After setting up nesting properties, you can create a nesting study. A nesting study contains a series of suggested nests for manufacturing your object. Each nest is a set of shapes arranged on a sheet of material for cutting. A nest can only have one type of material. Before creating a nesting study, make sure that your shapes and their materials have packaging associated with them, otherwise they will not be included in the nesting study.
The Create Nest Study dialog box opens. It contains tabs listing shapes, packaging, and materials referenced in the Nesting Properties dialog box. Also shown are any other packagings you have available, even if they are not currently referenced by the materials used in nesting properties.
The multi-value feature applies to 2019.2 Update and later.
This is the number of duplicate material sheets that will be stacked together for cutting; cuts will be made vertically down through the stack. Stack size is taken into account for the Job QTY value. So if you need eight legs and two tops to make two tables, and each sheet can fit four legs and one top, a stack size of 2 will give you the Job QTY you need.
This enables Inventor Nesting to modify, create, or delete nests if sources change.
Automatically Manage Nests applies to version 2021 and later.
The Used panel under Packaging is populated with all default packagings for the materials being used; these defaults are set in the Process Material Library dialog box.
For example, imagine that you have two packagings listed in the Used panel for the same material. You could enter an amount such as 2 for the first packaging. For the second packaging, you could enter Infinite, so that all remaining inventory for that material is created using the second packaging.
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Autodesk recommends using this method. If not, the nests will be added to the Inventor Nesting browser, and each can be calculated later when you choose to.
A nesting study node is created in the Inventor Nesting browser. It contains a sub-node for each type of material used in the study. Each sub-node represents a nest using a specific material. If one sheet of material is not big enough to nest all shapes being produced for that material, then multiple nests (sub-nodes) using that material are created.
You cannot directly edit a nesting study, but you can edit the nests within that study. (Right-click a nest and select Properties.)