Flexible leads can only be applied to Cutting processes, not to bevel, marking or milling processes.
Flexible leads is an option which allows the nesting engine to disregard the preset leads at nesting time and to try to make them fit after nesting. The feature is to be used on occasions where processing has been applied to the part before nesting on a plate. In these cases Fixed Leads may prevent the optimal placement of Auto Nested parts on the plate.
Here for example are 50 400x400mm squares Auto Nested into a 40mm thick plate, using a 30mm "nest friendly" leadin on a gas cut:
The flexible lead adjustment is performed seamlessly after Auto Nesting, and also after any manual nesting operations including arraying.
After clearing the plate and changing the lead flexibility on the part from Fixed to Can Move and Resize by means of properties on the parent cut process (not on the leadin itself):
Auto Nesting again, the parts are nested ignoring the leads and then the leads are made to fit as best they can:
Zooming into the interior of the nest , we can see the leadins have been moved and shrunk so that they do not touch the other parts and so that the pierce allowance is maintained. in this particular case the leads were shrunk by 5mm:
Note the dotted appearance of the leads, this indicates the lead is fully flexible, ie can be moved and shrunk to make it fit. A bold weight leadin display indicates it is fixed, and a normal weight leadin display indicates a leadin which can be repositioned but not shrunk
Deciding on whether flexible leadins are appropriate is up to the end user, and the decision should made made on a tool by tool, and sometimes part by part basis. If flexible leadins are used then the pierce allowance must be set to a sensible value to keep the pierce point away from other parts- it becomes more critical.
You can set defaults for each cutting tool in the machines section, by default all tools will start with their lead behaviour set to Fixed:
The Flexible leads feature supersedes the need to use the Preserve Internal Part Order sequencing technique detailed in the Sequencing of Unprocessed Parts section.