How to use Deepnest with your Laser

June 16, 2023

Deepnest is an open-source nesting application, that allows you to maximize your material. I like to use Deepnest when I am needing to cut several small items on larger sheets of material and want to maximize my materials.

Here is how to use Deepnest with your Laser.

I have already prepared my design in adobe illustrator that I am wanting to fit onto the piece of wood. I am using a new piece of wood but will also show you how to fit them into a scrap piece of wood. Save your adobe illustrator file as an SVG.

Download and Open Deepnest.io

For this example, I left all the settings alone on Deepnest. You can control the distance between pieces and whether it will delete overlapping lines. Next, you will import your SVG file into Deepnest. You can delete anything that is in your file that you do not want to nest by simply clicking on it and pressing delete or just clicking on the item and hitting the trash icon in the bottom left. After importing you need to select what you want Deepnest to nest everything into. If you did not make a shape in your svg that you wanted to fit everything into then you are able to add a rectangle at the bottom. Click the plus and add the width and height of the material you will be using. You will see a column heading that says Sheet and you can click the box under it. In this example my material is 12” x 32”, I like to make my rectangle slightly smaller than my project board so entered 11” X 31”. Next, you can change the quantity of the item for this example I wanted to fit as many as possible on the board so made the quantity 50, which is more than I expected to fit. Then click Start Nest at the top. The program will continue to try and figure out better configurations until you click Stop Nest. I usually give it some time and then come back to it. On the left-hand side of the screen, it will tell you how many parts it has placed, and you can see the number of different placements it has tried.

Once you are happy click Stop Nest, click Export, and select SVG.

******IMPORTANT STEP******

TPYE in the “.svg” at the end of the file name to be able to open it in Illustrator. Otherwise, it will read it as a text file and not render your shapes.

Open your new file in adobe illustrator. Your file will appear filled in, highlighting everything select the swap fill/stroke arrow in the color picker. You can also just upload it straight to Lightburn, but I like to do everything in Illustrator first.

Save your file after you swap the fill/stroke and upload it to Lightburn that comes with the Aeon Lasers. Check settings and it is ready to laser.

By using Deepnest first you are not only saving materials, but you are also reducing the amount of travel your laser must move.

I am cutting this on my Aeon Mira 9.

If you would like more information on the Mira 9, visit the Aeon website.

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