Calculating minimum cuts when using sheet materials.

Mr_Reeman

I need to cover a shed roof with OSB board. The Roof is 4 metres long by 1.7 metres wide. Total metres squared therefore is 6.8 m2. I can buy OSB board in sheets of 1.2 metres by 2.4 metres (2.88 m2) which means I need 3 boards minimum to cover this area.

What I am trying to work out is, what is the best way to calculate the least number of cuts I need to do on the boards so that I have even coverage of the area I require? Does anyone know of a formula to follow with this or an app which calculates the cuts?

Thanks.

Gloomendoom

What the boards are being laid onto will determine the minimum number of cuts.

Hintza

6 cuts.

Cut 3 boards to 1.7

Cut 2 off cuts from 0.6 to 0.4

Cit 1 off cut to fit remainder.

Or 7 to make the off cuts the same size

Mr_Reeman

Thanks.
They are being laid on to flat a flat sheet so no need to worry about support points. The original question is kind of hypothetical and more about the process of working out the cuts, rather than the actual application I will be doing.

Hintza, how did you work this out?

Hintza

drew a diagram (not even to scale) and put the roof measurements on it and then just laid sheets (some will be lot more complicated and you could draw to scale with cut out paper boards)

ValHaller

Mr_Reeman wrote: »

What I am trying to work out is, what is the best way to calculate the least number of cuts I need to do on the boards so that I have even coverage of the area I require? Does anyone know of a formula to follow with this or an app which calculates the cuts?

I believe that this is one of a class of problems for which there is either no analytical solution. Or worse - it may even have been proved to have no analytical solution. So you just have to draw it out by trial and error.