Sheet metal nesting online

Type the parts of the job and pick the sheet you buy: the nesting shows how many sheets to buy, the material yield, the leftover that becomes an offcut and the quote, with a drawing of each sheet to print. By the true shape, with free rotation and small parts inside the holes of big ones. Free, no sign-up, and it runs in your browser.

Parts

A rectangle, disc or ring, with the thickness and how many of each. Parts of different thicknesses go on different sheets. They stay in this browser.

    Cones, segmented bends, flanges, square-to-round and the other workbench parts go in too, by the outline of each one's DXF. Create the free account, calculate the parts and tick them here.

    Sheet
    Compare with other sheet sizes

    After nesting, the plan is redone in each ticked size, and the last new sheet is tried in a smaller size; whatever uses less sheet shows up as a suggestion. Tick only the sizes you buy and that fit your cutting table.

    Shop offcuts

    Create the free account and the page keeps the shop's offcuts: the nesting uses them before a new sheet, and "I cut this plan" saves the leftovers for the next job.

    The cutting process fills in the gap and the margin; change them by hand if your machine needs others. A smaller gap leaves a bigger offcut, which becomes a remnant. The real gap comes out slightly larger than asked, never smaller.

    Questions about sheet metal nesting

    How is material yield calculated?

    It is the area of the parts divided by the area of the sheets used. The nesting measures each part by its true shape (a ring without its hole) and counts the last sheet whole; the whole leftover at its end is shown separately in the drawing, because it goes back to the shop as an offcut.

    How much gap should I leave between parts?

    It depends on the cutting process. The page fills in the gap and the edge margin by process: laser 3 and 5 mm (1/8 and 3/16 in), CNC plasma 6 and 10 mm (1/4 and 3/8 in), hand plasma 10 and 10 mm (3/8 in), oxy-fuel 12 and 15 mm (1/2 and 5/8 in). If your machine needs something else, change it by hand. A smaller gap rarely saves a sheet with big parts, but it leaves a bigger offcut.

    Which sheet size should I buy?

    After nesting, the page redoes the plan in the other stock sizes ticked under "Compare with other sheet sizes" and tries the last sheet in a smaller size. If any of them buys less sheet, it shows up under the summary with how much it saves.

    Does it nest by the shape or by the rectangle around the part?

    By the shape: discs and rings go in round, a small part can go inside the hole of a ring, and rotation can be free, in 90° steps, half turns only to keep the grain direction, or none.

    Do I need to install anything or create an account?

    No. The nesting runs in your browser with two engines, Nestbolt and Planichapa's own, and the plan that uses less sheet stays on screen. Without an account you nest rectangles, discs and rings, print the plan and make the quote. With the free account, the parts calculated on the workbench and the shop's offcuts go in too; the DXF of the plan is part of full access.

    Create the free account

    Nesting runs in this browser on the Nestbolt engine (MIT licence), built on Jeroen Gardeyn's jagua-rs (MPL 2.0) and sparrow (MIT): licences and source code.