NESTING SOLVER · KNOWLEDGE CENTER
A guide to 3D nesting and manufacturing
Explore nesting, voxels, SLS and powder beds through their roles in production planning.
What is Nesting Solver?
Nesting Solver is B2B software that optimizes part placement inside the build volume for SLS and industrial polymer 3D printing. It considers STL models, quantities, clearances and orientations to explore more efficient layouts, with offline desktop and online server options.
The generic phrase “nesting solver” can also describe 2D layout tools for sheet cutting. The Nesting Solver brand focuses on volume utilization across three axes and planning for 3D production.
Explore the product workflow3D nesting and volume utilization
3D nesting
Yerleşim optimizasyonu
Searching for part positions and orientations that use a build volume more efficiently. Nesting Solver aims for lower build heights while retaining the same parts and quantities.
3D packing and volume nesting
3D paketleme ve hacim yerleşimi
3D packing places objects within a bounded volume across three axes. Unlike nesting on a 2D sheet, it also considers relationships between parts at different heights.
Build volume and build chamber
Üretim hacmi ve makine alanı
The width, depth and height available for producing parts. Planning must keep parts within these boundaries. Usable space is defined according to machine settings and production constraints.
Build height optimization
Yerleşim yüksekliği
The highest extent reached by placed parts. Arranging the same set at a lower height creates an opportunity to plan fewer production layers. Height improvement alone is not a measured time or cost-saving percentage.
Build volume utilization and packing density
Hacim kullanımı ve doluluk
Describes how parts use the available build volume. A more compact overall layout does not mean equally dense layers; volume utilization and layer distribution are evaluated separately.
SLS and powder-bed manufacturing
SLS: selective laser sintering
SLS: seçici lazer sinterleme
A 3D manufacturing process that uses a laser to join selected regions of polymer powder layer by layer. Nesting Solver primarily focuses on planning part placement for SLS and industrial polymer production.
Powder bed and powder bed fusion
Toz yatağı ve toz yataklı üretim
Parts are produced within successive powder layers. In polymer SLS, surrounding powder supports the parts, allowing different geometries to be planned together at different levels in the same volume.
Polymer 3D printing
Polimer 3D baskı
3D manufacturing using polymer materials. Planning defines quantities, clearances and orientation constraints alongside geometry. Material and machine selection is considered with the production team’s process expertise.
Additive manufacturing
Katmanlı üretim ve eklemeli imalat
Manufacturing in which a part is formed layer by layer. Nesting is one step in build preparation: organizing which parts, quantities and positions share a production volume.
Batch planning and multi-build planning
Sipariş ve çoklu üretim planlama
Considers how an order containing different part types and quantities is distributed across builds. Compacting one layout and distributing an order over multiple builds address different planning questions.
Voxels, STL and geometric checks
Voxel and voxel-based geometry
Voxel ve voksel tabanlı geometri
A voxel is a volume cell in a regular 3D grid. Voxel-based representation expresses part volumes as computational cells. Nesting Solver uses this approach for geometry-based placement and checks.
Voxelization and voxel resolution
Vokselleştirme ve çözünürlük
Representing geometry on a voxel grid. Cell size affects the representation’s detail and computational workload. Geometric checks and search performance must be evaluated with the chosen resolution in mind.
STL files and 3D part models
STL dosyası ve 3D parça modeli
STL is a file format representing a part’s surface with triangles. In Nesting Solver, parts are defined by their STL models and quantities; layouts can be inspected in a 3D view.
Collision detection
Çarpışma kontrolü
Evaluating whether part volumes overlap in a candidate layout. Geometric collision checks help retain a feasible arrangement while exploring lower build heights.
Part clearance and spacing
Parçalar arası boşluk
The gap to preserve between parts. It is a planning input that should remain fixed in comparisons. Improvements for the same quantities should not be confused with space gained by reducing clearance.
Part orientation and rotation
Parça yönelimi ve rotasyon
A part’s rotation within the build volume. Allowed orientations create different placement possibilities. Users can lock selected part orientations according to production requirements.
Placement quality and deployment
Chain prevention and part separability
Zincir engelleme ve ayrılabilirlik
Looped or similar geometries can become interlocked without direct contact. Chain prevention is a complementary geometric check of relationships that may prevent parts from being separated after production.
Layer density and density peaks
Katman yoğunluğu ve yoğunluk zirveleri
Describes the distribution of area occupied by parts in a layer at a given height. A density profile reveals layers that are much denser than others; an overall average can hide these peaks.
Homogenization and layer balancing
Homojenleştirme ve katman dengeleme
A separate process that reassesses part distribution without increasing the selected build height. It aims to smooth avoidable density peaks and layer-to-layer variation while preserving the main height search’s resume checkpoint.
Offline, online and on-premise nesting
Çevrim dışı, çevrim içi ve kurum içi kurulum
The offline version computes on the user’s computer. Online jobs run on a server and are monitored in a browser. On-premise deployment means managing the selected server and access arrangement within an organization’s own environment.
Sources and methodology
Technical references for SLS and voxels, plus our own technical field report for the product’s placement approach.