Repositions and rotates all images in the Job according to set criteria such as easy cutting, save media, etc. TrueShapeNesting always uses the proper, inner shape of an image, ignoring transparent areas surrounding the actual image contents form to nest the images in the most space efficient way possible and avoid white areas in between.
To apply TrueShapeNesting, select multiple image files in your Job and go to Right Click > TrueShapeNesting. This will call up the TrueShapeNesting dialog and allow you to configure your nesting parameters.
These settings relate to the nesting itself and how images may be placed and arranged in the job.
Angles: Sets at what angles images may be rotated in order to find the most efficient placement.
Distance: Sets the minimum distance between image contours.
Allow objects to be placed on top of white: Enable to consider white as empty/transparent areas that can overlap with image parts.
Fill holes in objects: Allows objects to be placed in empty / empty spaces inside image boundaries where they fit. E.g. if your image is a circle with a contour line and white fill, other images may be placed inside the white fill if this is enabled.
Fill options allow you to automatically add more instances of nested images if they fit. The selected space will be filled by added copies of the images that are being nested where possible.
Fill Space: If enabled automatically adds additional copies of the nested images where possible to fill the selected space. There are 3 space variants available for automatic fill:
Selection Rectangle: Uses the rectangular boundaries of the nested images as the fill area.
Full Media Width: Fills up the entire remaining media width with additional copies.
Fill Shape: Specify an image file to be used as a shape template. The shape of the image file will be filled with additional copies of the nested images.
Settings related to cutting the nested images.
Add Bleed / Size: Adds a margin around the image that mirrors the adjacent part of the image. This helps to avoid white gapes due to cut inaccuracies. Size defines the thickness of the margin.
Add Cut Lines: Adds a cut line around the image contour.
Distance: Sets the distance
between the image and the contour.
Color Name: Sets a color
name for the cut path. This enables the cut line to be identified by spot color
name in the cut dialog.
Line Width: Sets the thickness of the cut line.
After applying TrueShapeNesting, the preview of the image will turn blank and display a progress bar. This is the RIP calculating the nesting according to your paramters. This process can take a while depending on how complex the image outlines are, the number of images, their size etc. Please wait while this operation completes, even if the progress bar does not move for a awhile.
TrueShapeNesting will create a new image in the Job that contains the combined images. Unfortunately the individual images themselves cannot be edited anymore at this point, but the nesting can always be undone using Ctrl+Z or Edit > Undo in the Menu Bar.