Skip to content
← All builds
MB-305SoftwareDemo · phases 1–4 done2026

Instant Laser Quoting

A new website for a laser-cutting and press-brake shop, with instant quotes, now also a ShopJig module. Upload a DXF or a STEP file and get the cut length, bends, material and a price in seconds, from rates the shop controls.

An instant quote for two parts, shown for a fictional demo shop: a flat bracket from a DXF and a bent channel from a STEP file in 3D, each with size, holes, bends, cut length and quantity pricing, beside the estimate total.
Fig. 1 · An instant quote for two parts, shown for a fictional demo shop: a flat bracket from a DXF and a bent channel from a STEP file in 3D, each with size, holes, bends, cut length and quantity pricing, beside the estimate total.

A sister business of the shop ShopJig was built for runs a fiber laser and a CNC press brake. Its site was a generated single-page app with a contact form for quotes. The rebuild gives it a proper site and a quote that arrives while the customer is still on the page. The quoting is now offered to other shops as a ShopJig module.

How a quote is made

  • DXF (flat parts): ezdxf and Shapely find the outer profile and the holes, then measure cut length, pierces and the material’s bounding area.
  • STEP (formed parts): build123d on OpenCascade recognises the sheet-metal part, finds its bends, and unfolds it to a flat pattern. The bends are grouped by thickness and inside radius for the press brake.
  • Untrusted files run in a sandbox. Parsing happens in a queued worker with limits on time and memory, never in the web process.
  • The customer sees the part in a three.js preview next to a line-by-line price, in inches or millimetres.

Pricing the shop controls

The spec left some rules open, so each became an admin setting with every option built rather than one guessed: the allowance for rapid moves between cuts, the handling factor, and how quantity breaks apply. The minimum order applies to the whole quote, and brake setup is charged once for each thickness and inside radius, shared among the parts that use it.

Still to come

Emailed PDF estimates, abuse protection on uploads, and the shop’s real rates. Every rate in the demo, including those in the screenshot, is a placeholder.