Ten questions we are actually asked
These are the ten that come up by email most often, answered the way we would answer them by email. If yours is not here, ask, and if enough people ask the same thing it ends up on this page.
The ten questions
Licences, machines, units, printing and refunds, in the order they arrive in our inbox.
What operating systems does it run on?
Windows 10 and later, and macOS 12 and later, on both Apple silicon and Intel. It is one download and one licence key for either, so if you move from one to the other you do not buy it again.
There is no Linux build and no web version. There is no phone or tablet version either, and there is not going to be, because the job it does involves a keyboard and a printer.
Is it a subscription?
The single workshop licence at 79 dollars and the pro licence at 149 dollars are bought once and are yours. Nothing expires, nothing stops working, and there is no server that can be switched off underneath you.
The team licence at 29 dollars a month is a subscription, because it includes shared settings and a shared offcut library across up to eight machines, and that is an ongoing thing rather than a one off. Cancel it whenever you like. See pricing.
How many machines can I install it on?
Two on the single workshop licence, three on pro, and up to eight on team. These are machines you own, not people. A desk computer and a laptop that goes to site is the normal case and it is what the two slots are for.
We have never audited anybody and we do not intend to start. If you need one more slot than your licence allows for a sensible reason, ask, and the answer will almost certainly be yes.
How do I move my licence to a new machine?
Open the licence screen on the old machine and deactivate. That produces a short release code. Email us the code and we free the slot, usually the same working day.
If the old machine is dead, stolen, drowned or in a skip, just email us and say so. We will free the slot from our end. There is nothing to prove and no charge for it, and it happens often enough that we are not remotely suspicious about it.
What units does it work in?
Millimetres, centimetres, metres, inches, or feet and inches. You set it once and it applies to everything: the parts list, the stock list, the settings and the printed diagram.
Imperial work is entered and displayed as fractions rather than decimals, so a part is 23 13/16 rather than 23.8125. That arrived in version 4.2 and it was overdue.
What sheet sizes does it support?
Any size you type. There is no list of approved sheets to pick from, because merchants sell whatever they sell and it changes.
The jobs written up here use 2440 by 1220 for the board work and 3050 by 2030 for the acrylic, and the flooring job uses a 2200 mm length with no width at all. Sizes you use are remembered, and you can have more than one size in the same job, which is what happens when you are using up part sheets alongside new ones.
What does the printout look like?
One sheet per page, portrait, drawn to scale in line work rather than solid colour so it stays readable on a workshop printer and can be written on. Every part carries the label you typed and its finished size. The last page is a summary listing every part and which sheet it is on.
It saves as a PDF if it is going to somebody else. The guide on reading a cutting diagram goes through every line on the page.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. Thirty days from the date you bought it, in full, no reason needed and no form to fill in. Email us and it goes back the way it came, usually within two working days.
On the monthly team licence, cancel whenever you like and it stops at the end of the month you have already paid for. We do not bill a month in hand and we do not charge to cancel.
How do I get support, and how fast?
Email hello@cutsolver.com. It reaches the two people who write the software, because there is nobody else for it to reach.
Most emails are answered the same working day. Both of us are in workshops or at a desk rather than on a support rota, so an email sent on a Saturday evening will be answered on Monday. If you send a cutting list that produces a bad layout, that is the most useful thing you can send us and we would rather have it than not.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. Not to install, not to enter your licence key, not to run. The key is a signed file that is checked on your own machine, so a computer that has never been on a network will run it perfectly well, and several do.
It does not send us your cutting lists, your part sizes or anything else, because it does not send anything at all. Your jobs are files on your own machine. See the privacy policy, which is short.
Still not answered
Email us. It reaches the two people who write the software and most messages are answered the same working day.
If your question is about whether it will handle your kind of work, send a cutting list. That is a better question than any description, and we will tell you honestly if the answer is no.
The question behind most of these
People are usually asking whether a small application from two people is going to be here in five years, and whether they will be stuck if it is not.
The honest answer is that we cannot promise the first, so we have built for the second. It runs offline, the licence key is checked on your own machine, and a job saved in 2015 still opens today. If we vanished tomorrow, the copy on your machine would keep working. That is the most useful guarantee we can actually give.
Read on
What each licence includes, and the detail behind these answers.