Geometric Ltd. today announced the release of NESTINGWorks™ 2016 3D nesting software for automatically nesting layouts of SOLIDWORKS® parts and assemblies for production. This new 3D nesting application is seamlessly integrated within SOLIDWORKS 2016 software, enabling automated nesting of flat or 3D part or assembly models made from sheet stock, including sheet metal, plates, plastics, composites, or wood.
NESTINGWorks software leverages Geometric’s industry-leading NESTLib® true-shape 3D technology—known to nesting application developers worldwide as one of the fastest and most fully featured automatic true-shape nesting libraries available in the industry. With NESTINGWorks, product designers can efficiently optimize sheet-stock layouts—including specifications for grain direction—so they can produce the maximum number of parts from a single piece of raw material in a matter of minutes, saving time, while simultaneously minimizing material usage.
“The combination of SOLIDWORKS design, NESTINGWorks nesting, and CAMWorks® machining software provides us with a real competitive advantage because we can cut higher quality parts on our laser cutter in less time while optimizing material usage,” says Mike Buchli, Vice President of Karl W. Schmidt & Associates, a leading manufacturer of custom recycling systems. “Because CAMWORKS and NESTINGWorks are integrated inside SOLIDWORKS, the time and cost savings associated with the seamless process enable us to reduce our prices significantly, which helps us win more business.”
Unlike other nesting applications that use 2D layouts, NESTINGWorks software provides 3D true-shape layouts, which lets designers nest parts of varying thicknesses. The solution is also compatible with all downstream machining and manufacturing applications. Combined with SOLIDWORKS design configuration tools, designers can use NESTINGWorks to nest multiple sets of assembly and or part variants, from a single SOLIDWORKS model.
Productivity-enhancing features of the software include:
- Single dialog box ease of use
- Fully automatic true-shape nesting solution, to optimize placement of parts on sheet
- Automatically nests multiple parts, based on the material and thickness, thus eliminating the manual effort of segregating individual parts
- Part-in-part nesting to fully optimize material usage
- User specified grain direction to easily manage required material properties
- Full associativity with SOLIDWORKS software. Updates are tracked, and flagged whenever a change is made to the component and are reflected instantly
