Introducing the new Kineo 2D and 3D Nesting software components from Siemens
Siemens’ Kineo™ software components have consistently brought cutting-edge intelligence to motion planning, collision detection, and path optimization in complex 3D environments. Built for innovation-driven industries, Kineo has empowered manufacturers, robotics developers, and digital engineering teams to streamline processes, reduce risk, and accelerate time-to-market.
Today, Kineo’s portfolio is further enriched with two, brand new Software Development Kits (SDKs) – Kineo 2D Nesting and Kineo 3D Nesting.
These new, powerful software components enable highly advanced nesting capabilities in two and three dimensions, respectively, with a wide breadth of applications, from industrial material cutting to additive manufacturing, logistics and transportation.
Kineo 2D Nesting
Long before the digital era, dressmakers mastered the art of 2D nesting to optimize fabric use and reduce waste.
By skillfully nesting dress patterns, artisans would maximize fabric efficiency without compromising the authenticity of the craft.
In the context of today’s industrial 2D material cutting workflows, nesting refers to the process of efficiently arranging two-dimensional shapes on a flat sheet of a variety of raw materials such as metal, wood, plastic, fabric and more, to minimize waste and optimize material usage.
Nesting isn’t just a step in the process, but rather a strategic tool that unlocks greater efficiency, precision, and sustainability. The resulting nesting layout serves as the basis for toolpath generation in Computer Numerical Control (CNC) cutting processes such as laser, plasma, waterjet or knife cutting.
Using a next generation algorithm, Kineo 2D Nesting is a software component designed to generate optimized 2D nesting layouts, dramatically reducing preparation time, waste and costs by allowing to manage materials more effectively. The component can be incorporated into any existing in-house software with minimal integration effort.
Kineo 2D Nesting can efficiently arrange large quantities of complex shapes, using multiple sheet sizes and odd-shaped sheets to reduce tailings. Tailings often result in wasted material, as the odd leftover sheets take up valuable shop space and might go unused. After the ideal nest is found, results can be quickly sent to a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system for CNC programming.
The key features of Kineo 2D Nesting include:
- Comprehensive, automated control of part quantities, sheet sizes, interlock avoidance, allowed part rotations
- Fine-tuned user control
- Parts can be manually oriented by the user to a preferred nested position
- Continuous nesting improvement – the algorithm’s runtime can be pre-defined or stopped once the right nest has been identified
- Possible to investigate any shapes that may present issues during production
- Optimization
- Minimal tool path
- Density
Kineo 3D Nesting
Unlike traditional manufacturing, where parts are produced individually or in molds, additive manufacturing allows multiple parts to be fabricated in a single build cycle.
Maximizing build efficiency, reducing material and time waste and increasing the throughput of each print job are therefore critical factors, especially in powder-bed fusion and binder jetting processes.
Kineo 3D Nesting is a software component designed to arrange three-dimensional parts within a defined volume, so that available space is utilized as efficiently as possible, subject to geometric, physical, and process-related constraints.
Built upon Kineo’s industry-tested collision detection expertise, powered by a next-generation algorithm, Kineo 3D Nesting enables critical volume optimization capabilities not only for additive manufacturing applications, but in fields such as logistics, packaging and automated assembly planning, where space within a container, build chamber, mold, or shipping unit is finite and costly. The component is plug-and-play and can be integrated in any existing in-house software.
The key features of Kineo 3D Nesting include:
- Comprehensive, automated control of part quantities, containers sizes, allowed part rotations, interlock avoidance
- Fine-tuned user control
- Parts can be manually oriented by the user to a preferred nested position
- Continuous nesting improvement – the algorithm’s runtime can be pre-defined or stopped once the right nest has been identified
- On-the-floor nesting
- Possible to investigate any shapes that may present issues during production
- Optimization
- 3D target density
- Slice distribution
To know more about Kineo 2D Nesting and request a free trial, visit Kineo 2D Nesting | Siemens Software.
To know more about Kineo 3D Nesting and request a free trial, visit Kineo 3D Nesting | Siemens Software.
