diff --git a/OpenNest.Engine/DefaultNestEngine.cs b/OpenNest.Engine/DefaultNestEngine.cs
index 118471d..abae5cf 100644
--- a/OpenNest.Engine/DefaultNestEngine.cs
+++ b/OpenNest.Engine/DefaultNestEngine.cs
@@ -176,6 +176,13 @@ namespace OpenNest
                 }
             }
 
+            // Always report the final winner so the UI's temporary parts
+            // match the returned result.
+            var winPhase = PhaseResults.Count > 0
+                ? PhaseResults.OrderByDescending(r => r.PartCount).First().Phase
+                : NestPhase.Linear;
+            ReportProgress(progress, winPhase, PlateNumber, best, workArea, BuildProgressSummary());
+
             return best ?? new List<Part>();
         }
 
@@ -320,6 +327,11 @@ namespace OpenNest
                 Debug.WriteLine("[FindBestFill] Cancelled, returning current best");
             }
 
+            // Always report the final winner so the UI's temporary parts
+            // match the returned result (sub-phases may have reported their
+            // own intermediate results via progress).
+            ReportProgress(progress, WinnerPhase, PlateNumber, best, workArea, BuildProgressSummary());
+
             return best ?? new List<Part>();
         }
 
diff --git a/OpenNest.Engine/FillExtents.cs b/OpenNest.Engine/FillExtents.cs
index bbcbf47..bcb0689 100644
--- a/OpenNest.Engine/FillExtents.cs
+++ b/OpenNest.Engine/FillExtents.cs
@@ -177,9 +177,13 @@ namespace OpenNest
             // startOffset = pairHeight (no extra spacing), copyDist = height - slide.
             var copyDist = pairHeight - minSlide;
 
-            // Clamp: never let geometry quirks produce a distance smaller than
-            // the bounding box height (which would overlap).
-            return System.Math.Max(copyDist, pairHeight + partSpacing);
+            // Boundaries are inflated by halfSpacing, so the geometry-aware
+            // distance already guarantees partSpacing gap. Only fall back to
+            // bounding-box distance if the calculation produced a non-positive value.
+            if (copyDist <= Tolerance.Epsilon)
+                return pairHeight + partSpacing;
+
+            return copyDist;
         }
 
         private static double SlideDistance(
diff --git a/OpenNest.Engine/PairFiller.cs b/OpenNest.Engine/PairFiller.cs
index 8d69362..f1a30aa 100644
--- a/OpenNest.Engine/PairFiller.cs
+++ b/OpenNest.Engine/PairFiller.cs
@@ -50,6 +50,12 @@ namespace OpenNest
                     var pairParts = result.BuildParts(item.Drawing);
                     var angles = result.HullAngles;
                     var engine = new FillLinear(workArea, partSpacing);
+
+                    // Let the remainder strip try pair-based filling too.
+                    var p0 = DefaultNestEngine.BuildRotatedPattern(pairParts, 0);
+                    var p90 = DefaultNestEngine.BuildRotatedPattern(pairParts, Angle.HalfPI);
+                    engine.RemainderPatterns = new List<Pattern> { p0, p90 };
+
                     var filled = DefaultNestEngine.FillPattern(engine, pairParts, angles, workArea);
 
                     if (filled != null && filled.Count > 0)