How do you optimize nest in Cdr?

[Peter Boyford]

Every once in a while I need to cut out various different shapes on my laser cutter. Usually I pick each shape and figure out manually how best to fit it on the work area with the others - by means of rotating and in some cases mirroring them.

There's gotta be an easier way using Corel Draw. Any suggestions?

Best regards
Peter

[Joe Pelonio]

I have never seen a way to do that in Corel. It was not designed for production work, though it may be something they would add if enough people asked. Many of the vinyl sign design programs do have a one-click nesting function but then they won't drive a laser.

[Peter Boyford]

Joe -> they'd actually don't need to drive the laser natively.. Just export the nested objects to EPS or PDF...

I use SignPal for my cutting plotter - it doesn't nest..

/Peter

[Larry Bratton]

I think the Step & Repeat feature is about as close as you can get in Corel. You can set the spacing between the objects. My CNC software, Enroute 3plus does true nesting, but I don't think it would print to laser, plus that's high dollar software intended for production.

[Mike Hood]

I do it with my sign software if I've got the time. It can save you quite a bit of material on large jobs. I just load it in... nest everything and then re-export. I could probably cut it right from there... but never tried.

[Peter Boyford]

Mike-> which software is that?

[Joe Pelonio]

Joe -> they'd actually don't need to drive the laser natively.. Just export the nested objects to EPS or PDF...

I use SignPal for my cutting plotter - it doesn't nest..

/Peter
Yes, for cutting that will work, but mine won't handle bitmaps for engraving.

[Gary Hair]

I have never seen a way to do that in Corel. It was not designed for production work, though it may be something they would add if enough people asked. Many of the vinyl sign design programs do have a one-click nesting function but then they won't drive a laser.

FlexiSIGN Pro drives a laser quite nicely and has that function and many more. OK, it's several thousand dollars :eek:, but it does do what you want it to do...:cool:

Gary

[Peter Boyford]

Several thounsand dollars... If I suppose that automatical optimal nesting will save me 10% more media than doing it manually, and it takes 1/10 of the time, then I really need to nest a lot to earn back several thousand dollars... Hmm...

Was actually mostly looking for a simple script in Corel Draw or some 3. party software in the lower price range...

/Peter

[Ed Lang]

Every CNC operator looks for the best nesting software too. Bottom line is the human brain is a much faster, better and cheaper nesting program. I am sure you will tweak even the $25,000.00 nesting programs. Those who have them do.

Nesting in Corel is not hard.