About Nest Ready
Nest Ready extracts the part geometry from an engineering drawing, whether it arrives as a CAD-exported PDF, a scan, an image, a photo or a sketch, and writes it as a DXF for cutting. It doesn’t convert the whole page: the profile, holes, slots and cut-outs come across, and the dimensions, notes, border and title block are left behind.
No card required. Bring your own drawings.
What can Nest Ready read?
Engineering drawings as PDF, JPG or PNG. Whatever the source, the part is built from the dimensions written on it.
| Source | What it is | How it’s read | Counts as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vector PDF | A PDF exported from CAD. It holds the drawing’s lines, arcs and text as drawing data. | The part is built from the dimensions written on the drawing, then checked against the PDF’s own drawn lines. A part whose outline or holes miss them is held for review. | 1 part |
| Scanned PDF | A picture of a paper drawing wrapped in a PDF: pixels, with no geometry inside. | Built in true millimetres from the dimensions written on the scan, never from its pixels. Anything the drawing doesn’t state is estimated and flagged. Held for review by default. | 5 parts |
| Image of a drawing | A JPG or PNG of an engineering drawing. | Read the same way as a scanned page. | 5 parts |
| Photo | A phone photo of a printed drawing, a sketch or the part itself, as JPG or PNG. | Sizes come from the numbers written in the photo, so one taken at an angle still gives the written sizes. Location and camera details are removed in the browser before upload. Held for review by default. | 5 parts |
| Sketch | A hand sketch with its sizes written on, on paper or a whiteboard, sent as a photo. | Built from the written numbers, so it needn’t be drawn to scale. A size or position that isn’t written is estimated and flagged, and each size is ticked against the sketch in review before the part can be accepted. | 5 parts |
- PDF, JPG and PNG files, up to 25 MB each and 50 files in one batch. HEIC photos aren’t accepted: save them as JPG first.
- Each page of a PDF is read on its own, so a set that mixes CAD-exported and scanned pages is fine.
- Several parts on one sheet each become their own DXF.
- Drawings dimensioned in inches are converted to millimetres.
More on each: PDF to DXF, scanned PDF to DXF and photo or sketch to DXF.
What exactly is in the DXF?
One plain R12 file per part, in millimetres, with the profile and the holes on their own layers and nothing else from the drawing.
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Format | DXF R12 (AC1009), ASCII. |
| Entities | LINE, ARC and CIRCLE only: no splines, polylines, text, dimensions or hatching. Curves are written as arcs; any that can’t be are flagged. |
| Layers | OUTER for the outer profile (colour 3, green); INNER for holes, slots and cut-outs (colour 1, red). Every entity is on one of the two; bend and etch lines aren’t written. |
| Units | Millimetres, at true 1:1 scale. R12 can’t declare its units, so the file carries none: set your import to millimetres if it asks. |
| Contours | One closed outer profile per file, with every hole strictly inside it. Contours join end to end exactly, and none crosses itself, crosses or touches another, or is drawn twice. |
| Smallest features | No line or arc shorter than 0.05 mm, and no arc or circle with a radius under 0.1 mm. |
| View | The file opens zoomed to the part, not to the origin. |
| Content | Only the part: no border, title block, dimensions, notes or construction lines. |
Every file is checked against these rules on its own bytes before it ships. A part that breaks one isn’t hidden or quietly repaired: it is flagged for review.
| Item | What you get |
|---|---|
| Files | One DXF per part, named by page and part counting from zero: p0-0.dxf, p0-1.dxf, p1-0.dxf and so on. The app shows p0-0 as page 1, part 1. |
| One part | Downloads as a bare DXF named after the drawing: bracket-rev-b.pdf gives bracket-rev-b.dxf. |
| Several parts | One zip named after the drawing, holding each part’s DXF and a README.txt. |
| Several drawings | One zip with a README.txt listing what’s included and what was skipped, and a folder per drawing with its own parts and README. |
| README.txt | States the units, then each part’s width and height, hole count and cut length, and whether it passed every check, was accepted or corrected in review, or still NEEDS REVIEW, with the reasons. |
| Rejected parts | Left out of the download, and not charged. A flagged part nobody has reviewed yet is still included. |
What gets a part flagged for review?
Any check a part fails holds it for review, with the reason in plain words. A flagged part still downloads, marked NEEDS REVIEW in the README of a zip.
Among the checks:
- The geometry: An outline that doesn’t close or crosses itself, an edge drawn twice, a hole outside the part, a curve that came in as straight segments, or a hole too small to cut.
- The size: A part whose size looks wrong for its drawing, units that don’t add up, no dimension that confirms the size, or an uncertain scale.
- The reading: Something the drawing doesn’t state that had to be estimated, holes a callout asks for that the part lacks, a part that doesn’t sit on the drawing’s own lines, or a sketch number that could be read two ways.
- The source: Every part from a scan or photo, a part that needs more accuracy than its scan or photo can give, and every sketch part until each size is ticked.
- The file: A DXF that breaks any rule in the output specification above.
In review you can accept a part, reject it, correct it or re-run the drawing with a note. How review works.
What doesn’t Nest Ready do?
It extracts the part’s geometry. Everything after that stays in your own software, and you check each part before it is cut.
- Nest Ready produces geometry only. It doesn’t produce toolpaths, cutting parameters or machine code: CAM stays in your own software.
- It doesn’t nest parts on a sheet.
- It doesn’t repair or clean up an existing DXF. It reads drawings (PDF, JPG and PNG), not CAD files.
- It doesn’t do 3D: no solid models, STEP files or flat patterns from a 3D part, and no bend lines.
- It doesn’t cost or quote the part; the quotation stays with you.
- No accuracy figure is stated for a part from a scan or photo. The drawing, not the DXF, is the record of what the customer asked for.
Check every DXF against the drawing before cutting.
How is Nest Ready priced?
Priced by the parts you download, not by seat or page: plans start at £99 a month with unlimited users, and the free trial is 25 parts with no card. A part from a scan, photo or sketch counts as 5, and a rejected part costs nothing.
Who is behind Nest Ready?
Nest Ready is a trading name of Repcurve Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company 17427637). Registered office: C/O Just Balance Accounting Ltd, 10 Dunsters Avenue, Bury, England, BL8 1EF.
To get in touch, use the contact form or email hello@nestready.co.uk.
Convert your next engineering drawing to DXF.
Upload a PDF, scanned drawing or drawing image and see the part geometry Nest Ready can extract.