Documentation/Pricing setup
Machines and materials
Your machine park and materials are the foundation of every price.
Machines
Every machine has a technology (milling, turning or a sliding-headstock bar automatic), an hourly rate, a work envelope, a number of axes and a minimum tool radius. Those decide not only the price but feasibility too: a part larger than the envelope, or with an internal radius smaller than your smallest cutter, goes to your review instead of getting an automatic price.
The „How this machine works” section describes its economics: setup effort, tools cutting in parallel, attendance in minutes per piece, minimum cycle, minimum batch, guide bushing and the minimum length-to-diameter ratio. An empty field does not mean zero, it means „derive it from the technology”, and the default is shown as the field's placeholder. Fill in only what genuinely differs on your machine.
The machine-selection strategy decides whether the system prices every part on the cheapest feasible machine or routes rotational bodies to a lathe. Turned parts get stock from a commercial bar: diameters in 5 mm steps and a minimum purchase length.
A sliding-headstock bar automatic is its own technology because it costs differently from a plain lathe: several slides cut at once, the guide bushing supports the bar at the cutting point (so a slender part stops being a risk signal), and setting one up takes hours rather than minutes.
Materials
A material needs a price per kilogram, a density and removal rates (MRR for roughing, a separate one for turning). The starter library holds 39 entries with EN / DIN / W-Nr designations: aluminium, structural and free-cutting steels, alloy and tool steels, stainless, brass, bronze and copper, plus plastics. You only overwrite your supplier's prices, and you can always add a material of your own from scratch.
The kind of material changes what the customer is offered: plastics get no ISO 286 hole fits and no Ra 0,8 finish, because neither the standard nor machining practice provides for them. On top of the material price sits a procurement overhead - a percentage plus a cost per batch - because a blank cut to size costs more than raw stock off a wholesaler's price list.
Library material prices are indicative. The first thing to do after setup is to type in the rates from your latest wholesaler invoice.