Estimating Sheet Metal Part Costs with the Sheet Size Option

To estimate material usage and costs of nested sheet metal parts, you can:
  • Choose the sheet size
  • Estimate the number of parts that can fit on a sheet
  • Determine the number of sheets necessary

To estimate sheet metal part costs with the Sheet Size option:

  1. In a sheet metal part, click Costing (Tools toolbar) or Tools > SOLIDWORKS Applications > Costing.
  2. In the Costing Task Pane, under Blank Size, select Sheet Size.
    The most appropriate sheet size is automatically selected.
  3. In the Task Pane, under Blank Size, define value for Bounding Box Offset.
  4. Under Bounding Box Nesting, do the following:
    1. Select one of the following:
      • Under Single Direction, select one of the following:
        • Long edge horizontal
        • Long edge vertical
      • Optimised
    2. Enter X and Y values for Sheet Border Offset.
    The image created in the Bounding Box Nest Preview is part of the final report.
  5. Click Begin Cost Estimation.
    Under Bounding Box Nesting, the Percent Scrap, Total Number of parts per sheet, and Total number of sheets for Lot Size are displayed.
  6. Click Show Bounding Box Nesting.
    The Bounding Box Nesting Preview displays the alignment drawing of the nested elements.

    The red dotted line is the sheet metal offset and the black dotted line is the bounding box offset.
    The image created in the Bounding Box Nest Preview is part of the final report.
  7. Click First Page or Last Page.
    The First Page and Last Page buttons are visible only when you have multiple sheets in the lot and you want to change between the sheets.
  8. Click Close.