Quick-Tour 3- Multi Part, Multi Sheet Nesting (Assembly Nesting)

1. Load the CAMWorksNesting Add-In in SolidWorks.

2. Ensure that the ‘Preferential Hole Filling’ functionality is enabled. This is done by setting the PreferHoleFilling flag in the [NestingData] section of the DefaultValues.ini file to ‘1’.

3. Select Nest by Folder option in the CAMWorksNesting menu bar.

4. The ‘Browse for folder’ dialog opens.  Browse to the folder named  Tutorial_5 in the ..\CAMWorksNestingData\CAMWorksNesting 2013\Examples\Tutorials\Assemblies directory.

5. CAMWorksNesting opens all the parts contained in the folder as an assembly in the SolidWorks Graphics area.

6. The Create Nesting Job dialog is displayed. All the parts present in the folder are listed in the Part List of the Part data tab.

7. Set the following part parameters in the Part data tab:

a.  Thickness & Material: The thickness and material of the solid parts extracted from the solid models is displayed in the Part List.

• The part named Tut5_Part1 and Tut5_Part4 have the same material ‘Alloy Steel (SS)’ and thickness (10 mm).

• The remaining parts Tut5_Part2, Tut5_Part3, Tut5_Part5 and Tut5_Part6 have the identical material ‘Steel’ and thickness (12.7 mm).

Only parts with identical material and thickness can be nested within the same sheet. Based on the above observation, it is clear that 2 different sheets need to be defined to generate a nested layout.  Each such sheet can nest two parts having the same material and thickness.

b.  Normal Face: No changes are made to the default normal face selection for any of the parts.

c.  Quantity: Set the following quantities for the parts:

d.  Angle: Click on the Angle column of the Part List. Edit and assign an angle of 90 degrees to all the parts.

e.  Grain Direction: Leave the Grain direction is set to ‘None’ for all the parts.

7. Click on the Sheet Data tab. To nest all the six parts in the part list, two different sheets of varying thickness and material need to be added to the sheet list. Set the following sheet parameters in the sheet data tab.   

a.  Adding a standard sheet:

i.   In the Sheet list, click on Select to add sheet.

ii.   By default, the Thickness field will display the thickness of the first part listed in the part list. The thickness of the first part listed in the Part list is 10mm. In case this value is not displayed in the thickness field, assign a 10mm value.

iii.  By default, the Material field will display the material thickness of the first part listed in the part list. The material of the first part listed in the Part list is ‘Alloy Steel (SS)’. In case this value is not displayed in the material field, type the material name into the field.

iv. To add a standard sheet, select the ‘S13 (10’ X 4’) – Len: 3000 mm Width: 1200 mm’ sheet from the Standard Size dropdown List.

v.  In the Quantity field, assign a quantity of ‘1’.

vi.  Leave the Grain Direction set to ‘None’.

vii. Click ‘Add Sheet’ to add the sheet to the Sheet list.

b.  Next, the parts ‘Tut5_Part2’, ‘Tut5_Part3’, ‘Tut5_Part5’  and ‘‘Tut5_Part6’ have identical material (Steel) and thickness (12.7 mm). They can be nested on the same sheet. Use a standard sheet to nest these two parts.

Follow the same steps 1 to 7 given above to add the standard sheet to nest these parts. However, in step 7-a-iv, choose the standard sheet of size ‘S24 (12’ X 10’) – Len: 3600 mm Width: 3000 mm’.

In Step 7-a-iii, a thickness of 12.7mm needs to be assigned to the sheet. Observe that CAMWorksNesting already now displays 12.7mm as the default thickness. In case this value is not displayed in the thickness field, assign a 12.7mm value.

8. Observe the Nesting Data Group Box.  Use this group box to set the nesting parameters:

a. Set a Part to Part distance of 5mm is set and a Part to Sheet distance of 5mm.

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.  

9. After setting the part, sheet and nesting parameters, click OK. This sets into motion the process to generate a nested layout.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Use the SolidWorks/ CAMWorks Solids Configurations Manager tree to view the Nesting layouts generated.

13. The Summary text file indicates that all the parts have been nested. Observe that the smaller parts have been nested in the holes of the larger parts resulting in better sheet utilization (preferential hole filling).