A custom metal fabricator replaced a multi-day, manual quoting process with an app that auto-nests parts and pulls live metal prices to generate accurate quotes in minutes.
Every quote at this custom metal fabricator followed the same painful loop. A customer sends a DXF or CAD file. Someone on the team manually nests the parts — figuring out how many pieces fit on a standard metal sheet — then contacts their metal supplier for current pricing. Metal prices fluctuate constantly. By the time the quote came back, it might be a day old and wrong by 5–10%.
The quoting process wasn't just slow — it was a coordination tax. The shop was spending hours per week on quote generation instead of fabrication. And because pricing was stale, margin was inconsistent. Winning a job at the wrong price cost them money.
Auto-Nesting Engine. The core of the tool is an auto-nesting algorithm. Given a part shape (from the uploaded file) and standard sheet dimensions, it calculates the optimal layout — how many parts fit per sheet with minimal material waste. This replaced the manual step that was eating the most time.
Live Metal Pricing API. Metal prices are volatile — steel, aluminum, stainless, and other alloys shift daily based on commodity markets. The app connects to a real-time pricing API so every quote reflects current material costs, not a price from last week's supplier call.
Quote Generation. Combine auto-nesting output (parts per sheet, sheet count needed) with live pricing (cost per lb, weight per sheet) and you get an accurate material cost. Add configurable margin, labor, and processing fees, and the quote comes out clean, consistent, and fast.
This wasn't a complex engineering problem — it was a workflow that had never been automated. The manual nesting + supplier-call loop was just how it had always been done. Once you replace those two steps with code (nesting algorithm + pricing API), the quoting process goes from a half-day coordination effort to a self-service tool that runs itself. The shop gets faster quotes, better margin consistency, and their team's time back.
The live app is at hd-quote-prod.vercel.app.