Autodesk Nesting Utility

Since the introduction of the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection, Autodesk has strived to offer tools that would create an end-to-end solution, providing tools to go from concept to manufacturing.  For years, Inventor has been the concept design tool, at the center of the collection.  In the last few years, Autodesk added tools to better enable users on the manufacturing side.  One of the most recent additions is the Nesting Utility.

 The Nesting Utility can go from assembly to nested layout to DXF output, in just a few moments. With Inventor HSM, also part of the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection, users then can export the nest to a 3D model and use Inventor HSM to create the tool paths for the nests. The Nesting Utility is also flexible enough to handle Sheet Metal Flat Patterns or standard Inventor parts.

Until recently, I really hadn't explored the abilities of  the Nesting Utility.  I think I watched an overview video when tool was added to the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection.  Then I had a question from a customer that prompted me to really understand how the tool works.

In this case, he has been using Inventor for all of his drafting and modeling work, but he was going to be called upon to start doing some CNC programming.  So we talked about HSM, then he said, that nesting the parts into one layout would be important for him too.  At the time, I knew that the Nesting Utility existed and worked great for sheet metal components.  However, I wasn't sure if it would handle wood, which would be the application in this case.  I had an idea how we could probably cheat the system if it only handled sheet metal, but I wanted to understand the utility first.  Much to my surprise, an update to the Nesting Utility expanded the capabilities to handle standard parts and sketch only parts.

The workflow is actually pretty straight forward, once you understand how it works.  However, the system is a little picky and you need to be aware of a few things before starting.

• For Sheet Metal components, make sure you have generated the flat pattern, even if the component does not contain any bends.
• For Standard Parts, the utility needs to understand the thickness of the part, this is typically figured out automatically, but can be manually configured in the IPT.
• For Standard Parts, it can only handle one feature and not the finished shape.  So user might need to model their parts differently, if they are going to nest them.
• I have also noticed that the Nesting Utility does not differentiate between standard and construction geometry.    It might not see closed loops because of this, and may display some components as containing errors.

To start the process, it is pretty simple.  All you have to do is open an assembly.  Then right click on the assembly in the browser, and choose "Create Nest."

This will open a dialog box, where the user needs to pick a template.

Then the Nesting Utility will display a dialog box, with a list of all the components.  I have done this on some larger assemblies and it has taken up to 30 minutes, or more, to compile the list.  So just be aware that the larger the assembly, the longer this will take.  It is most likely that every component in the assembly will not need to be in the nest, so it is possible to exclude parts by right clicking on it and choosing Delete.

At this point, clicking OK will bring all the selected components into a new nest file.

Then clicking Create will begin generating the nests.

The Nesting Utility will display a dialog showing the components and the packages, which are the individual nests.

After accepting these options, the software will display the nests.  

If the raw material is not the right size, that can be corrected in the Process Material Library.  You can also get an efficiency rating for the sheets in the nest.

One lesson I learned, when working with the wood components, is to make sure that the component spacing is greater than, or equal to, the diameter of the router bit.  If it is not, you can edit the properties of the individual nest and change the Item Separation parameter.

There are a multitude of tools to adjust the nests, but I don't want to go into all of that in this introduction.  However, there is plenty of documentation to understand those options.

The next step would be to either export a DXF or a 3D model.  The Nesting Utility exports to DXF because they are easily imported into your CAM software.  However, if you use Inventor HSM, you can export a 3D model and build your tool paths, while still in Inventor.

DXF

3D Model

Here is a video demo of the workflow.


The Nesting Utility is a great addition to the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection and should be a welcomed addition for anyone that needs to nest their components.  It is a great workflow that blends right into the CAM workflow as well.