How does the Nest Parts tool work in VCarve Pro & Aspire and what are the key settings?

Nest Parts Tool

The Nest Parts tool automatically arranges vector shapes within your material area to minimize waste and increase toolpath efficiency. By default the area it fills is the current Job Size, but you can also use vectors on a layer as the nesting area. It is essential for projects with many cut parts: sign letters, cabinet parts, production runs.

Accessing the Tool

Drawing tab, Nest Parts icon (or Edit > Nest Selected Vectors).

Basic Workflow

1. Draw or import all the parts you want to nest.
2. Select the vectors to nest.
3. Open Nest Parts and set the options below.
4. Apply to preview the layout, then accept it.
5. Apply toolpaths to each sheet.

Treat nesting as one of the last design steps. If the result is poor, Undo (Ctrl+Z), change the settings and try again rather than nesting the result a second time.

What It Can Nest

• Closed vectors
• Open vectors contained within closed ones
• Text
• Components

Once selected, the objects form parts, with each part's outer boundary highlighted by a thicker line. Parts are formed by overlap: if a selected object contains another or overlaps it, they are treated as the same part.

Tool and Clearance Settings

Tool Dia. (D)

Enter the diameter of the tool you will use to profile (cut out) the vectors. This is the minimum distance left between shapes once nested.

Clearance (C)

Added to the Tool Dia. to give the final minimum spacing. Example: Tool Dia. 0.25 inch plus Clearance 0.05 inch gives a minimum gap of 0.30 inch between parts. Do not enter the full gap in Clearance, because the tool diameter is added on top. Use clearance for breathing room for clamping or material flex.

Border Gap

Applied to the edge of the area being nested into. It is added to the Clearance around the edge, so it sets the minimum distance from parts to the nesting boundary. Useful for leaving a holding frame around your sheet.

Part Nesting Options

Rotate Parts to find best fit

A checkbox. The software rotates parts in increments set by the Rotation step angle to try for a tighter fit. Smaller step angles can find better layouts for irregular shapes but take longer to calculate; larger steps (90 or 45 degrees) are faster.

Mirror parts to find best fit

Lets the nesting flip (mirror) parts to fit more efficiently. Only check this if the direction the parts are cut in is not important, and leave it off for pre-finished material where the face must stay up.

Allow parts inside other parts

Lets the software nest into the internal areas of shapes that have gaps in the middle (the counters of letters like O, A, B, D, P). The internal areas that will be used are highlighted. Do NOT use this if those interior areas are being pocketed rather than cut through, because pocketed areas are not waste material.

Nest two-sided parts

Only available for double-sided projects. Nests on both sides at once: visible objects on the other side are included if they intersect the objects selected on the active side. Select on the side that contains the cut-out contours.

Remove original parts

When checked, the original parts are removed in the nesting instead of duplicated in the nest.

Filler Part

Select the vector you want as the filler, tick the Filler box and click Apply. It is marked with a green asterisk. When the nesting preview is applied, any area not filled by other parts is filled with as many filler parts as fit. Good for using up simple scrap shapes.

Sheet Options

Nest From

Which corner nesting starts in (four options; bottom-left is most common).

Nest Direction

How the parts "pour" out of the starting corner: along X (filling in X, then advancing in Y) or along Y.

Number of Copies

To cut multiple copies of a part:

1. Select the part.
2. Enter the number in the Number of Copies box.
3. Click Apply. A green number appears on the vector showing how many copies will be nested.

Different parts can have different copy counts. Set it back to 1 and click Apply to stop an item being copied.

Nest Boundary: Using an Offcut or Odd-Shaped Area

Instead of nesting into the full job size, draw the usable outline of the offcut (and any holes or areas to exclude) and put those vectors on their own layer. In Nest Parts, under Nest boundary, choose that layer. Every vector on the boundary layer counts as part of the boundary, and the parts are placed inside those vectors.

Sheets

If the parts do not fit on one sheet, more sheets are created. Use Active Sheet to choose which sheet you are editing or applying toolpaths to. In 12.5, Nesting Sheets > Customize opens the Custom Sheet Selection form, where you define how parts are placed onto existing sheets and how new copies of existing sheets are created.

After nesting, if you load a toolpath template into a project with several sheets, the software offers to apply the template to all sheets. Preview each sheet and save toolpaths per sheet for machining.

Best Workflow for Complex Multi-Layer Art

1. Put the vectors for each part on separate layers.
2. Group the vectors for each part so multi-layer parts stay together.
3. Run Nest Parts on the groups.
4. After nesting, ungroup everything to restore the original layer structure.
5. Apply toolpaths layer by layer.

When Manual Nesting is Better

• A small number of parts you will cut repeatedly: invest time once and reuse the layout.
• When the result has obvious gaps a human would fill: adjust by hand.
• Simple rectangles or regular shapes, where Array Copy is more direct.

Common Mistakes

• Wrong tool diameter: parts end up too close together and the bit cuts into the adjacent piece.
• Putting the whole gap in Clearance and forgetting the tool diameter is added to it.
• Forgetting to switch Active Sheet before calculating toolpaths, so the toolpath goes on the wrong sheet.
• Not grouping multi-vector parts, so pieces of one part scatter separately.
• Re-nesting an already nested layout. Undo and change the settings instead.