AutoNester-T – For automatic marker making

AutoNester-T is a software package for automatic marker making on fabrics, sheet metal, wood, or other materials. It is widely used in the garment and upholstery manufacturing industry. It is able to nest any set of pieces within a very short time in an optimal way, minimizing wasted material, while taking into account various types of constraints. The efficiency of the markers achieved by AutoNester-T is competitive to experienced human nesters.

The AutoNester-T software is organized as a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) to be used as a developer's tool kit. Developers of CAD-systems can integrate AutoNester-T into their software.

The following markers have been calculated by the AutoNester-T software package. All runtimes refer to a standard PC. The colors of the pieces mark different bundles.

AutoNester-T combines many of the latest optimization techniques in order to achieve the best results in a very short time. We use local search algorithms based on new variants of Simulated Annealing, multiply iterated greedy strategies, paired with efficient heuristics, pattern recognition techniques, and fast Minkowski sum calculators. In the local search algorithms, we use fully dynamic statistical cooling schedules and dynamic parameter choice.

For the calculation of optimality proofs and efficiency guarantees on markers we use a combination of branch-and-bound algorithms and linear programming.