# Nesting from AutoCAD

URL: https://cutlistevo.com/articles/autocad-nesting

> Nest AutoCAD drawings without buying a nesting add-on. Export DXF, import into Cutlist Evolution, and cut the true contour on a CNC.

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AutoCAD draws the part. It does not nest it. Working out how to fit fifty of
those parts onto a sheet with the least waste is a different problem, and the
add-ons that do it inside AutoCAD are priced for a machine shop rather than a
one-person workshop.

There is a shorter route, and you already have the file for it. Export the parts
as **DXF**, open them in **Cutlist Evolution**, and the nest is worked out from
the real contours. Nothing is redrawn.

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## Step 1: Draw each part as a closed outline

The one thing that matters is that each part is a **closed** shape. An outline
with a gap in it is not a boundary, so it cannot be nested against or cut from.

Work in a single layer per part where you can, keep construction lines and
dimension text off the geometry you are exporting, and join segments into
polylines rather than leaving them as separate lines. Holes you want cut are
closed shapes too, drawn inside the outline.

## Step 2: Export as DXF, one part per file

AutoCAD writes DXF natively. Export each part, or select the parts you want and
export the selection.

DXF is a drawing rather than a model, so it carries the contour and nothing
else. That is exactly what a nest needs. It is also why the format is worth
preferring here over a 3D export: there is no solid to interpret, no thickness
to infer, and no unit ambiguity in the geometry itself.

## Step 3: Import and choose the cutting mode

Drop the DXF files into Cutlist Evolution. This is the step where the decision
gets made, and it is worth understanding because it changes what you get.

**In nesting mode** the true contour is kept, and each part is packed as its own
shape. A curved bracket nests as a curved bracket, and parts tuck inside each
other's concavities. This is what you want for laser, plasma, waterjet or a
router.

**In rectangular cutting** a shaped part cannot be cut as drawn, so each contour
becomes its bounding box. That is the right answer for a panel saw, which can
only make edge-to-edge cuts, and the wrong one for a CNC, because you pay for
the corners you did not need.

Set the mode before you import and you get the layout you were expecting.

## Step 4: Set kerf, spacing and stock

A nest is only correct if it knows the width of the cut. Set the kerf to your
tool's actual cut width, add part-to-part spacing if your process needs it, and
enter the plate or sheet sizes you can buy.

Then let it run. The optimizer packs the parts, and the result is a layout you
can read, a material figure you can quote from, and a DXF you can send to the
machine.

## What this replaces

The comparison worth making is not against drawing the nest by hand, which
nobody does past about ten parts. It is against buying a nesting module for
AutoCAD.

A nesting add-on is an annual licence tied to a seat. This route is a browser
tab, and the DXF you already produce is the interface between them. If nesting
is a thing you do occasionally rather than all day, that is a large difference in
cost for the same output.

There is a real tradeoff: an add-on lives inside AutoCAD and this does not. You
export, nest, and bring the result back. On a job of any size that is a few
seconds against the hours a bad nest costs in material.

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Before you commit a real job to it, run one part through. Draw a shape you know
the area of, export it, import it, and check the dimensions come back as you
expect. Once you trust that, the rest is the same three clicks each time.

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## Related Articles

- [Every import route: DXF, SVG, CAD and spreadsheets](/import-formats)
- [Plate nesting for steel and aluminium](/plate-nesting-calculator)
- [Turn a 3D model into a cut list](/3d-model-cut-list)
- [The stock cutting problem](/articles/stock-cutting-problem)