I have a rectangular sheet of plastic.
I have 22 rectangular shapes of various dimensions which I need to cut out of it.
Is there software which can calculate for me the optimal placements of these cuts such that a minimum of the material is wasted? Are there CAD packages which will do this?
Or, is there a known algorithm for deriving the optimal cut locations? I can code it up and share my implementation.
Right now I'm cutting the shapes from paper, and I'll try to move them around on the sheet and find a good placement. But this is a problem which I'll probably run into again many times, and I would like to find or make a better solution.
-- TTK