SolidNest by SIGMANEST

SolidNest by SIGMANEST

The presentation of SolidNest went on as scheduled with Arie Brown arriving at our facility a few minutes before 9 AM. After we rounded up all the persons who needed to see the presentation and got the conferencing computer set up Arie got started with an overview of what we would be seeing.

Through the magic of the internet and conference calls Chuck Willis joined us and proceeded to show us all about SolidNest. Here is what I picked up on:

1. SolidNest is a Gold Partner with SolidWorks…what does that mean? This is taken from the SolidWorks Website:

Certified Gold Products – Over 50 fully-integrated add-on software solutions from SolidWorks and its Solution Partners provide single-window, fully associative integration. With these products, all software work together using the same design data and changes are updated automatic across all applications.

This all is true, the program runs inside of SolidWorks and it is associative with the parts that are to be nested and processed. At Byers now, the CAD / Engineering department (that would be Tim and I) model the parts, produce fully dimensioned drawings and save a DXF file of the flat layout of the part to be punched or laser cut. Once that DXF file is saved the association with the model is broken. Any changes made to anything makes it necessary to save a new DXF file and re-generate the necessary Numeric Control (NC) code needed by the machine tools. One slip up and we’re making scrap.

SolidNest eliminates the DXF file. Instead of feeding DXF files to another program that generates the NC code you actually process the flat layout configuration within SolidWorks. The program code for individual parts is generated or the code for an entire nest is generated. If a part is changed the nest shows rebuild errors and you know that the code must be reposted. This associative processing is what convinced us to take the time to watch the presentation. Based solely on what I saw I would have to say that this works great.

2. If you have an existing store house of legacy 2D DXF files you would have to load them into SolidWorks and do a base-extrude to add some thickness to be able to process them with the SolidNest program. At first I thought that this would be a drawback but upon further thought I realized that SolidNest is smart enough to know that only like thicknesses and materials can be nested on the same sheet.

3. Yes, a seat of SolidWorks is required on each machine that needs to run SolidNest…duh! But they will sell you an OEM version at a reduced cost (no details on price). I knew this would be true but and it bothers me not from a price stand point but from the point that we are putting the ability of making changes to our models into the hands of people that usually don’t have anything to do with SolidWorks.

4. The laser programming portion of the software was pretty much typical with some additions that made our resident chief laser programmer very happy. One was the sheet remnant library which looked to be great. All the standard stuff like grain direction locking and such is in the program. We could also tell from talking with Chuck that he knew the ins and outs of laser processing which also impressed us. Chuck went through the whole process of building a nest and generating the code and the reports.

5. We were also shown the punch portion of SolidNest and taken through that process as well. I’m usually the one who does the punch programming using our current software so I watch this with maybe more interest than the laser programming. The functionality was not much different from what I’m using now but the familiar interface would make it so much easier to work with. The way it handles forming tools was an improvement over our current software. It is important to note that all the features in a model are available within SolidNest so the original sketches used to model the forming tool is used to locate and orient the punch hit.

Of the five guys attending from Byers the consensus was that SolidNest is a product worth looking at when and if we decide to make a change. Chuck and Arie did a great job on the presentation, thanks guys. I think we all see the advantage of a common interface in which to work. The only drawback and disappointment to us is the fact that SigmaNest has nothing for 5-Axis programming; in fact after more research on our part it seems there is not a Gold Partner solution for 5-Axis laser programming. If anyone knows different please leave a comment.

Look for the next post tomorrow night as I will be reporting from the SouthEast SolidWorks User Workshop. If you’re there be sure to look me up.