Velmar Cut 2D

Sheet cutting and true-shape nesting

Import parts and sheets from DXF, DWG or SVG. Plan straight cuts for the panel saw or nest true shapes for laser, plasma and waterjet, then export each sheet to DXF or DWG for your CAM software.

Download the free trial See pricing

7 days, every edition unlocked · Windows 10 and 11 · no account Linux and macOS: coming soon

Read the 2D guide

Guillotine plans or true-shape nesting

You choose the method per job, so one parts list can be planned for the saw or for the cutting table.

Guillotine for straight cuts

Rectangular blanks laid out for straight edge-to-edge cuts on panel saws and plate shears. Trims include a full saw kerf, and the clean rectangular strips left over can go back into stock as remnants.

True shape for real contours

Parts nest by their real outer contours, for laser, plasma and waterjet. Spacing is the kerf plus an extra gap, the four sheet margins are kept, and the yield is calculated without the holes.

A set gap, or shared cuts

Cutting settings decide how close the parts sit and how far they stay from the sheet's edges. Both sheets are real plans from Velmar Cut.

5 mm between parts, 10 mm from the edges

On this 8 mm laser sheet every part keeps 5 mm from its neighbours and 10 mm from the sheet's edges, so each part is cut on its own and the edge stays clear. The Spacing switch shows the gaps on the drawing. 160 parts of 15 kinds fit on one 2500 × 1250 sheet.

0 mm and shared cuts

On this 6 mm sheet the gap and the margins are 0 mm, so neighbouring parts share a straight edge and one cut separates them. Details shows the result: 71.055 m of cutting part by part, 41.555 m with shared edges cut once, 42 % less. 79 plates fit on one sheet at 88.4 % yield.

Parts over the holes in a sheet

A part with an opening can go over a hole in the sheet when the hole fits inside the opening with the cutting gap kept, so skeletons, remnants and pre-drilled sheets stay usable. In our tests this saved one sheet in each of two jobs.

A real case: on the skeleton left by an earlier plan, with six old holes, all 22 parts of the next job fit in tidy rows. The cover plates and frames lie over old holes, which sit inside their windows.

Hole over hole nesting

New in Velmar Cut 1.6

Remnants filled at Balanced

At the Balanced level, irregular remnants of one kind of part are now filled as fully as at Best. In our test of 150 strips over four irregular remnants, every run places 136 on them.

Tighter rectangles at Best

At Best, rectangular parts now pack tighter. In our tests a job of 210 pieces takes the material of 3.20 sheets, and a hole-over-hole job fits on 2 sheets.

Nesting settings you control

Rotation and grain

Parts turn in steps of 90°, 45°, 30° or 15°, within each part's rotation permission. Free rotation (any angle) applies per job or per part; parts with a grain direction never turn freely.

Parts in holes

Small parts can go inside the closed holes of larger ones, with the kerf and the gap kept. The option is off by default; one switch in the cutting settings turns it on.

Levels and a time limit

The Balanced, Best and Maximum levels plan the remnants first, sheet by sheet. Choose Fast (up to 1 min), Balanced (5 min, the default), Best (10 min), Maximum (30 min) or your own time.

Margins and edge cutting

Four edge margins on every stock row. Edge cutting, set per sheet, lets parts touch a clean sheet edge.

Thickness and material

Sheet thickness is set apart from size and kerf. Parts go only onto stock of the same material and thickness.

Irregular sheets and remnants

Sheets read from a drawing keep their outline and holes. True-shape nesting fills a cut-up remnant like a full sheet and keeps parts clear of its holes. With Allow hole over hole on, a part with an opening may sit over one.

DXF, DWG and SVG import without AutoCAD

Velmar Cut reads DXF and DWG files itself, with no AutoCAD or converter, and SVG files from Illustrator or Inkscape.

Several part or sheet files at once, each with a thumbnail, in one review
Closed polylines, circles, ellipses, splines, joined loops, transformed blocks
Repeated identical geometry becomes a quantity; text in a part can be its label
A suggested unit conversion, with units, scale and material set per row
Holes and curved slots stay with their part, and arcs stay arcs in the export
DWG from R14 to the AC1032 format family; unreadable geometry is listed

Shape editor for parts and sheets

Double-click a part or a sheet to open the shape editor. Add round, rectangular or slotted holes, round or chamfer one corner or all of them (now on holes as well as on the outline), and resize a rectangular outline or an imported hole that is exactly a circle, a rectangle or a slot. Values snap to a grid, every step can be undone, and the editor warns you when a hole comes too close to an edge or to another hole.

Draw new part… on Parts & demand opens the shape editor, where you start from scratch or from a template such as a rectangle, disc, ring, flange, L-bracket or plate with a hole grid, so some small workshops might not need a CAD program. The drawn part goes into the job and is nested with it, and Export ▾ saves its shape as DXF, DWG or SVG.

How to draw and edit parts, step by step

DXF and DWG export per sheet

Export the selected sheet or all sheets as DXF or DWG, one file per sheet, each with its own origin and units, closed outlines and inner contours. The sheet border is optional, and cut centre lines go on a separate layer. Velmar Cut writes the geometry only: kerf compensation, lead-ins and cut order are set in your CAM software. With shared cuts, the DXF export still contains both contours, one kerf apart; merge the shared cut in your CAM software.

2D cutting and nesting are part of Velmar Cut 2D and of the full Velmar Cut edition. See pricing

New to Velmar Cut? The 2D guide takes a sheet job from the first part to the sheet drawings, step by step.