OpenCutList turns a SketchUp model into a cut list and a cutting diagram

A parts list is the output, not a drawing

The description is precise about the scope: OpenCutList is a SketchUp extension for automating the generation of cut lists for woodworking projects, and the README spells out the outputs in a list that is worth reading in order, because it is the feature set in the order a user meets them. It automates the generation of a parts list, computes cutting diagrams, prints labels, and generates cost and weight reports. The screenshots in the README follow that same sequence, with images of the parts list, the cutting diagrams, the nesting view, the exploded views, the estimate and the labels. The exploded views are the item worth pausing on, because they are not a by-product of the report, they are a modelling aid that the extension adds, showing the assembly taken apart so the user can check that the parts list matches the way the thing actually goes together. The audience is therefore narrow and specific: a woodworker with a SketchUp model of a cabinet, a shelf or a table who needs to order boards and cut them. The value proposition is that the numbers come from the same geometry the person designed, so there is no re-measuring step where a mistake can be introduced.

Install it as a signed .rbz from the warehouse

There is no package manager step, because this is a SketchUp extension and SketchUp has its own distribution channel. The signed .rbz package is available from the dist folder in the repository or from the official Trimble Extension Warehouse page, and the README gives the listing URL directly.

https://extensions.sketchup.com/extension/00f0bf69-7a42-4295-9e1c-226080814e3e/opencutlist

The signed part matters more than it sounds. A SketchUp extension is Ruby code running inside the host application with the user's own file access, so the extension is a signed .rbz for the same reason plugins are, and getting it from the warehouse or from the dist folder of the project is what gets you a package SketchUp will accept. SketchUp installs an .rbz through its own extension manager, and the extension then appears in the extensions menu inside the application. The repository listing backs up the shape of the project. There is a src/ directory holding the extension code, a build/ directory, a dist/ directory for the packaged artefact, a test/ directory, a tools/ directory, a Gemfile and a CMakeLists.txt, a .rubocop.yml for the Ruby style rules, a CHANGELOG.md and a docs/ directory. The presence of a Gemfile and a CMakeLists side by side is a Ruby extension that uses the wider Ruby tooling, which is not what you would expect from a SketchUp plugin written by a single maintainer.

Stock type drives the list, the nesting and the estimate

The units section is short and it is the part that shows the tool is built by people who cut wood. In addition to the selected SketchUp unit, OpenCutList works with dimensions of solid wood, panels and dimensional lumber in fractional inches, even if the selected SketchUp units are metric and vice versa. That sentence is dense with implications. A user modelling in millimetres can still get an output in sixteenths of an inch, which is what a saw needs, and a user modelling in inches can get metric output for a supplier who quotes in millimetres. And the three stock categories, solid wood, panels and dimensional lumber, are not cosmetic labels, because each has its own practical dimensions, its own cutting behaviour and its own waste tolerance, and the cutting diagram is only meaningful if the optimiser knows which of the three it is nesting. This is where the tool stops being a drawing add-on and starts being a workshop aid, and it is also where a decision made in the model, such as how a panel is represented, propagates all the way into the estimate.

Sixteen interface languages, chosen separately from SketchUp

The localisation work is worth a paragraph because of one specific decision. OpenCutList is available in French, English, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Dutch and Simplified Chinese, and experimental versions of Arabic and Hebrew are also available, although without RTL interface. The gap in that last pair is stated rather than hidden, which tells you the project tracks its own limitations. The more consequential sentence is that the interface language of OpenCutList can be selected independently of the language version of SketchUp. For a user working in a French SketchUp on an English extension, or the reverse, that decoupling removes a class of small friction, and it also means the extension's translation state is a separate maintenance stream from SketchUp's own. The project also runs a dedicated localisation platform, OpenCutList Localize, and the README asks translators and reviewers to join there and improve the quality of the translations, which is the mechanism that keeps a set of sixteen languages from rotting.

How it compares to drawing the cut list by hand

The alternative is what most SketchUp users already do, and it is worth describing because it explains the trade. You model the piece, you open a spreadsheet, you list the panels, you work out the sheet sizes, you nest them by hand or with a separate cutting software, and you print the labels. Each step is a separate tool and a separate transcription of the same geometry, and each transcription is an error source. The other alternative is a dedicated woodworking software package with a library of fittings and a cut list built in, which is the right choice if you also want the joinery and the hardware list. OpenCutList sits between the two. It keeps the modelling where it already happens and adds the downstream paperwork, and it does not attempt to be a design tool for cabinets, which means it will not tell you that your shelf is 630 millimetres and therefore unsupportable. The cost is that its inputs are the solid geometry in the model, so the model has to carry that detail. A SketchUp model built for visualisation, with groups and loose faces instead of solids, gives the extension nothing to work with, and the failure appears as an incomplete parts list rather than an error.

A community project with a funding model and a version line

The project runs on a mix of code and money contributions, and the README is explicit about both. Code contributions are credited through a contributors graph on the project page, and the financial side offers OpenCollective for individuals and for organisations, with organisation sponsors getting a logo and a link on the project page. That arrangement is a reasonable signal about who the project serves and how it expects to be sustained, and it also tells you that the maintainer is running a community rather than a company product. On the release side, the recent tags are v7.1.0 from 2025-12-10, v7.0.1 from 2025-09-30 and v7.0.0 from 2025-09-17, and the repository is not archived with the last push on 2026-10-19, so the 7.x line is the current one and the code is still moving. The licence is GPL-3.0, which for a plugin that runs inside SketchUp on a user's own machine is the usual and sensible choice, since it asks nothing of the user who installs it, and anyone who wants to redistribute a modified build as a package of their own has to keep publishing the corresponding source. The CHANGELOG.md in the repository is where to look before an upgrade, and the FAQ lives at docs/02-faq.md, with the full documentation at docs.opencutlist.org and a set of tutorial videos on YouTube linked from the README.

Editorial conclusion

OpenCutList suits a woodworker or a small workshop that already draws in SketchUp and wants the parts list, the nesting layout and the material estimate without re-measuring anything by hand, since the extension reads the solid geometry and carries the units and the material type through to the report. It is the wrong tool for a design that is still in flux, because every part dimension is derived from the model and the model has to be right before the list is, and it is the wrong tool for anyone without SketchUp, since the extension is the entire product. Before you adopt it, decide which stock types you actually cut, from solid wood, panels and dimensional lumber, since the nesting and the yield calculation depend on that, and read the FAQ in docs/02-faq.md, which is where the project puts the answers to the questions that come up first.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. lairdubois/lairdubois-opencutlist-sketchup-extension on GitHub
2. License: GPL-3.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases