Instant CNC quoting
Clients upload a STEP file or a DXF and get an estimate in seconds from your rate card, including laser, waterjet and plasma cutting. You set the firm price and send it; they accept online with their PO.
Quoting is on the Quoting and Integrated plans. Your clients open your quote page, drop in a STEP file, choose material, finish, tolerance, quantity and lead time for each part, and see an estimate straight away. When they send it, you get the request with their file.
Set up your rate card#
In the console, open Quoting. Estimates come only from these numbers:
| Setting | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Name clients see | Your shop’s name at the top of the quote page and in emails. |
| Units clients see first | Inches or millimetres. Clients can switch. |
| Machine rate, $/hour | Your blended shop rate. |
| Minutes per setup, setups per part | Setup time, shared across the quantity ordered. |
| Handling minutes per part | Loading, deburring, inspection. |
| Smallest charge per line | Your minimum. |
| Markup % | Added on top. |
| Materials | For each: $/kg, how fast you cut it (cm³/min), density, and finishing rate (cm²/min). |
| Finishes | For each: $/cm², a lot charge, and which materials it’s offered for. |
| Brand color | The accent color on your quote page and on quotes you send. |
| Quotes valid for, days | The valid-until date a sent quote starts with. You can change it on each quote. |
| Terms the client accepts | Payment, shipping, what’s included. Printed on every quote you send; the client ticks a box to accept them. |
| Remind the client … days before a quote expires | One reminder email per quote revision. 0 turns reminders off. |
| A PO number is required to accept | Tick it if you only take orders with a purchase order. |
Tick Quoting is on, save, and use Try the quote page with one of your own parts to check the numbers.
How an estimate is worked out#
For each part: stock is the part’s bounding box plus an allowance; machining time is the material removed divided by your cut rate, plus surface area divided by your finishing rate, scaled for complexity and tolerance; setup time is shared across the quantity; finishes are charged by area plus their lot charge; then your markup and the lead-time factor are applied. The estimate is shown as a range, not a single number.
- Parts too large for the shop’s machines are flagged for a manual quote.
- Parts that look like hardware (bolts, nuts, washers) start unticked, so clients don’t get a price for machining a bolt.
- The server recalculates every estimate from your saved rates, so a client can’t send you an edited price.
An estimate is a starting point. You always set the firm price.
Share the quote page#
Your link is on Overview:
https://assemblyatlas.com/quote/?key=aa_live_…Put it behind a “Get a quote” button on your site, in your email signature, or in an iframe on a page of your own:
<iframe src="https://assemblyatlas.com/quote/?key=aa_live_…"
style="width:100%;height:860px;border:0" title="Instant quote"></iframe>Files are STEP (.stp, .step), IGES (.igs, .iges) or DXF (.dxf), up to 30 MB, and go only to you. Clients who try a SolidWorks, Inventor, Fusion or DWG file are told how to save it as STEP or DXF.
Flat parts from a DXF#
Plates, brackets, gaskets and other flat parts often arrive as a 2D drawing. Clients upload the DXF and enter the thickness; the page makes each outline a solid of that thickness, shows it in 3D, and prices it like any other part.
- What’s measured: each part’s outline and the holes inside it, exactly from the drawing: area, size, cut length (the outline plus every hole), and the number of holes. Identical parts in one drawing become one line with a quantity.
- Units: taken from the file when it says. When it doesn’t, the client chooses before anything is priced; nothing is assumed.
- What’s left out: text, dimensions, hatching, the paper-space sheet, and layers named for dimensions, notes, centre lines, bend lines, etching or the title block. The page lists what it skipped. Lines that don’t join into a closed outline aren’t counted, and the client is told.
- How it’s priced: on your cutting rate card when it’s on (below); otherwise as a part machined from plate of that thickness.
The request shows you the thickness, cut length and holes for each part, and the DXF is attached.
Laser, waterjet and plasma cutting#
Under Cut parts from DXF drawings on the rate card, tick Price DXF parts as cut parts and enter your own numbers:
| Setting | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Process clients see | Laser cutting, waterjet cutting, plasma cutting, or your own words. |
| Cutting rate, $/hour | Your machine rate for the cutter. |
| Setup minutes per line | Programming and loading the sheet, shared across the quantity. |
| Handling seconds per part | Unloading and deburring each part. |
| Smallest charge per line | Your minimum for cut work. |
| Sheet scrap %, gap around each part | Each part is charged its rectangle of sheet plus the gap, plus this share for the skeleton and offcuts. |
| Largest sheet | Parts bigger than this are flagged for a manual quote. |
| Materials | For each: $/kg, density, and the thicknesses you stock, each with its cutting speed and pierce time. |
Thicknesses and speeds are entered in the units your clients see first (inches or millimetres). For a part: cutting time is the cut length divided by your speed for that material and thickness, plus one pierce for the outline and one per hole; then sheet, setup, finish, your markup and the lead-time factor, shown as a range like any estimate.
- Only thicknesses you stock are priced. The client picks from your thicknesses. A thickness within 0.05 mm of one in your table uses its speed (so 1/8″ entered as 3.175 mm matches 0.125 in); nothing is worked out between two thicknesses.
- If a client needs another thickness, or picks a material you don’t stock that thick, the line says Priced by the shop, isn’t in the estimated total, and you price it by hand when you answer.
- Finishes are offered for cut materials the same way: list the cutting material’s id (shown under it) in the finish’s Only for column, or leave it blank for every material.
The sample numbers are a starting point for a fibre laser on mild steel, stainless and aluminium. Replace them with your own before you turn it on.
Answer a quote#
- Quote requests arrive under Requests, by email and by webhook, numbered like
Q-0417-7KX2. - Open one to see the client, each part with its choices and estimate, and Download their CAD file.
- Enter a firm unit price for each line. A blank one uses the estimate’s middle; a line marked Not priced automatically needs a price.
- Check the valid until date, add a note and the terms, and choose Send quote to client.
The client gets an email with a link to the quote, with your name and brand color. From that page they can save it as a PDF, ask for changes, or accept it with their name, PO number, PO document (PDF, JPEG or PNG) and ship-to address.
- Accepted: the quote is marked Won and shows as an Order, with the PO to download. You and the client both get an email confirming it.
- Changes asked: you’re emailed their message and the quote goes back to Reviewing. Change the prices or note and send it again: it becomes revision 2 at the same link, and the old revision can no longer be accepted.
- Opened: the quote shows whether the client has opened it, how many times and when. Your own Open as the client sees it doesn’t count.
- Reminders: the client gets one reminder a few days before the quote expires (3 by default; set it on the rate card, 0 for none). Not when they’ve asked for changes you haven’t answered. Remind client sends one now.
- A quote can’t be accepted after its valid-until date (it stays valid all of that day, wherever the client is), after you mark it Lost, or a second time.
Prefer your own email? Write my own email drafts the quote, with the link once it’s sent, and Mark as sent records it. Without email set up on your server, the quote is saved and you copy the client link from the quote.