True-shape nesting software features, explained in full

True-shape nesting packs each part by its real outline and holes. Bounding-box nesting first wraps every part in a rectangle, so the material around curves, notches and angled edges is lost before packing starts. GoNesting uses true-shape nesting on every job. Parts that are already rectangles gain little from it.

Yes. A closed inner contour, such as a round hole, a slot or a window, is treated as usable sheet area, so smaller parts can be placed inside it with the same gap you set everywhere else. It happens automatically. In the exported DXF, the part inside is cut before the part around it.

4 angles is the default and the best all-round choice. Use 8 angles for triangles and wedge shapes, Auto-align for long parts that were not drawn straight, and No rotation for grain or a printed side. AI Smart Rotation runs several of the other modes and keeps the tightest layout. 360 angles, included with Pro, tries every whole degree and is the slowest.

Choose No rotation. Every part then stays exactly as it is drawn in your DXF, so draw grain-sensitive parts facing the direction you need before you upload. Rotation is set for the whole job, not per part.

The gap between parts can be 0 to 50 mm, with 1 mm as the default, and the margin from the sheet edge 0 to 100 mm. There is no kerf setting: GoNesting places your geometry without offsetting it, so keep kerf compensation in your CAM software and choose a gap that suits your cut width and material.

Co-edge cutting lets neighbouring parts share one cut line instead of each getting its own, which saves cutting time and material. While it is on, the gap is held at 0 mm and shared edges are merged in the DXF export. It is in beta, it is a Pro feature, and it suits straight-edged parts on a laser or plasma cutter.

Yes. Pick from nine standard sheet sizes or enter a custom length and width, set how many sheets of each size the job can use, and mix sizes in one job. Parts are spread across the sheets, each sheet shows its part count and material used, and if some parts do not fit you are told how many, so you can add a sheet and nest again.

LINE, LWPOLYLINE, POLYLINE, ARC, CIRCLE, ELLIPSE, SPLINE, SOLID, 3DFACE and INSERT block references with their scale and rotation. Text, dimensions, hatches, leaders and points are ignored, so they never become parts. Blocks placed inside other blocks and arrayed inserts are expanded too. Files must be ASCII DXF, up to 20 MB each.

You download a ZIP with one R12 ASCII DXF file per sheet, in millimetres, with the sheet outline on a SHEET layer and every part and hole on a CUT layer, plus a README with the settings used. Each sheet is written in cutting order: holes before their outline, nested parts before the part around them, and parts along a short route across the sheet to reduce rapid travel.

Sheets used, parts nested against parts requested, material used and offcut, the total sheet area in mm², and the gap, margin, rotation and co-edge settings. It then shows a drawing of every sheet with its part count and material used, and a part list with each part's size, quantity nested and the angles it was turned to.

Click any placed part on the nesting screen. Part check compares it with the shape in your file, covering the number of corners, outline length, area, the longest edge shift and size, and draws your original outline over the placed one. Nesting only moves and turns parts; it never scales or simplifies them.

Yes. Every run is listed with its settings and results, including runs that were never saved. You can search by date or setting, filter by status and time period, sort five ways, download a saved run's PDF report again, and export the filtered runs as a CSV file with 15 columns.