Part Nesting/Optimization Suggestions Needed

[Tom Veatch]

I'm facing a task in the fairly near future that will involve cutting a few hundred pieces of about 5 or 6 different polygonal shapes and sizes from plywood sheets. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for a software package that handles part nesting and optimization?

I'm not necessarily looking for a freebie, but as this is (hopefully) a one-time affair, I'd rather not spend a small fortune for something without a long term use. Most of the stuff I found with Google, et. al., had price tags equivalent to some pretty nice woodworking machinery. If I could keep the price under about US$100, it might pay for itself. It probably wouldn't be worth much more than that for a one-shot project.

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

[JGS]

[Leon]

Yeah that is a good program but will only work on polygons that have square corners and 4 sides.

[alexy]

Also known as rectangles?

[Leon]

Or Squares...

[Tom Veatch]

Thanks for the responses. It seems those optimization packages that are justifiable are all limited to square/rectangular parts and the packages that will do what I need are in the commercial/industrial arena and way outside my price range.

Looks like a manual operation all the way.

Thanks again.

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

[bugbear]

You might widen your search terms a little. The dress making industry solves identical problems to woodwork. Indeed, the software may be less obsessed with rectangles :-)

BugBear

[bugbear]

Did some searching. no "potted" solutions going cheap. Interesting though.

's s nice woodwork oriented list, but it all looks very rectilinear. BugBear

[Tom Veatch]

One of those in the list, _Sheet Cutting Suite_ from XY Tools, looks like it might work. At least the parts shown in a sample screen shot include triangular, trapezoidal, and circular/elliptical parts. However the license fee ($385/Lite and $785/Standard versions) yields a negative ROI. But a free download that cannot print or export results is available. That's at least worth a look-see.

Thanks again for the link.

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

[Shrikanth S]

Hello, You may like to have a look at our PLUS 2D software. A demo version available is sufficient for estimation, and shows the complete results for small problems.

If you find the software suitable, write to sales (AT) nirvanatec.com to see if they can make a time limited version for you.

s.shrikanth