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Thread: Adobe Illustrator Question: Populating a Sheet with an Object

  1. #1

    Adobe Illustrator Question: Populating a Sheet with an Object

    Hello.

    I use a material that comes in sheet stock and is both very expensive and hard to come by. Because of this, I want to maximize my yield during laser cutting by populating by Illustrator doc with the tiniest tolerances between hundreds of identical shapes. Does someone know how to do this, and could you perhaps share a link or two with instructions?

    I know most people use Corel Draw, but Illustrator is fast, easy and works perfectly for my needs. I run a tight ship, from profits derived by sweat equity, so I feel no need to buy the Corel program.

    Thanks,
    Scott

  2. #2
    CorelDraw is not your answer. What you need is a nesting program often found in vinyl cutting software such as Signlab. There are others but I'm not aware of any freebies.

    Sure enough, I did a search and there are several free nesting programs.
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  3. #3
    Mike, thanks. So, to clarify, the feature I'm seeking is "NESTING," correct?

    sm

  4. #4
    I've found that my own nesting saves more material than the nesting programs I've tried.
    If the pieces are identical, just takes a bit of patience to get a couple of starter rows going--
    I just went into Corel and drew a random jagged shape, and then tried to make a decent nested batch. I made a copy, then rotated the pieces until I had a good tight fit that I could copy vertically. Once I got a vertical row done, then I took 2 more pieces, rotated them 180, then messed with them until I got a good side fit, then copied them along side-
    After that, each pair of row fit nicely the previous pair. It took about 15 minutes to get the first 2 rows done. A nesting program would be faster, but would it be more efficient at saving material?

    Here's a pic of the results, below is a zipped Corel9 file of the job-
    mynest.jpg

    mynest.zip

    (note that not one piece is touching another piece)
    If someone wants to take that shape and run it thru a nesting program to fit a 24x24" shape like mine, I'd love to see if it could best me
    -- because if it can, I'll probably buy it!
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  5. #5
    Kev, cool stuff, thanks for sharing. Yeah, I don't mind doing the nesting manually vs paying for some software. The sheet I'm cutting is only about 12" x 12", so after I do a couple rows I can just copy and paste.

    Thanks Again,
    Scott

  6. #6
    There are free nesting programs for SVG etc.
    I use E-cut's plug-in for Corel and like it. There are times you can do a better job manually, but I find when you learn to drive & tweak the nesting program, it gets useful. E-cut has other useful features worth paying for.
    Enroute also nests, but it's pricey.
    I think E-cut might have an Illy plug-in.
    Best wishes,
    Ian



    ULS M-300, 55w made 2002 with rotary. Goldenlaser 130 watt, 1300x700 made 2011.
    Flat bed 2500x1300 150/90watt 2 tube laser, 2018 model.
    Esab router, 1989, 4.5 x 2.0 m, conv. to Tekcel, and modded a 2nd time.
    HP L260-60". Roland PNC-1410. Mimaki GC-130 SU.
    Screenprinting carousel 6x4 and 7x4 ft 1-arm bandit vac table.
    Corel Draw X3, Illy, Indesign & Photoshop CS2 & CS5, Enroute 4
    Pencil, paper, paintbrush, airbrush & dagger-liners & assorted other stuff.

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