What This Setting Does

The Calculate Yield% By dropdown is located under Cut Options in the Slab Optimizer tab. It does not change your layout or cuts — it only changes how yield and waste are reported. (See Screenshots below.)

Calculate Yield% By Net Area

Calculate Yield% By Usage

By Net Area

With Net Area, Total Pieces counts only the true finished area of each piece. Any material inside a piece's footprint that is not part of the finished product — such as sink cutouts, notches, or the empty space inside an irregular/curved piece — is counted as waste.

• Gives a more conservative result (lower Yield%, higher Waste%).
• Best reflects the actual finished product area vs. raw slab material.
• In the example: Total Pieces = 528.61 SF, Yield% = 68.5%, Waste% = 31.5%.

By Usage

With Usage, Total Pieces counts the full slab area each piece occupies (its footprint), including internal cutouts and non-recoverable material within that region.

• Gives a more optimistic result (higher Yield%, lower Waste%).
• Best reflects how much of the slab is actually consumed/committed, rather than how much becomes finished product.
• In the example: Total Pieces = 581.92 SF, Yield% = 75.4%, Waste% = 24.6%.

Note: Because a piece's occupied footprint is always greater than or equal to its net area, the Usage method always reports an equal or higher Yield% than the Net Area method for the same layout.

Which One to Use

• Use Net Area when you want to measure true material efficiency — how much slab becomes usable finished product.
• Use Usage when you want to measure how much of the slab is practically consumed, treating irregular/cutout material as used rather than reclaimable.