Online Nesting Service

[Jack Harper]

Hello - Does anyone know of an online part nesting service, pay by the job sort of thing? Since we have pay-per-use convert to vector services, it just seems there must be an advanced pay-per-use nesting service.

[Mike Null]

Jack

I'm not aware of an online service but almost all sign software has this feature. SignLab and all it's Cadlink derivatives such as Engravlab have this feature.

My guess is that a local sign shop might work out a friendly deal with you.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Hello - Does anyone know of an online part nesting service, pay by the job sort of thing? Since we have pay-per-use convert to vector services, it just seems there must be an advanced pay-per-use nesting service.

Hey Jack,
I have plenty of software that can nest but it all depends on what you are sending as a file and what you need in return to be able to run it. Seeing that you have a Vytek, I assume means you can take an assortment of files. As you can see in my signature, we have several medium/high end programs. Let me know what you need and what it's worth to you and I'll see if it works for me also. You can PM me if you want.

[Jack Harper]

Jack

I'm not aware of an online service but almost all sign software has this feature. SignLab and all it's Cadlink derivatives such as Engravlab have this feature.

My guess is that a local sign shop might work out a friendly deal with you.

Thanks Mike. Actually I'm hopping to find a way of using very advanced nesting software without paying the $15K - $20K. This would be well beyond the capabilities of something like Signlab.

[Pete Simmons]

OK at 15 - 20K you have my attention.

What is nesting?

[Jack Harper]

OK at 15 - 20K you have my attention.

What is nesting?

Nesting is the geometrical art of fitting many pieces, often of different size and shape, as close to each other as possible to maximize the number of parts that can be cut from a single piece of material. There are several low cost solutions that work OK with basic shapes, but you can spend huge amounts, even over $100K, for very advanced versions that will really take it down the very best material utilization. If you were a clothing manufactuer and you needed to cut patterns and could have a nest pattern that was just 2% better than your current pattern, you might save huge $$$, justifing the expense.

In my case a have a project involving 9 star and star like shapes of varing size and design that I need to cut about 2000 of and want to maximize my material.

[Scott Shepherd]

It takes a variety of objects and figures out the maximum way to lay them out on a sheet so the waste is minimal.

It's a huge feature in the sheet metal world.

Jack, I don't know what software you have, and I'm only doing this from memory, but seems like we used to use a program by Merry Mechanization for programming sheet material punches. It was excellent at nesting and it wasn't $15,000.

While evaluating that,we also tried an Autocad based program called "Striker" or something like that. It used Autocad to next it all together.

There were loads of them and I'd be surprised if there aren't simple, inexpensive programs out there to do just that. My advice would be to look into people who sell or deal with Sheet metal lasers and waterjet dealers. I know you have one of those already, but your dealer might be able to help.

I don't ever recall the nesting being the most complicated any of them did, so by this point in time, I'd guess someone's written a plug-in for something.

Just thinking out loud, no real answers for you.

[Scott Shepherd]

Jack, have you seen/tried this : http://eng.plotcalc.com/

[Jack Harper]

Scott - Thanks for the info, I will look into it and see if it is advanced enough. My waterjet did come with a nesting program, it just is not advanced enough to do this type of nesting. I know I can get a pretty good one from Sigma for just under $10K, I just did not want to spend that until I had enough nesting type work to justify the expense. It just seemed to obvious not to have a pay-per-use version somewhere. I have found hints of their existence buts just hints so far.

[Tim Bateson]

Thanks Scott, I have now tried PlotCalc. It runs as a Visual Basic macro from Corel. Very good at what it does and cheap too. However, even when the English version is installed, some of the menu items are still in Russian. Also, complex graphics can take a long time to compute a layout when done in the highest mode - most efficient layout.
I'm only running the demo, so I'm not sure if this is resolved in a paid for version.
I'd like to hear what others here think of this tool.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

To expand a little further on this, not all nesting options/programs are created equal. First major difference is "Nesting" and "True Shape Nesting". Nesting is just making a border around the furthest extent's of the object and simply put arranges the basic rectangles as best it can on your material and may allow for 90 degree rotation. This works for a table saw that only cuts in a straight line.

True shape nesting allows objects to be rotated to fit better and instead of rectangle border, it allows you to specify a border that is offset by user input. This gives you much better yield. Some options allow you to place objects with in objects to gain even higher yields. This is ideal when nesting letters and shapes that have interior cutouts because scrap that would other wise be discarded can be used for smaller parts with in parts.

Some options allow for only parts seen/selected on your screen to be nested. Others allow you to have 1 of each part on your screen and then you can specify different quantities of each part and allow or not allow rotation when grain direction is critical.

[Jack Harper]

... True shape nesting allows objects to be rotated to fit better and instead of rectangle border, it allows you to specify a border that is offset by user input. This gives you much better yield. Some options allow you to place objects with in objects to gain even higher yields. This is ideal when nesting letters and shapes that have interior cutouts because scrap that would other wise be discarded can be used for smaller parts with in parts.

Some options allow for only parts seen/selected on your screen to be nested. Others allow you to have 1 of each part on your screen and then you can specify different quantities of each part and allow or not allow rotation when grain direction is critical.

Exactly, hence the amazing price that can be paid for such software. I'm confident that there must be a pay-per-use version of this caliber somewhere.