A zip file of forty parts and a Friday deadline
The customer sends a zip file: forty DXFs, a few STEP models, a PDF assembly drawing and a spreadsheet of quantities. They want a price for laser cutting, folding and powder coating by Friday. Each part needs opening in CAD to measure the cut length and count the holes, find the flat blank size, count the bends, and check the material and thickness.
The estimator does it part by part, copying numbers into a spreadsheet. By part twenty, a DXF turns out to have a duplicate line on top of another, which doubles the cut length, and nobody notices.
Why sheet metal quoting is a measuring job
Laser and punch pricing depends on geometry: how long the cut is, how many pierces, how much sheet each part uses, and how many bends and setups it needs on the brake. None of that is in the email. It is in the files, and getting it out is slow by hand.
- Every file is opened and measured individually.
- STEP models need unfolding to a flat pattern before measuring.
- Material, thickness and finish are often in the email text, not the files.
- Brake setups and bend counts are estimated by eye.
- Rates for laser time by material and thickness are in a spreadsheet only one person understands.
What slow quotes cost a fabricator
Customers sending files to several fabricators tend to go with whoever replies first with a sensible price. Big packages of parts are the slowest to quote and often the most valuable to win. Hand measurement also produces errors in both directions: parts priced too low because a cutout was missed, or too high because a duplicate line was counted twice.
The file reading quote tool we build
- Files are dropped into the tool or pulled from the enquiry email. DXFs are read directly. STEP models are unfolded to a flat pattern where the geometry allows it.
- Files are cleaned automatically: duplicate and overlapping lines removed, open contours flagged, and text or dimension layers ignored.
- For each part, the tool calculates cut length, pierce count, flat blank size and the sheet area it takes, and for STEP files the number and direction of bends.
- Material, thickness, quantity and finish are pulled from the spreadsheet or email and shown next to each part for the estimator to confirm.
- Your rates are applied: laser time by material and thickness, gas type, brake setups and hits, welding, inserts, and finishing.
- A draft quote with price breaks is produced for the estimator to check and send, with any part the tool could not read listed separately.
| Measured from the file | Drives the price of |
|---|---|
| Cut length | Laser or punch time |
| Pierce count | Laser time and consumables |
| Flat blank size | Sheet usage and material cost |
| Number of bends | Press brake hits and setups |
| Holes suited to inserts | Insertion operations |
If your nesting software already offers quoting, we look at that first. Sometimes the right answer is to set it up properly rather than build something new.
A quoting desk that keeps up
Big packages of parts can be priced in the time it used to take to measure a handful. The estimator's time goes on the things that need judgement: awkward bends, weldments, finishing and delivery. Measurements are consistent between estimators, and duplicate lines stop inflating prices. The customer gets a quote while they are still comparing suppliers.
Signs your quoting needs help
- Every DXF is opened and measured by hand.
- Packages of parts take days to price.
- You have priced a part wrong because of a messy file.
- Only one person knows the laser rates spreadsheet.
- Customers have gone elsewhere while waiting for a price.