Most manual nesting jobs sailmaker can do within average 15min with efficiency between 80-95% depends on sail type and cut (and different materials (colors) used and roll availability). So my quest was to find solution which can do better efficiency as first condition and better needed time as second condition (but not so important as auto-nesting time it is computer time not yours).
NestFab
There are to versions of NestFab.
First one is Standard which is very slow and not efficient. No meter how long I let it to run it could not reach better then 80% efficiency. Small gaps between panels make it really slow to get any solution. So Standard engine did not satisfy my first condition. This version cost $2200 per copy.
Second one is Advance version. This version is very quick and efficient (within 100sec 88%efficiency, within 700sec more then 90%). So this is very good candidate for sailmakers. Regarding price it is add-on to standard version. This add-on costs $1250 per year or $5000 for perpetual use. You will have to calculate your savings based on number and kind of jobs you mostly have to see is it worth investment.
Also good thing is that SailPack (you have to buy it as sailpack add-on with little bit different prices) and SmarAzure (I don't know their purchase policy) have implemented interface to Nestfab which will save you time with file export/import.
NestFab have its online variant http://mynesting.com/ but it uses Standard version. Price is $7-$4 depending on quantities which is quite higher than similar service NestLib online.
RhinoNest
This is add-on to Rhino 3D. It is reasonably fast but not efficient (similar to NestFab standard). It did not satisfied my first condition. Its price is quite low 500EUR. But you have to have Rhino which is 1000EUR.
To my knowledge there is no interface between sail design software so you will have to deal with export/import.
NestLib Online
NestLib Online as its name says is online nesting solution. You have to upload your files to server and start nesting job. It is free to try but optimized option with better efficiency is not available in free version. With optimized option activated it is quite slow (more then 60min) and you still do not get satisfying efficiency (little better then NestFab Standard version).
Price is 2$ per downloaded job. So you can run many jobs but you pay just ones you download files afterwords.
Again to my knowledge you have to deal with export/import by yourself.
There are probably many other nesting software which I have not tested so if someone did please write comment here about your experience.
