Nesting...how do you do it?

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motoguy
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Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by motoguy »

Curious...picked up my first job which would be great for nesting. Now that I have an interest, I know I've seen other guys mention it in their posts. LOL I'm just curious...do you nest by hand (ie, create SVG/DXF in Corel/AutoCad/Solidworks/etc) and then import to Sheetcam (or your cutting program)? Or, do you create the individual parts, and then run through a nesting program? If so, what program do you use (I assume you're happy with it, if you're using it).

Not really at a point where this is critical information, and at my level the cost savings in material (due to efficient nesting) wouldn't justify the expense of a commercial nesting program. I'm just thinking ahead, and mostly curious.

Thanks.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by tnbndr »

I have used nesting programs at some companies when working and at Tech schools when I was teaching. None worked that great and are finicky.
For the few jobs that I have that require nesting, I just draw the sheet in CAD , insert my parts and manually nest them, save as dxf and import to SheetCAM for processing.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by SeanP »

You should try mynesting, it's a online app, it's really easy to use, if you want to save the nest you just pay for the outputted dxf, or if you are a tight sod like me you can just use it to give you a idea on spacings.
I had these parts and tried always to fit 4 out of a sheet, didn't think it was possible until running it in mynest.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by acourtjester »

I use SheetCam for nesting multiples and positioning many single parts "arclight videos" shows how to do multiples of one part.
If I am doing a single cut with multiple parts I do that in Inkscape or CAD before moving to SheetCam as they will stay in that grouping in SheetCam and be moved around as a whole. SheetCam had tools to move parts around on the bottom of the screen for flipping, rotating, and incremental movements.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by Thor »

I do it mostly by hand in sheetcam, click on the 4 way arrow to move stuff and use the stuff at bottom of screen. For multiples of parts that are squarish right click and array.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by Gustav129 »

I did by hand in Shop Data Systems. It required a lot of editing G-Code, the way SDS system automatically nested parts. If I did one part and ran it through the nesting program, it would lose one part per sheet because it wouldn't put a small enough gap in between parts due to shape. If I recall correctly, manufacturing standard practice is 0.200" between Kerfs The old method the Waterjet guy did was copy and past the drawing, and have a nest of parts which was viewed really as one part by the program. The problem was all the interior cuts cut first, and then the exterior cuts. So editing G-Code was a must. (Cut and Paste Exterior G-Codes in between interior parts). I did it this way, and it really helped me learn G-Code.

The easiest way for many of the same part in the same orientation was a G90 code. I found that out about a year later.

-G00 Xx.xx Yy.yy
-G90 X0Y0
-Copy and paste the entire code for the part.

If I had to do a different orientation to get an extra part in a rem, I would do a separate "part", create .Tap, and "G90" it into the original G-Code.

Image


So this file is 7" inches at the widest, Automatic Nesting put (0,0) for the next part at (7.250,0) To maximize parts, I needed (0,0) to be at (5.300,0.000).

Since this was something I cut 100's of every month, G-Code was saved per sheet.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by Capstone »

I'm a tetris fan, so I do all the nesting myself. If it's a repeat of the exact same shape, mostly because I still have issues that come up with my THC, I prefer to cut one at a time and simply re-run the same shape after re-zeroing for the next space on the metal. Doing it this way is NOT a time saver, but it does save me money in the long run by avoiding ruining a bunch of material with a few bad cuts in the middle of a sheet.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by bbkf2009 »

I use fast nest. I'd be happy to nest your parts and send you a dxf if you need it.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by tnbndr »

You should try mynesting, it's a online app, it's really easy to use,
I have tried that program and it always tells me that 1 or 2 parts couldn't be nested because of limited sheets. But you don't tell it how many sheets to nest on, it just creates them as needed. Found it odd. I have it on my new computer but have not played with it in quite a while.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by Larry83301 »

Gustav129 wrote:The easiest way for many of the same part in the same orientation was a G90 code. I found that out about a year later.

-G00 Xx.xx Yy.yy
-G90 X0Y0
-Copy and paste the entire code for the part.
So this file is 7" inches at the widest, Automatic Nesting put (0,0) for the next part at (7.250,0) To maximize parts, I needed (0,0) to be at (5.300,0.000).

Since this was something I cut 100's of every month, G-Code was saved per sheet.
Does your machine allow the use of M98, M99 if so you should look into using them for parts like that. :D

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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by Gustav129 »

Larry83301 wrote:
Does your machine allow the use of M98, M99 if so you should look into using them for parts like that. :D

Larry

It was a Mach 3 system. I'm not in Post Falls running a CNC Machine anymore, so I can't see if it did.

I'm interested in what those codes do, so I will at least look it up.

EDIT: So I looked it up, it looks like M97 would be the M-Code I could use, right after the G90.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by Larry83301 »

Gustav129 wrote:
Larry83301 wrote:
Does your machine allow the use of M98, M99 if so you should look into using them for parts like that. :D

Larry

It was a Mach 3 system. I'm not in Post Falls running a CNC Machine anymore, so I can't see if it did.

I'm interested in what those codes do, so I will at least look it up.

EDIT: So I looked it up, it looks like M97 would be the M-Code I could use, right after the G90.
Using a subroutine call would save copying all the code for your part each time. Just make sure you put all your cuts in the subroutine. M97 is the same as M98 it's just that some controls use one and some use the other, M99 sends you back to the program. :D


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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by tcaudle »

The auto nested parts are optimized to save material but it will not play well with a THC, Where the parts almost touch each other , the first one will cut and the second one will be cutting too close to the void and dive . You would need to put in some cut rules in those areas to turn off the THC
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by whiskeymike »

acourtjester wrote:I use SheetCam for nesting multiples and positioning many single parts "arclight videos" shows how to do multiples of one part.
If I am doing a single cut with multiple parts I do that in Inkscape or CAD before moving to SheetCam as they will stay in that grouping in SheetCam and be moved around as a whole. SheetCam had tools to move parts around on the bottom of the screen for flipping, rotating, and incremental movements.

+1 on Sheetcam and Arclight videos explaining how to use it. It handles spacing between at specified levels. It's done everything I need it to do,including 800 parts on a sheet. It's also fast to see which orientation is better for maximum sheet use.

I'm not sure how it does for nesting odd shapes like the outline of Florida. But I don't cut many things like that so it works great for me.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by _Ogre »

i nest everything in my cad program, we have standard parts that i add to fill holes and blank areas
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by motoguy »

I've nested my parts in CAD, and imported DXF into Sheetcam. However...how do I get sheetcam to cut the parts together? The parts I'm cutting have interior holes, and sheetcam wants to cut all the holes first, then all the perimeters. I want to finish a complete part before moving on. Do I need to create an operation for each set of holes, and for each part? 2 operations per part, x the number of nested parts? Hopefully there's a faster way!

These parts are oddly shaped, so rotation is necessary to nest. They're not "blocky" parts, which nest efficiently with a simple array.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by BTA Plasma »

Lots of layers and lotsof operations is the ONLY way to do what you want in sheetcam with a pre-nested set of parts. You can add, rotate and copy arrays and multiple parts FASTER in sheetcam than you can in a drawing program unless the drawing program has shape nesting.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by motoguy »

I actually had this run through Optinest, and was given the resulting DXF. So the placement was optimised, but somewhat offset by the layers/ops in Sheetcam.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by muzza »

In Sheetcam go to "Job Options" select "Nesting" and then check "Keep Parts Together" and it cuts out each part before moving to the next.
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by motoguy »

muzza wrote:In Sheetcam go to "Job Options" select "Nesting" and then check "Keep Parts Together" and it cuts out each part before moving to the next.
Murray
From what I've seen, it calls each imported image as a part. Meaning I can import a square, nest in sheetcam, and do what I want. However, if I import a DXF of mixed shapes, pre-nested in other software, it considers that entire drawing (.dxf file) one part. This makes the "keep parts together" function useless (from what I've found).
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by SeanP »

motoguy wrote:
muzza wrote:In Sheetcam go to "Job Options" select "Nesting" and then check "Keep Parts Together" and it cuts out each part before moving to the next.
Murray
From what I've seen, it calls each imported image as a part. Meaning I can import a square, nest in sheetcam, and do what I want. However, if I import a DXF of mixed shapes, pre-nested in other software, it considers that entire drawing (.dxf file) one part. This makes the "keep parts together" function useless (from what I've found).
You can break the one dxf up into separate parts in sheetcam, not sure if it would help in your case or not.

Right click on the part/select 'break up manually nested drawing'
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by motoguy »

SeanP wrote:
motoguy wrote:
muzza wrote:In Sheetcam go to "Job Options" select "Nesting" and then check "Keep Parts Together" and it cuts out each part before moving to the next.
Murray
From what I've seen, it calls each imported image as a part. Meaning I can import a square, nest in sheetcam, and do what I want. However, if I import a DXF of mixed shapes, pre-nested in other software, it considers that entire drawing (.dxf file) one part. This makes the "keep parts together" function useless (from what I've found).
You can break the one dxf up into separate parts in sheetcam, not sure if it would help in your case or not.

Right click on the part/select 'break up manually nested drawing'
I'll give that a shot. Thanks!
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by matze-atze-sch »

I using Optinest, too.
Very happy with it, if the parts have odd shapes. You have an Material/Sheet Database, you can view the cost of used sheet, and you can save the unused rest of Sheet for another nest.

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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by motoguy »

matze-atze-sch wrote:You have an Material/Sheet Database, you can view the cost of used sheet, and you can save the unused rest of Sheet for another nest
Maybe one day I'll be organized enough to utilize a feature like this. Right now, though, I'll likely cut parts out of a partial sheet before needing another nested job...so saving the detail of the partial sheet would be pointless. Lol

I guess I could start numbering my scrap sheets, and try to use each sheet up completely before moving to another. Maybe this would allow me to re-use partials in nested jobs. At this point, I don't have enough nested jobs to worry about it. :)
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Re: Nesting...how do you do it?

Post by motoguy »

tcaudle wrote:The auto nested parts are optimized to save material but it will not play well with a THC, Where the parts almost touch each other , the first one will cut and the second one will be cutting too close to the void and dive . You would need to put in some cut rules in those areas to turn off the THC
Fwiw, I cut some nested letters for a local church today. 28 letters, 30" and 24" high. Nested with .20" between parts, chosen because kerf width was .6. .20 gives 3x kerf width (.18), plus a "fuzz"...each cut would have clean metal, with .08 (kerf width + .02) between them.

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