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Quick Nest

Nesting enables you to arrange objects to use less material. MillMage offers you a choice between True Nest (MillMage Pro only), Quick Nest, and SVGNest (external service).

	True Nest	Quick Nest	SVGNest (External Tool)
MillMage release	MillMage 0.9 Pro	All versions	All versions
Nests based on true shape of objects	✅	❌	✅
Fully integrated in MillMage	✅	✅	❌
Works locally, internet not required	✅	✅	❌
Read more	True Nest	Quick Nest	SVGNest

Using Quick Nest¶

You can find both Quick Nest and True Nest in the Docking Toolbar or by going to Arrange → Nesting.

Accessing the Docking Toolbar

By default the Docking Toolbar is in the top right corner of the screen. Depending on your screen size, you may see a short version like in the screenshots below, with an arrow to the right to expand the toolbar. For the rest of this page, we'll use the full version of the toolbar in screenshots.

To see all the options, you can expand the toolbar with the arrows to the right, drag it to the left to give it more space, drag it to another toolbar with more space, or drag it out of the toolbar area entirely. All four are shown below.

More About the Docking Toolbar :lucide-arrow-right:

Getting Started¶

Create a rectangle to use as a container for the shapes you want to nest.
Select the container and all of the objects you want to nest.
Open the Nesting Dialog by clicking the Nesting button or going to Arrange → Nesting.
Select Quick Nest and adjust your Nesting options.
Click OK to nest your shapes.

Nesting Dialog¶

Mode¶

Choose between Quick Nest and True Nest.

Options¶

These options are shared between Quick Nest and True Nest.

Padding¶

Sets the minimum distance between the parts to nest. The units are either millimeters or inches, depending on your Design Units. Increase this number to leave more space between parts. If you're cutting out parts, make sure you leave enough padding for your cutting tool to fit between objects.

Edge Buffer¶

Sets the minimum distance between the parts to nest and the edge of the container you're nesting in. The units are either millimeters or inches, depending on your Design Units.

Lock Inner Objects¶

If Lock Inner Objects is enabled, inner objects move with the objects surrounding them, whether or not they're grouped. In the demonstration at the top of the page, Lock Inner Objects keeps the inner shapes of the letters and the dragon's eye in place while nesting without having to group them.

Lock Objects for Rotation¶

Enable this to lock the rotation of objects being nested. Disable this to allow MillMage to rotate the objects as part of the nesting process. Quick Nest rotates in 90 degrees increments if this is enabled. True Nest offers more rotation options in a secondary dialog.

Allowing rotation can improve material usage, but may not work well for all designs, particularly when cutting parts from material with a visible grain.

Multipage¶

With Multipage enabled, if you try to nest more objects than fit in your target container, LightBurn will create additional Pages with a copy of the original container to continue the nesting process. With Multipage disabled, MillMage will nest as many objects as it can and leave the rest unnested.

Quick Nest Limitations¶

Quick Nest uses bounding box nesting. It identifies the bounding box of each object — the smallest possible rectangle that can fully contain it — and then packs those bounding boxes as tightly as possible into the container you choose.

The great thing about Quick Nest is that it's fast, convenient, and powerful enough for most use cases. However, because it nests according to the bounding box and not the actual shape, complex shapes can't nest into each other as densely as they can with True Nest.

If you want denser packing, please take a look at True Nest, which is available in MillMage Pro 0.9 and newer. If you're on an older version of MillMage or are using MillMage Core, you can also check out SVGNest (External Tool), which partially automates the process of exporting your shapes to SVGnest.com :lucide-external-link: and re-importing those shapes back into MillMage.

Nesting Errors¶

Target Rectangle Must be Axis Aligned¶

To use Quick Nest, the rectangle you're nesting into must have sides that are straight up and down and sideways.

If you get this error, make sure your bounding box is a rectangle and that it's not at an angle.

Select a Target Rectangle to Nest Into¶

If you get this error message, MillMage doesn't see a selected rectangle to use as a container.

Fix the error by selecting a rectangle to arrange your parts inside of in addition to the parts to be nested. In the example below, the blue rectangle wasn't selected, so MillMage has nothing to nest the parts into.

Why is the I in LightBurn not selected?

In the screenshot above, the letter I in LightBurn isn't selected, because selecting it and not the larger blue box results in a different error. The reason for this is a bit technical, but if you're interested, keep reading.

The letters used in the demo file here are actually paths, not text objects, and the letter I would be a valid rectangle to nest into if it were big enough. This isn't a problem when the larger blue rectangle is selected, but when I don't select that rectangle, Quick Nest tries to nest into the I. This actually could have resulted in one of two different error messages:

Optimization Yielded Zero Bounding Box: If none of the shapes selected are small enough to nest inside the I, Quick Nest will be unable to create a suitable arrangement and you will receive this error.
Some Objects Remain Un-Nested: If there are shapes small enough to be nested into the I, Quick Nest will nest the objects it can, and you will receive this error.

Some Objects Remain Un-Nested¶

If you get this error message, one or more of the parts you're trying to nest are to big to nest in your selected rectangle with the current settings.

When you press OK, MillMage will still nest as many of the parts as possible, leaving out the ones that can't be nested. If your target rectangle is big enough to nest your largest part, you will not see this error message.

Optimization Yielded Zero Bounding Box¶

If you get this error message, it means Quick Nest is unable to create a suitable arrangement at all.

In certain circumstances, if you don't select a rectangle to nest into you can get this error message instead of Select a Target Rectangle to Nest Into. In the screenshot below, the blue rectangle isn't selected, but the red I, which is actually a rectangle, is selected. Quick Nest tries to nest into the I and fails, resulting in the Zero Bounding Box error. More about how this happens.

For more help using MillMage, please visit our forum to talk with MillMage staff and users, or email support.