Calculating a cutting list with the least amount of off cut waste

Question

I am working on a project where I produce an aluminium extrusion cutting list.

The aluminium extrusions come in lengths of 5m.

I have a list of smaller lengt

Answer 1

What you described is indeed classified as a Cutting Stock problem, as Wheelie mentioned, and not a Bin Packing problem because you try to minimize the waste (sum of leftovers) rather than the number of extrusions used.

Both of those problems can be very hard to solve, but the 'best fit' algorithm you mentioned (using the longest 'small length' that fits the current extrusion) is likely to give you very good answers with a very low complexity.