Looking for Micro

[Doug Lynch]

I have searched but have not found what I am looking for. Looking for a CorelDraw macro that will pack objects close together for cutting them out. Say you have 3 small stars a circle and a square and a few other objects and you want to cut them out of a piece of plex. I am looking for a micro that would shove them all up into a corner therefore saving the rest of the plex for later. The micro could rotate objects and move them to use the least amount of space. As a bonus maybe set the minimum distance you want to keep them separate. Then another option say you needed all the objects not to rotate (keep the grain on wood the same). I think this would be a cool micro and save some time. Anyone seen anything like this?

Thanks Doug
CorelDraw X4

[Richard Rumancik]

Here is one site that has a macro for CorelDraw. Don't know anything about it though. Can't say I would use one myself. You have to make sure you don't waste a lot of time to save a few pennies in material. For large production jobs with random shapes it just might be useful.

http://www.macromonster.com/index.php?keyword=nesting&Submit=Go&mod=search

[Dan Hintz]

You're looking for "nesting" algorithms... there are some cheap ones out there (<$50), but this is one of those cases where you get what you pay for. Some of the more advanced draw programs (like Vectrix) include such functionality.

[Robert Walters]

ArtCam does nesting as well ($$$$)

[Mike Null]

Dan is correct, the term is nesting, and virtually all sign graphics programs offer this feature specifically to save vinyl. I would look for something cheap or a trial offer or a Corel add-in. It seems that Graphtec used to have one.

[Martin Boekers]

Search the forum under nesting, there was somethings here a while back.