Nesting issues

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Donald Thomson
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Joined: Thu, May 14 2009, 11:41PM
Company Name: Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks
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Nesting issues

Post by Donald Thomson »

Couple of things I've noticed and was wondering if there are settings I need to adjust to change this.

First issue is the way I'm getting some parts kinda randomly placed on the sheet. "Picture 1" and "Picture 3" shows this. Part 34 and part 35 on "Picture 1" seem to be kinda randomly placed in the midle of the sheet instead of all the way to the right of the sheet. In "Picture 3" it seems parts are just randomly placed all over resulting in a significant increase in wasted material.

Second issue concerns some parts that don't seem to be getting laid out properly. "Picture 2" shows this. Parts 1, 2, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18 are the problem. In the drawer box editor, I have these parts set to be rotated 90 degrees. It seems that whether I set rotation for these parts to be 0 or 90, they get laid out as shown. I would like them to be laid out 90 degrees from what is shown (long way with the grain of the plywood, not cross grain). Am I using the rotate parameter in the material selection part of the drawer box parameters incorrectly?

Are there parameters that can be set/changed that would eliminate this?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Attachments
Picture 3
Picture 3
Picture 2
Picture 2
Picture 1
Picture 1
Sincerely,

Don Thomson
Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC
509-671-6230
Newport, WA
http://www.dlwoodworks.com
Stuart Douglas
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Joined: Fri, Apr 10 2015, 7:57AM
Company Name: Bergman Custom Casework LLC
Country: UNITED STATES

Re: Nesting issues

Post by Stuart Douglas »

I can't speak to the algorithm that lays out parts in the sheet to "maximize" off-fall, but that is frustration I share with you. It would be nice to be able to manually move parts around a bit so the nest is truly optimized. Almost daily, I talk to my machine wondering "Why did you do it that way?" I'm sure that would take a significant amount of coding. :twisted:

Be sure your material properties are set to have grain. When I run into the problem of parts not being oriented properly on the sheet, it is almost certainly that my material properties are not accurately reflecting the nature of my material, or I have not set the grain direction properly. I will often set the grain direction, then somehow the setting is not set. I often have to remind myself that ECabs prefers you set the parameters BEFORE placing parts or components. You can set these after the fact (with part on-screen) but the construction settings then have two layers (the default settings for part types, and then the settings for individual parts.) This gets confusing on things like 4 drawer bases, for example with a file drawer, two like sized drawers, then a pencil drawer in the top. Different heights, hardware, setbacks and construction. The flexibility is there to make sure you can do this, but it can get confusing fast, especially if you need to go back and tweak a setting on one component that does not use the default construction settings. :)
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Donald Thomson
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Joined: Thu, May 14 2009, 11:41PM
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Re: Nesting issues

Post by Donald Thomson »

I doubled checked the material specs and it does in fact have the "has Grain" checked. I'm working with the drawer box front for the lower drawer in this cabinet. I've attached a screen shoot of how the part is displayed in CE. As you can see, the grain is along the long axis of the part. Yet, in the nesting it wants to rotate the part to be cross grain. Not sure what to do.
Attachments
Picture 4
Picture 4
Sincerely,

Don Thomson
Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC
509-671-6230
Newport, WA
http://www.dlwoodworks.com
Stuart Douglas
Senior Member
Posts: 157
Joined: Fri, Apr 10 2015, 7:57AM
Company Name: Bergman Custom Casework LLC
Country: UNITED STATES

Re: Nesting issues

Post by Stuart Douglas »

Have you Double checked your materials properties? Or changed them since you've created that part in the drawerbox editor? If those check out, I'm out of guesses :beer:
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Intel core i7 9700KF 3.6GHz (OC 4.2Ghz)
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Donald Thomson
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Joined: Thu, May 14 2009, 11:41PM
Company Name: Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks
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Re: Nesting issues

Post by Donald Thomson »

Bumping this issue.

Thermwood, this seems to be very repeatable. Here's what I'm doing:

1. I have a sheet of 5/8" Appleply in my defined materials
2. Has grain direction is checked.
3. Created a drawer box that has tall fronts and backs but short sides (a trash can drawer)
4. In drawer box editor for the tall fronts and backs, I've tried setting rotate to 90 degrees and 0 degrees and the results are the same. The tall front and back pieces ALWAYS nest cross grain (when I test nest the cabinet) to the grain set for the 5/8" Appleply material.

All other drawer box parts nest correctly. Do I need to turn off HAS GRAIN in the materials list?

Look to your wisdom in figuring this out..

Thank you.
Attachments
How it's pictured in the DBX editor.  Grain looks correct to me.  This is with rotate at 90.  If I set rotate grain to 0 I get proper display in DBX editor (grain goes horizontal instead of vertical) and it still nests cross grain.
How it's pictured in the DBX editor. Grain looks correct to me. This is with rotate at 90. If I set rotate grain to 0 I get proper display in DBX editor (grain goes horizontal instead of vertical) and it still nests cross grain.
This is how its nested no matter how I set rotation parameters
This is how its nested no matter how I set rotation parameters
Sincerely,

Don Thomson
Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC
509-671-6230
Newport, WA
http://www.dlwoodworks.com
Donald Thomson
Guru Member
Posts: 833
Joined: Thu, May 14 2009, 11:41PM
Company Name: Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks
Location: Newport, WA
Contact:

Re: Nesting issues

Post by Donald Thomson »

Just played with the GRAIN option, in define materials, by turning it on and off for the material and if I turn it off, all parts are nested cross grain. When it is checked, drawer sides are with the grain (expected) and tall fronts and backs are still cross grain.
Sincerely,

Don Thomson
Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC
509-671-6230
Newport, WA
http://www.dlwoodworks.com
David Egnoski
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Company Name: Richmond Cabinet
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Location: Delavan, WI

Re: Nesting issues

Post by David Egnoski »

Don,

I've been trying to reproduce the issue you're having with grain. So far, eCabinets is nesting correctly. It may be easier to create a new drawerbox.
Dave Egnoski
Richmond Cabinet & Millwork
Donald Thomson
Guru Member
Posts: 833
Joined: Thu, May 14 2009, 11:41PM
Company Name: Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks
Location: Newport, WA
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Re: Nesting issues

Post by Donald Thomson »

David,

I did as you suggested and now it works. Thank you!

I'm not sure what goes on internally with eCabs, but there must be some bugs lurking around in there. To have to delete an assembly like a drawer box and rebuild one so it will work right says there is some parameter corruption taking place somewhere and I'm sure it's a challenge to hunt down and fix.
Sincerely,

Don Thomson
Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC
509-671-6230
Newport, WA
http://www.dlwoodworks.com
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