Blog · Autodesk Inventor · 23 October 2026

Sheet-metal nesting in Inventor: 300 parts, 14 sheets to 11

A 15-part cabinet, a 10-station order of 300 parts in three materials, nested with SphereHarness from 14 sheets to 11 with a DXF per layout.

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SphereHarness took a 15-part sheet-metal cabinet in Autodesk Inventor, multiplied it for a 10-station order of 300 parts in three materials, and nested each material on its own stock sheets. The whole order fits on 11 sheets instead of 14, with a cut file for every distinct sheet layout.

What was asked

The cabinet is the SH-CS500 conveyor control station, a steel cabinet with a door, a stainless rain hood and an aluminium floor kit. It has 15 different sheet-metal parts and 30 pieces per station. The customer orders 10 stations, so the shop has to cut 300 parts.

Inventor model of the SH-CS500 control station cabinet with door and rain hood — The 15-part cabinet assembly modelled in Inventor.

What the agent did

Every part is a real sheet-metal part with bends, holes and slots. For each one Inventor developed the flat pattern and SphereHarness exported it as a DXF file with the bend lines on a layer of their own. The batch splits into 130 steel parts, 80 stainless parts and 90 aluminium parts.

Bill of materials for the SH-CS500: 15 sheet-metal parts, 30 pieces per station, order of 10 stations, 300 parts — The order: 15 parts, 30 pieces per station, 10 stations, 300 parts.

Each material is nested on its own stock sheet: S235JR steel 2 mm on 2500 x 1250 mm sheets, stainless 1.4301 1.5 mm and aluminium EN AW-5754 3 mm on 2000 x 1000 mm sheets. The rules are a 10 mm edge margin and 5 mm between parts. Two passes ran: a simple row layout without rotation, then an optimised true-shape nest where parts may rotate.

Nest settings card: S235JR 2 mm 130 parts, stainless 1.4301 1.5 mm 80 parts, aluminium EN AW-5754 3 mm 90 parts — Each material is nested on its own stock sheet with a 10 mm margin and 5 mm spacing.

What we measured

Steel, 130 parts: 8 sheets at 77.3 % with the simple row layout, 7 sheets at 88.3 % with the optimised nest.
Stainless, 80 parts: 3 sheets down to 2, at 74.4 %.
Aluminium, 90 parts: 3 sheets down to 2, at 65.8 %.
Whole order: 14 sheets down to 11, with all 300 parts placed.

Steel result card: pass A 8 sheets at 77.3 percent, pass B 7 sheets at 88.3 percent — Steel: 8 sheets with the simple row layout, 7 with the optimised nest.

The first steel layout is cut twice. It holds four back panels standing on end side by side, the mounting plates, the roof, a side panel and four tray brackets, 13 parts in all, and 92.9 % of the sheet is used.

Nested sheet layout of S235JR steel parts with 13 parts at 92.9 percent utilisation — One sheet layout, cut twice, at 92.9 % utilisation.

Every distinct sheet layout is written as its own cut file with outlines, holes and bend lines that are marked but not cut, plus a report for each material. SphereHarness then signed into Autodesk Vault by itself and checked the assembly in as version 1 with all 15 parts.

Result card: steel 8 to 7 sheets, stainless 3 to 2, aluminium 3 to 2, whole order 14 to 11 sheets — The whole order measured in Inventor: 14 sheets down to 11.

Where the rules come from

The nesting settings come from a shipped knowledge article that explains each nesting algorithm and holds the shop settings. SphereHarness reads it before every nest. A shop that nests differently can add its own algorithm or rules to the knowledge, and the agent follows them from the next request.

Try it yourself

SphereHarness for Autodesk Inventor is described at /inventor, and /help/getting-started walks through the first install and the first request.