aspire and cabinetmaking

[cabnet636]

ryan patterson of http://www.cabinetpartspro.com/ has created a nesting program that allows me to define my door sizes then nest and produces a parametric .dxf that when imported into Aspire allows me to add details and carvings. thanks to ryan this makes mdf door production to a small shop possible with out spending BIG bucks on software and IT guys.

http://www.cabinetpartspro.com/Nester/Nester.htm

jim

[Greeny]

Hi Jim,

I know nothing about cabinet making, but have a lot of experience in nesting for glass cutting which,
while subtly different from cutting wood parts out of a panel, is close enough for me to be concerned by your picture.

Unless there is some reason i don't know of (Likely!), it seems to do a poor job of nesting, resulting in waste due to badly sized offcuts.

Here is the output from a glass optimiser (metric, sorry) with the same panels but 10mm oversize to simulate a cutting kerf of 10mm (~3/8").
As you can see it has a much more usable offcut!
Even allowing for a non cutting border around the board this layout would remain the same and you would still have a large usable offcut.

I'm not trying to nit pick, just concerned you it might be costing you more than it need.
The fact it is a very simple optimisation with only 2 sizes and 12 pieces does not bode well.


Cheers
Greeny

[sailfl]

Jim

There is a program called Free Doors that works very well.
http://home.centurytel.net/bwclark/

I have to agree with Greeny and not to be critical but the software you are looking at is not nesting. Even Aspire's nesting procedure has problems. Then you add the desire to have the grain run the right direction and you have to do some work to get it nest properly.

Greeny, you program does nest well but add some grain issues and does it still do the same job. Please, I am not trying to be critical.

[Greeny]

Hi Nils,

Yes, although it's for glass, it can cope with grain as some patterned glass has a direction.
When the sheet is marked as having a grain, rotation of parts is not allowed which can (and usually does) impact on the efficiency of the nesting.

It wouldn't really be used for wood panel cutting though, as it is a dedicated glass program and cutting glass is subtly different (zero kerf & only 'edge to edge' cuts allowed).

I only showed it to demonstrate that the nest could be better.

[liaoh75]

Hi Jim,

I've been looking into Cabinet Parts Pro and have not come to a conclusion as to rather or not it is worth purchasing. Would you be so kind as to offer your take on this piece of software?

Thanks

[Richards]

Unfortunately, the FreeDoors program that Bruce Clark and I wrote only works with Shopbot software. At one point, I started revising the doors.exe file to generate G-code, but there were issues with generating arches that were not simple to solve. Bruce also made an attempt to generate G-code and had the same type of problems.

So, for the time being, the FreeDoors program only works with Shopbot software.

[sailfl]

Mike,

Sorry guys, I thought it worked for all machines.

[cabnet636]

for those who took a look i asked it to make twelve pieces which it did and left the waste in length as i specified (which you cannot see) i have spent a bit more time with it and am learning to better set my waste and nesting settings, my goal was to show the program which works great and i will post more pics soon, the new version of cabinetparts pro is excellent and i have used it since 07, sorry if i did not show a good nest i will do better but the program already does!!

as far as free doors we made efforts some time ago to use it and to no avail, i have been making mdf doors with aspire but with out some parametric ability it was time consuming, i do primarily commercial breakroom doors so i asked ryan to pursue it and so far so good!!

jim

[cabnet636]

took a couple of minutes but i am learning more about how to use it

waste was 88% which is acceptable to me, i did not show the third sheet as it obviously did not fill, i changed waste settings much lover

[Greeny]

That is much better, but still not good.
I plugged the same sizes in again, 10mm oversize to simulate a 10mm kerf (~3/8) and got about 96% on the first two sheets and a nice offcut on the third.

Sorry if i seem to be nitpicking, but If you make alot of doors, good nesting software will save you money every day, forever.
.

[cabnet636]

i use a 1/2 inch kerf to allow the distance needed to profile a door as these bits are 1+ inches wide at the top of the diameter, i work closely with a local glass company as we are in the architectual business end of this, i have spent a great deal of time watching them and you are right the tollerances are closer with glass, i have had the program two days and obtained a tollerence that is acceptable to our industry,

i do appreciate the prodding though!! i will study harder

jim

[cabnet636]

i dropped kerf to .375 and got to 94% that is to close for cabinet bits as with the heat the larger the cutter the better but i will keep trying!!
jim

[Greeny]

94% is pretty good for those sizes.
I was probably guessing a kerf that was too narrow.
A wider kerf will definately affect things when the nesting is tight.

[hennie]

Will that be a once off order or is it sausage machine order?

[cabnet636]

ryan has given us an update that allows offesets to be set from a drop down menu inteast of having to do it in the script, this simplifys settings for mdf doors,

i have also recieved from whiteside the dxf profiles for the bits in thier catalog

jim

[Gerald D]

Where is the centerline of the bit on that dxf file? Center of the bottom flat, or left side?

[cabnet636]

center is at left on bottom flat this is the right profile of the bit


these are set to the right side as aspire like us to make the bit, i will get the originals

jim

[cabnet636]

for whiteside 56 and 57 series bits