Learn/Laser/Import & sheet layout
Auto nesting
At a glance
- Nest cuttable parts with configurable padding; engrave-only parts stay out of the nest solver
- Multiple effort presets with clear time hints—background solving keeps the UI responsive
The Auto-Nest button sits next to the import buttons in the Parts section; its dropdown picks the effort level and opens the nesting settings. The solver runs in a background worker — compiled native code, not JavaScript — so the UI stays responsive and parts animate onto the sheet as they're placed. You can cancel a long nest mid-run.
Effort levels
Quick uses skyline packing and finishes in about a second — great for rectangular-ish parts. Medium switches to NFP-style edge-walk placement with four rotations (0/90/180/270 degrees) and takes a few seconds. Max sweeps twelve orientations per part for the best material utilization and can run thirty seconds or more on a busy sheet. You can also define custom efforts with their own name, algorithm tuning, and padding. The algorithms are shared with Plasma — see Skyline packing and NFP nesting for how they work.
Padding, not kerf multiples
Where Plasma spaces parts as a multiple of the cut-chart kerf, Laser uses an explicit padding distance — built-in efforts use 0.010 in, and custom efforts store their own value editable in your preferred units. The same padding sets both the gap between parts and the inset from the sheet edge. Spacing offsets are built straight from contour geometry, so you don't need to generate toolpaths before nesting.
What gets nested
Eligibility is cut-only: a part needs at least one enabled cut contour to enter the solver. Engrave-only parts stay where they are, while cut parts that carry engrave internals nest normally. Locked parts are respected as fixed obstacles. If valid offsets can't be built for the remaining parts, the nester reports them once and stops rather than spinning up sheet after sheet.