Interactive Nesting

Total Control
The SMP/IS Interactive Nesting routine gives you total control over part placement. It allows you to interactively create nests of parts and then treat that nest as a single entity within the program. Any number of parts may be placed on an individual blank. The nest may contain any quantity of one specific part, many different parts, or all of the parts required for an assembly.

Building Nests Is Easy
To build a nest interactively, simply specify the approximate blank size and enter the part number of the first part you want added to the nest. The part is instantly attached to your cursor and can be dynamically moved around the screen, rotated at any angle, flipped, and placed in the location you desire. Repeat this procedure until you have added all necessary parts to your blank.

Minimize Material Waste
You can easily duplicate or delete parts already in the nest. The reorient option allows you to specify alignment. For example, you may align an edge of one part with an edge of another part. The reorient option also allows you to set a specific distance between the two parts. This allows you to web the parts and perform common edge slitting. Our concatenate option allows duplicate or overlapping hits to be eliminated or merged into one cycle.

Handles Subassemblies
Interactive Nesting can also handle "family of parts" nesting or subassemblies. Simply grid the subassemblies on the sheet by indicating the quantity you need in both the X and Y directions. The subassemblies will instantly be placed on the sheet.

Cross Posting is Supported
Cross-posting between machines can also be accomplished through Interactive Nesting. Simply specify the machine to be used. The tooling is automatically adjusted and non-compatible tooling is noted. The program can also AutoPunch the parts after they have been nested. This allows you to quickly develop NC code for nested parts.