For the 3D Printing routing, you can specify the following process setup options:

By default, this is specified by the machine property Layer Thickness. Users can override the default on a part-by-part basis with this setup option. See Printing Formulas.

By default, the space allowance around nested parts is specified by the cost model variable nestingAllowance (5mm in starting point VPEs). Users can override the default nesting allowance with this setup option See Cycle Time Formulas for Printing.

With true-part-shape nesting, the cost engine uses an internal algorithm that considers multiple candidate nesting arrangements using a variety of part orientations. By default, the various orientations differ by an angle specified by the cost model variable defaultUtilizationStepAngle (90° in starting point VPEs).

With this setup option, users can specify a step angle for the cost engine to use in order to generate additional candidate orientations—smaller nesting angles result in the consideration of a greater number of candidate nesting arrangements (which increases costing time, but may result in more efficient nesting).

Note that when the user specifies a step angle, the default candidate orientations are still included for consideration.

See Number of Parts for Printing.

By default, this is the maximum number of parts that can fit on the build platform, with a border around each part whose width is specified by the cost model variable nestingAllowance (5mm in starting point VPEs) or the setup option Nesting Allowance. With the setup option Number of Parts, users can override the default on a part-by-part basis, and specify a number of parts. See Number of Parts for Printing.

Note that when you override the default with this setup option, the Material Nesting diagram can no longer be displayed.

By default, the cost model assumes that during each swipe, the print head travels the length of the array of nested parts (that is, the length of the smallest build-plate-aligned rectangle that encloses all the parts). With this setup option, users can override the default and specify that the print head travels the entire length of the machine bed.

The print head travel type affects the evaluation of the Cycle Time Formulas for Printing.

This is the number of times the print head travels the nesting length or machine bed length before moving in the width direction. By default, the number is specified by the cost model variable defaultNumPrintHeadPasses (2 in starting point VPEs). Users can override the default with this setup option. See Cycle Time Formulas for Printing.

By default, this is specified by the site variable basePlateOffset (10mm in starting point VPEs). Users can override the default with this setup option. See Machine Feasibility for Printing and Additional Direct Costs—Support Structures for Printing.

By default, the time per part to orient the part or parts on the build platform is specified by the cost model variable printingPreprocessingTime (1200 seconds in starting point VPEs). Users can override the default on a part-by-part basis with this setup option. See Cycle Time Formulas for Printing.

This option controls the time to load the part model into the machine software and splice it into layers. By default, the time is specified by the cost model variable loadFileAndSpliceTime (0.25 hours in starting point VPEs). Users can override the default with this option. See the formula for Amortized Batch Setup in Setup Formula for Printing.