Master 3D print quoting — from your first calculation to advanced integrations. Guides for every feature, written for real 3D printing businesses.
Account setup, onboarding, and your first quote
4 articles
STL/G-code upload, presets, and cost breakdowns
5 articles
Creating, sending, and managing professional quotes
5 articles
Client database, tags, and customer upload links
3 articles
Kanban board, calendar scheduling, and job photos
4 articles
Printers, materials, suppliers, and consumable tracking
4 articles
Create invoices, export PDFs, and sync with Xero
3 articles
Shopify, Xero, Webhooks, and cloud storage
5 articles
Design Studio, AI assistant, and Part Drawings
4 articles
Pricing strategies, growth tips, and running a print shop
2 articles
From the blog
Real-world advice for running a profitable 3D printing business.
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A quick tour of the platform — what Printforge does, who it's for, and how to get the most out of it.
How to sign up, verify your email, and navigate the dashboard for the first time.
A step-by-step walkthrough: calculate costs, create a quote, add line items, and export a professional PDF.
What's included in each plan — Hobby, Starter, Pro, and Scale — and how to choose the right one for your business.
Understand the four cost components — material, machine time, labour, and overhead — and how Printforge calculates them.
How to upload STL files and get automatic dimension analysis and volume-based cost estimates.
Upload G-code files for precise cost calculations using slicer metadata — supports Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer, and Cura.
Save your favourite printer + material + settings combos as presets for one-click cost calculations.
How to read the cost breakdown — the bar chart, per-component costs, and what drives your pricing.
How to create a professional quote — add line items, set markup, assign a client, and configure terms.
Email quotes directly from Printforge with a professional template and PDF attachment.
Save quote configurations as templates and apply them to new quotes for faster quoting on repeat work.
Generate polished A4 PDF quotes with your logo, line items, GST, and payment terms.
How to use quote statuses to manage your sales pipeline and track win rates.
How to add, organise, and search your client contacts in Printforge.
Organise clients with colour-coded tags and keep a timeline of every interaction.
Generate shareable links so customers can upload STL, G-code, and PDF files directly to your account.
Manage your production queue with a visual kanban board — 7 status columns from queued to shipped.
Schedule jobs on specific printers using the weekly Gantt-style calendar with drag-to-reschedule.
Upload progress and completion photos to jobs — a visual record for you and your clients.
The full lifecycle of a job — from accepting a quote to shipping the final product.
How to add and configure printers — build volume, hourly rates, and maintenance tracking.
Add filaments and resins, track stock levels, and keep cost-per-gram calculations accurate.
Monitor material and consumable stock, get alerts when supplies run low, and never run out mid-print.
Track your material suppliers and monitor consumables like nozzles, build plates, and PTFE tubes.
Generate professional invoices with the full lifecycle — from draft to paid — linked to your quotes and jobs.
How invoice PDFs work — TAX INVOICE header, GST breakdown, ABN display, and automatic PAID watermark.
Display prices in AUD, USD, EUR, or GBP — currency symbols and formatting for international clients.
Import Shopify orders as jobs, auto-create clients from customers, and keep your fulfilment in sync.
Push invoices and contacts from Printforge to your Xero account automatically.
Send real-time HTTP notifications when jobs or quotes change status — connect to Zapier, Make, or custom APIs.
Export quotes, invoices, and design files to Google Drive or OneDrive with automatic folder structure.
Run a full platform backup to OneDrive — all data, quotes, invoices, design files, and job photos.
Manage design projects with AI-powered brainstorming, reference image analysis, file versioning, and design briefs.
Describe a job in plain English and let AI generate structured line items with material and printer suggestions.
Create technical drawings with orthographic views and dimension annotations from your STL files.
Use dashboard analytics for business insights and export data to CSV for reporting and analysis.
A practical guide to pricing strategy — covering costs, competition, and finding the right margin for your business.
Practical steps for scaling up — finding clients, managing workflow, and knowing when to invest in more capacity.