Abstract:

The problem of nesting irregular shapes is of great interest to many industries. The problem is to determine how a set of irregular pieces will be cut from large stock sheets with the aim cf minimizing the waste. Being presented in this paper is computer-aided method with which the problem of laying out an arbitrary set of polygons on rectangular sheets can be solved. The proposed solution is inpleraented in two stages. In this paper the algorithm employed in the first stage is briefly described. Both anisotropic and non-anisotropic nestings have been considered. The selection of shapes and their orientations is based on the geometrical features of polygons, through which a list of alternatives can be developed and ranked according to the degree of advantage to reach a solution of satisfaction and efficiency. The algorithm has been tested thoroughly and the results show that it is superior to other methods designed to solve this problem.

Key words: stock cutting, nesting, CAD/CAM