Rules for the runs were being made up mid-run (git for rollback, access to the real-part drawing archive), so each model started under a different rule set. BENCH-RULES.md writes them down in one place, stamped into every new engine, so all models work under the same rules: workspace limits and no searching for other engines, git init plus commit-per-working-state, the archive as read-only with nothing customer-identifying kept in the (publishable) engine folder, tests may only be added to, and what the final report must cover. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
OpenNest Engines
Independent nesting engine plugins for OpenNest.
Each engine is a standalone class library that OpenNest discovers at runtime via
NestingEngineRegistry.LoadPlugins() — drop the DLL into an Engines/ folder next to
the OpenNest app or OpenNest.Benchmark build output.
| Engine | Approach |
|---|---|
| Gpt6Astra | Contact-based placement |
| Opus55 | Frontier-advance no-fit-polygon packing |
Building
Engines compile against an OpenNest checkout, expected as a sibling clone:
src/
OpenNest/ git clone https://git.thecozycat.net/aj/OpenNest.git
OpenNest-Engines/ this repo
Use a different location with /p:OpenNestRoot=<path> (or the OpenNestRoot
environment variable).
./Build-Engines.ps1 # build all engines + deploy to the benchmark
./Build-Engines.ps1 -Engines Opus55 # just one
dotnet test OpenNest.Engine.Opus55/tests/OpenNest.Engine.Opus55.Tests.csproj
Each engine's README covers its algorithm and benchmark results.
Writing a new engine
./New-Engine.ps1 -Name Nova
This copies _Template/ to OpenNest.Engine.Nova/: an INestingEngine stub, a README
spelling out what counts as an independent engine, BENCH-RULES.md (how a model's run
works: workspace limits, git, the real-part archive, reporting), and starter acceptance tests checked by
the benchmark's own NestValidator (they fail until Solve() is implemented).
To work inside an OpenNest checkout instead, stamp it into an Engines/ folder there and
bring the shared build files along; they detect that layout automatically:
./New-Engine.ps1 -Name Nova -Destination <OpenNest>/Engines -IncludeBuildFiles
Layout
Each engine lives in OpenNest.Engine.<Name>/ with an optional tests/ subproject.
Directory.Build.props supplies the target framework and the OpenNest.Engine
reference, so an engine's .csproj can be nearly empty.