Help on a Knapsack variation- using VBA

[doctorhifi]

Let’s say I have endless sheets of wood that each measure 48” wide x 96” long.
And out of those sheets I am trying to cut strips that are various widths but always the same length so I am always cutting the sheets along the long dimension.
The quantity of strips as well as the width of each strip will vary but there would never be more than 100 strips needed.
Example:
I need (4) strips that are 24.5” wide
I need (3) strips that are 17.33” wide
I need (3) strips that are 36” wide
I need (2) strips that are 6” wide
Etc, etc.

-I am trying to create a VBA formula that would look at all of the quantities and widths of strips and determine how many 48x96 sheets I would need in total.
-It would need to look at all the strips and group them together in order to reduce waste.
-It would need to report which strips were coming from each sheet, something like this:
Sheet #1= (1 of 4) @ 24.5” + (1 of 3) @ 17.33” + (1 of 2) @ 6”
Sheet #2= (2 of 4) @ 24.5” + (2 of 3) @ 17.33” + (2 of 2) @ 6”
Sheet #3= (3 of 4) @ 24.5” + (3 of 3) @ 17.33”
Sheet #4= (4 of 4) @ 24.5”
Sheet #5= (1 of 3) @ 36” W
Sheet #6= (2 of 3) @ 36” W
Sheet #7= (3 of 3) @ 36” W
Total sheets needed= 7

I've been unable to figure out how to do this using the Solver plug-in and would actually prefer to not use Solver if possible.
My VBA skills are embarrassing so I don't even have the start of a subroutine to share.
Thanks

 

[Osvaldo Palmeiro]

Maybe the links below could give you some help.

http://www.cutmaster2d.com/index.html

https://www.maxcutsoftware.com/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ctmc/

 

[doctorhifi]

Thanks for those links. I'm actually looking to create the data using Excel VBA and not an external program because I need to use the results for other calculations with an Excel workbook.

 

[MARK858]

I just looked at the MaxCut link provided and the Community Edition for personal use allows you to copy/paste the results to and from Excel.

The free version allows the below

Excel 2010
	A	B	C
12	Grouping and Ungrouping of items
13	Optimize Waste or Time to Cut
14	Copy / Paste to and from Excel
15	File Export
16	Calculate Edge Banding
17	Create Customer Proposals
18	Pricing Tool
19	Shared Materials (multi-users)
20	Raw Materials Import
Sheet1

It doesn't have the following...

Excel 2010
	A
1	Feature Name
2	Presaved Library Items
3	Parts allowed per project
4	Quantities allowed per part
5	Material Cost vs Selling Price Comparisons
6	Custom Blade Thickness per Sheet Material Type
7	Accurate Holes & Grooving Detail for Panels
8	Mass change selected items by Material, Part Tag, Dimension, etc
9	Customize reports to include your Company Logo
10	MaxCut Advertising removed from all Reports/Labels
11	No time delayed start up screen when opening the program
Sheet1

 

[doctorhifi]

I've been trying MaxCut for the last few days and determined it won't meet my needs so I am still looking for a VBA solution.