Nesting Utility 2019 is now Live!!

[javiar]

It is our pleasure to announce the launch of Nesting Utility 2019 - our newest addition to the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection.

With the addition of Nesting Utility, you can generate optimized nesting patterns of your Inventor sheet metal designs in preparation for cutting. For more information on available features and to download a 30-day trial, please visit the Nesting Utility product page: https://www.autodesk.com/products/nesting-utility/overview.

PDMC subscribers should be able to access Nesting Utility via their Autodesk account page: https://manage.autodesk.com/cep.

Additional links:
Nesting Utility Online Help: https://help.autodesk.com/view/TNNUINV/ENU/
Nesting Utility

Readme: https://up.autodesk.com/2019/TNNUINV/autodesk_NestingUtility_2019_rtm_readme_enu.html

[arron.craig]

Would love to see this adapted to work with frame gen members, fitting 1000's of members onto 12m lengths efficiently can get very time consuming!

[NachitoMax]

Hi

is the nesting utility only for exclusive use of sheet metal parts? If so, why? There are thousands of customers who use wood, panel and other materials that are not sheet metal. Its not worth going through every part converting them to a sheet metal part because not only is it very time consuming, it also affects the assembly and parts. Parts only need to be converted if they are going to be sheet metal.

Its like autodesk go out of their way to ignore the other industries when most of those companies use Inventor!!

im not even going to say thanks

[Mark.Lancaster]

@NachitoMax

Not sure if this helps or not..  But the nesting utility supports DXF files that are composed of a closed profile.   Yes its another conversion process but it may adapt to your needs.

[javiar]

Hi @NachitoMax,

Thank you for the feedback. I totally agree with you and we are completely aware of the nesting requirements of our user base that is working with non-sheet metal parts. However, in order to provide a well-rounded user experience and to ensure scalable launch of our new offering we decided to take a phased approach and limit the initial scope to dxf and sheet metal workflows. That being said, we absolutely intend to support nesting for non-sheet metal parts - wood, plastics, composites, etc. Please stay tuned for additional updates as the product continues to grow.

Regards,

Ravi

[arkelec]

Is this the best place to report issues, or create a new thread in the general Inventor forum?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Neil,

This thread is about the availability of Nesting Utility. Please start a new thread about the issue you encounter in Nesting Utility. The project team is very active on the forum.

Many thanks!

[arkelec]

OK, cheers.

[jmfowler1996]

I second this idea. It's something I've wondered about in the past. It would be great for reducing material waste.

[Anonymous]

CIM-Tech.com has been an Autodesk loyal third party developer that has automated nesting for the wood industry for over 30 years. CIM-Tech software is completely integrated inside of AutoCAD and Inventor. No need to wait for Autodesk to figure out what they are going to do. Great solutions exists today.

[nick.barbour]

Probably a daft question, but do you have to have Inventor 2019 to run the new Nesting Utility?

We are currently running Inv Pro 2018, but only update every other release. I could really do with a nesting utility but can't realistically expect everyone to update just for this. And I can't run my machine ahead of everyone else because of backwards compat of files.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@nick.barbour

The nesting utility is a subscription only benefit of Product Design and MFG Collection.  If you don't subscribe to the collection you are not entitled to use the nesting utility.   I wasn't sure if you knew that or not since you only indicated you have Inventor Pro 2018.  But to answer your question, its only possible at the 2019 product level.

[nick.barbour]

Ok, we do have the Manufacturing package and I can see the download as available through our subscription centre.

Can't update our Inventor software until next year though, so we'll have to look at a standalone solution, or do it manually.

Oh well - thanks for the answer.

[jpinda]

---

@NachitoMax wrote:

Hi

is the nesting utility only for exclusive use of sheet metal parts? If so, why? There are thousands of customers who use wood, panel and other materials that are not sheet metal. Its not worth going through every part converting them to a sheet metal part because not only is it very time consuming, it also affects the assembly and parts. Parts only need to be converted if they are going to be sheet metal.

Its like autodesk go out of their way to ignore the other industries when most of those companies use Inventor!!

im not even going to say thanks

---

Well typed.  We call 1/4" thick Thin plate.  The last nest I did was 3" thick material.   

[phillip.doup]

Hello @jpinda,

As was stated earlier, we're very aware of this need from our customers, but we had to start somewhere with the product, and unfortunately that feature did not make it into the product before launch. Update 1 of the Nesting Utility, which will be available later this month, includes support for parts that are not Sheet Metal.

[ToddHarris7556]

We look forward to continued development i.e. non-sheet metal parts. 

Most of our team runs Fusion, with some Inventor (Product Development Collection) maintained for advanced needs.

Probably the *biggest* advantage was eliminating the export out to separate CAD package. We do miss the nesting functionality for sheet parts (from 3" SignFoam, 3/4" ply, 1/4" aluminum and Delrin) but we appreciate having one CAM package that's going to meet both our 3D and 2D needs.

We're not going to start exporting DXFs around just to get sheet layouts done. It's a pain point, but just not a big one. We'll be eager to try the Nesting update with IPT's. 

(FWIW, the Nester add in for Fusion is rudimentary, with no optimization, but it sure does go a long way to making sheet layout easier)  

[RJR89]

Bit of a quick answer but you probably could just create sheet metal parts and assign the appropriate material to them? (or create a custom one if needed).

Basically the flat pattern would be the same as the flat wood component. (folded component = flat pattern)

Then nest?

[bobvdd]

Not sure what the question entails. Do you want us to describe the nesting utility functionality in detail?
A good starting point would be here.

BTW: we just released the Nesting Utility 2019.0.1 update
Bob