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.Engine.NAME
An independent INestingEngine implementation. It must not be a wrapper, ensemble, or
selector over OpenNest's built-in engines. Solve() must not call, instantiate, or
delegate to any existing INestingEngine (StockLadderNestingEngine,
FixedStrategyNestingEngine), NestingEngineRegistry, NestJobRunner, or the whole-plate
nesters/fillers behind PlateNesterFactory (DefaultPlateNester, StripPlateNester,
RemnantPlateNester, PlateFillService, DefaultPlateFiller, ...). It must also never run
several of them and keep the best result.
The decisions that make it an engine must be yours: which sheet(s) to use, which parts go where and in what order, which pattern/strategy to apply to which region, and when to stop.
Read BENCH-RULES.md before starting. It covers your workspace, version control, the
real-part drawing archive, tests and your final report.
Allowed building blocks
Reuse is encouraged. These are tools you drive, composed by your own decision logic:
OpenNest.Coregeometry:Polygon,Shape,BoundingBox,Vector,Box,ConvexHull,ConvexDecomposition,RotatingCalipers,Collision,NoFitPolygon,ShapeProfile,SpatialQuery.- Fill and pattern components in
OpenNest.Engine.Fill:FillLinear,FillExtents,PairFiller,ShrinkFiller,RemnantFiller/RemnantFinder,Compactor,FillScore,Pattern/PatternTiler,PartBoundary,RotationAnalysis,AngleCandidateBuilder,BestCombination. OpenNest.Engine.BestFit(BestFitFinder,PairEvaluator, ...),RectanglePacking,CirclePacking.
If you find a faster or better way to do something a shared component already does (for
example linear patterning), implement it inside this engine's own project and leave the
shared code untouched. Do not edit OpenNest.Core, OpenNest.Engine, or
OpenNest.Benchmark. Call it out in your report (what it replaces, why it is better,
measured numbers) so it can be generalized and upstreamed for every engine later.
What to fill in
__NAME__NestingEngine.cs— implementSolve(). Pick and document an actual placement strategy (NFP-based sliding placement, skyline/shelf packer, simulated-annealing/genetic layout search, guillotine-cut packer, physics/gravity-settling, etc). It's fine to be simpler or worse than the built-in engines to start; it must not be the same algorithm re-derived through indirection.- This README — replace this section with a description of the algorithm, its trade-offs, and benchmark results.
Tests
tests/ holds starter acceptance tests. Every layout is checked by the benchmark's own
NestValidator (bounds, spacing, quantities, stock, rotation), so a passing test means the
benchmark will accept the layout. They fail until Solve() is implemented. Keep them and
add engine-specific tests next to them.
dotnet test OpenNest.Engine.__NAME__/tests/OpenNest.Engine.__NAME__.Tests.csproj
Build and benchmark
The project is a plugin outside OpenNest.sln. OpenNest.Benchmark loads plugin engines
from an Engines/ folder next to its own build output:
dotnet build OpenNest.Engine.__NAME__/OpenNest.Engine.__NAME__.csproj -c Release
dotnet build <OpenNest>/OpenNest.Benchmark/OpenNest.Benchmark.csproj -c Release
mkdir -p <OpenNest>/OpenNest.Benchmark/bin/Release/net8.0/Engines
cp OpenNest.Engine.__NAME__/bin/Release/net8.0/OpenNest.Engine.__NAME__.dll <OpenNest>/OpenNest.Benchmark/bin/Release/net8.0/Engines/
dotnet <OpenNest>/OpenNest.Benchmark/bin/Release/net8.0/OpenNest.Benchmark.dll <path-to-.nest-or-folder> --parallel 1
<OpenNest> is the OpenNest checkout root. Your engine shows up in the report under its
CLR type name (__NAME__NestingEngine), competing on equal footing against the built-in
engines.