STEP Quoter

Estimating a new carbon, machined, printed or fabricated part relied on experience and a few reference jobs. Similar parts were priced inconsistently, and a loss-making quote only became visible after the work was done.

• Parses the dropped STEP file and derives a complexity rating from the geometry (surface area, curvature, feature density) rather than from a guess.
• Prices against a historic dataset of roughly ten costed programmes, each with hundreds of parts and their geometry, so a re-quote of a similar part references what it actually cost last time.
• Folds in labour rates, machine and energy costs, material costs and external supplier prices, with manual overrides where the estimator knows better.
• Shows cost, sale price and margin side by side before anything is sent, and gates firm quotes behind approval.

Anyone in the business can produce a consistent first-pass estimate, and the commercial team sees margin before quoting rather than after. Popular enough internally that it's being redesigned from a tool into a product.