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Optimizing 3d printing quote method

optimizing 3d printing-quote method
optimizing 3d printing-quote method

If you’re running a 3D printing service or a product development company where you’re quoting customers on digital fabrication services, you’re most probably pricing wrong.

Complications with Additive Manufacturing quoting

Predominantly 3D printing/Additive Manufacturing business owners undersell their services. The whys and wherefores are either a combination or one of the following:

● They don’t normally consider all of the supplementary components that go into running a business.

● They usually charge merely based on the volume of the CAD model not giving thought to numerical price fluctuations.

● Taking their slicer output of time to print and material usage too strict without substantially evaluating those variables and considering #1 above.

You could use a client-centered approach to correctly price 3D printed parts and projects that can possibly account for all aspects of the business (human/machine time, machine devaluation, software, facility cost) , the size of the job, and the unique characteristic of the parts. 

Also, there is a good chance you don’t take into account: the manual time it takes to prep, slice, validate, evaluate how to plate up and pull off parts; the total costs for software execution of those tasks; how long it actually takes to print parts accounting for machine depreciation.

We decided to start a company to help 3D printing and fabrication companies better manage projects, including how to price. We began building the solution.  

That solution is Layers.app

Layers.app is a software platform for 3D printing and digital fabrication companies to better collaborate with their clients throughout the entire lifecycle of the project, from start to finish. 

Our software features a suite of integrated tools that ensure project workflows are completed both optimally and efficiently. The tools include a “Public Auto quoter”, an online 3D viewer, a file sharing and messaging portal, and a payment portal. All of those tools are connected and work with each other so that the process is streamlined and made incredibly easy for both the business and the client. 

Our Auto quoter doesn’t just quote, the quote flows into the project workflow so that all relevant parties are set up for success. We like to tell our clients, “You’re not in the business of quoting, you’re in the business of executing projects for your customers.” That’s what our software enables you to do, and that attitude embodies the whole ethos of Layers.app. 

Finally, back to our holistic methodology on how to price 3D printing projects that accounts for all aspects of the business. What you need to do is find a base understanding of your true underlying business costs and determine the price given what margin is most optimal for your business. 

You can also play around with our 3d printing pricing calculator that we developed to complement our new methodology. 

Or you can simply reach out and contact us for a free consultation. We can talk about pricing, we can talk about Layers.app, or both. We’ve installed Layers.app with many different 3D fabrication shops all around the world and have a tremendous amount of insight on the industry that we’re more than happy to talk about.

If you’re looking to ensure you’re pricing correctly, or how to better your 3D printing business, contact us to learn more. We’re looking forward to speaking with you.

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Updates

June 2021 Product Updates

Layers is on a mission to become the #1 CRM platform for 3d printing businesses. This month, we’ve made important updates to get closer. Now let’s review!

 

Comments

Having conversations with customers about their files and orders is one of the most important tasks of 3D printing workshops. Conversations like these usually take place via phone calls, instant messengers, or via email, so it is difficult to attach them to the order. Attaching these conversations to orders and 3D files allows staff to be informed of orders more quickly and efficiently.

In 3D printing orders, each 3d model usually has to be examined separately. In many cases, there is also a need to communicate directly with the customer about a specific 3D file. For example, suppose that all the parts of an order are prepared except for a specific item and you want to talk to that customer about that particular file.

 

layers app comment on card

 

Comments allow you to engage in a conversation on the back of a 3d order. To view the back of a card (a 3D model), click on the card to open it. 

When you or your customers comment on a card you see a yellow circle on that order and are notified about that comment. This feature helps you to fund new comments and conversations.

 

Comments are available now in Business and Enterprise plans.

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Newsroom

A journey towards smart manufacturing

The story began at a desk in a startup accelerator. Our 3D printing service started producing parts and delivering them to our customers.

 

After five years, the same thing happened again. We found an investor for our service and are growing. We produced thousands of parts with different technologies in different countries and sent them internationally. SLA, SLM, SLS, MJF, FDM were among the technologies we had.

It was discovered what users of the 3d print service need, what information they are looking for, and how they feel when ordering the parts.

 

It was our daily goal to determine the needs of 3D printing service users and provide them with creative solutions. There are a variety of problems, ranging from pricing to product delivery issues. We now had a team of experienced professionals who understood every need of our clients, as well as had creative solutions.

We are here today because of this fascinating and full of experience journey.

A strong programming team with a Machine Learning background and 3D printing experience, in collaboration with 3D printing service providers worldwide.

 

Layers are the result of years of experience in 3D printing around the world. Smart 3D Printing ERP, CRM, and MES Empowering 3D printing services and will inbound this market. 

 

Layers: Simply explained

Consider an individual starting a hobby or career in 3D Printing. First, they might start their journey by 3D printing stuff and working on them to get a better understanding of how this technology works. The next step might be starting to make money from providing 3D Printing services to others.

Although there are various tools to handle 3D Printing business, from small to larger scales, but usually it takes a noticeable time to get everything running smoothly, especially in terms of softwares, financial control/tracking and customer support.

Layers cut this gap by providing an AI-based software to control everything in your 3D Printing business with ease and in an efficient and quick way.

 

Inclusivity in Layers

What we encountered in 3D Printing world is that, this industry sometimes does not attract individuals and communities from diverse societies.

We built Layers to gather more people from different cultures, genders and minorities to express their creativity with more ease. We believe the more a technology evolves, the more people come to embrace it.

And now, Layers is here to evolve Additive Manufacturing (a.k.a 3D Printing) and Artificial intelligence at the same time; to provide an equal opportunity for everyone to make things, to make our planet safer and cleaner by empowering a cleaner and greener manufacturing technology

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Updates

May 2021 Product Updates

Welcome to Layers.app Product Spotlight.

The following are some of the features and tools now available to you in May 2021. Please drumroll 🥁🥁

 

Bulk mode

A 3D printing order usually includes several parts. To order a 3D printed prototype of a bicycle, you must inspect the wheels, the body, and the other individual parts separately and bulk upload is very useful in this kind of order.

 

Bulk Mode - Layers.app

 

you can drag and drop all of your 3d models into the upload page and Layers automatically open several quotation boxes for each 3d model.
this feature helps users who need to compare 3d models’ price quotations.

In the Enterprise and Business plans, this feature is available.

 

Custom User Journey 

For many 3D printing companies, it is a common objective to contact users who upload 3D files but do not place an order.

 

online-3d printing-service-user-journey-layers-app

 

To accomplish this, you must force the user to register before uploading. Registration before uploading a file may help you convert unconverted users to paying users, but it also repels many visitors who prefer not to share their email addresses.

We can say that this is a trade-off: Do you want to generate more leads or do you want to focus on ordering online?

 

From this month in the Business and Enterprise plan, you can change the user path: upload without registration, pre-upload registration and post-upload registration 3D file.

 

To change your shop user journey :

Back-office panel / Settings / Store Settings / User Login Journey 

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Guides

Top 5 3D printing quoting software 2024

3D printing quotation is one of the main needs of 3d printing services customers. 3D printing workshops that have instant quoting software can win the game.

By allowing your users to receive the price of 3D printing at any time, you can scale your business.

There are many factors to consider when choosing an online 3D printing quotation software.
In this article, we want to examine the important factors in choosing a suitable pricing system for the 3D printing workshop and also review the well-known software available in the market.

Important features that every 3D printing quotation software should have:

The most important aspect of 3D printing software is the preciseness of quotation and how instant this process is. There are however other features that a 3D printing software is able to provide alongside its price calculation capabilities. 

In the competitive market, providing the customers with a quick price quotation is more than important. This software should be able to calculate the price based on the model, material, and the time consumed for its printing process. It also must be precise as it can not be modified after the printing process is over; as a result, customers need to get an accurate price calculation before they decide to place an order; so all the details should be taken into account.

First of all, the possibility and ease to interact with the 3D printing process; this software must be able to analyze 3D models that could be used in instructions used for 3D printing.

Another important factor is model printability, there are modeling platforms to enable you to check if the model is printable and repair it if needed before printing. 

Last but not least, the software should be user-friendly as we want to focus on physically producing the object through 3D printing.

Now let’s take a look into some of the most known software in this area:

There are two main types of 3d printing price quotations systems which are distinct in fundamental ways:

Manual 3D Printing Quote Softwares

This is the type of normal everyday 3d printing softwares which most workshops already are using in their workflow.
These quoting softwares are the most versatile and reliable option, they are usually part of a 3d printing slicer software that also generates g-code for 3d printers and offers basic 3d model editing tools. Although these softwares are reliable and accurate, they come at a great cost.
Pricing manually on an offline 3d printing slicer software needs to be done in-house for each order, this will take up massive resources and costs which make scaling up a very hard and risky process for manufacturing workshops.

Cura 

Cura is an open-source “slicing application” for 3D printers. Cura calculated the price of the products based on the time consumed, weight, and material used in the process of 3D printing. Cura is used by a large number of people around the world and it can be used for different types of printers. Cura also has a slicing engine that prints the aimed profiles very easily, besides the quotation service it provides.

It also provides you with recommended profiles that had already been tested.

It gives you access to a mode called “custom mode” in which you have access to more than 400 settings for granular control. There is a free and premium version in which they provide you with different features.

Simplify 3D

Another software in 3D printing is Simplify 3D, price quotation is one of its major use.It also instantly calculates the price of a product which is aimed to be printed instantly and precisely, taking its various properties. This software which is supported in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese is a software that translates models into printable instructions.

Slic3r

Slicer is also another software used by many 3D printing businesses. It is basically more of a slicing tool but it also offers price calculation service, taking the material, time consumed and the weight and size of the product which is meant to be printed into account.; this software reads 3D models ( supported formats include: STL, OBJ, AMF, 3MF) and it converts them into printable instructions for 3D printers.

Materialise magics

Materialise magics is another software that makes the 3d printing operation a lot easier; providing instant price quotation like other recommended software is also available alongside other features like giving you access to make different changes from small edits to wall thickness to generating support structures for the entire build; things that would be time-consuming or almost impossible without an appropriate platform or software. Simplifying data and building operations with one easy-to-use solution is another thing this software does.

Online 3D Printing Quotation Platforms

In contrast to offline quotation softwares, online 3d printing quotation softwares can be implemented on web and cloud and can be easily accessed and used by customers themselves.
This will give workshops a great advantage both on resource management and on customer satisfaction.
Customers can instantly get their price quotations based on infinite different choices without the need to wait for a response from an operator.
Customers will usually be able to place their order on the same platform used for pricing which also gives a substantial boost to your conversion rate.  

By allowing your users to receive the price of 3D printing at any time, you can scale up your business easily. There are many factors to consider when choosing an online 3D printing quotation software.
In this part, we will examine the important factors in choosing a suitable online quotation solution for a 3D printing workshop and also review well-known softwares available in the market.

AMFG

AMFG provides instant quotations based on material preferred by customers, the time consumed and the general aspects of the intended product like weight, volume, and quality. Customers can view the 3D-designed product from different angles and place orders. This online platform is a workflow software for additive manufacturing, enabling you to achieve an automated process in your 3D printing business. The main focus of this software is large manufacturers like the Automotive industry.

Layers

Layers is an all-in-one web-based platform designed solely for 3d printing workshops around the world.
With Layers, you can manage online orders, attract online customers and build an online web-based workshop all in one platform and through your customized domain.
Layers have a powerful built automated 3d printing cost calculator which can provide instant 3d printing quotations based on various pricing methods and different material settings.
Unlike most other cloud-based 3d printing software, Layers has a free subscription plan which gives your customers basic capabilities of an instant quotation system and empowers your workshop with the complete order management system designed exclusively for 3d printing bureaus.  

MakerOS

This platform also offers tools that calculate the price of customers’ orders. Like other aforementioned software, this online and easily accessible platform provides your customers with a price quotation based on different aspects and qualities of the intended product. This platform also has many other different traits as well; it automates quoting systems, gives you access to a client portal, it has a 3D viewer and a payment gateway. You can easily manage your projects using this platform.

[UPDATE] Shapeways Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SHPW) made an acquisition that has generated significant interest in the business world. In a strategic move that occurred after the first quarter of 2022, Shapeways Holdings, Inc. successfully acquired MakerOS, Inc., expanding its portfolio and capabilities. In fact, the services of MakerOS have been stopped now.

 

Printelize

This platform also easily calculates prices online as well. It is an online sales automation software designed for 3D printing enterprises with the possibility to use your own domain and project management features.

Digifabster

Digifabster can also generate quoting and pricing of different orders and intended products of different qualities and features. It provides online service to numerous manufacturers and online shops through quote generation, converting leads, and production process management.

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