Import and Export Cutting Lists Using CSV Files

Typing part information manually is known as an exhaustive and error prone activity. If you have your project data in an electronic file or document, you can bring all necessary  information to the nesting software in a single operation.

Comma Separated Value (CSV) files is very common and largely adopted file format, commonly used for data exchange between design and nesting software applications and system. In this post, we will use Microsoft Excel as an example and show how to use the import and export features with Otimize Nesting.

Importing From Excel to Otimize Nesting

Lets create a new empty spreadsheet and insert all cutting list that we’ll nest. Then we will transfer this data at once to Otimize Nesting, saving time and minimizing any change of typing errors. Here are the steps:

1 – Create a new spreadsheet and insert all cutting list. The image bellow represents and example about hos this might look like:

2 – Now, save this spreadsheet as .CSV file. This might change a bit depending on the Excel version you have. But basically go to File –> Save as and when the save file dialog box appear, select CSV (*.csv) from the drop down list. Enter a file name and click OK. Excel may alert you that you will be loosing some formatting, but this is not a concern for us. Just ignore the warning.

3 – Log into Otimize Nesting using your credentials and you will notice an “Import” button under the parts area. The image bellow shows this option:

4 – Click the Import button and an open file dialog will show. Browse to the file you saved on step 2 and click OK. If everything is OK, Otimize Nesting will confirm the operation and you will be able to see all data automatically transferred to the parts area, like the image bellow:

NOTE: It is important to have the first row on the spreadsheet with the column titles since the importing routine will ignore this row.

Now let´s have a look on how the export feature works.

Exporting from Otimize Nesting to Excel

If you already have a project cut list in Otimize Nesting and want to keep this information for future usage or export to a different software, you can use the export button located just next to the import button.

When you push it, an open file dialog appears and then all you have to do is to specify a destination folder and file name and click on Save button. A .csv file is created containing all parts data.

Please give us your opinion !

If you experience any problems with this feature, please send us the file you are trying to import to igor@otimizenesting.com so we can help you and improve this functionality. We know .CSV files have some particularities between different languages and cultures and our plan is to support all of them.