Here I am testing the nesting. RhinoNest is a plug-in for Rhino and a set of components for Grasshopper. I tested it using my old interlocking fabrication definition (here) and (here). I downloaded RhinoNest from this website and installed it. However, I sounded a little complicated at first sight. Then I found a sample definition (here) and modified it a little bit to meet my purposes. First of all, I added orientation components (grey group below) to align all sections to the WorldXY plane. Then RhinoNest is integrated into the definition. After you set input parameters, just double-click on the component to start the calculation (of course it is not working in real-time). The first results were impressive. I think it is working nicely. Here is my working file:

You need RhinoNest 2.5 SP4 and RhinoNest for Grasshopper 04B for this to run (in 2012).

Grasshopper is about to release a major update (0.9), then I’ll have to check all my components on this website to make sure they still work. Maybe there will be better research topics about it because Grasshopper will have many new components and upgrades. I’ll also inform you if RhinoNest still works with Grasshopper 0.9. Edit: Here is the file compatible with Grasshopper 0.9.0014. My Rhinonest license is expired, so I couldn’t go further with testing the nesting :(

Edit (2023): I think Rhinonest is no longer available. I will try other solutions such as Open Nest in the future. This is still an important feature for architects and designers.