A real nest
Cross-cut main and jib for 2 boats on 29.03 m of 1370 mm sailcloth, 93% used
A mainsail with roach and a jib for a small keelboat, cut into panels across the sail with 20 mm seam overlap, five corner patches and four batten pockets per boat: 40 pieces. Panels keep the cloth's fill along their length, turned half round at most and never flipped; the triangular patches fill the ends of the tapered panels. Its first marker was 30.55 m; the search kept going and cut it to 29.03 m.
| Part | Per set | Rotation | Tilt | Mirror |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| main-panel-1 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| main-panel-2 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| jib-panel-1 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| main-panel-3 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| jib-panel-2 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| main-panel-4 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| jib-panel-3 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| main-panel-5 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| jib-panel-4 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| main-panel-6 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| jib-panel-5 | 1 | 180° steps | – | no |
| corner-patch | 5 | 90° steps | – | no |
| batten-pocket | 4 | 180° steps | – | no |
- parts placed
- 40
- material used
- 93.2%
- marker length
- 29.03 m
- gap between parts
- 2 mm
- search time
- 5 min
Want to see how Lescut nests your own parts? Start a free trial or send us your parts.
The problem
Long tapered panels on expensive cloth
Every panel is different
A cross-cut sail's panels taper from the foot to the head, and the curved leech makes each one a different shape. Laid out one sail at a time, the short panels leave long offcuts at the end of every run.
The threadline is the design
Panels are cut so the cloth's strongest threads follow the load paths of the sail. A panel turned to fill a gap is a panel that stretches the wrong way.
Laminates cost by the metre
Racing laminates and membrane cloth cost many times what Dacron does, so the offcut between panels is real money on every sail.
Applications
Where sail panel nesting software is used
Cruising sails
Cross-cut Dacron mains, genoas and jibs: tapered panels along the fill, nested several sails at a time.
Racing sails
Radial and tri-radial panels in laminate cloth, where each panel's threadline is fixed and the cloth is dear.
Dinghy and one-design sails
Repeat production of the same sail: one library, the number of sails as sets, nested per cloth batch.
Kites and kitesurfing kites
Canopy panels and leading-edge parts in ripstop, many small pieces that fill the gaps between large ones.
Paragliders and parachutes
Dozens of cells and ribs per wing in coated ripstop, nested with their direction rules on the roll.
Boat covers and canvas work
Covers, biminis and sprayhoods from the same loft, nested on canvas rolls.
Settings to start from
A starting point for sails
Rules per part come from text in your file (NAME, QTY, GRADE, ROT, TILT, FLIP) or the parts table; the rest is saved once in a nesting profile that starts every job.
| For | Setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-cut and radial panels | ROT:180, FLIP:N | the threadline as designed; a half turn keeps it |
| Patches and reinforcements | ROT:90 | small parts that fill the ends of tapered panels |
| Seam and broadseam lines | STITCH or MARK layer | drawn by the plotter, never cut |
| Gap | 1–2 mm | panels already carry their seam overlap |
| Time | 5–10 minutes for a loft's batch | many different panels leave many choices; longer searches find the short marker |
Preparing your files
From your CAD to Lescut
Sail design programs export developed panels as DXF. Lescut reads each closed panel outline as a part and carries every other line.
- Export the panels with their seam allowance and overlap included in the outline.
- Put seam lines and broadseam curves on STITCH or MARK, and panel numbers on TEXT.
- Name panels by sail and number (main-3, jib-2) so the job report reads as the loft works.
Good to know
What Lescut does not do
- Lescut does not design sails or develop panels: that stays in your sail design software.
- One cloth width per job; a sail cut from two cloths is two jobs.
- It does not cut string-laid or moulded membranes, which are made whole, not from panels.
Savings
What better nesting is worth in sails
The same parts need the same area of material however they are nested, so a better yield means buying less of it. Sailcloth ranges from Dacron to laminates at many times its price, and every sail leaves offcut at the panel ends. The starting figures are an example for a loft cutting cruising and racing sails; enter your own.
75% today → 79.0% with nesting. This is your assumption; the trial measures it on your own files.
Engine time: how the plan is chosen
Count every lay cut from a marker; most markers need 2 to 5 minutes, and longer jobs keep shortening them. Your monthly volume divided by this gives the jobs a month, and the calculator picks the cheapest plan whose engine minutes and job length cover them.
The yield gain is your assumption; the trial measures it on your own files. More on how the fabric savings calculator works.
Pricing
Sail panel nesting software plans, free for 7 days
Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial with engine minutes to nest your own parts against the rolls you would have used. Add a card when you sign up; you are charged only if you keep the plan.
Textile Starter
€29 per month
120 engine minutes, 8 vCPU per job, jobs up to 2 min
- Roll nesting: fixed width, shortest marker
- Rotation, grain and flip rules per part
- Part-in-part nesting
- DXF / SVG in, DXF / SVG out, layers kept
- Stripe and plaid matching, folded and tubular markers
- 1 user
€0 for 7 days. Card required. Cancel any time.
Extra engine minutes are €0.50 each, with up to 30% off. All fabric nesting plans.
Sail panel nesting software: questions
Which sail design software works with Lescut?
Any that exports developed panels as DXF, which sail design programs do for plotters and cutters. Lescut nests the panels and returns a DXF or SVG with the same layers for your cutter.
Can I nest several sails together?
Yes. Put the panels of several sails in one part library, or set the number of sails as sets, and they nest together on the cloth. Short panels of one sail fill the ends of another's.
Does Lescut keep the threadline?
Yes. Each panel keeps its grain line along the roll, or the angle it is drawn at when it has none, and turns half round at most when you give it ROT:180, or not at all with ROT:0.
Can I nest kites and paragliders?
Yes. Kite and canopy panels in ripstop nest on the roll the same way, with their direction rules; one job can hold all the panels of several canopies.