The Production tab of the Takeoff nests the parts of each material on a roll of that material, the way you would print them. Once a group is nested, the quote charges for the roll it uses rather than for traced area plus waste, and adds the cut time.
One card per material#
Parts are grouped by their route and material: every roll material with measured parts gets a roll card, titled "Roll · Cast film". Parts on the Sheets or Offset route get cards of their own on the same tab, priced on sheets rather than on a roll. A roll card shows a preview of the nest, the roll used ("Uses 35.4 ft of 54″ roll · 78 % · 2 panels"), the cut time and price, and the print time. On the card you can change:
- Roll width (in): empty uses the material's width. A group with no width can't be nested.
- Cutter: the machine that cuts this group (the team's default cutter when you don't pick one).
- Printer and Print mode, for printed materials.
Press View nest to see the whole roll with every piece, its cut line and any bed boundaries.
Nesting automatically#
With Auto-price on (the default), groups whose parts or settings changed are nested (or, for sheet and offset groups, priced) again after each save. Turn it off to nest by hand with Nest now or Re-nest. While a group's nest is out of date, the quote prices that group by area plus waste until it's nested again.
Optimize (10 s) searches for 10 seconds for a shorter nest. If it doesn't find one, the current nest is kept, so optimizing never makes a group longer.
Nest settings#
Open the sliders button on a card for these:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Spacing (in) | 0.25 | The minimum gap between pieces. |
| Bleed (in) | 0 | Extra printed area around each part, kept clear of its neighbours. |
| Rotation | Any angle | Any angle lets each piece turn, 90° steps only quarter turns, No rotation keeps parts as drawn. See Rotations and grain. |
| Panel overlap (in) | 1 | How much neighbouring panels of a split part overlap. |
| Panels | Fewest seams | How oversize parts are split (below). |
| Time budget (s) | 2 | How long each automatic nest searches, 1 to 10 seconds. |
| Bed boundaries | Cutter's setting | Only shown when the cutter works in beds. See Rolls, beds and lanes. |
The material's side margins and lead-in and lead-out apply too: pieces stay inside the printable width, and the roll used includes both leads.
Oversize parts become panels#
A part wider than the printable width in every allowed rotation is split into panels that run down the roll, each overlapping the next by the panel overlap. This is how vehicle wraps and large banners are produced.
- Fewest seams picks the orientation that needs the fewest panels.
- Least material nests every orientation and keeps the shortest roll.
The card counts the panels, and the nest view and cut files show each one.
How the nest sets the price#
A nested group uses roll width × length used, where the length runs from the start of the roll through the lead-in, the pieces and the lead-out. That area is priced at the material's sell price and cost per ft² or m², with no waste percentage: the offcuts are already in the length. Each part's line in the quote gets a share of the group in proportion to its own area.
The percentage on the card is the yield: the parts' area divided by the area used.
When a nest can't be made#
The card says why: no roll width, no measured parts, or a message from the nest itself, such as a part that is longer than the cutter's bed when parts must stay within beds. Fix the setting and nest again. Until then the group is priced by area.
A roll group of more than 2,000 pieces (all quantities added up) isn't nested: it stays priced by area, and the card says "Too many pieces to nest on a roll: priced by area. Use Sheets or Offset for large runs."