The math behind the estimate
A price you can explain.
LayerWorth estimates an entire order, then divides relevant totals across its units. Enter your own costs and current fee rates. Results are estimates; demand, tax obligations, shipping arrangements, and your final price remain your responsibility.
Material
Total material grams, including supports and waste, × cost per kg ÷ 1,000.
Printer wear and maintenance
((Purchase price − residual value) ÷ service-life hours + maintenance per hour) × batch print hours.
Energy
Average watts ÷ 1,000 × electricity cost per kWh × batch print hours.
Labor
Plate labor repeats for each plate. Setup happens once per order; finishing happens for each successful unit. Minutes × hourly rate ÷ 60 converts each part into a cost.
Failure reserve
Repeatable costs (material, machine, energy and plate labor) × failure probability ÷ (1 − failure probability). Setup, finishing, shipping and packaging are charged once to successful units. This assumes failed attempts consume the same repeatable costs.
Packaging, overhead and shipping
Per-unit packaging × quantity + per-order packaging + order overhead + your shipping cost. Shipping charged to the customer is revenue, not a reduction in shipping cost.
Fees and margin
Percentage fees use the rule’s subtotal or subtotal-plus-shipping basis. Fixed fees apply per unit or per order. Target margin is profit ÷ total customer revenue; it is not markup. Fees plus target margin must leave room for costs.
Extra materials
Quick mode uses one total for the whole order. Itemized mode replaces that total with each component’s cost × quantity, multiplied by finished units when its scope is per unit. These non-printed components are consumed after successful printing, so they are not automatically included in failed-print retries.
Detailed plates
Each plate can contain different filaments with separate gram quantities and costs. The engine sums all filament costs and occupied print hours, and counts the plates for production labor. A single finished product can require several plates. The same machine, electricity and failed-plate assumptions apply throughout the batch.
Recommended price
With no shipping revenue or minimum floors: (order costs + fixed fees) ÷ (1 − percentage fees − target margin) ÷ quantity. When shipping revenue or minimum targets are present, the engine also accounts for those constraints. Price is rounded upward to the nearest cent.
Profit per printer-hour
Order profit ÷ expected machine time. Expected hours = batch print hours ÷ (1 − failure probability). Both the recommendation and your selling-price check use the same inputs and fee rules.
Worked example: a small planter
Illustrative inputs: 80 g at $22/kg; 3 print hours; a $549 printer with 8,000-hour service life and $0 residual; $0.07/hour maintenance; 105 W at $0.13/kWh; $20/hour labor with 5 setup minutes, 2 plate minutes and 1 finishing minute; $0.35 packaging; 5% failed-plate probability; 3% + $0.30 order fees; 45% target margin. One unit, one plate, no shipping or overhead.
- material
- $1.76
- extra Materials
- $0.00
- machine
- $0.42
- energy
- $0.04
- production Labor
- $0.67
- failure Reserve
- $0.15
- finishing Labor
- $2.00
- packaging
- $0.35
- overhead
- $0.00
- shipping
- $0.00
- Total order costs
- $5.39
- Recommended price / unit
- $10.94
- Channel fees / order
- $0.63
- Profit / order
- $4.93
- Profit / printer-hour
- $1.56
The engine computes these figures directly. Displayed cost lines are rounded for readability; calculations retain precision before the final selling price is rounded.