Manufacturing Method Recommender
Upload your part. Get the manufacturing process our engineers would actually choose.
Upload a STEP file, tell us your target price and material, and get a manufacturing method recommendation for that specific part, CNC machining, injection molding, die casting, sheet metal, or 3D printing, vetted by Cadlete’s own engineering team against a decade of real precision manufacturing and design for manufacturing (DFM) experience, not a generic instant-quote calculator.
Under the hood, the tool reads part geometry from your STEP file, wall thickness, undercuts, draft angles, feature count, and tolerance bands, and weighs that against your target volume and unit price to shortlist viable processes. Every shortlist is then checked by a Cadlete manufacturing engineer against real tooling cost, cycle time, and material behavior, the same DFM review we run on paid production projects.
How it works
Questions About Manufacturing Method Recommender
Is this an automated instant quote, or does a real engineer look at my part?
Every shortlist is checked by a Cadlete manufacturing engineer against real tooling cost, cycle time, and material behavior, the same DFM review used on paid production projects, not a generic calculator returned instantly with no human review.
What file format works best, and what if I only have a native CAD file?
A STEP file works best since it carries real geometry the tool can read for wall thickness, undercuts, draft angles, and feature count. If you only have a native file, export it to STEP first, most CAD packages support this directly.
Can this help me choose between two processes I am already considering, like CNC versus injection molding?
Yes. The recommendation weighs your part geometry against your target volume and unit price specifically to surface which process is actually viable at your real numbers, not just which one is technically possible.