EasyCamNest helps arrange parts on a fresh sheet, a remnant, or an irregular offcut. Nesting means placing parts on available material before cutting. You set the gaps and boundaries, then inspect the layout before anything moves.
Tested in a development environment. Public downloads and purchases are not open.
01 / MATERIAL CHOICES
Three tested development workflows describe where new parts are allowed to go. Choose the one that matches the real piece in your shop.
A fresh sheet or measured rectangular blank
Use the current SheetCam work area or enter a planning rectangle. Set part spacing, edge margin, and rotations; then inspect a complete proposal and save the accepted job. A custom planning rectangle does not resize SheetCam’s work area automatically.
A partly used sheet with previous cuts
A remnant is usable material left from an earlier job. Open the job with new parts, then select a supported saved job for the previous cuts. Confirm its dimensions and alignment before planning around the unavailable footprints. The source stays unchanged; physical sheet position is yours to verify.
An L-shaped, tapered, or trimmed offcut
Draw a closed outline of the usable piece, check its dimensions, and set an edge margin. A polygon is the drawn boundary of irregular material. EasyCamNest searches inside that valid outline; it must not cross itself. Part-in-hole nesting is not available in this workflow.
02 / THE WORKFLOW
EasyCamNest prepares a placement proposal. Your cutting setup still happens in SheetCam.
03 / CONTROL
Part gaps and material-edge margins are separate controls. Optional corner allowance adds to the displayed effective clearance. Kerf, leads, and cut order still need normal cutting review.
Quick, Balanced, and High quality explore placements with a chosen planning time. Rotation controls depend on the method. More time can help complex jobs, without guaranteeing a denser result.
See a zoomable layout, part counts, dimensions, and utilization before Apply. Declining leaves the arrangement unchanged; locked parts remain fixed in supported workflows.
04 / DEVELOPMENT STATUS
The core material workflows above have been implemented and tested in the development plugin. The following refinements were demonstrated separately and are not part of the installed default workflow.
Selected ordinary rectangular jobs placed smaller parts inside larger part openings, then passed save/reopen checks. This is not available for remnant or polygon nesting. Cutting support and order still need review.
Development searches measure empty area inside nest bounds, test relocations, and compare enclosing rectangles with edge margins. They do not create extra quantities or prove a global minimum.
A single inserted part can be centered where clearance permits. Several parts sharing a hole keep their packed arrangement. Enabling hole nesting alone does not run every refinement.
05 / VERIFIED WELDING-TABLE EXAMPLE
In a real SheetCam 7.1.35 job, EasyCamNest placed all 19 welding-table parts on a 48 × 96 in (1,219.2 × 2,438.4 mm) sheet. The saved layout used a 7.07% smaller occupied footprint than the job's earlier valid arrangement, with the same 0.30 in (7.62 mm) required part clearance.
ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL PRICE
$410 per full 48 × 96 in (1,219.2 × 2,438.4 mm) sheet
0.250 in (6.35 mm) A36 steel · price supplied for this example
$26.17Area-equivalent value, using unrounded area: $410 × 294.175422 sq in (0.189790 m²) ÷ 4,608 sq in (2.972897 m²)
The job still starts with one full sheet. $26.17 values the footprint area freed at the stated sheet price; it is not a measured cash saving or a second-sheet avoidance claim. Whether that area becomes usable material depends on the remaining sheet shape and future jobs.
06 / QUESTIONS
Start with the ten questions shops most often need answered. More detailed answers follow by topic.
It helps plan and review placements for new rectangular material, remnants with previous cuts, and drawn irregular boundaries. You keep control of the material description, spacing, search settings, and whether to accept the result.
EasyCamNest is a SheetCam plugin. You still use SheetCam to prepare machining operations and the output for your machine. Nesting placement does not replace tool selection, kerf compensation, lead-ins, cut order, or machine setup.
Yes, in the tested development workflow. Use the current SheetCam work area or enter a custom planning rectangle. Set the edge margin inside that area. A custom rectangle is a planning limit; it does not itself resize the job's SheetCam work area.
The remnant workflow uses a supported saved SheetCam job to represent previous cuts and keeps those footprints unavailable while nesting new parts around them. The saved geometry and its origin must match the physical material you will use.
Use the material/polygon editor to describe a valid closed outline of the usable piece. EasyCamNest searches within that outline and checks the edge margin. A complete validated result can be applied in the supported development workflow.
Set a part gap appropriate to your cutting process. EasyCamNest checks the effective clearance it displays. The usable value depends on your setup and cutting needs; there is no universal spacing recommendation. The 0.10″ test examples are demonstrations, not a cutting prescription for every material or machine.
No. Part spacing is the requested separation between part outlines. Edge margin is the space to the material boundary. Kerf is the width removed by the cut and belongs in the cutting setup. Verify the resulting toolpaths and lead-ins as well as the nest. Any enabled corner allowance adds to the displayed part gap.
They control how broadly the search explores placements. More complex or crowded jobs may benefit from more effort and time. High quality does not guarantee a better result on every job. Geometry preparation and validation can add time beyond the configured planning limit.
Yes. Review the proposed layout and its measurements first. Declining leaves the arrangement unchanged. Accepting Apply moves the parts and checks the resulting positions. A failure message should be followed before continuing.
Development tests have run with SheetCam TNG 7.1.35 on Ubuntu 24.04 Linux x86-64 and in a Windows VM. macOS and other SheetCam versions are not confirmed. The project is in development and beta distribution is paused. Pricing, trial terms, and public availability need confirmation from the project owner.
Nesting is arranging parts on a piece of material before cutting. A useful nest fits the required parts while respecting spacing, edge margins, and orientation choices. It can reduce manual arranging and make better use of available stock.
Load the drawings into SheetCam and prepare the parts and quantities there, then open EasyCamNest. DXF jobs have been used in testing. A workflow for importing new DXFs or parts jobs directly inside EasyCamNest while the remnant is open is planned; it should not be presented as available now.
It can work with the parts and copies already present in a supported SheetCam job, including irregular shapes. Prepare the required quantities in SheetCam. Do not assume it will generate extra copies just because spare room remains.
Placement uses positions and permitted orientations while preserving original physical size and shape. Parts are not scaled down to make a job fit. Check the drawing's imported size before nesting, especially when the source units are unclear.
Open the job containing the new parts to be nested. Select the previous-cut job as the remnant source inside EasyCamNest. Starting with the remnant open and adding new parts through an in-plugin importer is a separate planned workflow.
Remnant cut footprints are kept as locked, disabled reference geometry without cutting operations. Leave those references disabled and unchanged. They describe unavailable material; they are not new production parts.
Check the proposed remnant dimensions before accepting. In the supported remnant Apply workflow, acceptance updates the destination's rectangular work area to those bounds. Part sizes stay the same. Thickness, tools, and cutting operations are not imported from the remnant job.
Compatible outlines can be saved and reloaded in their material context. If an outline belongs to an imported remnant, load the matching source so previous-cut obstacles stay associated with it. This is not a remnant inventory database.
That capability is not established. Supply a supported source job or draw and measure the usable outline. You remain responsible for matching the real sheet's position and orientation to the job setup.
Development tests compare material proportions and refine the best layouts, including edge margins in the required material size. This is not yet a standard installed workflow, and the smallest result found is not a proven global minimum.
Choose the available rotation controls for the selected method. Mirroring is a separate permission and is not searched by every method. Where it is offered, leave it disabled when handedness, lettering, or part function must be preserved.
Automatic grain detection and per-part grain rules are not established features. Choose rotation restrictions that preserve the required orientations and inspect the result. EasyCamNest does not infer manufacturing direction from the outline.
That has been demonstrated on selected ordinary rectangular jobs, with spacing and saved geometry checked. It remains a development capability. It is not available for remnant/polygon nesting, and a hole in a previously removed cutout is not automatically available stock. Cutting order and support need review.
The development refinement centers a single insert where its shape and required clearance allow. When several inserts share a hole, their packed arrangement is preserved. Centering can balance surrounding clearance; by itself it does not increase the amount of part material occupying the hole.
No. Aligning nearby edges is a placement choice. Common-line cutting creates a shared cut path and requires dedicated cutting support. It is not an established EasyCamNest feature; closely nested parts still use the configured separation.
Irregular outlines, spacing, margins, and rotation restrictions can leave spaces that none of the remaining parts can use. A complete result means all requested parts were placed and checked. It does not prove that every possible rearrangement has been exhausted. Development refinement measures gaps and tests relocations.
Check the denominator. Packing density compares part material with the enclosing rectangle of the nest. Full-sheet utilization compares it with the whole sheet. A remnant's actual remaining usable area is another measure. Those percentages are not interchangeable; internal empty space also includes required separation.
It means a complete acceptable arrangement was not found within the search settings and budget. Review dimensions, units, allowed rotations, and search effort. It is not mathematical proof that fitting the parts is impossible. Partial remnant/polygon layouts remain previews rather than accepted full jobs.
Use SheetCam to save the accepted result, preferably under a new job name when comparing alternatives. Selected development jobs have passed save/reopen checks for geometry and spacing. Complete the normal machining review before cutting.
Material use is one factor. Cutting access, leads, part stability, required orientation, and the usefulness of the remaining piece also matter. Choose spacing and a layout goal suited to the job, then review the cutting setup. EasyCamNest does not automatically plan all of those manufacturing decisions.
The interface supports either display/input unit. Confirm the physical sizes of imported drawings. Mixed-unit source-job imports in both directions have not been fully verified, so display-unit support should not be described as universal mixed-unit import compatibility.
Optional estimates use supplied material and cutting/billing values to help compare a job's likely costs and price. They are planning estimates, not measured machine time or a guaranteed quote. Confirm allowances and shop costs yourself.
07 / COMPATIBILITY & AVAILABILITY
Development testing: SheetCam TNG 7.1.35 on Ubuntu 24.04 Linux x86-64 and in a Windows VM. macOS, SheetCam 8, and other SheetCam versions are not confirmed.
Beta distribution is paused. Public pricing, release date, downloads, trial terms, and support commitments have not been set. The site will be updated when those details are confirmed.
KEEP PLANNING PRACTICAL
Explore the three workflows and review the current compatibility details before release.
