[Don Walke]

That’s and interesting one. I’ve thought about this problem a few times, thinking that a standard waste factor would be the solution, but when you think about a millwork project where sticks come in increments of 2 feet and you run across a job where every piece is 10′-2″, you end up with 18-19% waste. If every piece is 4′-2″, the waste factor jumps to nearly 50%.

I’ve attacked this with a series of tools for each type of trim at lengths of 4′, 6′, 8′, ect. I created a text box with the length shown, scaled it to roughly 6″ x 6″ relative to the drawing scale. With a custom column with the assigned length for each tool, I can calculate total length required. Just pop one at each location. For running trim, I still use polylength measurements and assign waste factors.