Free tool · laser cut nesting · your files stay in your browser
Nest my parts
Upload one or more SVG files, say how many of each you need, and pick your sheet or your laser’s bed. The parts are packed tight, with the wood you want left between them, and you get a ready-to-cut SVG for every sheet. Too many parts for one bed? They are spread over as many bed loads as needed.
A free browser-based SVG nesting tool for laser-cut parts. No account. Parts are only moved and turned; their lines are not reshaped.
outline colourinside colourengravingsticks out of its partedge margin
- Each sheet is its own SVG in millimetres. Import it at 100 % and check a known dimension before cutting.
- Holes, score lines and engraving travel with their part. Set power, speed and the type of job for each colour in your laser software.
- The SVG lists engraving and inner cuts before part outlines. Check the layer and cut order in your laser software before cutting.
Sheets ready to cut?Buy the cat a coffee, from $2. You get our “With Love” heart SVG as a thank-you, and a shop coupon from $5.
How it works
- Add your SVG files and set how many copies of each you need. Every closed outline in your cut colour is a part; holes, score lines and engraving inside it move with it.
- Pick a material sheet, or your laser’s working area to split a big job into bed loads. Set the space between parts and the edge margin.
- Download one SVG per sheet (or all of them in a ZIP) and cut them one after another.
Tips
- Plywood: choose Keep wood grain, so long thin parts stay along the grain and do not snap.
- Space between parts: 1–3 mm of wood is plenty for most plywood and acrylic. Less saves material but thin strips can burn or warp.
- Open outlines are not parts. If a part is missing, run the file through Check My File: it closes small gaps.
- Layered designs: each colour can be its own layer. Set the colours of parts you cut from this sheet to Cut, the others to Keep, and nest each material separately.
FAQ
What is nesting?
Nesting packs the parts of one or more designs tightly on a sheet of material, so you use less wood or acrylic and fewer sheets. Nest My Parts places every part, turns it when that helps, keeps the space you set between parts and from the edge, and opens a new sheet when one is full.
Does it change my cut lines?
Parts are only moved and turned: lines keep their shape (straight lines, curves and arcs are written as the same kinds of commands; arcs are written in pieces of at most a quarter turn, so the rounding of the numbers moves them by less than 0.001 mm), stroke colour and fill, so the colours in your laser software stay as they were. Holes, score lines and engraving inside a part move together with it. A filled shape with holes stays one path, with its holes, so its fill is kept; inner and outer cuts of that one path are then ordered by your laser software. Check the layers and the cut order before cutting: your laser software decides what each colour does.
How is the space between parts measured?
As the wood that stays between two cuts. The laser burns away the kerf, so cut lines are placed the space plus the kerf apart. Without a kerf entered, a typical 0.15 mm is used. The edge margin is measured the same way from the sheet edge.
My design is bigger than my laser bed. Can it split it?
If the parts are separate pieces (a box, a set of ornaments), pick your machine as the sheet: the parts are spread over as many bed loads as needed, one SVG each. A single part bigger than the bed has to be cut into pieces with joints; that comes in the next version.
Which lines are parts?
Every closed outline in a colour set to Outline. An outline inside the hole of another part (a part drawn in a window) is its own part. Shapes in colours set to Inside (engraving, score lines) move with the part they are drawn in. Shapes outside every part are listed, and the sheets are offered only after you choose to leave them out. A shape lying on two parts is not allowed: split it in your editor.
A line sticks out of its part. What happens?
It stays with its part and is marked in amber. The part then takes as much room as the line needs, so the line never runs onto a neighbour or off the sheet. If the line should not stick out, fix it in your editor.
Can parts go inside the holes of other parts?
Not yet: parts are placed around each other, not into big holes such as the window of a frame. Fill such a hole by hand in your laser software if you need it.
Why are some files refused?
Live text, pictures, linked copies (use) and clipped objects cannot be moved exactly from a browser. Convert text to paths, release clips and masks, and add pictures in your laser software after nesting.
Can it nest DXF files?
Not yet. Open the DXF in LightBurn or Inkscape, save it as SVG and add the SVG.
Do I need special software?
No. Nest My Parts is free and runs in your browser. The sheets are plain SVG files for any laser software that opens SVG, such as LightBurn, xTool Creative Space, Glowforge or Inkscape.
Are my files uploaded?
No. Files are read and nested on this page, in your browser; their content is never sent to a server. To save you adding them again, they are kept in this browser on this device until you remove them (Remove all files), unless they are too big to keep. The page counts visits and downloads (sheet size, number of parts) for statistics, without file names or content.
Can I nest files I bought?
Yes, for your own cutting: nesting does not change the design’s licence. Do not share or resell the nested files unless the designer’s licence allows it.
Inches or millimetres?
Switch mm / in next to Sheet. Fields and sizes follow it; the sheet files are always written in millimetres with their real size. Import at 100 % and check a known dimension in your laser software before cutting.
How exact is the layout?
Before you can download, every layout is checked again on the outlines: all parts placed, none overlapping, the space between parts and the edge margin kept. For the check, curves are split into straight pieces until every piece stays within 0.01 mm of the curve, and parts get 0.02 mm of extra room for that and for rounding. A file whose curves cannot be split that finely is refused as too complex. To search fast, outlines are also simplified by up to 0.6 mm, always outwards, so a layout can be a little looser than possible. Part area and cut path length are estimates. Always check the sheet in your laser software before cutting.