[Treeline]

A search within the Madcam section revealed only a couple of old references to nesting with Madcam, and they weren't much help.

We have a need for running some nested cuts, and if there's an "easy" way to do it from within Madcam, I haven't found it.

I wonder why Joakim never addressed that "simple" operation (essentially just 2-1/2 D) with a dedicated Nesting command?

I played around with Milling Along Curves, but I think Nesting functions could be made more convenient and "fool proof".

If someone has a tried and true series of actions that result in repeatable Nesting, I'd love to hear of it.

[Dan B]

Are you referring to the ability to take parts and manipulate them on a sheet? Squeeze in as many as possible through different orientations? Like this:

RhinoNest, nesting for Rhino



Are do you mean something else?

Dan

[Treeline]

Dan, it's not so much to be able to automatically manipulate parts to make best use of a sheet as it is to be able to have several parts on a sheet and have them be cut properly.
Maybe I'm going about it wrong, but when I choose several parts to be cut, I am given the on-screen option of which side of the line to cut. Then Madcam cuts the first part correctly, but on the rest of the parts, it cuts ON the line of those parts instead of on the correct SIDE of the line.

I hope I explained that reasonably well.

[Dan B]

Okay, I understand now. Can you post a file that is causing you grief (or a facsimile) for testing?

Dan

[Treeline]

Sure. I attempted to cut just three panels. I was given the choice of direction and side of the curve to cut so I chose it correctly on the main panel and then the program went right to processing the cut(s) without asking how the other panels were to be cut.

On the machine, the cut file cut the larger panel correctly, but when it cut the other two smaller panels, it cut on the curves instead of the outside of the curve as I specified on that larger panel. That meant that the first large panel ended up the proper size, but the other two panels were undersized by 1/2 the diameter of the cutter (on each side).

The forum system won't accept a Rhino drawing file extension so you're going to have to tell me how I should post it here.

Thanks

[Dan B]

Can you send it to [email protected]?

I'll see if I can figure out a process that works (or find a bug to report).

Thanks,

Dan

[Dan B]

Are you using madCAM 5?

[Treeline]

Are you using madCAM 5?

Yes. I am using both the registered current update of Rhino 5 along with the registered current update of "4 Axis" Madcam 5.

Right after posting this note, I'm going to send you the actual Rhino file I talk about to the address you gave a couple of posts ago.

Thanks

[Treeline]

OK, Dan, a quick follow up...
If you run the simulator on the file I sent you, it will appear to run correctly, but that's only because I did the work around of selecting each panel one at a time and running them separately from each other but successively.

What I wanted to do was to select ALL of the panels as a GROUP and have them cut out correctly just as you would imagine a nested arrangement should work.
While doing these few panels the way I did to make it work was not a big bother, imagine if I had 20 or 30 parts that I wanted to cut out at the same time from the same large work piece. Now THAT would be quite a chore.

Hope that keeps things clear.