Nesting Utility Preview is Live!!

[garin]

This morning we launched the Nesting Utility Preview for Product Design and Manufacturing Collection customers. As with many of our betas/previews, we have it set up to stream in your browser so there is no need to install anything. We hope this makes it as painless as possible to test new enhancements like the Nesting Utility Preview.  

Below are a few of the key features to test

• Ability to directly nest Inventor sheet metal parts and assemblies
• Read in flat pattern DXFs
• Nest on multiple sheets of same or varying dimensions
• Associativity between 3D model and generated nests
• Ability to export as DXF
• Toolpath and NC generation using HSM CAM workflows
• Automated nest reports

We would love to hear from you once you are able to give it a spin.

You can sign up for the Nesting Utility Preview here and once you are in there is a video you can watch to help you get started. We will be posting a survey shortly to collect feedback. 

[Neil_Cross]

I haven't had a chance to check this out yet but why is this restricted to PDMC subscribers only if it's an Inventor module? What was the logic behind not giving it to Inventor subscribers? 

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Neil_Cross

Never mind in what I said..  I was thinking you asking why the testing was restricted to only PDCM customers..

Update:  Also there's something wrong with your forum signature.  I assume its the new EE member logo causing the issue.  May want to take a look at your forum signature.

[mcgyvr]

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@Neil_Cross wrote:

I haven't had a chance to check this out yet but why is this restricted to PDMC subscribers only if it's an Inventor module? What was the logic behind not giving it to Inventor subscribers? 

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MONEY... 

[mcgyvr]

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@Mark.Lancaster wrote:

I don't believe the testing is only restricted to those customers who have the collection at this time..  

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@Mark.Lancaster Sure seems it is when I tried to sign up for it.. (We aren't a collection suite user.. at this time.. will be for 2019 products but I'm not sure that whole transaction as gone through yet so I'm still a PDSU maintenance rebel)

[Mark.Lancaster]

@mcgyvr

Ok..  I give up responding to this posting..  Nothing I'm saying seems to be correct.. 

If that's the case (you need to have the collection prior to signing up), not many will have the opportunity to give their opinion.

Update:  I guess I need my eyes checked..  I looked at this about week and 1/2 ago and overlooked this statement

[Neil_Cross]

Surely common sense has to prevail here over money.  This should be accessible for solo Inventor subscribers.

@Mark.Lancaster yea the EE logo disconnected over night, I had a hyperlink to the image in Box which worked last night when I set it up... now it's disconnected.  My forum picture hasn't updated either, I changed that yesterday too.

[garin]

Mark you are correct, the Nesting Utility Preview is part of the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection and when it is released this year it will be part of PDMC. The collection includes other products like AutoCAD, Navisworks, 3Ds Max and Recap but also includes other utilities and add-ins like Nastran IN-CAD and the Factory Design Utility. 

[mcgyvr]

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@Neil_Cross wrote:

Surely common sense has to prevail here over money.  This should be accessible for solo Inventor subscribers.

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@Neil_Cross Surely not..  

Seems money wins here... 

But yes I'm quite sure there would be Inventor + HSM Express users who would love to have the ability to do nesting.. (I would have been one of those had I not been moving to the collection next year)..

Sadly (for them) it seems that it will not be available to those users..  Autodesk has to put the foot down somewhere..

Common sense to me says that this "utility" would really be a part of/function in HSM (not free version) and not a part of Inventor.. (of course HSM runs inside of Inventor though)

It is after all a CAM function though.. Not a CAD function...  It should be part of the CAM stuff.. not the basic CAD stuff..

[Anonymous]

Will this have the ability to deal with splines?

Right now we have to manually clean up dxf's, and if we had to do anything manual in 2d, it would defeat the proposed efficiencies.

Thanks

[garin]

We support spline data for sheet metal parts although at the moment, DXF files will require some cleanup before you can use them if they have splines. It’s somethign the team is aware of and prioritizing along with other future enhancements. 

[mickmac06]

Hi, will this nesting utility work for furniture panels on sheets of MDF etc? Not everyone is an engineer you know 😉

[phillip.doup]

Right now, we only have support for DXF and Inventor Sheet Metal files as input, but our near-term roadmap has support for regular Inventor files on it as well as other formats. I can't promise a timeline, but I can promise that we're working on it.

[SMPConsulting]

I concur with others in this thread; the tools should be made available to Inventor standalone licence holders, I would pay for this tool as a plugin.

Having said that I think the tool will be very useful for designers tasked with preparing designs to budgets and where material waste minimisation is a key driver. Currently I do manual plate nesting as I design to tally the number of standard sheets a project will need.

How does the algorithm work for establishing maximum waste parameters on standard sheets. Can you set a desired maximum waste of say 5% and let the algorithms go to work and if it doesn't reach the target run the algorithm again until you get close to your desired waste target? 

[bobvdd]

Concerning

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How does the algorithm work for establishing maximum waste parameters on standard sheets. Can you set a desired maximum waste of say 5% and let the algorithms go to work and if it doesn't reach the target run the algorithm again until you get close to your desired waste target? 

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Yes the nesting utility uses two settings to accomplish this: "Desired yield" and "Maximum run time".
The nesting will stop when it either
1) runs out of nest combinations to try or
2) exceeds the “Maximum run time” limit or
3) when it reaches the “Desired yield” (value between 0% and 100%) 

Cheers

Bob
 

[SMPConsulting]

Hi Bob,

So by "desired yield", I assume that means, desired "maximum waste"?. Bob have you got any test results for how well the tool can reduce material wastage?

I used to work in a shipyard and management used to set us waste targets of 5% however in reality it was always higher. That was back in the day when you did nesting manually.  

Bob if you haven't got any test results, maybe we can start a competition in this thread and get the testers to put their nest results here. 

When I get a chance I'm gong to have a play with it and go over some old projects and test it myself.

[bobvdd]

Maximizing the desired yield (=the percentage of the plate that is utilized for the nested shapes) is equivalent to minimizing the waste.

Talking about exact yield or waste numbers makes only sense if we both can look at the same data set as there are many parameters that can influence this (rotation, mirroring, mix of sheet/plate sizes etc.)
I am more than happy to continue this conversation but I think the beta forum is a more appropriate place to talk about this topic in detail..

Bob

[porca_paletta]

Is it now available as a final version?

I just found out the 30 days trial is available.

[porca_paletta]

It looks like it is final version 😄

Help online is already available

https://help.autodesk.com/view/TNNUINV/ENU/

Just downloaded/installed via WI

Do we know when official produc key and FlexNET Feature Codes lists will be updated?

Thanks

p.s.

Any chances it'll be available for a student account?

[bobvdd]

Yes, Nesting Utility is officially released. Product key is C1QK1

Bob