CAD EVAL — Cost Estimate
Built for engineers and buyers sizing up a part before committing to tooling — no CAD license required. STEP files are parsed server-side with OpenCascade; geometry checks run in your browser. Quote a whole folder at once. Uploads are deleted automatically after 24 hours.
No CAD file handy? Quote one of these:
No CAD model?
You type the envelope, wall and volume. No undercut, draft or wall checks — a cost model, not an assessment.
—
Loading…
Pulled from the loaded model — adjust if the mold orientation or design-intent thickness differs.
Resin prices and pressures are commodity-grade planning defaults, last reviewed — verify current pricing with your supplier before quoting.
| Alum (Proto) | P20 (Prod) | Hardened | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | — | — | — |
| Tight | — | — | — |
| Precision | — | — | — |
Per-part cost at your entered annual volume, broken into each contributing component. Tooling is a one-time cost, billed separately — see the Estimated Tooling Cost table above, not amortized into the piece price here.
Selling price at common production volumes, plus your entered volume.
Stock dimensions below are your part's own bounding box; the cost model separately rounds this up to a standard bar/plate size plus a kerf allowance, since no shop buys your exact bounding box. Setup count is a geometry-based estimate — adjust if you know better.
Removal rates and stock pricing are general planning defaults, last reviewed — verify with your shop before quoting.
Per-part cost at your entered quantity. CAM programming, setup labor, and fixturing are one-time costs for the whole lot — write the toolpath once, fixture once — so they're divided by quantity and shrink as it grows. Part handling (load/unload/deburr/inspect), material, and machining time (roughing + finishing) are not amortized, since each part needs its own stock, its own material removed, and its own handling regardless of lot size. Tolerance and surface finish affect the finishing-time portion of machining time, not a separate line.
Outside diameter, bore and length are measured along the part's own axis of revolution, not from its bounding box — a flange or a pulley is turned about its short axis. The model rounds the OD up to a standard bar size and adds facing and parting allowance to the length, since no shop buys stock at the finished size.
Turning rates and bar pricing are planning defaults that have not yet been checked against a real lathe shop — the removal rates were set at a multiple of the milling rates for the same alloy. Verify before quoting.
Per-part cost at your entered quantity. Setup, programming and workholding are one-time costs for the whole lot, so they shrink as quantity grows. Material, cutting time and part handling are not amortized — every part needs its own stock and its own time at the spindle. Stock form is usually the largest single lever: a bored part made from solid bar pays for all the material that becomes chips.
Pulled from the loaded model — adjust if design intent differs. Wall Min/Max drive the wall-thickness caveats below.
Alloy prices/pressures are commodity-grade planning defaults, last reviewed — verify current pricing before quoting; die-cast alloys are commodity-indexed and move independently of order size.
| Soft (Proto) | H13 (Prod) | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | — | — |
| Tight | — | — |
| Precision | — | — |
Per-part cost at your entered annual volume. Die (tooling) is a one-time cost, billed separately — see the Estimated Die Cost table above, not amortized into the piece price here.
Pulled from the loaded model — adjust if design intent differs. Wall Min is the part's own thinnest requirement, checked against what your chosen Starting Sheet Gauge can actually form.
Sheet prices are commodity-grade planning defaults — verify current pricing before quoting.
| Wood/Comp (Proto) | Aluminum (Prod) | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | — | — |
| Tight | — | — |
| Precision | — | — |
Per-part cost at your entered annual volume. Mold (tooling) is a one-time cost, billed separately — see the Estimated Mold Cost table above, not amortized into the piece price here.
Flat pattern area and cut length are derived from volume ÷ thickness and the part's cut-edge band — adjust the inputs if design intent differs. Bends counts the distinct bend lines found in the CAD model, which is what the press brake is charged per; on a model drawn with sharp corners it falls back to an estimate from face orientations. Correct it either way if you know the real count.
Sheet prices are commodity-grade planning defaults — verify current pricing before quoting. No hard tooling is involved, so quantity only spreads the job setup.
Per-part cost at your entered quantity. There is no hard tooling to amortize — the setup line is the job's laser sheet load, brake tool change, and one-time flat-pattern programming, spread across the lot.
Z is the build axis — build time is driven by whichever is larger, total volume or layer count, so orientation matters. Adjust the dimensions to try a different build orientation.
Each option is a technology and material pairing — build rate, layer time, support needs and machine cost all come from the technology, not the polymer.
Per-part cost at your entered quantity. There is no tooling line at all — the build cost is divided by however many parts fit in one build, which is why additive gets cheaper with quantity only until the chamber is full.
Surface area drives ceramic shell cost (every dip coat covers the whole pattern). Unlike the die-based processes, undercuts and re-entrant features cost nothing extra here — the wax melts out rather than being pulled.
Alloy prices are commodity-grade planning defaults — verify before quoting. Investment casting pours steels, superalloys and cobalt chrome that die casting cannot.
| Soft (Proto) | Aluminum (Prod) | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | — | — |
| Tight | — | — |
| Precision | — | — |
Per-part cost at your entered annual volume. The wax die is a one-time cost, billed separately — see the Estimated Wax Die Cost table above, not amortized into the piece price here.
Applies to every part when you click Batch Quote below.
Choose a folder — every STEP file inside it (including subfolders) will be tessellated, checked for undercuts, and cost-estimated automatically.