Most fast nesting algorithms treat parts a bit like their bounding rectangles. That is fine for plates and panels, but an L-bracket, a C-channel, or a jigsaw-cut profile leaves a lot of air inside the box. The new NFP preset nests true shapes: it computes No-Fit Polygons (Minkowski sums of the actual outlines), so one part can sit inside the concavity of another.
What changed in practice
- Concave parts interlock. On our concave benchmark battery, NFP beats the raster presets on utilization.
- The deep preset runs the NFP nester as a keep-best candidate on concave jobs, so deep is never worse than NFP.
- Multiple placement objectives (bottom-left, compactness, corner-pull) are tried and the best layout wins.
If your parts are mostly rectangular, the standard presets remain the fastest path. The moment your DXF has hooks, slots, and cutouts, try NFP.