Nesting

 

 

 

Links / Videos :

 

 

This document allows to nest parts documents into a support by entered the quantity for each part. This support can be an arbitrary shape. It is an assembly document but with reduced functionality and a additional menu called Nesting.

 

Creation stages / Use:

 

Create a new document by clicking the icon then select in the Advanced tab.

 

Select the command to use.

 

Automatic nesting: This command allows to list parts to nest, to list usable supports, to modify the nesting settings and then to calculate the nesting.

 

Automatic tube nesting: Same as Automatic nesting above but for pipes placement.

Manual nesting: This command allows to insert new supports and/or to new parts into an existing support (its initial position is calculated by the automatic nesting).

Nesting division: This command is useful for supports included with several instances. It allows to separate this support in several different supports to be able to modify the contain of one of these supports.

 

 

The parts are placed following the absolute XY plane or following the frame defined  by the nesting characteristics function.

The material is following Z+.

All information of the part to nest (gap, degrees of freedom, fiiler part, ....) can be defined by using the nesting characteristics command.

Supports can also be filled by using this command.

 

 

Available options:

 

At the right end of a nesting document, there are two modes for selecting only parts or supports.. The Part mode is enabled by default.

Possibility to disable both modes. In this case the selection will be possible on any element via a rotary picking.

 

Selection by part mode.

Only parts will be selectable.

Selection by support mode.

Only supports will be selectable.

 

 

Additional information:

 

 

  • Assembly documents: The nesting process produces one or several assembly documents (one by used support) which are included in the nesting document.

  • Parts and supports positioning: The position of the part and the support is given by the nesting process.

    • For supports, the position is fixed when inserting.

    • For parts, the position is defined into a constrained positioning, but a fixity constraint is applied to fix their position.

  • Machining: Assembly documents can be used as all other assembly documents. To simply their use in a machining document, their representations are automatically organized like this:

    • The detailed representation contains the nested parts (without the support).

    • The stock representation contains the support.

    • These two representations are automatically used in the preparation documents of TopSolid'Cam to identify the part to manufacture and its stock.

    • The design representation  contains nested parts as well as the support.

  • Associativity: A change of the parts definitions or supports will not automatically recompute the nesting. The user has to ask to recompute the nesting.

  • Existing nesting edition: Use the Automatic nesting or Manual nesting.

  • Support deletion: If an existing support is deleted (after a recomputation or after a manual deletion from the user), the corresponding assembly document is not deleted but empty. This allows a better management of the different produced documents.