Nesting add-on for ACAD

[PeterCharles]

Does anyone know of an add-on for ACAD to nest irregular shaped flat parts onto a steel plate that can then be sent to a laser cutter??

 

[chicopee]

Have you tried to make block drawing?

 

[PeterCharles]

Have you tried to make block drawing?

How would the nesting be carried out??

 

[chicopee]

To me, nesting a block would be to have a block within a block. Is that what you want? Explain to me what you are trying to do.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Laser cutting machines typically come with nesting software that also manages partial plate inventory.

If you're trying to nest parts to send to a laser cutting _service_, you're on your own, and AutoCAD doesn't help much.

Just find out where the service's machine grips the plate, and how big the kerf is for your material, and work from there.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ajack1]

Is this the type of thing you are looking for?

http://www.sigmanest.com/en-gb/index.aspx

 

[PeterCharles]

Currently we subcontract our laser cutting and send out packages of DXF (or DWG) files to be cut. This is a significant amount of our work and our machines are bespoke one off's so we're not building standard from stock parts. Because of the bells and whistles we add to cover our fabrication requirements the DXF files are "hand finished" in ACAD.

If there were a nesting add-on for ACAD then we could dump a collection of parts, which as my first post advised are irregular shaped, to the nesting add-on and get an idea of how much plate would be being used, and so what the raw material cost would be for estimating purposes.

The alternative is stand alone nesting software which we are currently investigating.