Polymer · powder · metal · plain-language 3D printing
PrintDFM is the plain-language way into Partimation's 3D-printing checks — no orientation glossary required. Upload a model and see whether it prints clean on FDM, SLS/MJF, or SLM, what it'll cost, and how that price stacks up against machining or casting the same part on the same should-cost engine.
Free to start · no credit card · your files stay yours.
The problem
FDM, SLS, SLM, supports, build orientation — most people just want to know if a part will print cleanly and what it'll cost, not a crash course in additive process names first.
A print price with no breakdown gives you nothing to check it against — you can't tell if the material, the supports, or the machine time is what's driving the number.
Nobody hands you a side-by-side number for printing a part versus having it machined or cast — so the choice usually comes down to whichever process someone already knows.
What you get
Drop in a part and see whether it prints clean, in plain language — the supports and layer-stepping findings behind the answer are there if you want them, never required reading to get started.
The tool picks the printing processes that make sense for the material — polymer filament or polymer powder for plastics, metal powder-bed for metals — and screens the part against each one.
The price comes off the same should-cost engine behind every Partimation quote — material, machine time, and support removal broken out, so you can see what's actually driving the cost.
Because the cost engine is shared across the whole suite, a 3D-printed part prices out next to a machined or cast version of the same part — a real comparison, not a guess.
How it works
Upload a 3D model — STL, STEP, or 3MF. No account setup, no material picker to get wrong.
The tool checks it against FDM, SLS/MJF, or SLM (whichever fits the material) and reports support volume and layer-stepping in plain language.
For metal parts, a thermal-distortion trend runs before you'd ever start a build.
Get a should-cost for printing it, and — because it's the same engine — for machining or casting the same part.
Pricing
Priced the same as the rest of the suite. Checking a part is unmetered — run as many as you like.
EUR and GBP prices exclude VAT, added at checkout where it applies. Early adopters keep their price as the suite grows.
Run it your way
Sign in and check a part from any browser. We run the compute, ship the updates, and keep your data yours.
Aerospace and anyone under NDA can run the whole thing on their own hardware. Licenses and updates are signed files — it never phones home, so an air-gapped install stays air-gapped.
Ready to go deeper?
PrintDFM runs the same checks AdditiveDFM does. When you're ready for the full picture — orientation trade-offs side by side, SLM distortion prediction, and should-cost built for service bureaus and OEM engineering teams — AdditiveDFM is that same tool, unfiltered.
What AdditiveDFM adds for bureaus and OEM teams:
FAQ
Three processes are covered today: FDM polymer filament, SLS/MJF polymer powder, and SLM metal powder-bed. The process follows from the material on the part rather than from a picker you have to get right before uploading. A plastic part screens against FDM and SLS/MJF; a metal part goes to SLM.
Material, machine time, and support removal come out broken apart rather than bundled into one figure. Each line names the rate or the rule that produced it, so a print quote is something you check rather than something you accept. Support removal is priced off the support volume the readiness screen computed, not a flat percentage.
Printing, machining, and casting the same part price through one engine, so the three numbers sit next to each other on the same basis. Every line in all three traces to a named rate or rule, and the should-cost curve returns the exact quantity where one process overtakes another. A should-cost against a should-cost, not a print quote against a machining habit.
Upload a model — STL, STEP, or 3MF — and the findings come back in plain terms: whether it prints clean, what supports it needs, and what it costs. Process names and orientation detail sit underneath if you want them, and are never required reading first. A question ends with an answer and a price, not a reading list.
Get started
Check a real part free in your browser — no glossary, no account, just an answer and a price.
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