Rokas Slaboševičius
Founder of Lapas. Building browser-based nesting software for laser cutting, plasma, and sheet metal shops. Writes about nesting algorithms, material optimization, and cutting workflows.
Articles
Why Automatic Nesting Still Needs a Human Touch (And How to Make That Fast)
August 27, 2026Automatic nesting doesn't remove manual adjustment. Nothing does, ours included. What changes is how much you still have to do and how long it takes.
Fiber Laser Nozzle Selection: Diameter, Standoff, and Wear Tolerance
June 15, 2026How to choose nozzle diameter by thickness and assist gas, where to set standoff, and when to replace the nozzle before edge quality drops out of spec.
K-Factor and Bend Allowance: Why Your Flat Patterns Come Back the Wrong Size
June 11, 2026Why the 0.44 K-factor default in CAD silently breaks flat patterns on aluminum and stainless, with bend allowance math, error data, and a validation workflow.
Pierce Time in Laser Cutting: Why Piercing Eats 30-50% of Your Cycle Time
June 8, 2026Pierce time scales non-linearly with material thickness and can dominate laser cutting cycle time. Calculated pierce-to-cut ratios from 1-25 mm and how to cut piercing.
How to Price a Laser Cutting Job: Shop Rate, Material, and Three Worked Examples
June 1, 2026How to price a laser cutting job in 2026: shop rate build-up, material markup formulas, pierce time costs, and three worked job examples from $300 to $4,100.
Plasma Cutting Small Holes: The 1.5× Rule, Hole Taper, and When to Drill Instead
May 28, 2026Why plasma struggles with small holes, the 1.5× thickness rule by plasma class, hole taper data, and a cost comparison for cutting vs drilling secondary.
Laser Cut Edge Quality: How to Read ISO 9013 and Diagnose Common Defects
May 26, 2026Diagnose dross, striations, burrs, and perpendicularity errors on laser cut edges using the ISO 9013 framework. Defect chart, root causes, and operator fixes.
Laser Cutting Assist Gas: How to Choose Between Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Compressed Air
May 21, 2026Nitrogen, oxygen, and air produce different edge quality, speed, and monthly running cost. Choose the right assist gas for your material and shop volume.
Cut Sequence in Laser Cutting: Why the Order You Cut Parts Matters
May 18, 2026Bad cut sequence causes sheet warping, part tipping, and head collisions in laser cutting. Learn how cut order affects distortion, safety, and cycle time.
Micro-Joints in Laser Cutting: Sizing Rules and the Nesting Decisions That Replace Them
May 14, 2026Micro-joint sizing rules for laser cutting by material type and thickness, with the cut sequence and nesting orientation strategies that reduce how many you need.
Lead-In and Lead-Out Settings for CNC Cutting: Stop Marking Your Parts
May 11, 2026Lead-in and lead-out settings for laser, plasma, and oxyfuel cutting: what each type does, minimum lengths by process and thickness, and four failure modes to fix.
Part Spacing and Rotation in Nesting: Setting the Gap and the Angle Without Guessing
May 7, 2026The two settings that decide how tight a nest gets: the gap between parts, and how freely they rotate. Recommended values by process, thickness and aspect ratio.
Sheet Metal Remnant Management: Stop Letting Offcuts Become Scrap
May 4, 2026How to track, store, and reuse sheet metal remnants in your cutting shop. Cost data by shop size and a practical workflow for integrating remnants into nesting jobs.
What Material Utilization Rate Should Your Cutting Shop Be Hitting?
April 30, 2026Material utilization benchmarks for cutting shops: what rate is achievable, how to measure it yourself, and a diagnostic checklist when your yield falls short.
Common Line Cutting: What It Is, What It Saves, and When to Use It
April 27, 2026Common line cutting shares one cut edge between two parts, cutting 85% fewer pierces and saving material and consumables on rectangular nesting jobs.
DXF File Problems in Nesting Software: How to Fix Open Contours, Scaling, and Duplicate Lines
April 22, 2026A practical troubleshooting guide for the most common DXF import failures in nesting software: open contours, wrong units, duplicate geometry, block references, and spline errors.
How to Calculate the Real Cost of Material Waste in Your Cutting Shop
April 22, 2026A practical formula for calculating how much material waste costs your shop per month - and how improving material utilization by 15–18% translates to real savings.
How to Nest DXF Files for CNC Cutting - Step-by-Step Tutorial
April 21, 2026A complete walkthrough for nesting DXF files in browser-based nesting software: preparing your DXF, setting sheet parameters, choosing engines, reviewing results, and exporting for your CNC machine.
Best Nesting Software in 2026: Free and Paid Tools Compared
April 9, 2026Nesting software compared: Deepnest, SVGNest, ProNest LT, MyNesting, SigmaNEST and Lapas on price, platform and free access. Prices checked Sept 2026.
How Does Automatic Nesting Software Work?
March 15, 2026A clear explanation of how nesting software works: the algorithms, the geometry, the file formats, and why it produces better layouts than manual nesting. Covers NFP, metaheuristics, and more.
Free Nesting Software in 2026 - 5 Options Compared (Including Truly Free)
February 20, 2026Deepnest, SVGNest, CutWize, Nest&Cut and the Lapas free plan compared. Which are genuinely free, which are trials, and what each one actually limits.