Applies to: Core, Advanced, Enterprise
Machine and nesting settings affect how Quote & Cut calculates and prepares jobs.
You can find these settings from:
Quote & Cut → Settings
Machine hourly rate #
The machine hourly rate is used when Quote & Cut calculates cutting time.
Set this to the hourly rate you want to recover for machine usage.
This may include:
- Laser running cost.
- Operator labour.
- Electricity.
- General workshop overhead.
- Desired margin, depending on your pricing method.
If you are unsure, start with your real internal hourly cost, then test quotes against jobs you have already priced manually.
Handling cost #
Handling cost is applied per full sheet.
Use this if you want Quote & Cut to include a sheet handling allowance in the calculation.
This can help cover:
- Loading sheets.
- Moving material.
- Removing cut parts.
- General material handling time.
Sheet gap #
The Sheet Gap setting controls the gap used around sheet boundaries during nesting.
There are two options:
Use Part Gap
Quote & Cut uses the Gap (mm) value from the selected material.
Use Fixed Value
Quote & Cut uses one fixed sheet gap value for all materials.
When to use “Use Part Gap” #
Use Use Part Gap if different materials or thicknesses need different spacing.
For example, thicker materials may require more clearance than thinner materials.
When to use “Use Fixed Value” #
Use Use Fixed Value if you want one consistent sheet gap across all materials.
Set the value in millimetres.
Set it to 0 if you do not want an additional sheet gap.
Material sheet limit #
The Material Sheet Limit setting lets you limit how many sheets a quote can use.
This is useful if you do not want customers placing very large jobs through the instant quote form.
You can enable:
Limit how many material sheets can be used per order
Then set the maximum number of sheets allowed.
Maximum sheets per order #
This is the maximum number of material sheets allowed for one quote/order.
For example, if this is set to 5, Quote & Cut will stop or redirect jobs that are estimated to need more than five sheets, depending on your chosen action.
When the sheet limit is exceeded #
You can choose what happens when the sheet limit is exceeded:
Show error and prevent nesting
The customer sees a message and cannot continue with the quote.
Show Contact Us button
The customer sees a message and a contact button instead of continuing through instant checkout.
Sheet limit message #
You can customise the message shown to the customer.
Available placeholders include:
{estimated_sheets}{minimum_sheets}{max_sheets}{material_name}{total_parts}{allowed_area}{required_area}
Use these placeholders to make the message more specific.
Example message:
This job is estimated to require {estimated_sheets} sheets of {material_name}, which is above our online limit of {max_sheets} sheets. Please contact us for a custom quote.
Contact page or custom URL #
If you choose Show Contact Us button, select a contact page or enter a custom contact URL.
A custom URL overrides the selected contact page.
Contact button text #
Set the button text shown to customers.
Example:
Request a Manual Quote
Estimator packing efficiency #
This is used for the fast pre-flight sheet estimate before the full nesting calculation.
The default value of 0.8 is a sensible starting point.
Only adjust this if your estimates are consistently too strict or too loose.
Saving changes #
After changing machine or nesting settings, click:
Save Settings
Then run a test quote with a known DXF file.
Continue to: Generated Order Files.
