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Slab nesting software
Slab nesting software arranges countertop pieces on slabs so a job uses as few slabs as possible. There are two kinds, and they answer different questions. An estimating nest answers how many slabs to quote and buy, before the job is won. A production nest answers where the saw cuts on one photographed slab, with vein matching and a machine file. Counterly does the first kind: it nests the pieces from a drawing takeoff onto the slab size you choose and reports slab count, yield and waste. It does not produce saw or waterjet files.
Estimating nests and production nests
A quote needs a slab count that is right, early, with no slabs in the building yet. A production nest needs the real slab: its measured size, its flaws, its veining, and a file the machine can run. Shops often buy one tool expecting it to do both jobs. If slab count on bids is the problem, that is an estimating nest. If scrap, remakes and vein matching on the shop floor are the problem, that is a production nest, and Counterly is not that tool.
What Counterly's nest does
Counterly takes every piece from the takeoff and packs them in two dimensions onto the slab size set for the job: standard, jumbo or super jumbo. It leaves kerf between cuts, splits a piece at a seam when it is longer than the slab, and holds a piece's orientation when the material does not allow it to rotate. The result is a drawn layout for each slab, with a slab count, a yield percentage and a waste total.
Why nesting matters more on multi-unit jobs
When one kitchen type repeats across dozens of apartments, the pieces from different units can share slabs. Nesting one unit at a time and multiplying misses that, and so does dividing total square footage by slab area, which ignores kerf, L-shaped blanks and offcuts too small to use. A nest of the full piece set gives the slab count the job will really take, which is the number that decides whether a bid makes money.
The pieces come from the takeoff, and the takeoff comes from the drawing. You do not draw or enter pieces to get a nest. That is the difference from standalone nesting tools, which start from a parts list or a DXF someone has already produced. See
countertop takeoff software for how the drawing becomes pieces.
Where Counterly is the wrong tool
Counterly does not output DXF or other machine files, does not lay a job out on photographs of specific slabs, does not match veining across seams, and does not track remnants or slab inventory. A shop that needs those needs a production layout tool or an inventory system, and may reasonably run one alongside Counterly. The nest is for quoting and ordering. The slab count should still be reviewed by an estimator before stone is bought.
How pricing works
Nesting is part of every takeoff, not a separate product. Counterly's pricing is usage-based. What a shop pays follows how much takeoff work it actually runs through Counterly, so a shop is never charged for more than it uses. A shop bidding two apartment jobs a month does not pay what a shop bidding twenty pays. Counterly does not publish a fixed price list; the number comes out of a short conversation about your job volume. To get it,
book a demo.
To test an estimating nest, run a job you have already cut and compare the slab count with the slabs you actually used.
From the shop floor
We publish what estimators tell us about these pages, including the parts where the software was wrong. If you run takeoff in a shop and this page got something right — or got it wrong — send it to us and it goes here with your name on it, or without it if you prefer.
Book a demo
Bring a plan set you have already bid and compare Counterly's takeoff with your own.