I'm facing a task in the fairly near future that will involve cutting a few
hundred pieces of about 5 or 6 different polygonal shapes and sizes from plywood
sheets. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for a software
package that handles part nesting and optimization?

I'm not necessarily looking for a freebie, but as this is (hopefully) a one-time
affair, I'd rather not spend a small fortune for something without a long term
use. Most of the stuff I found with Google, et. al., had price tags equivalent
to some pretty nice woodworking machinery. If I could keep the price under about
US$100, it might pay for itself. It probably wouldn't be worth much more than
that for a one-shot project.

Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS USA

Hi Tom,
Take a look at Cutlistplus. Their free version handles a few parts. Cheers, JG

Tom Veatch wrote:

I'm facing a task in the fairly near future that will involve cutting a few
hundred pieces of about 5 or 6 different polygonal shapes and sizes from plywood
sheets. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for a software
package that handles part nesting and optimization?

I'm not necessarily looking for a freebie, but as this is (hopefully) a one-time
affair, I'd rather not spend a small fortune for something without a long term
use. Most of the stuff I found with Google, et. al., had price tags equivalent
to some pretty nice woodworking machinery. If I could keep the price under about
US$100, it might pay for itself. It probably wouldn't be worth much more than
that for a one-shot project.

Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS USA

"JGS" wrote in message
...
Hi Tom,
Take a look at Cutlistplus. Their free version handles a few parts.
Cheers, JG

Yeah that is a good program but will only work on polygons that have square
corners and 4 sides.

"Leon" wrote:


"JGS" wrote in message
...
Hi Tom,
Take a look at Cutlistplus. Their free version handles a few parts.
Cheers, JG

Yeah that is a good program but will only work on polygons that have square
corners and 4 sides.

Also known as rectangles? g


--
Alex
Make the obvious change in the return address to reply by email.

"alexy" wrote in message
...
"Leon" wrote:


"JGS" wrote in message
...
Hi Tom,
Take a look at Cutlistplus. Their free version handles a few parts.
Cheers, JG

Yeah that is a good program but will only work on polygons that have
square
corners and 4 sides.

Also known as rectangles? g

Or Squares...

Thanks for the responses. It seems those optimization packages that are
justifiable are all limited to square/rectangular parts and the packages that
will do what I need are in the commercial/industrial arena and way outside my
price range.

Looks like a manual operation all the way.

Thanks again.

Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS USA

Tom Veatch wrote:
I'm facing a task in the fairly near future that will involve cutting a few
hundred pieces of about 5 or 6 different polygonal shapes and sizes from plywood
sheets. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for a software
package that handles part nesting and optimization?

I'm not necessarily looking for a freebie, but as this is (hopefully) a one-time
affair, I'd rather not spend a small fortune for something without a long term
use. Most of the stuff I found with Google, et. al., had price tags equivalent
to some pretty nice woodworking machinery. If I could keep the price under about
US$100, it might pay for itself. It probably wouldn't be worth much more than
that for a one-shot project.

You might widen your search terms a little. The dress making
industry solves identical problems to woodwork. Indeed, the
software may be less obsessed with rectangles :-)

BugBear

bugbear wrote:
Tom Veatch wrote:

I'm facing a task in the fairly near future that will involve cutting
a few
hundred pieces of about 5 or 6 different polygonal shapes and sizes
from plywood
sheets.


You might widen your search terms a little. The dress making
industry solves identical problems to woodwork. Indeed, the
software may be less obsessed with rectangles :-)

Did some searching. no "potted" solutions going cheap.
Interesting though.

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/gina/textile.html

Here's s nice woodwork oriented list, but it
all looks very rectilinear.
http://www.womeninwoodworking.com/li...how2.cfm?id=20

BugBear

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 17:29:44 +0100, bugbear
wrote:

snip

Here's s nice woodwork oriented list, but it
all looks very rectilinear.
http://www.womeninwoodworking.com/li...how2.cfm?id=20

BugBear


Thanks!

One of those in the list, _Sheet Cutting Suite_ from XY Tools, looks like it
might work. At least the parts shown in a sample screen shot include triangular,
trapezoidal, and circular/elliptical parts. However the license fee ($385/Lite
and $785/Standard versions) yields a negative ROI. But a free download that
cannot print or export results is available. That's at least worth a look-see.

Thanks again for the link.


Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS USA

Hello,
You may like to have a look at our PLUS 2D software.
A demo version available is sufficient for estimation,
and shows the complete results for small problems.

If you find the software suitable, write to
sales (AT) nirvanatec.com to see if they can make a
time limited version for you.

s.shrikanth