The cutter diameter indicates the diameter of the tool used for cutting a nested part. Note, this value may be ZERO for cloth/leather cutting applications.
Sets the clearance between the two parts. This parameter allows you to specify the minimum distance between any two parts nested on a sheet. This distance is called the clearance or inter-part clearance distance.
Note, this distance is over and above the gap left for the cutter diameter around each part.
Resolution is the degree of accuracy of the nested pattern. e-Nesting does a sort of discretisation of parts to be nested based on the resolution. The actual distance between the two nested parts could be more than the required distance by one resolution unit. The resolution value can be set based on the size of the parts and sheets to be nested. The higher the resolution, the faster is the nesting process. The smaller the resolution, the higher is the accuracy of the nest, but the nesting takes more time.
Maximum distance for connecting geometric entities. The endpoints of 2 successive graphical entities in a profile are expected to be within the maximum Connecting Distance. Otherwise, the profile is declared as an open profile.
Sequencing sets the type of sequence in which parts are to be tried for nesting. In Area based sequencing, the parts are sequenced in the decreasing order of their surface area, while in perimeter sequencing, parts are sequenced in the decreasing order of their outermost perimeters.
This sets checks for the part-in-part condition for the specified parts.
Some parts contain large holes. In nesting smaller parts can fit within the holes of the larger parts. However, while cutting, if the larger parts get cut first, then the entire area that lies within the holes also gets cut first, and could be wasted. This parameter will ensure that the parts that are nested in the holes of the larger parts will be cut first and then the larger parts. This optimizes the material wastage while cutting the nested parts.
While nesting the last sheet of an order, it is desirable to leave a rectangular area on the top of the sheet. e-Nesting can help you achieve a similar effect using the flatend fit.
The height fraction for the flat-end fit. This is to be given as a percentage. Valid values are between 0 and 100.
Sometimes, you need to cut rectangular parts on a large sheets. This feature allows you to cut the rectangular parts from rectangular / non-rectangular sheets such that the parts can be cut using Guillotine (end-to-end) cuts. Following are the characteristics of this feature.
All the parts must be rectangular in shape.
The sheets can be non-rectangular.
The parts should be nested in such a way that they can be cut with guillotine cuts. A Guillotine Cut is the cut that goes from one end of the sheet to the other end.
When the distance between the part and the guillotine cut is very small, then the saw is not capable of cutting the piece. For some other combination of dimensions of the pieces, small part is likely to get drifted in the cutting process. To address the problems mentioned above, three parameters are introduced.
Should the filler parts be nested on the last sheet? Check Marked = Yes Unchecked = No
Determines whether to nest fillers up to nested height or not depending upon the parameter set. Check Marked - means fillers will be nested only up to the nest height (needed to fit minimum part quantities) on all sheets (not just the last sheet). Unchecked - means fillers can fill up the entire sheet.
When this function is set, e-Nesting will choose to nest the sheets in horizontal or vertical directions only without changing the nesting corner. It will then select that nesting direction which gives the better utilization.
NOTE, e-Nesting applies this direction to all the sheets in the sheet-list and not individually.
Turbo Mode will increase the speed with little compromise on utilization.
This function is used to facilitate the user to specify if the parts should be nested preferentially in the material islands present in the sheet, in another words this parameter should be used if the user wants to nest the parts first in the material islands present in the incrementally nested sheet. NOTE, These material islands can exist due to holes present in the parts nested on the sheet in the previous nesting session.
When finding the common edges between the elements of an automatic pair, the pair gets formed first, then the common edges are detected. Sometimes, this does not give the longest common edge possible. This feature allows you to choose if you want to select the longest common edge between the elements of an automatic pair when forming the pair.
NOTE, that this may lead to lesser overall utilization in some cases.
Minimum distance between two edges not forming common edges. How close two edges of different parts can come when at least one of them is meant for common flame? If part A and part B share a common flame path, it is necessary that all the entities on part A (except the common edge itself and its two neighbours) are at a distance greater than or equal to the proximity, from each entity on part B. The same is true for part B too. If this proximity check fails, the common flame path between part A and part B is rejected. NOTES: - In addition to Cutter Diameter - For inter-part clearances determined using proximity value, the minimum clearance is not the one specified by proximity; it is (d + proximity) where d is the cutter diameter.
This parameter is used to specify if clusters should be nested first.
This parameter sets the minimum cutoff utilization for clusters. NOTE, If the utilization of a cluster is below the cutoff utilization value, the cluster will be rejected
The distance between two nested parts can actually be more than the specified inter-part distance by up to one resolution unit. Exact distance nesting removes this error component to give you an exact fit. part will be nested such that it is EXACTLY spaced from one of its neighboring parts on the sheet. That is, each new part will be (part A) spaced from at least one of its neighboring parts (part B) such that the minimum distance between the two will be exactly equal to Cutter Diameter(partA) + CutterDiameter(partB) + Clearance The following figure1 illustrates the discrete nesting. Here you will notice the error value up to one resolution unit. In exact distance nesting, the error value ( delta ) will be zero in at least one direction. Figure 2 illustrates few cases of exact distance nesting. Note that the parts are fitted exactly in at-least one direction. This figure 2b shows a case of parts having punch profiles.
Accurate Nesting feature employs a different algorithm and tries to deliver Exact layouts without reducing the utilization as compared to the default nesting layout. In the example above, with this feature 10 instances would indeed nest on the sheet. A side effect of the exact distance nesting feature is fitting of lesser number of parts in some cases. To illustrate this, let us consider a simple case. In a 100X100 sheet, it is expected that 10 instances should fit of a part with size 10X10 when distance between the two parts is 0. However, when exact distance feature is used, you will observe that only 9 instances get nested.
Accurate Nesting feature employs a different algorithm and tries to deliver Exact layouts without reducing the utilization as compared to the default nesting layout. In the example cited above, with this feature 10 instances would indeed nest on the sheet.
The comparative layouts obtained with this feature and exact nesting are shown below.
IntellEx feature enhances the existing exact distance nesting algorithm and tries to deliver Exact layouts with improved utilization as compared to the existing exact distance nesting. In the example cited above, with this feature100 instances would indeed nest on the sheet. A side effect of the exact distance nesting feature is fitting of lesser number of parts in some cases. To illustrate this, let us consider a simple case. In a 100X100 sheet, it is expected that 100 instances should fit of a part with size 10X10when distance between the two parts is 0. However, when exact distance feature is used, you will observe that only 81 instances get nested.
IntellEx feature enhances the existing exact distance nesting algorithm and tries to deliver Exact layouts with improved utilization as compared to the existing exact distance nesting. In the example cited above, with this feature 100 instances would indeed nest on the sheet.
Whether to generate the master plate ? YES or NO. NOTES: - When the utilization obtained using the master plate exceed the expected cutoff utilization provided by the user, e-Nesting will stop further generating the master plate. Generated master plate utilization may not be the most optimum. - When the parameter is passed to the e-Nesting is TRUE, then e-Nesting keeps on generating the master plates recursively till the most optimum utilization is obtained. - If the optimum utilization obtained using master plates is less than the expected utilization, then the master plate will not be generated; instead parts will be nested in a default nest.
Expected utilization from each master plate. This value should be expressed as a percentage and should be between 0 and 100
When this option is selected, e-Nesting generate only one master plate for the entire part list. This layout is then repeated over number of sheets to nest the entire part list.
- This parameter indicates whether to run master plate recursively and generate the optimum utilization or not. - When the utilization obtained using the master plate exceed the expected cutoff utilization provided by the user, e-Nesting will stop generating the master plate further. The generated master plate utilization may not be the most optimum. - If the optimum utilization obtained using master plates is less than the expected utilization, then the master plate will not be generated; instead parts will be nested in a default nest.