Cable Drum Order-Split Planner — Fit Route Cuts Into Practical Drums
Take the cable cuts you need and the drum lengths you can order, then build a first-pass drum plan that minimizes unused capacity while showing cuts that cannot fit.
Enter cuts and available drums
Why drum planning is different from cable quantity
Total cable metres and cable drum composition are different procurement questions. A project may need 950 m overall but still require a particular combination of drum capacities to deliver the specific route cuts.
Why cut lengths matter
A drum can have enough total capacity and still fail to accommodate a specific cut because the remaining length is fragmented across earlier allocations.
Best-fit allocation
This tool sorts cuts from longest to shortest and places each into the smallest available drum that still fits. That tends to preserve larger drum capacity for large cuts.
Leftover length
Unused drum capacity is displayed for each drum so procurement teams can see where remnants may arise.
Example
With a 240 m cut, a 180 m cut, and several smaller cuts, a 500 m drum may absorb several routes while smaller drums handle remaining pieces.
Limitations
This is a mathematical order-composition aid. It does not account for supplier packaging rules, cable-specific drum construction, transport limits or return policies.
Frequently asked questions
Can I enter duplicate cut lengths?
Yes. Enter each required cut on its own line.
Can I enter multiple drum sizes?
Yes. Enter each available drum capacity on a separate line.
Does the planner guarantee the minimum number of drums?
No. It uses a practical heuristic rather than an exhaustive optimization algorithm.