A heuristic approach for nesting of 2D shapes

Sometime the combined used of the raster and HAPE approach don't give any improvement. Effectively in the first nesting step the HAPE method can create empty areas when larger items block the successive ones, while in the final step the HAPE method can be useful to get better free length in the last sheet. Thus it can be useful to start with the raster approach and to follow with the HAPE. The figure at the left shows the result of a nesting with BL & Raster for the first sheet and BL & HAPE for the second and the third sheets. In this way the total time for the nesting procedure is about 2 minutes and the total waste material decrease to 23 %, with a free length of 4459 mm.