How it works
From a drawing to a gasket in a flange: how Alef Portal reads, nests and cuts your part.
From plate to pipeline.
Follow one sheet of gasket material from nesting to a bolted flange.
DXF in. DXF out.
Bring the drawing you already have, and take your form back out whenever you need it.
Alef reads ASCII DXF with the entities below. Open segments are chained into closed loops, holes are found by containment instead of layer names, bolt circles are recognised and units come from $INSUNITS. Whatever was skipped or could not be closed is listed next to the preview.
- CIRCLE
- ARC
- LINE
- LWPOLYLINE
- POLYLINE
- ELLIPSE
- SPLINE
Every form you keep in Alef downloads again as a DXF: R12, millimetres, origin in the centre of the part.
While you edit, Alef checks the contour. A hole outside the outer contour or two overlapping cutouts stop the position; a thin web is flagged for you to look at.
Nesting you can see.
Choose the plate yourself, or let Alef pick the format that claims the least plate area.
Parts of one material nest together across as many plates as the order needs, and one order can hold several materials. Formats depend on the material, for example 1500 × 1000, 1500 × 1500 or 2000 × 1500 mm. Small rings drop into the bore of larger ones and carry no material charge, and parts turn by 90° where the material allows it.
When positions share a plate, Alef shows what nesting them together saves against pricing each one alone. If the plate you chose leaves a large part unused, the material line shows that remnant as a leftover-plate credit: it goes back to stock and is not charged.
Oversize and special parts are never priced automatically. Alef routes them to the technical team as a request.