How do I nest faster

This forum is for general discussion regarding VCarve Pro
Post Reply
BrianR
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 2:55 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Shopsabre PRO 408

How do I nest faster

Post by BrianR »

I currently nest 5 ,8 and 12 inch high numbers onto 4x8' sheets,often different fonts. So it can be 90+ parts. Some nests can take awhile, up to and over an hour on my old computer with 8gb , older i5 2400 series? and 1gb graphics card. I got a new computer, 16gb, i7, 9400 series processor, integrated graphics. It nests considerably faster, approximately 10 to 15 minutes for a similar job.

I do see while I'm nesting the task manager says the CPU is 25 to 30 percent

My question is, what will increase nesting speed the most, dedicated graphics card, or more ram? Or something else?
Thanks in advance!

User avatar
dealguy11
Vectric Wizard
Posts: 2462
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 9:52 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Anderson Selexx 510
Location: Henryville, PA

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by dealguy11 »

Graphics card will have no effect.
More ram may improve things
Faster CPU is the biggest determiner
Steve Godding
Not all who wander (or wonder) are lost

User avatar
sharkcutup
Vectric Wizard
Posts: 2885
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 3:48 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Shark HD3 Pro Extended Bed with Spindle
Location: U.S.A.

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by sharkcutup »

Arial Black
10 Copies of 1 thru 9 of each of the various sizes 5", 8", and 12" = 270 parts total nested on (4' x 8' x 1/2" sheets)

Well under 10 seconds here!!!

Sharkcutup
V-Carve Pro Tips, Gadget Tips & Videos
YouTube Channel - Sharkcutup CNC
V-Carve Pro 11.554

User avatar
TReischl
Vectric Wizard
Posts: 4575
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:04 pm
Model of CNC Machine: 8020 48X36X7 RP 2022 UCCNC Screenset
Location: Leland NC

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by TReischl »

Nesting times are dependent on several variables. A thing to remember is to not make it do things that make no sense to begin with. For instance, if the shapes are basically rectangular there is no reason to allow it to rotate the parts in 15 degree increments. Stuff like that. My two cents.
"If you see a good fight, get in it." Dr. Vernon Johns

tomgardiner
Vectric Wizard
Posts: 447
Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2014 1:49 pm
Model of CNC Machine: FMT Patriot 4 x8

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by tomgardiner »

I totally ignorant of the workings of the the nesting engine but would the number of nodes in the vectors slow the processing? Have a look at your vectors. Can you reduce their nodes? It might improve the speed.

User avatar
Adrian
Vectric Archimage
Posts: 14544
Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:19 pm
Model of CNC Machine: ShopBot PRS Alpha 96x48
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by Adrian »

What settings are you using? Things like rotation angle have a huge effect. I tend to use 3 degrees as that is far, far faster than 1 degree. The flip and inside options can have a big effect too.

Which version of VCarve are you running? There have been some changes to nesting in recent versions.

10 to 15 minutes on a computer like that is excessive. I nest many times a day with hundreds of parts in a few seconds and my computer is not as high spec CPU wise.

User avatar
TReischl
Vectric Wizard
Posts: 4575
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:04 pm
Model of CNC Machine: 8020 48X36X7 RP 2022 UCCNC Screenset
Location: Leland NC

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by TReischl »

Whether the number of nodes has an effect is a toss up. The nesting engine I worked with when writing software basically worked with "pixels". Similar to how Aspire works when modeling. If the engine that Vectric uses is based on that principle then nodes would have an effect on time. Best way to find out is get the time on a job with lots of nodes, reduce the nodes and run it again. Should answer your question. Obviously I am not familiar with all the nesting engines out there, but I am thinking that a geometric based system would be incredibly slow due to the intense calculations involved.

I wrote "pixels" up there in quotes because the units are not really pixels. More like the definition of a small square area. The engine I used had an adjustable "tolerance". The smaller that became the slower the nesting because it was creating much larger matrices. Halving the tolerance would quadruple the matrix size. Things would get to be very slow quickly.

BTW, there are not a whole lot of companies that write their own nesting engines. Most software uses third party nesting engines provided by a handful of companies.
"If you see a good fight, get in it." Dr. Vernon Johns

BrianR
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 2:55 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Shopsabre PRO 408

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by BrianR »

Thanks for all the replies, I retried something similar today, got it under 3 minutes, so much more workable. I have it set to 1 degree, parts inside each other. See screenshot of nest settings and sample file
Version 10.5
Attachments
nest settings
nest settings
2020 09 26 nest test 10 Pieces 3 sizes.crv
sample nest
(1.24 MiB) Downloaded 65 times

User avatar
Adrian
Vectric Archimage
Posts: 14544
Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:19 pm
Model of CNC Machine: ShopBot PRS Alpha 96x48
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by Adrian »

Experiment with the degrees. That's what makes the biggest difference. That job takes about 3 minutes for me with your settings as well but 1m 15s with 3 degrees and 45 seconds with 5 degrees. There is little difference in the material used especially with shapes like that. I do nests like that several times a day so saving a couple of minutes on each one soon adds up.

BrianR
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 2:55 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Shopsabre PRO 408

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by BrianR »

Ok, thanks for the tips, yes if its several times a day the minutes do add up. Nevermind the potential to move on and get distracted with something else :)

User avatar
TReischl
Vectric Wizard
Posts: 4575
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:04 pm
Model of CNC Machine: 8020 48X36X7 RP 2022 UCCNC Screenset
Location: Leland NC

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by TReischl »

Here is your file set at 15 degrees. The change in material usage is not very significant.
Capture.PNG
This is what I was writing about above. Most folks think "Oh, I will set it to a small increment and get the best yield." The fact is that a lot of those parts resolve to some very basic simple shapes. Rotating them by tiny amounts is a waste of time. Now, if I were cutting really, REALLY expensive material I might try to eek out an inch or so if I could.
"If you see a good fight, get in it." Dr. Vernon Johns

Mikehell
Vectric Craftsman
Posts: 232
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2017 9:34 pm
Model of CNC Machine: eBay special China 3040

Re: How do I nest faster

Post by Mikehell »

TReischl wrote:
Tue Sep 29, 2020 1:27 am
Here is your file set at 15 degrees. The change in material usage is not very significant.

Capture.PNG

This is what I was writing about above. Most folks think "Oh, I will set it to a small increment and get the best yield." The fact is that a lot of those parts resolve to some very basic simple shapes. Rotating them by tiny amounts is a waste of time. Now, if I were cutting really, REALLY expensive material I might try to eek out an inch or so if I could.
No eating sometimes isn't all about saving material. Sometimes you need to factor in cut time. I was able to tweak a nest last week and save 30 seconds of cut time. You think 30 seconds isn't much. But.... When cutting 600 sheets, that over 5 hours.

Post Reply