Nest Question/Problem

[Leo Graywacz]

I am making a cabinet that is birch for the boxes and bamboo for the doors and drawer fronts. It is an assembly of 2 mirror image cabinets. Each cabinet has 2 doors and 4 drawers [bank]. The doors are about 16 1/2 x 30 1/2, the drawers are 17 1/2 x 7 1/2, the toe kick is 4 x 50. So I should have a row of 3 doors, a 16 1/2" strip on the sheet. Then I should have the 8 drawer fronts and a door in a 17 1/2" strip, then 2 4" strips for the toe kicks. It should use about 42" of the 48" pc of bamboo ply. The program keeps nesting it with 2 sheets. At $240 sheet I can't afford to have this happen. What would make it do this?

Can someone nest this please, does it come up with 2 sheets of 3/4" bamboo?

I attached the assembly

[DanEpps]

It nest one sheet for me Leo...compare your nest settings to mine below.

Nest.jpg (94.18 KiB) Viewed 9675 times

[Leo Graywacz]

Thanks Dan, but it nested wrong for you. The drawers are suppose to have vertical grain, yours have horizontal grain. Here is what I get.

[Will Williamson]

What I end up doing sometimes is Cut the first sheet and then turn that same sheet around and cut the sheet 2 layout from the other side

[DanEpps]

For some reason, the bamboo did not have grain when automatically added. I changed that and got the grain to nest correctly.

Here is the problem...when nesting using cut line, the nest must have unobstructed cut lines across the sheet, either horizontally or vertically. When set to vertical, the drawer fronts will not fit on the remaining material on the first sheet.

Change it to horizontal and then the two toe pieces won't fit.

If you change to True Shape it will nest using a single sheet but the toes are jammed up against the other parts and do not leave an unobstructed cut line. If you are cutting on a CNC you want to use true shape anyway. If you are using a panel saw or table saw, you might still be able to get all of the parts from a single sheet using the true shape nest.

Nest.jpg (97.89 KiB) Viewed 9628 times

[Leo Graywacz]

If I do it by hand I get this

[DanEpps]

Yeah, I think the nesting algorithm must nest the largest parts first then add what ever else will fit on that row. Then if any space is left, the remaining parts are added using the smallest space between parts.

This all works great for machine the parts on a CNC, which eCabinets and the nesting algorithm were designed for. The cut line nests are there for non-CNC users and, as such, optimize for use with a panel saw (least amount of sheet handling).

[Leo Graywacz]

I find that I can always get a better yield that the program. On small runs or single cabinets it is worth it to look. On larger jobs, kitchens and such I find the time I spent nesting it by hand ends up costing me enough time to waste a few sheets. But when dealing with $240/sheet plywood I am going to go over it with a fine tooth comb. If I use the horizontal nesting it will put everything on one sheet. But without a panel saw it makes it difficult to do the cutting. I guess I will just use my nesting and save $240. Thanks for looking and playing with it.

[Justin Melhiser]

Leo
Is this the nest you are looking for? Please let me know if it is and I can tell you how I did it.

[Leo Graywacz]

Yes, that would do. Please reveal your secret

[Justin Melhiser]

Leo
What I did was remove your mdf drawers and added slab drawers. Then once back in the cabinet editor I right clicked and group parts. Each cabinet I grouped all the drawers. then when I nested them it would nest them all in order like my jpeg. If you have any trouble with this please give me a call.

[DanEpps]

I tried that but I also grouped the doors which made the same nest.

[Justin Melhiser]

Dan and Leo
I also changed the tool size for the outline operations.

[DanEpps]

Justin

I got it to nest the same as you did by removing the double dors from the group. I didn't change anything else, tool size or otherwise...except for changing to slab doors.

Leo

One thing I noticed was that by using left-hinge doors for the drawer fronts, you are matching the grain on everything except the toe kicks. The doors and drawers will have horizontal grain while the toe kicks will have vertical grain.

[Leo Graywacz]

I haven't really decided what I am going to do with the toe kicks. I am trying to get this all out of 1 sheet for a cost savings.

Justin. That was a last minute thing I did. Because I wanted to get rid of the banding that is present on there. It was just a quick fix, the drawers didn't require it because you couldn't see the edges. I guess that is why it went to 2 sheets. Thanks.