3D printing quoting
The customer uploads an STL, 3MF, OBJ or STEP. The engine measures the part, lays it on the plate and prices it on your printers, rates and materials. Metal is always approved by a technologist.
The nozzle lays a layer line by line, so a wide layer takes longer than a narrow one.
Example data: one part, the engine's price at an example shop's rates
01The route
STL, 3MF and OBJ are always printed. A part from a STEP file can be printed or machined: the customer says which.
Small holes closed, faces turned outward. Volume, surface and poses on the plate worked out once, at analysis.
Material, print quality, colour. Where the shop allows it, also layer, infill, walls and supports, inside its limits.
The engine prices the part on every printer that takes it in this material and picks the cheapest per piece at this quantity.
Metal always waits for a technologist. The rest follow the shop's mode, its amount threshold and the notes on the file.
Price at onceTo a technologistApproves or corrects the price and can pin another orientation. An approved price goes into that print type's calibration.
The customer sees the net price per piece and orders.
Adding a printer moves no machining price. A customer with a STEP file chooses the process in the widget when the shop offers more than one.
02Four bills
In this example resin costs more than filament at one piece and less from 8 pieces, because parts on a platform share the exposure time.
Example data: a 72 × 64 × 34 mm bracket, net prices from the engine. Bar: price per piece against one piece. Plastics prices on a logarithmic scale. The example shop's rates:
The plate shares only the build setup. Each piece keeps its print time.
1 h 12 min per piece · builds: 1
Pieces on a platform share the exposure. The piece that does not fit opens a new build and the price jumps.
1 h 23 min per piece · builds: 1
A part pays the share of a full build it takes, so with shared builds the quantity does not move the price.
28 min per piece · builds: shared
03Orientation
The analysis finds the poses a part can stand in and slices the most promising. Filament takes the fastest, resin and metal the cheapest per piece. The customer does not choose the orientation; a technologist can pin another. Powder has no poses: the part lies in it with no supports.
Time adds up from the lines of every layer, supports included.
Example data: poses from the bracket's analysis, price for 1 pc. The columns are a drawing; the analysis measures the support volume.
04Minutes
The widget's advanced mode: the customer sets the print and the price follows at once. The shop sets the limits and the server clamps whatever goes past them.
Print quality
Set the print settings myself
Example data: every figure from the engine for the bracket. The drawings show how the lines are laid, not to scale.
05Mesh repair
Every file is repaired on reading and measured. What cannot be repaired with confidence waits for a technologist, with a reason code.
Small repaired, large waits
Holes closed: 1. The large hole leaves 96 open edges. A mesh like that cannot be sliced, so a technologist sets the price; only powder gets one, from the estimated volume.
mesh_not_closed
Each case is a file really broken and read by the analysis. The codes are the ones it returned.
07And also
A 20 mm cube from a 3MF, one material per half. The price includes the changes, the purge and the prime tower, so the pose decides the amount.
A technologist can work out a filament print's time with our slicer, at this quote's settings, on the printer that priced it.
The price does not change.
In every mode and at any amount. The engine works out the price; the customer sees it once it is approved.
A metal print always waits for a technologist: check the engine's price and approve or correct it before the customer sees it.
additive_metal_reviewApproveCorrect pricePick a printer and a material from the catalogue. The data is copied into your price list; you type the rates and prices yourself.
Of which 1,848 filaments from the Open Filament Database: community data, MIT licence, marked in the catalogue.
Example data: prices, times and changes from the engine in an example shop. The catalogue counts are the database as this page was built.
08Customer and calibration
The customer chooses neither the printer nor the orientation. The server clamps every value sent to the shop's limits.
| Field in the widget | Filament | Resin | Powder | Metal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it is madewhere more than one is possible | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Material | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Colour | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Print quality | yes | yes | no | no |
| Layer heightwhere the shop allows it | yes | yes | no | no |
| Supportswhere the shop allows it | yes | yes | no | no |
| Infill (%)where the shop allows it | yes | no | no | no |
| Wallswhere the shop allows it | yes | no | no | no |
| Materials of the parta 3MF with several regions | yes | no | no | no |
Supports: Where needed, None, Soluble (filament, where the shop has a soluble filament). None under overhangs: price and technologist.
Approved resin prices do not move filament prices, and prints do not mix with machining.
Rate multiplier and build setup minutes.
Rate multiplier and build setup minutes.
Rate multiplier. With shared builds the minutes stay yours, because prices cannot tell them apart.
Rate multiplier and build setup minutes.
A diagram: the points are no shop's data.
09Questions
No. The engine quotes only what the shop has a printer for. A shop with no printer does not accept STL, 3MF and OBJ files.
No. A STEP part with no print chosen is priced as before. In the widget the customer picks the process when the shop offers more than one.
From our own slicer. At analysis it lays the part's lines in several poses, and the price times those lines on a given printer. Other settings rescale the stored lines, so a new price is immediate. A technologist can also slice every layer on its own; the price does not change.
Add it by hand: process, build volume and hourly rate. Empty process fields take that process's defaults, and calibration fits the result to your approved prices.
An STL, 3MF or OBJ with several bodies is quoted part by part, and identical bodies are one line with a quantity. For a STEP or IGES file with several parts, printing is not offered.
Yes, if you add it. Bead blasting, dyeing, stress relief or cutting off the plate are operations in your price list, costed per kg, per dm² and per batch, and limited to the print types you pick. An account has none by default.
Yes. Both are switches on the print type's card, off by default. Failed builds divide the printer's time, the setup and the material by the share that succeed; file preparation is charged once per quote line.
A printed part has no tolerance class or roughness. The PDF quote prints the print type's tolerance, which the shop can change. It does not affect the price.
Create an account with no card, pick a printer from the catalogue, type the rate and the material price, and upload a part you have already quoted.