Learn/Plasma/Toolpath Generation & Post-Processing
Job Quoting
Updated v2.4.1At a glance
- Price a nested job straight from its toolpaths — pick your method: by cut distance, by machine time, or by area
- Charge $9.50/m of cutting, $95/hr of machine time, or $12/sq ft of parts — one method, stated explicitly
- Per-pierce and gas costs are optional add-ons under any method; material is always priced separately
- Shop Rates saved once per machine; material prices in a collapsible per-material/thickness price list
- Price-list rows can override your method's rate and pierce cost for thick, slow plate
- Mixed-material jobs price each sheet from its own material's row
- Per-sheet, per-part, and job totals with cut distance, time, and utilization — printable quote sheet
- All rates stored unit-safe: switching inch/metric preferred units never changes a saved price
Quote Job (in the Plasma sidebar) prices the sheet or multi-sheet job you've nested, using the same toolpaths, pierce counts, and motion-modeled cut times the generator produces — so the quote reflects what the machine will actually run, not a bounding-box guess. Laser and Router carry the same quoting engine minus the plasma-specific lines.
Pick your pricing method
Shops charge cutting three different ways, and the quote follows whichever one you run:
- By Cut Distance — a rate in $/m (metric) or $/ft (inch mode) times the total cut length. Charge $9.50 per meter? Type 9.50 and you're done. Engraving gets its own optional per-meter rate — scribe distance is tracked separately and never billed as cutting.
- By Machine Time — your hourly rate times the motion-modeled cut time, rapids and pierce delays included.
- By Area — a rate in $/sq ft (or $/sq m) times the nested part area, for shops that price work by the square.
One method prices the work — the others' rates are ignored entirely, so a quote can never silently mix charging styles. Per-pierce cost and gas cost (from the cut chart's flow data) are optional add-ons under any method, and material is always its own line on top.
Shop Rates and the Material Price List
Quote settings live on the machine profile in two layers, each on its own tab. Shop Rates holds your pricing method and its rate, setup fee, markup (on material, on the whole subtotal, or flat per sheet), and the pierce/gas add-ons — set once per machine. Materials is a price list with a row for every material and thickness from your cut recipes, grouped by material with collapsible sections and the materials in your current job highlighted on top. Each row carries the sheet or per-area price, plus optional overrides for your method's rate and the pierce cost — thick plate that runs slow and eats consumables can charge more while everything else inherits the shop rate. Everything auto-saves as you type.
In a multi-sheet job, each sheet is priced from its own material's row — mild steel and stainless sheets in one job each get their own prices and rates.
Reading the quote
The Quote tab breaks the job down per sheet (parts, pierces, cut distance, cut time, nesting
utilization, and each cost line) and per part type (quantity, pierces, distance, time, and cost
each). The summary shows the work line in your method's own terms — Cutting (14.20 m @ $9.50/m),
Labor (1h 24m @ $95/hr), or Cutting (18.50 sq ft @ $12/sq ft) — and always reports total cut
distance. Print Quote produces a clean one-page quote sheet with the same breakdown.
Distances display in meters or feet to match your preferred units, and every saved rate is stored in a unit-independent form — flipping Settings → Preferred Units between inch and metric never reinterprets a price you've already entered.