Cutt Drawing

[StianM]

I'm sitting here creating cutting drawing for structual profiles and try to get the % off used area abow 65% to get lost steel down to a minimum.

Is there no software that can do this for me?

I probartly use more time on this than what can be saved on the steelprices.

Annybody know a software that will paste selected polilines, regions and/or blocks in the moust effective pathern?

Thanx in advance.

Stian

[Martijn_vE]

What you're looking for is nesting software. For a cheap one see for example http://www.optimizecutter.com/

[alidesigner]

Sigma Nest is very good but its not cheap. Ship constructor also has a nesting module but I dont know anything about it.

You need to be carfull with this sort of software. Many assume each part is bounded by a rectangle and then it just nests the rectangles. Mathematically it makes for simple code but if your shapes are not rectangular then you wont get good results. From memory the term the good ones use is "true shape nesting" or something like that.

Also consider that even with a good program, if your shapes are irregular then you will probably have to adjust the nest anyway. Personally I prefer to nest manually. Depending on the shapes I get between 70 & 80% but sometimes as low as 55%. But if overall I average around 70% then thats fine.

If youre getting 65% now then you need to consider the value of the 5% you are chasing and how that compares with the cost of the software - and your time.

Hope that helps.