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Plates have two key settings that govern how close parts can be nested. Plate templates can be created with standard Gap Sizes for different materials and thicknesses.

 

Gap Size

This is the distance between parts on a plate used when Auto Nesting and Manual Nesting.  

 

The gap size would be set large enough firstly that the full kerf of the cutting processes do not overlap, and secondly that enough material is left behind to avoid gross distortions of the skeleton left behind.  10mm or 3/8" seems a good starting point for most plate plasma cutting.  This may increase on thicker plates, and decrease on sheetmetal.

 

The distance is from the edge of the part to edge of adjacent part, and is not exact.  
Primecut uses a discretization of the part geometry, and so the actual part gap will usually be slightly greater than the prescribed Gap Size, but never less (unless Force Fit has been used).  Due to this discretization, gap sizes less than about 4mm do not have much meaning.

 

Edge Gap Size

Similar to the above, but allows a (typically) larger gap to the edge of the plate.

 

The Edge Gap Size cannot be less than half the Gap Size.