AutoNest

Automatic Nesting

PatternSmith includes an interface for automatic nesting or autonesting. Forge is Autometrix’s flagship autonesting product.

Set the quotas and rotation constraints for all the patterns in the project. Select all of the patterns you want nested. From the Ribbon, click Forge.

The features of Forge are described below.

Options

Maximum Duration is the longest amount of time Forge will use to iterate through nesting solutions. The time can be in minutes or seconds. For similar sized parts, 30-60 seconds is
enough time. For more complex shapes and/or a wide range of pattern sizes, longer times may be beneficial.

Desired Efficiency will generally be set to 99%. If you are looking for a faster result and are not as concerned about material efficiency or have really basic shapes, reducing this value can be beneficial. A vast majority of user will leave this at 99%

If your material has the same finish on both sides and you don’t care about the orientation of the patterns, use Allowed Flipped Copies to get more efficiency from your nest.

Enable Group Copies By Placement Groups will also activate Enable Group Mixing. Placement Groups are used to help organize patterns on the cutting table and is especially useful with the Insight pattern projection system. If not enabled, nesting will ignore Placement Groups. If it is enabled, without Group Mixing, patterns will be nested discreetly by Placement Group. Group Mixing/Mixed Group Count allows patterns to be mixed with the previous X number of groups.

Nests

This section allows you to specify the default nest length and also add more specific lengths. If your table matches the Default Nest Size, you would leave the Default Nest Size alone. If you also had a remnant that was 100″ long x 50″ wide you would click the Plus sign and enter those sizes. Forge
will nest on the remnant first and then use the default size for the rest of the patterns, as many tables as needed. You can enter sizes for multiple remnants.

Statistics

This is a dynamic, informational section that updates during the autonesting process.

Notes about Autonesting

If you have specific patterns you want positioned first, you can do those first by hand or with Forge and then select the rest of the patterns and let the Forge nest the rest of the patterns. After autonesting is complete, you can still move patterns by hand.

A lot of times, giving patterns a 90° rotation constraint will speed up nesting and possibly give a more efficient result.

One minute of auto-nesting will usually accomplish as much as you can do manually in half an hour or more. You will have very efficiently nested tables, at a fraction of the time spent doing it manually.