OpenNest/docs/problem-nests.md

Problem-nest regression corpus

Every real nest that ever caused a problem is kept on a dedicated OpenNest server that holds nothing else, not in this repository: they carry customer geometry and names. Each nest's comments say what went wrong and which commit fixed it, and its checks: line names the areas it guards, so a change runs only the nests that guard what it touches: plan or nest them and confirm none got worse. Most guard Plan Cutting; auto-nest nests guard the nesting engines. Fills, the UI, posts and file formats never need the corpus.

Areas

Each nest names the areas it guards in a checks: comment line. Pick every area a change touches; when a change spans the planner or you cannot tell, run the whole corpus. part-order and entries change the order the search tries things on every plate, so naming either plans every nest: a plate tagged with another area can still run out of budget after such a change.

Area	Change touches
part-order	Whole-part order: learned order rules, stalls, budgets and the tours (JointCuttingPlanSearch order loop, CuttingPartOrder, CuttingNestedOrder, CuttingDependencyGraph, CuttingPlanBatch, the safest-route walk)
entries	Where and how each contour is entered: entry candidates and ranking, hole order, lead-ins, pierce zones (ContourEntry*, PreferredContourEntries, CuttingHoleOrder, ScrapPierceSearch, JointCuttingPlanSearch entry and recovery code, lead-in builders)
contours	Reading programs into contours: closure, seam overcuts, prepared contours (ExecutionMotionReader, PreparedContours, IncrementalClosureDrift, SeamOvercut, NominalContourClosure, OwnedProgramCopy)
geometry-checks	The checks a route must pass: rapid crossings, lead and material paths, replay, overlaps (ReleasedContourState, LeadPathValidator, LeadMaterialSnapshot, ContourProgramVerifier, PlateOverlapAnalyzer)
cut-offs	Cut-off segments in the plan (CutOffInsertion, CutOffSegments, PlateSequencing cut-off placement, automatic scrap cut-offs)
grid	Large plates: the aligned-grid serpentine, or any work done once per part or per pair that would grow on thousands of parts (CuttingGridOrder, per-part capture and checks)
auto-nest	Auto Nest's layout, not its cutting plan: the whole-job nesting engines (OpenNest.Engine/NestingEngines/) and what they share. Guarded by sheet count, not by planning

A new planner area goes in ProblemNestRegressionTests.PlannerAreas and this table together. A misspelt area, in a comment or the filter, fails the run rather than skipping nests.

Running

# Windows PowerShell: $env:OPENNEST_PROBLEM_NESTS_SERVER = "http://<server>:<port>"
OPENNEST_PROBLEM_NESTS_SERVER=http://<server>:<port> \
  dotnet test OpenNest.Tests/OpenNest.Tests.csproj -c Release \
  --filter "Category=ProblemNests" --logger "console;verbosity=detailed"

To plan only the nests guarding some areas, add OPENNEST_PROBLEM_NESTS_CHECKS=part-order,entries. A nest guarding none of them is skipped and listed as skipped; a nest without a checks: line is always planned. Without the filter every nest is planned.

Without the server variable the test skips, so routine runs never reach the network. With it, an unreachable server or an empty corpus fails instead of passing silently. ProblemNestRegressionTests downloads every nest on the server. A server holding more than 200 nests is refused, since it is not a corpus. It plans each plate that has parts on its own, the way Plan Cutting does (whole-part reorder, falling back to the current order). It prints each plate's outcome, search expansions and time. Each plate has a time limit covering both capture and planning: 120 s by default, or OPENNEST_PROBLEM_NESTS_TIMEOUT seconds. A plate that hits it is recorded as Timeout, so a plate that never finishes cannot hang the run.

Each plate is ranked: Ready (replayed with no overlaps) above BestEffort above NoSolutionWithinBudget above every blocked outcome (UnsupportedGeometry, ConstraintConflict, InvalidInput, Overlap) above Timeout. The test fails when a plate ranks below its baseline, when a nest has no baseline, or when the baseline's plate numbers differ from the nest's. A different outcome at the same or a better rank is only reported. When it is intended, update the baseline.

Auto Nest nests

ProblemNests_AutoNestNoWorseThanTheirBaselines takes the nests whose checks: line names auto-nest and runs the Default engine on their demand, the way the benchmark builds a job from a saved nest: each drawing's required quantity, the nest's own sheet sizes, and the first plate's spacing, quadrant and clamps. It fails when a layout breaks the layout check, leaves parts unplaced, times out, or uses more sheets than the nest's auto-nest: 2 sheets comment line; fewer sheets are only reported. Run it with OPENNEST_PROBLEM_NESTS_CHECKS=auto-nest; a filter naming only planner areas skips it, and the planning test skips nests guarding only auto-nest and runs not at all for a filter naming only auto-nest.

Budget headroom

The planner's budget counts search expansions, not time, so a plate's outcome is repeatable, but a plate that finds its route just inside the budget is fragile: any change to the order the search tries parts or entries can push it over, into NoSolutionWithinBudget, without touching the problem it guards. Each plate's line reports the expansions its applied strict search spent against the plate's budget (12000 of 20000 expansions (60%)), and whether the new order ran out before the current order was kept. Plates without a strict-search route (refusals, the safest-route fallback, best-effort plans) report no share.

The run ends with the plates that spent at least 80% of their budget. They pass today and fail next. Compare that list with the same run on master: a change that adds plates to it or raises their share made the search worse, even when every plate still meets its baseline. Say so in the change, and fix it, or explain why the plate's search grew.

A nest whose comments also carry a planning with cut-offs: 1=Ready 2=BestEffort line is planned a second time, as Plan Cutting does after Clear Lead-ins & Cut-offs and Add scrap cut-offs at their defaults, and each plate is held to that line the same way. Set OPENNEST_PROBLEM_NESTS_CUTOFFS=1 to plan every nest with cut-offs and print the outcomes without comparing them, to record a new line.

Plates use their own cutting parameters. A plate without them uses line lead-ins of 0.15 at 90 degrees (external and internal) and no lead-outs.

Adding a nest

1. In the desktop app, choose Database mode and the corpus server in File > Storage Mode..., then drag the .nest file onto the window. Keep the corpus server selected until the save in step 4 succeeds, then restore your previous storage settings.
2. In Nest > Edit, name it after the problem, and in the comments describe what failed and which commit fixed it, if any.
3. Add a baseline line to the comments, with plate numbers counted from the first plate: planning: 1=NoSolutionWithinBudget 2=BestEffort. An Auto Nest problem takes auto-nest: 2 sheets instead, the sheet count Auto Nest reaches today. To get the line, save without one and run the test: the failure prints the observed line. Add a checks: line naming the areas the problem was in, such as checks: part-order.
4. Save. Every save keeps the earlier versions, so a baseline change can be reviewed later.

Record the outcome the code produces today, not the outcome you want. A nest that is still blocked guards against getting worse, and its baseline moves up once a fix lands.

Sweeping a production archive

ProductionCorpusSweepTests (Category=ProductionCorpus) is a survey, not a gate: it plans every occupied plate of every .nest file in a local folder the way Plan Cutting does after Clear Lead-ins & Cut-offs (the parts regenerate from clean geometry, the plate's own cutting parameters when it has them, else the nest's machine defaults over a cutting-parameters file) and writes one JSON line per plate: outcome, warnings by kind, safest-route and head-raise flags, expansions against the budget, time, and the spacing pairs the overlap label would show. It never fails on an outcome. The folder holds production nests, so it stays outside the repository, and so does the report.

OPENNEST_PRODUCTION_CORPUS=<folder of .nest files> \
OPENNEST_PRODUCTION_CORPUS_MACHINES=<folder of machine JSON> \
OPENNEST_PRODUCTION_CORPUS_PARAMETERS=<cutting-parameters JSON> \
OPENNEST_PRODUCTION_CORPUS_REPORT=<report.jsonl> \
  dotnet test OpenNest.Tests/OpenNest.Tests.csproj -c Release --filter "Category=ProductionCorpus"

OPENNEST_PRODUCTION_CORPUS_PARALLELISM (default 4) plans that many nests at once, so times and the 180 s Timeout (..._TIMEOUT) are under load; ..._FILTER is a comma-separated list of file-name fragments and ..._BUDGET the planning-effort multiplier. Compare two reports plate by plate: a plate that ranks lower, or keeps its rank with a safest route or more head raises than before, is a regression. Without the folder variable the test skips.