--- title: "Partimation — should-cost a weldment, cut to coat" url: https://partimation.com/fabrication/ description: "Feed Partimation a steel BOM or a 3D model and get a should-cost estimate for the whole weldment — cut, fit, welded, blasted, coated — plus a shop-floor traveler. Start free." product: "FabDFM" domain: fabdfm.com --- # Price a weldment in minutes — and stop guessing at the labor that drives the cost. *Steel BOM · weld & fit-up hours · coating area · should-cost* Feed FabDFM the steel BOM your detailing software already exports, or a 3D model, and get back a should-cost estimate for the whole weldment — cut, drilled, fit, welded, blasted, coated, delivered — plus a routing traveler the shop can work from. Price a job in the time it takes to open the file, not the afternoon it takes to build a takeoff by hand. - **Minutes** — from a steel BOM to a should-cost, not a day of takeoff - **4 cost drivers** — tonnage, fit-up hours, weld metres, coating area — priced automatically - **Mill breaks** — should-cost curves that land on real tonnage price breaks - **Traveler included** — routing + EN 1090 execution-class context, advisory Free to start · no credit card · your files stay yours. ## Estimating a weldment shouldn't take longer than building it. - **Estimating a weldment eats a day** — Tonnage, connection hours, weld metres, coating area — added up by hand, and every estimator does it a little differently. Slow, inconsistent quotes lose jobs to the shop that answered first. - **Labor is the real driver, and we're guessing** — Fit-up and welding hours are what actually set the cost on a weldment, not the steel itself — and most quotes are still built on an estimator's gut feel for how many hours it'll take. - **A design change means starting the takeoff over** — Sanity-check a supplier's steel price, or re-price a revision, and you're back at the beginning — pulling the BOM apart and re-adding it by hand. ## The four numbers that set the price, worked out automatically. - **Straight from the BOM — Price it from the steel BOM you already export** — Feed Partimation the same BOM your detailing software already produces — no re-modeling the job in a separate costing tool, no re-typing member lists into a spreadsheet. - **Know your real driver — Tonnage, fit-up hours, weld metres, coating area — automatic** — The four numbers that actually set a weldment's cost come straight out of the takeoff, not an estimator's gut feel — so two estimators land on the same price. - **Quote by the ton, and the truckload — Should-cost curves that hit real mill order breaks** — See the price at every quantity, with the tonnage price breaks that apply at real mill order sizes — not a flat per-piece number that ignores how steel actually gets bought. - **Shop-ready, not just a number — Weld takeoff done, and a traveler to match** — Weld metres and connection types come off the member contacts automatically, with hand-weld markup applied — then it all ships as a routing traveler carrying BS EN 1090 execution-class context (advisory, not a certification). ## Four steps from a steel BOM to a price you can send. 1. **Drop the BOM or model** — Upload the steel BOM your detailing software exports, or a 3D model. No re-modeling, no template. 2. **See the four cost drivers** — Tonnage, fit-up hours, weld metres, and coating area come out of the takeoff automatically, each with the number behind it. 3. **Check the should-cost curve** — See the price at every quantity, tonnage price breaks included, so you know exactly where the next mill order gets cheaper. 4. **Hand off the traveler** — Get a shop-floor traveler with the routing and EN 1090 execution-class context already on it — ready for the floor, not just the quote. ## Start free. Upgrade when it's winning you work. Priced for a one-person job shop and a production fabricator alike. Takeoff and should-costing are unmetered — run as many BOMs as you like. | Tier | Price (EUR / USD / GBP) | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | €0 / $0 / £0 | 10 parts a month; DFM findings + best-fit process; Advisory analysis, draft resolution; No credit card | | Pro | €199 /seat · mo / $199 /seat · mo / £169 /seat · mo | Unlimited parts, full resolution; Should-cost, reports, exports; Process selection, routing, DFM across processes; 30 simulation runs a month | | Shop | €699 /mo · 5 seats / $699 /mo · 5 seats / £595 /mo · 5 seats | Everything in Pro; Your shop's rates & cost model; Quote calibration + API access; 150 pooled simulation runs a month | | On-prem | €15k yr 1, then €10k renewal / $15k yr 1, then $10k renewal / £12.5k yr 1, then £8.5k renewal | Runs on your hardware; Unlimited simulation, no metering; Signed updates, never phones home; 10 seats · optional device lock | | Enterprise | from €25k / from $25k / from £21k /yr | Multi-site licensing, custom processes and rules, a model tuned on your own quote history, and an SLA. | EUR and GBP prices exclude VAT, added at checkout where it applies. Early adopters keep their price as the suite grows. ## In the cloud by default. Behind your firewall when it has to be. - **Cloud — Nothing to install** — Sign in and price a weldment from any browser. We run the compute, ship the updates, and keep your data yours — the shared model only ever learns from your own jobs to calibrate your rates. - **On-prem & air-gapped — For steel that can't leave the building** — Infrastructure 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. ## Welding is often the biggest unknown in the quote. If fit-up hours and weld cost are the number you don't trust, WeldDFM is the same FabDFM engine, focused on the joint — bolted vs. welded calls, deposition time and consumables by process, and EN 1090 execution-class context, one joint at a time. **FabDFM → WeldDFM — Same engine, the joint-level view** — What the weld view breaks out, per joint: - Bolted vs. welded call - 5 weld processes - Consumables - EN 1090 context ## Frequently asked questions #### Can I upload our steel BOM or a 3D model of a weldment? Fabrication should-cost runs today from a parametric handrail and stair configurator: you set height, run, and post spacing rather than uploading a file. General steel-BOM and 3D weldment upload is not the live path in the app. Bring an arbitrary weldment to a walkthrough instead, and we will talk through what the configurator covers and what it does not. #### What numbers come back from the handrail and stair configurator? Tonnage, fit-up hours, weld metres, and coating area come back automatically from the handrail and stair configurator, with a should-cost curve behind them. Those four numbers are what actually set a weldment's price — labor more than steel. Two estimators running the same rail land on the same figure instead of each building a takeoff by feel. #### Does the price change with quantity? A should-cost curve comes back across quantity breaks, not a single per-piece figure. The configurator prices the same handrail or stair run at every quantity, so the point where the next order gets cheaper is visible rather than assumed. Steel gets bought at mill order sizes, and the curve reflects that instead of flattening it into one number. ## Related pages - [WeldDFM](https://partimation.com/fabrication/welding/) - [CostDFM](https://partimation.com/costing/) - [RouteDFM](https://partimation.com/routing/) - [PartDFM](https://partimation.com/part-analysis/) ## Put your next weldment through it. Price a real steel BOM free in your browser, or book a walkthrough set up for your shop's rates and mill accounts. ## Tell us about your shop. We reply within one business day. > Partimation is decision support, not a guarantee — every should-cost line names the rule behind it, and the EN 1090 execution-class read is advisory context, not a certification. Validate against your shop's practice before you commit fit-up hours.