Program to help minimize wasted material?

[Pat Kearney]

Hello
Just wondering if anyone knows of a program that would tell me the best cuts to make in a piece of material to minimize waste.

I am just starting a job to produce 20 Corian signs. These signs are rectangular but vary in size. I am thinking there must be a small program out there somewhere that I can input the various sizes required as well as the size of material I am going to cut them from and it would give me the best layout to minimize waste. Anyone know of such a program?

Thank you.

PAT

[Scott Challoner]

I use a program called QuickFit from MicroMega Solutions. It's used to calculate how many printed circuit boards fit on a raw panel, but I've found it pretty useful. There is a free version available on their website, but there are a few limitations. For example, you can't change the distance between parts, it's set at .133". You can only put in rectangular shapes, so if you have a 4 inch circle, you have to put it in as a 4x4 square. The full version allows you to set up pricing info and cost adders. I believe it's $200 for the full version.

[Joe Pelonio]

For corian that should be nice.

Remember there could be a couple of problems with that on other jobs.

1. If you are using brushed metal-like finish, the grain needs to go l-r so the items cannot be turned 90 degrees to fit better

2. Any long thin lines in the graphic are going to run faster and be sharper if they go horizontally rather than vertically.

[Craig Hogarth]

Go to www.softpedia.com and search for cut optimizer. There's free trials of several programs on the first page of the search.

[Mike Null]

Sign lab does that but it's pricy.

[Joe Pelonio]

Most vinyl cutting programs do nesting, but, yes, they are very expensive especially if you are not cutting vinyl.