Calculate your fabric savings from marker efficiency
80% today → 82.0% with nesting. This is your assumption; the trial measures it on your own files.
Engine time: how the plan is chosen
Count every lay cut from a marker; most markers need 2 to 5 minutes, and longer jobs keep shortening them. Your monthly volume divided by this gives the jobs a month, and the calculator picks the cheapest plan whose engine minutes and job length cover them.
Cutting leather as well? Try the leather yield calculator.
How the calculation works
Same garments, shorter markers
A cut order needs the same area of fabric however the marker is laid out. A higher marker efficiency means a shorter marker for the same pieces, so the saving is your monthly fabric spend times (1 − efficiency today ÷ efficiency after).
An example
An apparel cutting room cuts 4,000 m a month at €6 a metre, with markers at 80% efficiency. At 82%, the same garments need 3,902 m: €585 of fabric a month that it no longer buys, against €49 for Textile Pro.
Every centimetre, on every ply
A marker 1 cm shorter saves 1 cm on each ply you spread. On a lay of 40 plies that is 40 cm of fabric, and the same again on every lay cut from that marker.
The break-even point
The efficiency gain at which the fabric saved equals the plan price: +0.16 points in the example. Above it, every point of efficiency is worth €296 a month.
How to calculate marker efficiency
Marker efficiency is the area of the pieces in a marker divided by its length times the usable fabric width. Most pattern CAD systems print it on the marker plot.
For the calculator, take the average over the markers you cut in a month, weighted by the fabric each one used: a marker spread 60 plies counts for more than one spread 5.
Leave end losses, splices and fabric faults out of both figures. They depend on spreading, not on the marker.
Questions about the fabric savings calculator
How do I calculate marker efficiency?
Divide the area of the pieces in the marker by the marker's length times the usable fabric width. Most pattern CAD systems print it on the marker. For the calculator, use the average over the markers you cut in a month, weighted by the fabric each one used.
How does a shorter marker turn into fabric saved?
The fabric a lay uses is the marker length times the number of plies, plus end losses. A marker that is 2% shorter uses 2% less fabric on every ply, so the saving grows with your volume. The calculator works from the metres you cut a month, so you do not need to enter lays or plies.
What gain should I expect from automatic marker making?
It depends on where you start. Markers laid out by hand, or packed as rectangles, leave more to gain than moving from one marker-making program to another. We do not quote a figure we have not measured on your patterns: nest a marker you have already cut during the free trial and compare its length.
Which costs does the calculator leave out?
It counts fabric only. Less marker-making time and no licence or PC to buy come on top, and so do your own setup and training time. It also assumes you buy less fabric when markers get shorter, rather than cutting more garments from the same stock.
How is the plan chosen?
From the engine time your fabric needs: the metres you cut a month divided by the metres cut from each marker gives the markers a month, times the minutes per marker. The calculator picks the cheapest textile plan whose monthly engine minutes and longest job cover it. Extra engine minutes are €0.50 each, with up to 30% off; for more than the largest plan includes, contact us.
Is the calculator free?
Yes. It runs in your browser, needs no account and sends nothing anywhere. To measure your own efficiency gain, the nesting itself needs a plan, which starts with a free trial.