johnsmachines

If you are into CNC, and have not, like me, heard of parts nesting, then copy this link and take a look.

https://deepnest.io/

I had this list of parts to send to the laser service…. Drawn on 900 x 1200 sheet.

And a reader commented on the waste of material, which is 6mm marine ply.

He suggested that I look at https://deepnest.io/ which I did. Admittedly a bit risky, but I was curious.

I downloaded the free program and used it on the above drawing of the 94 parts.

I had to add a drawing of the material sheet, in my case 600 x 1200 x 6 mm marine ply sheets. I had bought 3 sheets.

I imported the dxf containing all 94 parts I wanted cut from the sheet and ran the program. Importing the parts took a couple of minutes. The program took another couple of minutes to sort 92 of the 94 parts into my 600 x 1200mm sheet. I can show only screen shots, so only the top half of the sorted arrangement is in the photo. Top left indicates 92/94 and the coloured bar represents the parts.

Then the program continued. After another minute of so it showed a new arrangement having included 93/94 parts…

and in another minute or so, it came up with a 94/94 solution…

I had originally specified 5mm separation between the parts, but no 94/94 solutions had appeared so I progressively reduced the separation to 1mm. With an accurate laser cutter the separation can be reduced to zero.

The Laser Guy will use his own software to do the same sort of reorganising.

But I can see that the program will be useful for use when milling out multiple parts on my own CNC milling machine. Obviously the separation chosen will depend on the diameter of the chosen milling cutter. e.g. a 6mm cutter would require at least a 7-8mm separation.

This is a very cool program. Thankyou “anonymous”.

My virus checker showed no issues with the program, but if you, dear reader, download it as I did, the risk is all yours.