[bad-rat-57]

Is there any way to rotate parts in sheetcam while manually nesting them ?

[locost_cam]

Yes, use the < and > keys. They will rotate the part 5 degrees at a time.

[bad-rat-57]

Does sheetcam have the ability to autonest ?

[locost_cam]

Sorry, no it doesn't. I would like to add this as an option in the future.

[Torchhead]

Hopefully it will work better than most auto-nest programs. Most of them still need clean up and human intervention. Most users that have invested in auto nesting are disappointed how "auto" it really is not.

I can step & repeat objects to cut in SheetCAM in minutes. I manually nest one row (or even a "set") that would form a repeating pattern. Then I select all that set and Duplicate.
You can then place the Duplicate to get a bigger set/pattern. Select all of that and duplicate and repeat. With just a few "binary" steps you can fill an entire sheet.

About the only place I see that auto-nest would be a real time saver is if you had to do a whole sheet of totally different parts. None of our work is like that so the ability to manual nest and do it quick has served us well.

TOM CAUDLE
www.CandCNC.com

[locost_cam]

Nesting relies on recognising patterns and how they can be made to interlock. Humans are very good at pattern recognition. Unfortunately computers aren't. Computers have to work by sets of rules and it is very difficult to come up with rules that can even approach what we do instinctively.
I doubt if any nesting package will ever match a good manually nested layout.