Tangent for Nesting and Cutter Control

Tangent is Aeronaut's nesting and cutter control software.

Developed expressly for working for the special requirements of technical textiles, Tangent is simple enough for anyone to use but has features enough for the expert user on critical work. Unlike most garment work, technical textile cutting can require multiple tools, individual speeds and paths for internal and external cuts, creases, punch marks and annotation. Tangent has all this and a lot more.

Perhaps the standout feature is Tangent's integration with SiliconEye, Aeronaut's whole table machine vision and digitising system. Used for interactive nesting, pattern tracing, nesting into enclosed and irregular shapes such as scraps and leather hides, SiliconEye is an incredibly powerful tool and an essential add-on to any automated cutter. 

The features below are just a small glimpse of what Tangent has to offer. Some features work best with some sort of machine vision such as SiliconEye or Cyclops. To see what those systems off, please see the respective menus on this site.

Having more than one nesting window means you can organise cut queues and fabrics the way you need. Sort patterns into colours, fabric styles, library queues. Duplicate and copy from one queue to another.

You can do what-if nesting to see how different fabric widths affect the waste. You can auto nest one queue in the background while cutting another.

Tangent uses templates to help you speed up working with different materials. Cut speeds, fabric width, tool pressures, overcut and undercut values can be saved to a template so new patterns can be imported with the correct cut settings.

The critical settings for almost  all functions can be saved in the template which in turn is saved with nested files so that when the time comes to cut that queue again, the tool settings are all there.

Even if you only have one active cutting tool, it's essential to be able to control the cut and marking speeds and cut order for internal and external paths to reliably get the best results.

The order that tool paths are run, their visibility, whether they're active or not, the overcut and undercut settings for each tool can be easily understood and controlled in Tangent's plot window.

Tangent's on screen joystick gives the operator complete cutter control without stepping away from the computer. Move to any position on the table, home, reset, lower and raise any tool… it's all under your control.

Combined with Cyclops machine vision, you get an accurate live view of exactly what is under the cutting head and can make sure that patterns are aligned to fit the fabric making many tasks easy  like cutting patterns from scrap or cutting digitally printed materials.

This is what being in control of nesting  looks like! SiliconEye loads an image of the whole cutting table into the background of a queue. This means you can confidently nest into fabric, scraps or hides anywhere on the cutting table. Patterns can be traced and set as background panels so you can automatically nest inside them. You can zoom into the queue and identify faults and even vacuum holes without leaving the computer.  Machine vision completely changes the picture when nesting so once you have it, you won't know how you ever worked without it.

Tangent's basic nesting is better than most but for real fabric and time savings, nothing beats Autonest+. 10 times faster than other software we have used, it can return a valid nest in under 10 seconds on queues with hundreds of patterns. Give it a minute to try alternatives, and you can expect an even greater waste reduction. Here, a queue over 1000 metres long is nested to 310 metres in one minute.

Unlike many nesting programs, Autonest+ does not change the data structure of patterns so the integrity of splines and curves is preserved.

Tangent's Fault Line feature lets you identify faults with fabric such as marks, pulled threads and holes and interactively reposition patterns or auto nest around them.

With Rectangles and Grids, you can rapidly create simple shapes complete with seam lines and other markings and place these patterns in any queue. Patterns can be named and arrayed.

Circles and Arcs is an excellent tool for creating circular and wedge shaped reinforcements and patterns. Cones too. Strike marks and seams can be added to the pattern.

Depending on the queue's rotation rules, patterns can be flipped and rotated by 90º, 180º or freely to improve the nest. 

Swatch creation couldn't be easier with Tangent's swatch feature. Swatches can be arrayed with common line removal, named and punch holes added. It's a great way to use up waste space in a queue.

Patterns can be quickly and simply duplicated or arrayed in a queue. Here, a grouped pair of patterns has been arrayed vertically and horizontally in a queue.

Patterns can be easily divided into panels suitable for nesting onto fabric using Tangent's Splitter function. Splitter will renumber panels, add seam lines and strike marks. 

Queues and templates can have rotation rules set to control whether patterns can be rotated or not and by what degree. This is essential for many jobs from composites to cardboard where the grain of the material affects the product.

Alignment grids can be created in the queue to allow patterns to be aligned with features on fabric or tiled material on the cutting table. Grids can be angled to align with fabric which isn't straight.