Grids & nesting
A job's layout decides where its designs land on the work area. You can place them by hand in the job editor, or let GRBL Server do it: a grid places them in neat rows, and nesting packs irregular parts as tightly as it can to save material.
| If you're making… | Use… |
|---|---|
| Many copies of the same tag, coaster or keychain. | Grid — predictable rows, easy to load and unload. |
| A mix of differently shaped parts cut from sheet stock. | Nesting — packs the parts to waste as little as possible. |
| Parts that go into a jig at fixed positions. | Grid with margins and spacing matched to the jig. |
Grid layout
A grid places the job's designs in rows, left to right, starting from the work area's corner. Files with Copies set in the Library are repeated — that's how 24 keychains come from one SVG. The grid fills a row, then starts the next, until every design is placed.
You'll find the grid settings in three places, with the same meaning everywhere:
- Job editor — the Grid button under the canvas. Changes apply as you type, and the canvas shows the result straight away; each change is one Ctrl+Z. A value that doesn't make sense is highlighted and never applied. Click outside the panel or press Esc to close it.
- Job templates — Arrange the designs in a grid in the template's layout, so every job made from it is gridded the same way.
- Workflows — Layout → Grid on a Job node (or From the template).
Fill the bed
In the job editor, Fill in the Grid panel repeats the designs across the whole work area with the grid's margins and spacing — a full sheet of tags from one design, without working out the copies. Each row is as tall as its tallest design, nothing is placed past the far edge of the work area, and a fill stops at 2,000 designs. Fill again, or change the grid, and the copies are rebuilt from the originals rather than piled on top.
Grid settings reference
| Job editor / workflow | Job template | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Margin X | Start at X | 0 mm | Distance from the left edge of the work area to the first column. |
| Margin Y | Start at Y | 0 mm | Distance from the work area's edge to the first row. |
| Spacing X | Gap across | 0 mm | Gap between designs in a row. |
| Spacing Y | Gap between rows | 0 mm | Gap between rows. |
| Center X / Center horizontally | Center the rows across the work area | Off | Fits as many designs in each row as the width allows with Spacing X, and centres the rows on the work area. Margin X is worked out for you. |
Nesting
Nesting packs DXF and SVG parts onto a sheet, rotating them as needed to waste as little material as possible. It's available in the job editor (the Nesting button under the canvas) and on workflow Job nodes (Layout → Nesting — pack the parts).
- Add the parts to the job — with Copies for repeats.
- Click Nesting and choose the sheet:
- Auto length (fixed width) — the sheet is as wide as you say and as long as it needs to be. Good for roll or strip stock.
- Fixed size — a sheet of exactly the width and height you enter.
- Auto width & height — the smallest area that fits everything.
- Set the Spacing between parts and the Sheet margin, and how many Rotations each part may try: none, 2 (0/180°), 4 (90° steps, the default) or 8 (45° steps).
- Click Run nesting. The preview shows the layout with the sheets used, the utilization and how many parts were placed. Click OK to apply it to the canvas.
Search effort
Nesting searches for a good layout by trying many candidates. Population (default 12) is how many layouts it tries at once and Generations (default 10) how many rounds it improves them for; raising either finds tighter layouts but takes longer. In the job editor you can also set the placement step, mutation rate, a time limit, and a seed to get the same layout again.
Layouts in workflows
On a workflow Job node, Layout is one of:
- From the template — whatever the job template says (the default when a template is picked).
- None — all at the origin.
- Grid — the settings above.
- Nesting — pack the parts — sheet mode, sheet width and height, spacing, margin, population and generations.
Any of these settings can be asked for when the workflow runs — the sheet width of today's stock, for example. Combine a layout with clipping to tile across the bed and keep only what falls on the material you have.