All About the "Print Cost Calculations" Feature

Introduction

At SimplyPrint, we understand how critical it is for you to keep track of your printing costs. To help you with this, we have introduced the "Print Cost Calculations" feature. This feature helps you calculate the cost of each print job, providing both basic and advanced calculations to cater to your specific needs.

Basic Print Cost Calculation

Available to all users, the basic calculation considers only the cost of the material used for the print job. Furthermore, you can define a material markup percentage (from 0-100%) that you'd like to add on top of the material price. This markup caters to various contingencies such as failed prints, clogged nozzles, and other common 3D printing mishaps.

Advanced Print Cost Calculation

The advanced cost calculation feature is accessible to users on the "Print Farm" plan and above. In addition to the material and markup costs, this feature allows for calculations based on:

Printer run time cost: You can define an hourly rate for the time your printer is running.
Electricity / power cost: This calculates the cost based on the power consumed by your printer during a print job, using the wattage of your printer and the cost per kWh in your region.
Labor cost: Here, you can define the preparation and post-processing time per print, along with your hourly rate.

Cost Estimations and Adjustments

We display print cost estimations for files uploaded to the file system, the queue, and for prints you're about to start. These estimates are based on our calculation of how long the print job will take. Once the print job is complete, we run a new calculation based on the actual print duration and whether it finished successfully or was cancelled. Please note, labor costs are not calculated for cancelled prints.

Material Usage

We calculate the material usage based on our Gcode analysis of each file. This analysis provides the material usage in millimeters, which we then convert to grams based on the material assigned to your printer. You can assign a specific spool or static material data using the tags feature. As different materials have different densities, the conversion from millimeters to grams can vary greatly. However, with our comprehensive knowledge of your printer and its settings, we've got this covered!

Settings and Overrides

While advanced print cost calculation settings can be defined for your account, they can also be overridden per printer. This flexibility allows you to have different hourly print-time rates for different printers.

History and Statistics

The cost of a finished print is stored in the print job history. So even if you change your settings or adjust your hourly rate, the price we calculated for you at the time of the job will remain in the history. In our "Statistics" feature/page, we provide the total print cost for your entire print farm.

Conclusion

With the "Print Cost Calculations" feature, we're aiming to give you a comprehensive and accurate understanding of your printing costs. Remember, all users have access to basic print cost calculations, while advanced features are available for "Print Farm" plan users and above. If you have any questions or need further help with this feature, please don't hesitate to get in touch with our support team. Happy printing!

Updated on: 10/06/2023