with the arrows, zoom with the +/− buttons, the scroll wheel, or Fit.
• Table — every placement as a list you can scan.
• Offcuts — the leftover pieces on each sheet, so you can see what's reusable.
• Cut Seq. — the order of cuts.

Each panel on the canvas is labelled with its ID and size so whoever's cutting can match it to the list.

08 Multiple panel sets

Cutting more than one material or sheet size in the same job? Use panel sets. (Paid plans.)

Each set has its own sheet size, kerf and panel list, and optimises independently. Add one with + Panel set, switch between them with the tabs at the top of the sidebar, and use the RESULTS FOR: tabs above the stats to view each set's layout — or All sets for the combined totals.

09 Cost & quantity

Get a quick material estimate from the Cost & Quantity section.

Cladra shows the material cost and the cost with markup, alongside the efficiency and waste figures, so you have a rough number to work from.

The Cost sheet

For a full breakdown, click 💰 Cost (next to Cut Plan PDF). This opens a cost sheet that pulls its numbers straight from the optimiser result — panel counts, sheet counts, used area and waste are calculated, not typed in.

• A row per panel set, with its material, panels, sheets, used m², waste m², waste % and efficiency — plus a combined total when you have more than one set.
• Safety buffer — spare sheets added per job, on top of what the layout needs.
• Waste markup % — an allowance applied to the cost.
• Price and currency can be edited right there; changes flow back to the sidebar.
• Print gives you a clean cost sheet to send with a quote.

10 Saving & exporting

Cladra auto-saves your work in the browser as you go. For more, use the buttons in the top bar.

11 Free vs paid plans

The full optimiser is free. Paid plans add the workflow time-savers.

Paid tiers: Solo NZ$19/mo (one person), Team NZ$39/mo (3 seats), Business NZ$99/mo (10 seats). Annual billing gives two months free. Start free with no card required and upgrade any time. See the pricing page for the latest.

12 Keyboard shortcuts