Bracket
- Time
- about 15 s from submission to ready
- Features
- outer profile, 4 holes, 1 slot
- Flags
- None
- Review
- None: no flags, downloaded as extracted
Laser cutting
Customer drawings to DXF for laser cutting
Laser cutting jobs arrive as drawings, not cutting files. Nest Ready takes the customer’s PDF, scan or photo of a drawing and gives you DXF geometry of each part, ready to check and bring into your CAD/CAM and nesting software. It doesn’t program the machine: toolpaths, cutting parameters and nesting stay in the software you already use.
No card required. Bring your own drawings.
Where does the time go when a customer sends a drawing?
Before a part can be nested, someone has to turn the customer’s drawing into geometry. By hand, that is a string of small jobs, for every part.
- Open the customer’s drawing and work out which part is wanted.
- Recreate the outer profile, from the PDF’s linework or from the dimensions.
- Recreate the holes, slots and cut-outs.
- Strip out the dimensions, text, centre lines, border and title block.
- Join up and clean the geometry so the contours close.
- Check it against the drawing, then export it for CAD/CAM and nesting.
Nest Ready takes on the extracting and cleaning, in around 15 seconds per part on average, and leaves the checking with you. To see what that’s worth at your volume, put your own numbers into the savings calculator.
How does Nest Ready fit a laser cutting workflow?
It sits between the RFQ and your CAD/CAM: drawing in, part geometry out.
The RFQ arrives
With a PDF, a scan or a photo of the customer’s drawing, and rarely a DXF you can use as it is.
Upload the drawings
Up to 50 files in one batch, as PDF, JPG or PNG. Each page is read on its own.
Nest Ready extracts the parts
The outer profile and its holes, slots and cut-outs, with the dimensions, notes and title block left behind.
Check what’s flagged
Each part sits beside the drawing for review. Anything uncertain is flagged, and parts from scans and photos are flagged by default.
Download the DXFs
One per part, at true size in millimetres, with the profile on layer OUTER and internal features on INNER.
Program and nest as usual
Import into your CAD/CAM and nesting software. Check every DXF against the drawing before cutting.
Which customer drawings can you send?
Engineering PDFs exported from CAD, scanned PDFs, JPG and PNG images, and photos of drawings.
- CAD-exported PDFs: the geometry is read directly. PDF to DXF.
- Scanned drawings: traced from the pixels, with the scale taken from the written dimensions. Scanned PDF to DXF.
- Photos of drawings: squared up first, then traced. Photos of physical parts aren’t supported.
What stays with your CAD/CAM and nesting software?
Everything after the geometry. Nest Ready hands over the part; how it is cut is still your call.
| Task | Nest Ready | Your software and team |
|---|---|---|
| Find the part on the customer’s drawing | Nest Ready | Not done |
| Leave dimensions, notes and title block behind | Nest Ready | Not done |
| Flag anything uncertain | Nest Ready | Not done |
| Check every DXF against the drawing | You, in review | You |
| Lead-ins, kerf and toolpaths | Not done | Your CAD/CAM software |
| Cutting parameters and machine code | Not done | Your CAD/CAM software |
| Nesting parts on the sheet | Not done | Your nesting software |
See an example drawing converted
Example drawings converted by Nest Ready: the drawing, the DXF it produced and the facts of the run.
FAQ
Questions from laser cutting shops
What to know before you send in your first drawing.
Does Nest Ready produce nests or machine code?
No. It produces the part geometry as DXF. Nesting, toolpaths, cutting parameters and machine code stay in the CAD/CAM and nesting software you already use.
Will the DXF import cleanly into our CAD/CAM software?
It is a plain DXF R12 with LINE, ARC and CIRCLE entities only, contours that join exactly, and the profile and internal features on separate layers. Check every DXF against the drawing before cutting.
Can we send a whole RFQ at once?
Yes. Upload up to 50 files in one batch, up to 25 MB each. Each part on each page is extracted on its own.
What if the customer only sent a photo of the drawing?
Nest Ready works from photos of drawings: it squares the photo up and takes the scale from the dimensions written on it. A part from a photo counts as 5 parts. It works from drawings, not photos of physical parts.
Your next job starts here.
Bring the drawing. Leave with the part.
Try 25 parts free No card required.