A good app for routing parts for sign cabinets?

Cris_Bowers

My company currently uses EnRoute (https://www.thinksai.com/products/enroute) for nesting parts and creating router programs. 90% of our work is simple 2D flat cut profiles with drilled/routed holes. Occasionally we will work with thicker material, up to 2" that might require pockets or shoulder cuts, and very rarely complex surfacing.  Are any of the partnered apps able to check all those boxes?

michael3424

Cris_Bowers said:

owen_sparks said:

VisualCAMc?

Owen S.

I can't tell from their website if it provides any nesting capabilities. I need to have that in there for it to be a contender.

According to this page on the MecSoft web site, 2 of their products support the Nest feature:

https://mecsoft.com/compare-products/

joe_dunne

Cris_Bowers said:

My company currently uses EnRoute (https://www.thinksai.com/products/enroute) for nesting parts and creating router programs. 90% of our work is simple 2D flat cut profiles with drilled/routed holes. Occasionally we will work with thicker material, up to 2" that might require pockets or shoulder cuts, and very rarely complex surfacing.  Are any of the partnered apps able to check all those boxes?

Cris,

As of today the "nesting" can be handled with a basic feature.... 

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1a6c3c8eb3badcf72461a02b/v/e14dfc4b9eb6610cfbae03b3/e/81ad3ffdfc14fb05d1d8c68c



If that nesting functionality is sufficient, then VisualCAMc can handily generate the gcode to cut these shapes. I do anticipate more streamlined workflow on this type of job as time goes on, inside VisualCAMc. Its on their roadmap.

Joe

owen_sparks

VisualCAMc?

Owen S.

Cris_Bowers

owen_sparks said:

VisualCAMc?

Owen S.

I can't tell from their website if it provides any nesting capabilities. I need to have that in there for it to be a contender.

michael3424

Cris_Bowers said:

owen_sparks said:

VisualCAMc?

Owen S.

I can't tell from their website if it provides any nesting capabilities. I need to have that in there for it to be a contender.

According to this page on the MecSoft web site, 2 of their products support the Nest feature:

https://mecsoft.com/compare-products/

Cris_Bowers

michael3424 said:

According to this page on the MecSoft web site, 2 of their products support the Nest feature:

https://mecsoft.com/compare-products/

That appears to be a "no" then. Didn't mean to mark your answer as accepted, now I probably won't get anyone else responding.

joe_dunne

Cris_Bowers said:

My company currently uses EnRoute (https://www.thinksai.com/products/enroute) for nesting parts and creating router programs. 90% of our work is simple 2D flat cut profiles with drilled/routed holes. Occasionally we will work with thicker material, up to 2" that might require pockets or shoulder cuts, and very rarely complex surfacing.  Are any of the partnered apps able to check all those boxes?

Cris,

As of today the "nesting" can be handled with a basic feature.... 

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1a6c3c8eb3badcf72461a02b/v/e14dfc4b9eb6610cfbae03b3/e/81ad3ffdfc14fb05d1d8c68c



If that nesting functionality is sufficient, then VisualCAMc can handily generate the gcode to cut these shapes. I do anticipate more streamlined workflow on this type of job as time goes on, inside VisualCAMc. Its on their roadmap.

Joe

Cris_Bowers

@joe_dunne I'll give that a try and see if I can make it work.

MecSoft_Support

michael3424 said:

Cris_Bowers said:

owen_sparks said:

VisualCAMc?

Owen S.

I can't tell from their website if it provides any nesting capabilities. I need to have that in there for it to be a contender.

According to this page on the MecSoft web site, 2 of their products support the Nest feature:

https://mecsoft.com/compare-products/

Yes our desktop products support Rectangular and True-shape Nesting.  We however, do not have this functionality implemented  in our Onshape App VisualCAMc.  You will have to use the solution that Joe Dunne is proposing for the nesting and VisualCAMc will be able to generate toolpaths for the nested parts.  

bryan_lagrange

Is there a way for the Auto Layout scipt to nest the flat pattern for sheet metal parts?

ilya_baran

@bryan_lagrange

No time for a full response right now, but think "in context"

bryan_lagrange

This would be a game changer for us I I could nest our sheet metal modules and then send that to CAM. If this also interacts with VisualCAMc I would need to see if it could post to our Trumpf lasers, Flow Water Jet, and Messer Plasma.

Jake_Rosenfeld

@bryan_lagrange

I think what Ilya is getting at is that you could insert all of your flat pattens into an assembly, then start a new in-context part studio of that assembly, copy-in-place all of the flat patterns, and then use the layout feature on those.

Cris_Bowers

The problems I see is it's using a rectangular bounding box for all parts. That will end up leading to a lot of wasted material. I need true shape nesting and ability to nest smaller parts inside the cutouts of larger parts.

joe_dunne

Auto Layout is not a nesting approach.  So that is the factor you have to weigh. We have partners like SigmaNEST. They do some of the most sophisticated nesting out there.   that is a rather high end solution.

I do anticipate other partners to offer more traditional nesting solution as Integrated Cloud Apps. I have talked to a few companies that have their own nesting code to do this.  There is nothing technical standing in their way.  They are all just weighing the cost/benefit of building their nesting app into Onshape.  So the more oportunity they see the faster they will build an Onshape app.

I am happy to make introductions to anybody that wants to talk to a company, not yet a partner, but "thinking about it"

Joe

Cris_Bowers

I used SigmaNEST at a previous employer and really like their product. They are probably the reason I don't like the current product we are using. My employer hasn't actually expressed interest in anything different than what we are using, but I wouldn't be using Onshape if I hadn't brought it up as an alternative to SW.

christopher_dziuba

@joe_dunne I'm loving your presence across the forums in terms of Nesting solutions.

My company in Australia is currently looking for an alternative to our woodwork CAD/CAM calamity and we're getting a demonstration from SigmaNEST on Wednesday. If I'm going to be honest, the main reason I got in touch with them is to find out if anything I export from onshape can be used in their software. I'm hopefull about the solidworks export. I've trialed and intensely studied many alternative CAD. Nothing quiet compares to onshape

1. Is there any particular method you could recommend to make onshape "talk" to SigmNEST? Or any particular "meta Data" that could potentially be tied to solid models via script upon export?

2. Also should I mention our interest and investment in onshape? perhaps drop a name or two to stir their interest in the platform?