Instant quotes

Customers upload a drawing or a 3D model on your store and get a price straight away, then add it to their cart like any product. The order arrives with their file attached and everything they chose in the notes.

There are two kinds:

Flat parts (laser cutting, CNC routing, bending) from a DXF drawing.
3D prints from an STL, 3MF or OBJ model.

Both live in Catalog → Custom Parts. Customers use one upload box: a DXF gets a flat-part quote and a 3D model gets a 3D print quote. Kaniva measures the file itself to work out every price, so the price always matches the file.

Turn instant quotes on

Open Catalog → Custom Parts. If you don't see it, ask Kaniva support to switch Custom Parts on for your store.
Tick Enable Custom Parts Quoting and click Save Settings.
Add the page's address (shown under the switch) to your store's menu.

Quantity discounts on the same page apply to both kinds of quote.

Flat parts

New stores start with laser cutting and CNC routing in mild steel, stainless and aluminium. Change them under Materials and Services to your own materials, thicknesses and rates.

The customer uploads a DXF, picks the service, material and thickness, and sees the price. On the drawing they can:

click lines to leave uncut, or part of a line;
mark lines as bends;
set each layer to cut, etch, bend or ignore (layers named like etch or bend are set for them);
give each part on the sheet its own quantity, or leave a part out.

Each part is priced at its own quantity. The quote page in View Quotes shows the drawing with everything the customer left out.

A store that offers only 3D printing can switch its laser and routing services off under Services. The quote page then goes straight to 3D printing.

3D printing

Click 3D printing at the top of Catalog → Custom Parts.

1
Customer uploads STL, 3MF or OBJ
2
Kaniva slices the model with your printer's settings
3
Price: filament + printer time + handling, plus setup
4
Customer adds it to the cart
5
You get the order with the model attached

Set up your printer and prices

Tick Offer 3D print quotes.
Under Your printer, enter the build size and pick the nozzle. Quality choices follow the nozzle: on a 0.4 mm nozzle Draft, Standard and Fine print at 0.28, 0.2 and 0.12 mm layers; on a 0.6 mm nozzle at 0.42, 0.3 and 0.18 mm.
Under Supports, leave Add supports where a model needs them ticked unless you never print supports (see Supports below).
Under Prices, set Printer time ($ per hour), Handling ($ per piece), Setup ($ per order) and Minimum order.
Click Save 3D printing settings.

Filaments

New stores start with PLA, PETG, ASA and TPU 95A in common colors. Click Add filament, or Edit on one, to set its price per kg, its density (on the spool's label) and its colors, one per line, like Black #1f2937. Untick Show on the quote page to hide one. A filament that quotes already use is switched off rather than deleted.

What the customer sees

They drop in their file and see it in 3D with its size and volume. They pick the filament, color, quality (Draft, Standard, Fine), strength (Light 10%, Standard 15%, Strong 40% or Solid infill), supports and which way up, and the quantity. The price updates as they change each choice, usually in a second or two. It shows the grams of filament and the print time for each piece.

A model too big for your printer as uploaded is turned on its side if that makes it fit. If it still doesn't fit, the customer is told its size and your printer's.
STL and OBJ files don't say what units they're in. Kaniva assumes millimetres unless the model would be tiny, and the customer can switch between millimetres and inches. A 3MF says its own units.
A sliced plate file from Bambu Studio or Orca (G-code inside a 3MF) is refused with a note to upload the model itself.

Supports

Before pricing, Kaniva checks the six flat ways a model could sit and turns it only when another way is clearly better: less support, and less of the surface touched by supports (each spot a support touches is a mark to clean up). Most downloaded models are already set up to print, so they usually stay as they are. The 3D view shows it the way it will print. The price includes the filament and time the supports take, and the breakdown says how many grams of it are supports.

Support adjustment scales the support filament and its share of the time. Our slicer uses grid supports; tree supports, as most Bambu and Orca setups print, use less. If your supports for a part weigh 6 g where the quote says 10 g, enter 0.6.
Support removal ($ per piece) is added only to pieces that print with supports.
Under Which way up, the customer can keep Best way up, choose As uploaded to keep their file's way, or Pick the bottom and tap the face of the model that should sit on the plate. They can choose None for supports if they designed the part to print without them. If they choose none and the model overhangs, they're told you'll check it before printing.
Untick Add supports where a model needs them to never print supports; customers then don't see the choice.

Multi-color prints and other requests

The instant price is for one color. When a customer uploads a 3MF that's set up for several colors (parts on different filaments, or painted), the quote page says so and offers Request a multi-color quote. Any customer can also choose Request a quote for something the instant price doesn't cover, like a part too big for your printer.

1
Customer sends a request with their file and a note
2
You get an email; it shows in Print jobs as Quote requested
3
Slice it yourself and send a price
4
Customer opens their link and adds it to the cart
5
From checkout on, it's a print like any other

The request comes to your store's admin email and sits at the top of Print jobs as Quote requested. Click Price it.
The page shows who it's from, what they'd like, and our one-color slice as a guide. Click Download model, slice it in your slicer with their colors, then enter the Total price for all the pieces (before shipping and tax) and an optional Message to them. Click Send price.
They get an email with a link to their price, good for 30 days. Add to cart puts it in their cart at your price. You can send a new price until they order.
Once they pay, it gets a work order like any print, and their request is in its notes and on the BOM.

Make the times match your printers

The time comes from slicing the model on a fast modern printer's settings. If your printers are faster or slower, change Print time adjustment: if a print the quote says takes 2 hours takes yours 1 h 30, enter 0.75.

After the order

The order line carries the model file and the choices: filament and color, quality, strength, supports (with their grams), which way up it was priced, size, and the estimated grams and time.

With Manufacturing on, a paid 3D print goes through your normal print flow:

1
Customer pays
2
A work order is made for the print, with its own BOM holding the customer's model
3
Download the model from the BOM, slice it, upload the sliced plate and approve it
4
Queue the plates on the work order
5
Start each plate on the printer

Catalog → Custom Parts → 3D printing lists Print jobs, ordered prints first, each with its stage and a link to the next step: Needs a sliced file, Approve the sliced file, Ready to print, Printing, Printed.
Needs a sliced file opens the print's BOM. At the top of Print files is the customer's model with Download the model and everything they chose. Open it in your slicer, set it up that way, slice, use Export plate sliced file, and upload the .3mf under the 3D print step. Approve it as you would any print file.
Ready to print opens the work order: queue the plates, then start each one on the printer as usual.

The work order's 3D print step is done in the work center set under Orders on the 3D printing page (by default, the one your printers are in), so its plates go to those printers. Each print has its own BOM on a hidden Custom 3D print item; it's never the item's active BOM, so nothing else builds from it.

Without Manufacturing, the order carries the model and choices and you print from the order.