Abstract Several research works have been done to assess the effect of the cutting depth on the cutting forces when using picks. In this case, the cutting tests need im-portant equipment to cut rocks, to register the cutting force and to determine the cutting force value. The purpose of this research work is to simulate the laboratory rock cutting tests to determine the cutting force, using commercial software; and to compare the cutting force values to those obtained in the la-boratory. In the simulation, we took a gypsum rock sample as the specimen,. We simulated the separation of the rock chips from the specimen and the sub-sequent breakage into multiple fragments. In the simulations, a cutting pick was compared with a stationary rock sample. The simulations were conducted at a same constant velocity for different cutting depths. The simulations showed that the depth of cut has a significant effect on the cutting force, and the values of the cutting force in the simulation are very close to those obtained in the laboratory.