Creating CNC files in Inventor

[sattju]

So I have about 13 individual parts that I am wanting to place into a drawing for CNC routing. Is there a way that I can just draw a 4x8 rectangle and place individual faces into that rectangle to see just how much of that sheet of plywood I could use?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Are you wanting automated or manual? To do it manually you can create a new drawing on a sheet large enough, create a new sketch of your 4x8 on the drawing, then place your flat patterns on the sheet oriented in the sketch. You can do something similar in a model and create your "material" and drop/constrain everything there. If you're wanting to automate it I would nudge you in the direction of the nesting utility, as nesting parts is what it was created for. Hope this helps!

-Chancellor

[sattju]

Automating it would be good, but I do not see that I have the nesting utility. Should that have come with Inventor to begin with when I downloaded it? Thanks for your help!

[Anonymous]

The nesting utility is a separate install (now called Inventor Nesting I believe, my bad on calling it nesting utility) that is available in the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection. If you have PDMC it also includes Inventor CAM which allows you to create G-Code for your nc. 

Edit: You should see it in the Autodesk Desktop app if you have that installed, or on the dashboard where you manage products.

[sattju]

I believe I just have Pro 2020. I wonder if this can be downloaded as an extension or add in?

[Anonymous]

It looks like it is only available in the collection. The Product Design and Manufacturing Collection is about $2600/yr (about $600 more than just Inventor Pro), but you get Inventor Nesting, Inventor CAM, AutoCAD, Vault Basic, and some other neat tools with it. Might be worth a look or call to your reseller if it is reasonably within budget. The time saved in nesting could pay for it quickly depending on workload.

Hope this helps!

[sattju]

I will have to look into it. We are a small company so only about 6 employees here including myself. Might be a stretch, but I'll do some more research and find out. Thanks for your help!

[doug.johnston · Accepted solution]

I nest parts for our Waterjet machine and do everything inside basic Inventor.

Here is my workflow:

1.  Create 4'x8" sheet as a part (I have individual parts of all our sheet steel sizes)

2.  Create an Assembly model and add the sheet (I grounded to 0,0,0 based on the Waterjet machine)

3.  Place individual parts in Assembly and constrain to TOP of sheet and to each other.

4.  Create a drawing and add TOP VIEW showing sheet and parts.

5.  Create DXF file for Waterjet machine from drawing.

6.  I also create a nesting drawing from that assembly to show everything required that our Production wants to see (eg. part weight, overall part sizes, qty, etc.)

7.  I do not use the FLAT PATTERN for sheet metal, I use UNFOLD.

Also - all my Waterjet parts are DERIVED from the original part, so if anything changes on the original part, it will change on the Assembly and adjust everything.  All I have to do now is check the assembly and create a new DXF file.

When I first started the job, it took me about 30-40 hours (using 3-4 different programs) to do (1) nesting file.  Now I can usually do one in under an hour.

We haven't upgraded from INV2016 (yet ... 2020 is coming soon),  so I haven't been able to try the Nesting module that has been added to basic Inventor. 

[NachoShaw]

Hi

Im not usually one to advise not using something but..... Dont use the Nesting utility for wood based projects, it doesnt work. For one, you cannot flip the part over if it needs machining on the other side. also, it seems to work with multi leveled parts. Below is an example routed ply panel. it will either ignore the router grooved completely or ignore the panel and only include the routering itself.

i did make a good 2D cnc part tool but it doesnt nest, it groups all materials together and creates a 2D cad file with information to each part and optional flipped parts. This is typically how the UK wood based Companies like to receive the part files for cnc (in my experience anyway)

Ply Panel

with a Nesting Utility result

and lastly, all the nice informative text that surrounds the nested sheet doesnt get included in the dxf export..

The nesting utility is made for sheet metal parts that have a full face, no multi leveled faces. This is of course from my woodwork based perspective and experience in cnc parts. This image is from my CNC tool

Im not saying the Nesting Utility isnt goo, it probably is but it doesnt work for wood panels IMO

Hope that helps

[BrandonBG]

Flipping the material is the issue that's keeping me from diving into Inventor Nesting.

Our wood shop uses several different material orientations: one finished side, two finished sides, no finished sides, or two differently finished sides.

I haven't been able to figure out an easy workflow for handling 4+ materials with necessary up and down orientations.

[Anonymous]

Inside the Inventor Nesting options for each packaging you can select whether the packaging is double sided or not. If it is not then the A-side will be up, but if it is double sided then the software can flip it to get the best nesting. As for selecting which materials are double sided and which goes with what face up, I would look at defining different packaging for each scenario. Each part would be assigned material thickness/properties correlating with their packaging. If they need to be nested at one time anyway. Each would be bound to their own packaging and each packaging would have its own rules for how to flip or not flip. Stainless steel fabrication shops have a similar issue when they start dealing with polishes on their material, as there is a good side and a bad side, one with film and one possibly without. This only helps with 2D of course, as Inventor Nesting is intended for 2D profiles and not 3D milling. I hope this came across clearly, Inventor Nesting can be a little tricky to get how you want it, but once you get it there it is very nice to work with.

[Anonymous]

@BrandonBG If you would like help with a workflow I would suggest opening up another question in the forums and possibly linking from here.

[BrandonBG]

New post:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-customization/inventor-nesting-materials-finished-side-s/td-... 

Brandon