Solution stories
Sheet Metal Fabrication: From DXF to Nested Sheets and Route Cards
Faster quotes, cross-job nesting and station tracking for a fabrication job shop.
Trikaan Research & Engineering4 min read
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Job shops live or die on quote speed and machine utilisation.
- Drawing reading produced parts, weights and operations quickly.
- Nesting across jobs improved sheet use.
- Job tracking showed where work waited.
A job-shop fabricator doing laser cutting, bending and welding for industrial customers struggled with slow quotes and unclear job status.
Here is how the products fit.
The situation
Quotes were built from drawings by senior staff. Jobs moved between machines with paper travellers. Customers called often to ask about status.
What they had already tried
- Standard rate cards.
- A whiteboard for job status.
- Overtime on the laser.
How we diagnosed the real problem
We timed quotes and followed jobs through the shop.
- Quoting depended on two senior people.
- The laser was busy but jobs waited at bending.
- Sheets were nested job by job.
The solution, product by product
No single product solved this. The value came from the products working on the same data.
| Product | Role in this solution |
|---|---|
| ASTR Drawing | Read DXF/PDF drawings, compute parts, weights and operations, generate quotes |
| ASTR Production | Cross-job nesting, route cards, job tracking by station |
| Machine Digital Twin | Laser and press brake utilisation and OEE |
| Anvaya | Sheet inventory, offcuts, purchase, dispatch and invoicing |
| ASTR Reporting | Quote win rate, job lead time, machine utilisation |
How it rolled out
- Quote automation for common part types.
- Station scanning.
- Cross-job nesting.
- Customer status updates.
What changed
Quotes stopped depending on two people, and bottlenecks moved into view.
- Quote time reduced to [X] hours.
- Sheet utilisation improved by [X]%.
- Job lead time reduced by [X]%.
What we would tell a similar company
- Automate take-off for common parts.
- Nest across jobs.
- Scan jobs at each station.
- Measure every machine, not just the expensive one.
Frequently asked questions
Does it read DXF files?
Yes, along with PDFs. [Confirm supported formats.]
Can offcuts be reused?
Offcuts are tracked as stock for later nesting.
Is this a real customer?
It is an illustrative composite.
- #sheet metal fabrication software case study
- #laser cutting nesting
- #fabrication job tracking
- #DXF to BOM
- #job shop manufacturing software
Trikaan Research & Engineering
Trikaan
Written by the researchers and engineers who build Anvaya, ASTR and Seed Track, with input from Trikaan's delivery and engineering teams.
