Cost Estimate

To estimate costs for SLA prints first slice your parts in their software called Preform – Available for free at formlabs.com/software

Drag and drop your STL, 3MF or OBJ files into Preform. Set the printer type by clicking the “job setup” box in the right-hand menu, select Form3/3+, choose material and layer thickness and press “Apply.” On the left-hand menu click the top button marked “1-click.” The software will orient and support your part and then estimate how many milliliters (mL) of resin is required. Find the result in the “Summary” pop up at the lower left-hand side under “Volume.” Take this number and plug it into the quantity beside the resin of your choice in the form below to calculate the estimated cost. If you would like to submit a sliced file for printing your .FORM file is required. Please note “1-click” is not always the best orientation to choose, parts may be manually oriented and supported to improve print quality.

For more information on using Preform checkout Formlab’s Youtube Channel, they have posted a wealth of information including this in depth video on printing in soft materials.
 

To estimate costs for PLA prints using Bambu Lab printers this requires slicing your parts in their software Bambu Studio.

Bambu Studio
Available for free at bambulab.com/en/download/studio. During initial setup of the software you can select the printer model and nozzle size. We recommend you keep the software up to date and save the 3MF file rather than the GCODE so changes can be made to the project before printing if needed.

For our request form printers we have the following:

Quantity	Model	Nozzle	Materials
5	P1S	0.4mm	PLA, PETG, TPU for AMS (68D)
1	P1S	0.8mm	TPU 95A and softer, PLA, PETG
1	X1C	0.6mm	PLA-CF, PETG-CF, PC, ASA Aero, PLA Aero, PLA, PETG

For our First-In Cart printers we have the following:

Quantity	Model	Nozzle	Materials
6	X1C	0.4mm	PLA, PETG, TPU for AMS (68D)

After slicing all plates the software will give you a summary of the material usage located in the “Preview” tab “Slicing Result” pop-up at the bottom under “Total Estimation.” The cost shown is based on their brand pricing. As of 5/2025 Bambu brand prices their filament competitively with other readily available brands so the price shown in the slicer is a good estimate of the actual material cost.

For more information on using Bambu Studio…

• Bambu Studio 101 @ItsMeaDMaDe – This helpful video will show you all the software functions!
• Bambu Lab Wiki – A very thorough resource!

We have discontinued the Stratasys printers… but if you were wondering why you could see how much more expensive they are to print with their proprietary filament.

To estimate costs for FDM prints using Stratasys UPRINT and F123 Series printers this requires slicing your parts in their software called GrabCAD Print; Available for free at grabcad.com/print. Once the software is installed you can drag and drop or “add models” into the project, STL/3MF/OBJ/STEP as well as several CAD file formats are accepted file types. You should first select a printer template at the bottom-right of the screen. EPIC has both Uprint SE and Uprint SE Plus machines as well as F123 series printers F370 and F370CR. You will see as you select the templates the build envelope size on the preview screen will change. The menu items on the right-hand side allow you to select units, material and to auto orient the part. The first button “model info” lets you choose the units for your model. The second button “tray settings” lets you choose your material and slice height, 0.01in is the default. The third button “Model Settings” is where you choose your infill, Sparse – High Density is default, note you can set different infill settings for each part so select all to change all of the parts. The fourth button is “Support Settings,” leave this on the default “SMART” setting. Select all of your parts and press the “Orient” button (looks like a cube with curved arrows) and press “Auto Orient.” If your parts are outside of the build plate or overlapping you can use the “Arrange” button (looks like two cubes with straight arrows) to auto arrange the tray and/or project. To see the estimated material and support usage press the “Estimate” link at the bottom of the screen to the left of the “Select a printer” dropdown. Once slicing is complete a pop-up will display the estimated usage. If the units in the estimate are not cubic inches you can change the display units to inches from the preferences menu, under units control. If you would like to submit a sliced file for printing your .PRINT file is required.

For more information on using GrabCAD Print checkout GrabCAD’s Youtube Channel