How do you calculate a customer revision cost?

Multiply the revision hours or change line items by your CAD/engineering rate, multiply by the share you can bill (billable capture), then add the re-quote/setup charge. With 3.5 hours at an effective $75.18/hr and 75% capture you capture $223.13 of labor, and adding the $40 re-quote fee gives a $263.13 revision cost.

Why charge a separate re-quote fee on top of revision labor?

Because re-quoting an additive job has fixed overhead independent of how big the change is, re-nesting the plate, re-running slicer time and material estimates, and re-issuing paperwork. The flat $40 here captures that setup work even on a tiny tweak.

What is a reasonable billable capture for AM revisions?

Most bureaus land between 60% and 85%. You rarely bill 100% because some revision time is goodwill or your own quoting error; the 75% default assumes you eat roughly a quarter of the labor to keep the relationship.

Should the first revision be free?

Many shops give one minor revision free and meter from the second onward. If you do that, set billable capture to 0% for the first change and use the full calculation for subsequent ones.

Revision cost vs. change order, what's the difference?

This figure is the internal cost-to-bill for a mid-quote tweak. A formal change order is the customer-facing document; this calculator gives you the dollar amount that goes on it.

How do I handle line items instead of hours?

Switch the first field to the number of discrete change requests and set the rate as dollars per change item. The math is identical, quantity times rate times capture, plus the flat fee.

Additive Manufacturing Service Bureau Quoting calculator

Customer Revision Cost Calculator

Customer Revision Cost is the dollar amount a 3D printing service bureau should charge back when a customer changes a part after the quote is locked, new STL, wall-thickness fix, scaling change, or a swapped finish. Estimators, account managers and shop owners use it to stop absorbing rework on AM jobs, where a single revision can mean re-nesting the build plate, re-slicing and re-running a quote. It matters because revision drift is one of the quietest margin killers in low-volume additive: the print itself is fixed-price, but the engineering and re-quote labor around it is not. This calculator separates billable revision labor from the flat re-quote fee so you can hand the customer a number you can defend.

What this calculator does

Estimate cost for customer-driven CAD revisions, re-quotes, file repair, and quote updates.
a sales engineer needs to decide whether a customer revision should be charged or absorbed
It computes the total chargeable revision cost by multiplying revision hours or change line items by your service rate and a billable-capture percentage, then adding a flat re-quote/setup charge.

Formula used

Captured revision value = revision hours or line items × revision service rate × billable capture
Customer revision cost = captured revision value + re-quote/setup charge

Inputs explained

Revision hours or change line items:
Revision engineering/CAD rate:
Billable revision capture:
Re-quote and re-setup charge:

How to use the result

Use it the moment a customer requests a geometry, material or finish change after a quote has been issued or a build has been scheduled.
Billable capture is a policy judgment, not a measured value, it reflects how much revision labor you can realistically pass through under your terms, so two shops with identical labor will land on different numbers.

Current U.S. benchmarks

The producer price index for plastic resins and materials stands at 280.569 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 6.6% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
The U.S. prime lending rate is 7.00% (Federal Reserve via FRED, 2026-10-02). Payback and financing math should start from today's rate, not a remembered one.

Common questions

How do you calculate a customer revision cost? Multiply the revision hours or change line items by your CAD/engineering rate, multiply by the share you can bill (billable capture), then add the re-quote/setup charge. With 3.5 hours at an effective $75.18/hr and 75% capture you capture $223.13 of labor, and adding the $40 re-quote fee gives a $263.13 revision cost.
Why charge a separate re-quote fee on top of revision labor? Because re-quoting an additive job has fixed overhead independent of how big the change is, re-nesting the plate, re-running slicer time and material estimates, and re-issuing paperwork. The flat $40 here captures that setup work even on a tiny tweak.
What is a reasonable billable capture for AM revisions? Most bureaus land between 60% and 85%. You rarely bill 100% because some revision time is goodwill or your own quoting error; the 75% default assumes you eat roughly a quarter of the labor to keep the relationship.
Should the first revision be free? Many shops give one minor revision free and meter from the second onward. If you do that, set billable capture to 0% for the first change and use the full calculation for subsequent ones.
Revision cost vs. change order, what's the difference? This figure is the internal cost-to-bill for a mid-quote tweak. A formal change order is the customer-facing document; this calculator gives you the dollar amount that goes on it.
How do I handle line items instead of hours? Switch the first field to the number of discrete change requests and set the rate as dollars per change item. The math is identical, quantity times rate times capture, plus the flat fee.

Last reviewed 2026-08-13.