[cncmadness]

I have been trying to find a way to nest parts around things that have already been cut out. I have two examples of what I am trying to do.

The first is that when I cut out parts, I will only cut out a few parts for a job or move onto a different material. When I place the used material back onto the table, in the exact same spot, I will continue to use the material until I have used the whole sheet. At the moment I do this by saving different files for different sheets of material. I don't delete any of the parts from vcarve that I have cut out of a sheet so that when I place new parts I know what materail has already been used. I am able to use the nesting option on a new sheet that has nothing cut out of it. All the parts are placed nicely and I can cut the job. But if I finish cutting the job and another comes up needing the same sheet, if I use the nesting option I will nest the parts on top of the previous order. I need it to account for the previous parts and work around it.

The second example is that I hold down my material using screws to the spoil board. What would be nice too do is have a predesigned pattern that I could have on a sheet for the screws. once I know where I want the screws to be, I would draw them on vcarve and have the machine drill them for me. Now that the material is held down, I have to make sure that none of the tool paths or parts interfer with the screws. So is it possible to have the nesting program work around the holes that have already been placed onto the sheet.

[aarggh]

Can you simply place objects in the area you want left clear and does the nesting then ignore those areas when placing items? Or can you explicitly mark those objects as area to remain so it's stays clear?

Failing that, if I understood correctly your nesting the whole sheet and then selecting the ones to cut out each job?

cheers, Ian

[victorofga]

for CorelDraw theres a plugin, called ecut..

for 60 dollar it makes exactly what you need,

this plugin not only for nesting.. it makes a lot more..



if you don't have corel, then 25 dollar per month and you have always the latest CorelDraw.. it called subscription...

eCut 6 - Purchase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skf2mJNTou4

[ger21]

I'd recommend submitting these as feature requests to Vectric. But I wouldn't count on seeing them, especially the second request.

Vectric software limits nesting to a single sheet size. More advanced nesting software will let you use multiple sheet sizes. This is what you would want to do. You'd enter the sheet sizes of your leftover material.
In order to use every bit of waste material, you'd need to find a nesting program that allowed you to use user defined shapes for sheets, and I don't think this exists.

I also don't know of any nesting software that can nest around predefined "features" in the sheet (your holes).

I spent about 10 minutes looking at eCut6, and I don't see that it can do what you're asking for.

[victorofga]

Gerry

you have to define a ""closed"" area and the program fit into the parts..

on video at 0:30 you can see parts are fitted into the clipped circle..
so using his example draw out the clamps around edge and subtract from the ""whole sheet"

that is your area

I also using screws , but I place after nesting the screws, and drill a tiny hole with same endmill

so, first I drill holes, lock material then I can cut safely sure don't hit screws..
I using very much ac express.. tough I have all vectric stuff and I using ecut for nesting... same fast, same accurate, except it has more option..
also true with organizing manually, you can achieve many times better result than any program can do.. but it is timeconsuming..

[victorofga]

I think I make some test

that would be the simpler..
CorelDraw can ""combine""" shapes plus grouping versus vectric ""only"" knows grouping..

in CorelDraw you combine independent shapes, and all nodes on all vector visible, editable... versus vectric can edit""only"" one shape at time.. that's the different between combine and grouping

[victorofga]

ok..

heres a test.. I use it actually for leftover only, also in many case I make it manually..

on pictures..

first I made a rectangle that represents the sheet..
next subtracted the ""clamps""

a sample text was nested

next made an offset-outline on nested text and subtracted of the sheet w clamps.. that is my leftover..

nest again...

test second I made a ""cutout"" of the sheet

so it was left over also an inner shape was missing

nested into another shapes

================================================== ==========

Gerry,

you might take a look on CorelDraw.. it is 25 dollar per month..
when you pay you use, don't pay , don't use

reason I suggest you, because I know youre expert of visualbasic..
under corel you can use it.. very effectively..

I also sending you the helpfile of this ecut.. that describe very well all possible feature.. youll be amazed :-)