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Nesting plug-in for illustrator

bigben

Not a newbie
We just got our laser 2 months ago and I'm looking for a good nesting plug-in for illustrator.

Thanks.
 

cmoist

New Member
eCut. I love it, but it only works on PC. They used to have a version that worked on MAC, but I can't get it to work anymore.

I've tried demos of AI Nest-Pro and o2creative's PowerScripts and haven't liked them at all.
 

bigben

Not a newbie
eCut. I love it, but it only works on PC. They used to have a version that worked on MAC, but I can't get it to work anymore.

I've tried demos of AI Nest-Pro and o2creative's PowerScripts and haven't liked them at all.
I'm working on PC, so it's not a problem. Right now this one is on the top of my list, but looking for feedback on other options.
 

cmoist

New Member
Unless you're using a rip with built in nesting (I think Flexi has one), I'd pay the $60 or whatever and not look back. That said, if someone knows of something better, I'm all ears too, I just haven't been able to find it in all my searching.
 

bigben

Not a newbie
Unless you're using a rip with built in nesting (I think Flexi has one), I'd pay the $60 or whatever and not look back. That said, if someone knows of something better, I'm all ears too, I just haven't been able to find it in all my searching.
For my prints I use Caldera that has the nesting function but I can't output the result for my laser. This why I need it to be done inside illustrator.
 

cmoist

New Member
Are you cutting from AI? There are some others that allow you to export in SVG, then nest, then import into cutting software. Deepnest and SVGnest come to mind. They work ok, but some of those don't read grouped objects like eCut will. Maybe that's not important to you, as your shapes may just be simple, non grouped shapes. Those are free, I believe.
 

bigben

Not a newbie
Are you cutting from AI? There are some others that allow you to export in SVG, then nest, then import into cutting software. Deepnest and SVGnest come to mind. They work ok, but some of those don't read grouped objects like eCut will. Maybe that's not important to you, as your shapes may just be simple, non grouped shapes. Those are free, I believe.
I would prefer to keep it inside illustrator for convenience and speed. And I can have some things with alot of details or group that I will prefer to keep in the nesting like point and accent in letters.
 

johnnysigns

New Member
We output from our laser using lightburn software which has an awesome nesting widget. Doesn't really help if you want work solely in Illustrator.
 

JBurton

Signtologist
eCut ftw. It's crazy the amount of automation they sell for $60. It will also set start points to something consistent like lower left corner, top center, whatever, which comes in handy on the router with vacuum table, as you lose suction as you go and ideally keep the cut endpoint near the rest of the whole sheet.
Also it makes legit DXF files with curves.
Also it does acm box folding.
Also just discovered: does area, finds duplicates, finds intersections, bombs ukraine, auto adds dimensions, reduce nodes, hotwire cutting, it really is crazy.
 

gnubler

Active Member
eCut ftw... bombs ukraine...
I'm more concerned about the worth of a plugin for "Illustartor".

I outsource all my printing and have a handful of templates set up in Illustrator for various sheet sizes. Having to import graphics from multiple customer job folders, set up cutfile layers, reg marks, and nest everything efficiently has become too difficult to do manually. For others who outsource their printing, are you using any of these mentioned plugins with joy and happiness? I use AI on Windows for my layouts.
 

V. V.

Inkjet printing guru
I'm more concerned about the worth of a plugin for "Illustartor".

I outsource all my printing and have a handful of templates set up in Illustrator for various sheet sizes. Having to import graphics from multiple customer job folders, set up cutfile layers, reg marks, and nest everything efficiently has become too difficult to do manually. For others who outsource their printing, are you using any of these mentioned plugins with joy and happiness? I use AI on Windows for my layouts.
We use eCut on the daily basis for "layouting" and cut path optimization jobs for:
CO2 laser (900*1600mm)
Fiber laser for sheet metal cutting (1500*3000mm)
Waterjet (1700*4000mm)

It also does simple cardboard designs for packing our products, DXF export in Polylines (WJ is sensitive to Arcs) and many more. You can't imagine how hady it is!
Ofc, sometimes it's not perfect or ideal enough when it comes to true shape nesting but... 60 bucks FFS!
 

gnubler

Active Member
Are you pulling source files from many locations? Like if I'm ganging up several different customers jobs into one print run...doing this manually is killing me.
 

JBurton

Signtologist
For your needs, it wouldn't be very helpful. Maybe you should look at 3 customers needing 12 stickers as a single cut contour job, lay them all out, then add cut lines?
Are you ordering through s365? I'm not sure how friendly their system is, but you may shop around and see if someone like firesprint or miratec has a better ordering system that will save you some of the effort.
 

gnubler

Active Member
I use S365 and FS, they both have similar requirements...create cut path on a separate layer. With sq ft pricing, I try to nest jobs together as efficiently as possible and it takes sooo much time.
 

JBurton

Signtologist
So as long as you can do something like:
1 add an unused color for your cut contour line (purple)
2 group all parts of a given piece of art
3 paste the appropriate quantity on a document
you can then hit nest and ecut will rotate and fit them as best it can in a few seconds. From there you can ungroup everything, select all items that are purple, move them to a new layer, and now you're done.
It sorted all these parts onto a sheet in 1.8 seconds. You'd have to add enough margin and what not for the printers requirements, but it's all within the settings. At $60, it's cheap enough to try, or at least demo.


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