Nest gears with free rotation
This drawing requests 40 gears in two sizes on a 300 × 200 mm bed. Free rotation allows any angle, so teeth can mesh, making it a useful example of a job where orientations are not limited to quarter turns.
Free and MIT-licensed; your files never leave your computer.
What this job asks for
There are two part types, with 20 copies of each. The request uses a 5 mm sheet margin, 1 mm part spacing and 1 mm edge spacing, with a 20-second search budget. Free rotation is the permitted orientation rule for both types.
| Sheet (mm) | 300 × 200 |
|---|---|
| Margin | 5 mm |
| Part spacing | 1 mm |
| Edge spacing | 1 mm |
| Allowed rotations | Free rotation |
| Part types and copies | 2 types; 40 copies: gear-1 × 20, gear-2 × 20 |
| Time budget | 20 seconds |
Measured layout
Measured on 2026-10-20 with a local build of main at c9b0176, in a headless Chromium browser on a desktop PC, with the example’s own settings: the 20-second search placed 40 of 40 gears on one sheet, 20 of them inside the holes of the larger gears, with 32.6% utilisation and material 0.976 sheets, leaving a 300 × 11 mm strip. The independent check: valid. Results vary a little between runs and computers, because the search stops at its time limit.
main nested it on 2026-10-20 (20-second search): 40/40 gears, 20 inside holes, check valid.Try it yourself
Open the app, click “Interlocking gears” under “Or try an example:”; it loads the drawing and starts nesting straight away. Or download the gear drawing and drop it in, applying the settings above.
Watch the live best layout to see the orientations the search chooses. The independent validator checks overlap, spacing, containment, rotations and quantities before a layout is returned. Export each sheet as SVG or DXF from the original curves, then review it in your cutting workflow.
Use your own file
- Choose free rotation only when it is permitted for your job. Compare this example with the sewing pattern's restricted 0°/180° list.
- Keep the quantities explicit for each size; this request uses 20 of each rather than a single total count.
- Review part spacing as well as the bed margin. Free rotation does not remove the request's spacing constraints.
The example demonstrates packing gear outlines. Nestbolt gives no machine-safety or fit certification, so the resulting arrangement does not certify the gears' mechanical fit.
Source and licence
The source drawing is Steren's Gear from Openclipart, dedicated to the public domain under CC0. See the drawing licence file for the attribution. Nestbolt itself is MIT licensed.