Sheet Goods Layout Workflow Question

[Anonymous]

I need to make some forms for my guitar shapes. Since the drawings are already in Fusion It seems to be useful to have the CNC cut them out instead of bandsawing them which is how I did it for years. The basic mold is created by taking a guitar shape and adding two inches all around. This form is about 4" thick and is bandsawn after glue up. It provides clamping points to assemble the various blocks needed and ensures the sides stay square while fitting the top and back. The form is made in two halves and it is held with a hinge and a clasp to allow it to release the body after assembly.

It wastes lots of plywood so it would be nice to nest it. I am thinking I could cut each layer first and glue it second. I would provide two alignment holes and insert a dowel or something while clamping. I attached a quick sketch of a guitar like shape and I made the two components That would make the form. Now I want to nest 8 of each onto a sheet of plywood to minimize waste. My first thought would be to copy and paste the components into a new document but I am not really finding a work flow that is efficient. 

Any thoughts?

[davebYYPCU]

Many ways to do things, 

Fusion does not have Nesting yet, 

There is a Script / Add In, for Fusion called Nester, on GitHub, that works with components, lays them onto the sheet material.

As you have the same shape and > 8 copies, cnc routers can work from dxf sketches, I would copy paste and manipulate the sketch, and export as dxf.

Sometimes we make too much work for ourselves....

[etfrench]

Instead of a new document, I'd just use a new component in the original file.  Use the Copy|Paste operation, not Copy|Paste New in order for updates in the original reflect in the copies.  I don't think you'll find a programmatic way to efficiently arrange the copies, but it only takes a few minutes to do it manually.  Once you create the CAM toolpaths, you can copy the setup to each new guitar's file, but you'll need to reselect the contours.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Installed Nester and watched his video. It is a neat addin and is really useful if you have parts on different planes. I ended up not needing it as my parts were all drawn on a single plane but seeing his workflow taught me enough about components in Fusion to create my own workflow.

I created each half as a component and then used the create-pattern command to make 8 copies. I then made a new component that was a sheet of plywood and drug and spun the parts by hand till I got a good fit.

I am unable to use anything other than g-code on my CNC, being homebuilt, so exporting a dxf would not fit my workflow.