Pre-sliced filament printing: quotes, materials and setup

Free filament quote demo. Upload a supported pre-sliced job to inspect its reported material use and try the pricing rules. Demo prices are examples. This page takes no payments and starts no equipment. The free quote workflow reads pre-sliced jobs; the separate Pro preview can prepare an STL using an offered profile when enabled.

Start with an already-sliced job

Export a single sliced plate/job using a supported text G-code format. PrusaSlicer, SuperSlicer, Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer gram totals are the initial parser targets. A Bambu/Orca 3MF must actually contain a single sliced G-code job. The free sliced-file input does not accept an unsliced STL, OBJ or model-only 3MF. Use the separate STL preview or Pro slicing controls for STL geometry. Binary BGCODE and length-only exports require another export format; missing material weight is never treated as zero.

Use the printer and nozzle profile specified by the shop. The file represents the whole job, including the copies already arranged on its plate. Supports, purge and wipe-tower usage must be included and checked during review. Reading the file does not certify those values or machine compatibility.

Configure materials and cost per kilogram

Open Personalizer > Filament printing. Add PLA, PETG, TPU or any custom material with a stable ID, customer name and enabled switch. Keep your purchase cost separate from the selling rate: customer estimates use the selling price per kilogram, and purchase cost stays private.

Create separate entries for grades or colors that have different rates. For each filament product, choose which materials are available and describe the required printer/nozzle profile. Disable a material or product to stop new estimates. Product stock is managed by WooCommerce; spool-level gram reservations are not automated in this release.

Choose a rounding policy

The safety percentage is applied to each material’s reported weight before rounding. Choose no increment rounding, nearest increment, or always round up. The increment can be 1 g, 5 g, 10 g or your own value. Nearest rounding can reduce billable weight; round up avoids rounding below the adjusted amount.

Example: 42.3 g plus 5% becomes 44.415 g. Round up to the next 5 g to bill 45 g. At $30/kg, the material charge is $1.35. Add the product base charge, setup fee and enabled named job fees, then apply the job minimum as a floor. WooCommerce handles tax, shipping and coupons separately. A safety allowance is a billing rule, not a guarantee of actual machine consumption.

Review, approve and preserve the original

The customer uploads the job, maps each filament slot to a shop material, and submits the provisional estimate. In the merchant queue, download the private original and inspect it in the correct slicer or machine software. Check usage, material assignment, printer/nozzle profile and the complete plate. Approve only when those checks pass; otherwise reject it with instructions for a corrected export.

The customer refreshes the request, accepts the approved total and adds the whole job to WooCommerce. Expired quotes or changes to the relevant configuration require a fresh estimate and review. The server computes the price and binds the retained original file to the request and order. Approval and payment do not start a printer.

Attach the panel to a product or page

Choose quote-only for an inquiry/demo, or map a published WooCommerce simple product or variation to the filament offering. Use a separate commerce product from the visual editor’s product templates. Keep shipping, tax, physical stock and payment configuration in WooCommerce.

[h4pe_sliced_print product="your-filament-product-id"]

Add the shortcode to a WordPress Shortcode block, Elementor Shortcode widget, Beaver Builder module or Help4 Builder shortcode element. Your instructions, photos and tutorial sections remain ordinary editable page blocks. The panel inherits the Personalizer colors; optional shortcode attributes change its title, introduction and action labels.

Native Help4 Commerce can display the quote panel, but checkout stays unavailable until its separate server-side pricing contract is integrated and verified. The public Help4WordPress demonstration is quote-only.

Free tools and the Pro slicing preview

Pre-sliced upload, material pricing and merchant review are free core features. The separate Pro slicing preview sends STL jobs to an isolated private worker; WordPress itself does not run the slicer. Manufacturer APIs, production notifications and private customer camera viewing remain Pro development work. Uploading or paying does not send a job to a printer.

The existing restricted connected-production preview remains separately controlled by its site allowlist and owner switch. This free quoting panel is available on other sites without that gate.

Privacy and help

Originals are stored privately outside the public website and are bound to the current customer session. Keep the same browser session to revisit an unordered request. Order-linked originals are retained for fulfillment; other files follow the cleanup policy. Upload only files you have permission to share with the shop.

All tutorials · Visual 3D editor demo · Contact Help4 support

Setup, preparation and other job fees

Open Personalizer > Filament printing > Pricing rules. Set the print setup charge and add named fixed fees, such as machine preparation, packaging or finishing. Each enabled fee applies once to the complete uploaded job. Disable a fee or set it to zero to remove it from new quotes. Customers see each charge separately.

The calculation is: material charge after the waste allowance and weight rounding, plus product base, setup and enabled job fees. The minimum is a floor on that subtotal, not another fee added on top. Tax and shipping remain commerce settings. Example: $1.35 material + $2.50 setup + $2.00 preparation + $1.25 packaging = $7.10; a $5 minimum adds nothing.

Use the Waste / extra material allowance for your additional shop margin. Check whether the sliced file already includes supports, purge and wipe-tower material before adding an allowance for the same usage. File estimates do not measure actual consumption. Changing rates or fees requires new estimates for unpaid quotes; completed order snapshots keep their agreed charges.

Open and rotate an STL before quoting

The optional Preview an STL model panel opens ASCII or binary STL files locally in the browser, up to 8 MiB and 100,000 triangles. Drag to rotate and use the zoom, reset and keyboard-accessible buttons. This local viewer sends no model to the server and does not attach it to an order. STL files do not declare units; the displayed dimensions are model units.

An STL describes geometry. Filament usage depends on the machine, nozzle, material, layer height, infill and supports chosen during slicing. Use a pre-sliced file for the free quote workflow, or the separate Pro slicing panel when this site offers an approved profile. A model-only 3MF is also not a sliced print job.

Pro plans: three licensed websites

Pro: $499 USD per year includes 200 cloud slices per day, shared across all three licensed sites. Pro Unlimited: $999 USD per year covers three sites with no daily slice-count cap. A main hostname and its www alias count as one site: example.com and www.example.com share one activation, with two more equivalent pairs available. Other subdomains count separately.

The daily allowance resets at midnight UTC. Queuing, concurrent-job limits and per-file resource limits protect the slicing service on both plans. Unlimited does not mean every job runs simultaneously. The free editor, local STL viewer, pre-sliced quoting and merchant review remain available without Pro.

The current cloud-slicing preview is restricted to Help4WordPress. Paid activation and additional machine profiles are being prepared. Printer API integration, production notifications and private job webcams are Pro development work; the preview does not start equipment. Paid checkout is currently unavailable while license activation is being connected. Review the available profiles before using generated files in a production shop.

Try the Pro cloud-slicing preview

Open Slice an STL in the cloud, choose the offered profile, upload a millimetre STL and select Slice this STL. The initial experimental profile uses PLA, a 0.4 mm nozzle, a 220 × 220 × 250 mm build volume, 0.2 mm layers, 15% infill and no supports. Confirm that these settings suit the model. This is a generic test profile, not a validated Bambu or other manufacturer profile.

When the job completes, choose Use sliced file for quote to apply the shop’s materials, waste allowance and fees, or download the generated G-code for review. The operator must inspect the file in the correct machine software before printing. No upload, quote or approval starts a printer.

Cloud uploads are limited to 8 MiB and 100,000 triangles, or the host’s smaller upload limit. Temporary cloud files expire after 24 hours. This preview keeps up to 30 cloud jobs per customer session and permits 12 submission attempts per session per hour. Each license can have five active jobs; jobs run through a queue. Accepted jobs reserve a daily slice; failed jobs return that allowance, and retrying the same request does not consume another slice.

Your equipment, a print partner, or both

The free Fulfillment workspace lets you assign products to your own shop, an outside provider, or choose a destination for each reviewed order. Printful, Printify and Gelato product references can be organized for print-on-demand planning; custom manufacturers can be recorded for separately agreed 3D printing and engraving jobs. WooCommerce orders keep local routing drafts and their review history. Provider account connections and automatic external ordering are still in development.

Set up fulfillment routes and review an order

If a submitted job needs a replacement file, shop staff can choose Request changes and enter a note, including when the original file is missing or damaged. The customer should upload a fresh file and request a new quote. A rejected quote cannot be approved or added to the cart.