A real nest
4 bookcases from 3 sheets of plywood, 89% of the plywood used
An order of 8 bookcases and 3 sheets of 3050 × 1525 mm in stock, nested by the Lescut engine with every panel’s grain along its length. The sheets hold 4 complete bookcases, and the leftover space takes parts of the next ones: 130 parts in all. The shelf stops sit inside the doors’ handle slots.
Sheet 190% used
Sheet 289% used
Sheet 389% used
Drawings in, cutting files out
Sheet nesting straight from your CAD to your machine
No redrawing and no rectangles around your parts: Lescut nests the outlines you drew and returns each sheet with every line of the original parts.
DXF and SVG in
From AutoCAD, Fusion 360, SolidWorks, Rhino, Illustrator or your cabinet software. Arcs and splines stay curves in your files.
True shape nesting
Curved and angled parts interlock instead of being boxed, and small parts drop into the gaps and inside cut-outs.
Grain and face rules
Fix a part to its grain line or drawn direction, allow 180° or 90° turns or free rotation, and keep the good face up.
Your machine’s gap
Set the minimum distance between parts to match your bit, blade or kerf.
Drilling and engraving travel along
Drill holes, engraving, scoring and text on their own layers move with their part and are never mistaken for cut-outs.
Kits and complete sets
Cut whole cabinets, signs or kits: when the sheets run short, complete sets come first, never half a kit.
One DXF and SVG per sheet
Your original layers and curves, the sheet outline on its own layer, and a report of which part is cut from which sheet.
Layers your machine expects
A cutter profile renames and recolours layers for each tool on your machine.
Your real stock
Nest on the sheets on your rack, at the lowest cost
Your rack rarely holds one panel size. Tell Lescut what each size costs and how many you have, and it chooses which sheets the order is cut from.
Several sizes in one job
Put 2440 × 1220 next to 3000 × 1500 in the same job. Parts go on the sheets that suit the order, and a kit can span sizes.
Lowest material cost
Give each size its price and make cost the goal. When a small sheet holds what a half-empty large one would, Lescut can switch to it.
Counts that match today’s rack
Sizes and prices stay in your nesting profile. Enter the counts with each job; a size at 0 stays out of it.
Savings calculator
What is one point of sheet yield worth to you?
The same parts need the same area of material however they are nested, so a better yield means buying fewer sheets. Enter your own volume and prices to see what that saves each month, next to the price of the plan that runs it.
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
A day's order of sheets nests well in a job of 1 to 5 minutes; longer jobs can save a further sheet. 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 sheet savings calculator works.
Pricing
Sheet nesting plans, free for 7 days
Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial with 30 engine minutes. Add a card when you sign up; you are charged only if you keep the plan after the trial.
Sheet Starter
€29 per month
120 engine minutes, 8 vCPU per job, jobs up to 2 min
- Sheet nesting: fewest sheets or lowest material cost
- Several sheet sizes in one job
- Rotation, grain and flip rules per part
- Part-in-part nesting
- DXF / SVG in, DXF / SVG out, layers kept
- Complete sets for kits
- 1 user
€0 for 7 days. Card required. Cancel any time.
Sheet Enterprise
from €190 per month
900 engine minutes, up to 16 vCPU per job, jobs up to 30 min
- Everything in Sheet Pro
- 5× the engine minutes and jobs up to 30 min
- 10 jobs at a time, each on its own machine with up to 16 vCPU
- Priority queue
- Unlimited team members
- SSO (planned)
€0 for 7 days. Card required. Cancel any time.
Extra engine minutes are €0.50 each, with up to 30% off. More jobs at a time? Contact us. Cutting from the roll instead? See fabric nesting. Coming from free tools? Compare Lescut with Deepnest.
Sheet nesting by industry
- Cabinets and furnitureCabinet and furniture parts on the fewest boards
- Sign makingLetters, logos and panels on fewer sheets
- Laser cuttingLaser cutting files nested on the fewest sheets
- Gaskets and sealsGaskets cut from inside gaskets, on fewer sheets
- Sheet metalFlat patterns nested on the fewest plates
- Foam inserts and packagingCase inserts and foam packaging on fewer sheets
- Boat buildingPlywood boat kits on the fewest sheets
Questions about sheet nesting
What is sheet nesting?
Sheet nesting is laying out the parts of an order on stock sheets so the order needs as few sheets as possible. Lescut does true shape nesting: it nests the real outlines of your parts, curves, cut-outs and all, and drops small parts into the gaps and inside the cut-outs of larger ones.
Which materials can I nest?
Anything cut from flat stock sheets: plywood, MDF and particle board, acrylic and polycarbonate, aluminium composite panels, foam board and cardboard, rubber and gasket sheet, glass, and sheet metal. Enter your sheet sizes and how many sheets you have; Lescut nests the order on as few of them as it can, or at the lowest material cost.
Which files can I upload?
DXF or SVG from AutoCAD, Fusion 360, SolidWorks, Rhino, Illustrator, Inkscape or your cabinet software. Each closed outline becomes a part. Drill holes, engraving and text on their own layers travel with their part, and an import profile leaves out frames, dimensions and notes. NAME:, QTY:, ROT: and FLIP: text inside a part sets its name, quantity, grain and flip rules. Using another format? Send us a sample file and we can add it.
Is Lescut sheet metal nesting software?
It nests flat parts on metal sheets as well as on wood or plastic, and returns DXF and SVG with your original layers and curves. It does not write toolpaths: lead-ins, common-line cutting and cut order stay with your CAM or cutter software. Set the gap between parts to your kerf plus whatever your process needs.
Can I keep the grain direction on wood panels?
Yes. Each part can be fixed to its grain line, or its drawn direction when it has none, turned 180°, held to 90° steps or rotate freely, and kept face up so veneer, laminate or a printed side never comes out reversed. A part may also turn a few degrees off its grain when you allow it.
Can I nest kits or complete sets?
Yes. An order is your part list times the number of sets, a set being one cabinet, one sign or one kit. When the sheets cannot hold the whole order, Lescut places as many complete sets as fit first, or only complete sets, or as many parts as fit: your choice per job.
Can I nest on several sheet sizes or on offcuts?
Several sizes, yes: enter each size with its count, and its price if the goal is the lowest material cost. Irregular offcuts not yet; rectangular ones can be entered as a size.
Is there free online nesting software?
Yes. SVGnest runs free in the browser and Deepnest is a free desktop app, and both suit simple jobs. Lescut is paid, with a free trial: jobs run on cloud machines for the time you set, with grain and flip rules per part, complete kits, several sheet sizes and your layers kept in the files.
How long does a nest take?
You set the time, up to 2 minutes a job on Sheet Starter and 30 on Sheet Enterprise. Lescut shows a first nest in seconds, then keeps looking for one on fewer sheets until the time is up. You can stop the job at any point and keep the best nest so far.
Which cutting machines can use the files?
Any machine whose software imports DXF or SVG: CNC routers, laser cutters, waterjet and plasma tables, oscillating knife cutters. You get one DXF and one SVG per sheet, with the sheet outline on its own layer, and a cutter profile can rename and recolour layers for your tools. If your machine needs another format, send us a file it accepts and we can add it.