Quick Tour 1- Single Part Single Sheet Nesting
Load the CAMWorksNesting Add-In in SolidWorks.
Open the part file Tutorial_2.sldprt in the …\CAMWorksNestingData\CAMWorksNesting 2013\Examples\Tutorials\Parts folder.
Select Create Nesting Job from the CAMWorksNesting menu bar.
The Create Nesting Job dialog is displayed. The Part Data tab is displayed. Use the Part data tab to set the parameters for the part.
The solid part Tutorial_2.sldprt displayed in the graphics area is listed in the Part List along with its nesting parameters.
Set the following part parameters in the Part data tab:
a. Thickness: CAMWorksNesting extracts the part parameter of Thickness from the Solid Part and displays it in the Thickness field as default thickness for the part. The thickness of the part, as extracted from the solid part, is displayed as 10 mm.
b. Material: CAMWorksNesting extracts the material info from the Solid Part and displays it in the material field. The material for this part, as extracted from the solid part, is Steel.
c. Quantity: The default quantity value is displayed in the Quantity field (As per default value defined in the DefaultValues.ini file). Click on the ‘Quantity’ field in the Part list. Set the Part Quantity to ‘100’.
d. Angle: Click on the Angle column of the Part List. Edit and assign an angle of 30 degrees.
e. Grain Direction: Leave the Grain direction is set to ‘None’.
f. Normal Face: By default, CAMWorksNesting chooses the face with the largest surface area. So the bottom face of the solid part is chosen by default. The normal direction is indicated by an arrow in the graphics area. To chose the top face (indicated by pink color) as the normal face, do either of the following:
Click on the Sheet Data tab. Set the following sheet parameters in the sheet data tab.
a. Observe that the assigned thickness and material of the sheet are identical to those of the part to be nested.
b. We will nest the part using a Standard size sheet. Click on the Standard size dropdown list. Observe the Standard Sheet sizes defined in the Standard size dropdown list.
c. Set the sheet quantity to ‘1’.
d. In the grain direction dropdown list, select 'None'.
e. Observe that the standard sizes defined the StandardSheets-MM.ini file are listed in the dropdown list. In this example, we will choose the second sheet displayed in the list. (with Length = 1800 mm & Width = 1500 mm)
f. Click ‘Add Sheet’. The Sheet is added to the Sheet List.
Observe the Nesting Data Group Box. Use this group box to set the nesting parameters:
a. Set a Part to Part distance of 4 mm is set and a Part-to-Sheet distance of 4mm.
b. Click
on the 
button
to select the location to save the output Assembly file and Summary text
file.
c. Set the Nesting method to ‘Fast Nesting’.
After setting the part, sheet and nesting parameters, click OK. This sets into motion the process to generate a nested layout.
After the Nesting process is completed, CAMWorksNesting will display a message indicating the location of the text file containing the Summary of the Nest Results. Click OK to close the message. The Text file will be displayed.
The Nested layout assembly will be displayed in the Graphics area. Both these files are saved in the location indicated Output Assembly File path stated in the Create Nesting Job dialog.
In this example, we will observe the 3 nesting results:
a. Nesting layout generated when top face of the part is chosen as normal face
b. Nesting layout generated when bottom face of the part is chosen as normal face
c. Nesting layout when Grain direction is set for part and the sheet.
Result A: Follow all the above steps from step 1 to 9 and view the Nested layout. Observe that all the 100 instances of the part (specified quantity) have been nested.
Result B: Repeat all the above steps from steps 1 to 9 but omit Step 6-f (the default Normal direction is maintained). View the nesting layout. Observe that all the 100 instances of the part (specified quantity was 100) have been nested.
Result C: Repeat all the above steps from steps 1 to 9. This time, in Step 6-e, set the Grain Direction of the Part to X direction. In Step 7-d, set the Grain Direction of the Sheet to X direction. View the nesting layout. All the parts are nested along the specified grain direction. Observe that only 96 instances of the part are nested while the quantity specified was 100. The same result will be obtained if the Grain direction of both the part and sheet are set to Y direction.