corel question

[Ron Nametko]

Does anyone know if corel has a feature or an add on which would place projects onto the workspace as effectively as posible to help eliminate waste in materials. It seems I spend alot of time trying to place small peices on the workspace angle this peice, move this over a nudge, ect...

I think engravelab calls it "Block & Shape Nesting."

Any ideas or pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Ron

[Darren Null]

Not as far as I know. There may be a 3rd-party add on, but I haven't seen it, if it exists.

[Dan Hintz]

No Corel add-on I'm aware of... usually you have to use a separate program.

[Rodne Gold]

http://www.unleash.com/sd/smartcutpro.asp (http://www.unleash.com/sd/smartcutpro.asp)

http://eng.e-cut.ru/ (http://eng.e-cut.ru/)

http://eng.plotcalc.com/ (http://eng.plotcalc.com/)

[Steve Clarkson]

SmartCutPro was sounding really nice......until I saw the #1200 price tag.......

OK, so who is going to shell out the money and test it?

[Dave Johnson29]

SmartCutPro was sounding really nice......until I saw the #1200 price tag.......


Steve, trust me that is CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP software for that. I wrote a program that optimizes lengths of bar stock for multiple lengths of short pieces. It took over 8 months work.

I investigated hundreds of algorithms, generically known as "The Knapsack Problem" the final result was a program I called BarCutter and in two seconds it could tell you how many 6' or 12' bars would be needed for say, 130 x 11" + 128 x 6.5" + 233 x 9.25" including minimal losses and overs. The company I wrote it for saved thousands each month by using it.

People have devoted their entire academic careers to the Knapsack Problem. Check out "linear programming," "multi-objective optimization," and suddenly 1200- bucks looks very low cost.

[Steve Clarkson]

I nominate Dave to spend the 1200 bucks.........or write us a free program!!!

[Dave Johnson29]

or write us a free program!!!

OK, Steve, sounds like a deal to me. Now where will I ship all my client's stuff for you laser for me for free so I can be paid by my customer? :D

[Larry Bratton]

I own Enroute 3 plus tool pathing software and it has a nesting feature-costs $3000 per seat +-. I use it sometimes to create vector cuts as it will export the nested file as a DXF. If any of you run into somethinig you really need nested, send it to me and I'll try and help you out.

[Jack Harper]

I have not tried it but I found www.e-nesting.com. It looks like it is still in beta though.