Machining / Turning
Turnability score · bar stock · roughing plan · cycle time
TurnDFM reads a 3D model and scores how close it actually is to a body of revolution — the real geometry check, not a guess off the print — picks the spin axis, and flags when a part is only mostly round and needs secondary milling for its flats and holes. From there it sizes bar stock, plans roughing and finishing passes, and prices cycle time off the same engine that costs the rest of the suite.
Free to start · no credit card · your files stay yours.
The problem
Deciding whether a part is round enough to turn — or needs milling for the flats and holes too — is usually a judgment call, not a measurement against the actual model.
Bar diameter and length get read off the drawing by hand, with margin added out of habit rather than computed from the part's real profile.
Quoting a turned part means estimating cycle time from experience, not a simulation — so the first real job is also the first real data point.
What you get
TurnDFM revolves the part's own profile around every candidate axis and scores how much of the volume that revolved shape actually accounts for — the closer to 1.0, the more purely rotational the part is.
Below a measured threshold, TurnDFM flags the part as mill-turn — turn the envelope, mill the flats and holes — instead of quoting it as a pure turning job and finding out on the machine.
Bar stock comes straight off the part's own revolved profile, with skin allowance applied automatically, so the stock call matches the geometry instead of a habit.
Roughing passes are sized from material-removal-rate physics, then a profile finish pass and face/cutoff close the plan — cycle time reflects an actual sequence of operations, not a rule of thumb.
Machine time, stock, and tooling feed the same costing engine behind every Partimation quote — a turning number and a milling number are genuinely comparable, not two different guesses.
How it works
Upload a STEP file. Turnability analysis starts immediately — no setup, no template.
The part's symmetry score and spin axis come back, with a mill-turn flag if secondary milling is needed.
Bar diameter, length, and a roughing/finishing pass sequence come out of the same geometry.
Cycle time and cost come out of the same engine behind every Partimation quote.
A shaft-like part quoted through TurnDFM and MachDFM's milling path shares one costing engine, so the two numbers are directly comparable — not two different tools with two different assumptions. TurnDFM's own mill-turn flag (symmetry below the turnable threshold) is the same signal that tells you when a "turned part" quote actually needs a milling line added, rather than a surprise on the shop floor. See the full machining overview for the milling side of the comparison.
Pricing
Priced for a one-person shop and a production job shop alike. Checking a part is unmetered — run as many as you like. Shared with milling and every other Partimation process — one account, one price list. See the full MachDFM pricing for every tier's detail.
EUR and GBP prices exclude VAT, added at checkout where it applies.
Sign in and check a part from any browser, or run the whole thing on your own hardware behind your firewall — aerospace and anyone under NDA. Licenses and updates are signed files, so an air-gapped install stays air-gapped. Same deploy options as the rest of MachDFM — see the machining overview for the full detail.
FAQ
Turnability is scored by revolving the part's own profile around every candidate axis and measuring how much of the volume that revolved shape accounts for. The closer that score sits to 1.0, the more purely rotational the part is, and the spin axis comes from the same measurement rather than from a judgment call.
Below a measured symmetry threshold, the part is flagged as mill-turn — turn the envelope, mill the flats and holes. The secondary milling goes into the quote as its own line, rather than showing up on the machine after the job was already priced as a pure turning job.
Bar diameter and length are computed off the part's own revolved profile, with skin allowance applied. The stock call then matches the geometry you actually have, instead of a diameter read off the drawing by hand with margin added out of habit and carried straight into the material line on the quote.
Roughing passes are sized from material-removal-rate physics — cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut — then a profile finish pass and a face/cutoff close the plan. Cycle time reflects that sequence of operations, so the number on the quote maps to work a lathe actually does rather than to a rule of thumb.
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