Speeding up nesting calculations
Algorithms for free-form nesting has a cost that depends on the complexity of the polygons that represent the parts to be placed. The more complex (the more points) these polygons are, the longer the computing time. One might accept a slight waste of material if that can speed up the nesting significantly. The obvious idea is to simplify the polygons and for that task, there is a considerable amount of algorithms available. However, there is a bit of a catch in our case: If the simplification process renders a new polygon that is slightly smaller than the original one, this could be a problem as the actual part will not fit in the space allocated for it by the nesting software. The simplification performed by the red arrow creates a new polygon that, while it has fewer points, it cannot contain the original polygon inside and so it would be a bad idea to use the new for nesting purposes. On the other hand, the green arrow simplification does create a new polygon with fewer p...