MATERIALS

Make multicolor waste part of the quote

Account for purge and tower material using the job you actually sliced.

Updated 5 November 2026 · All numeric examples are illustrative.

Separate the useful part from the rest

A finished object’s weight can be lower than all the filament consumed by its job. For quoting, enter model filament per part, then support and purge or prime-tower material for the whole batch. Use your slicer’s own definitions and check whether its total already includes those categories.

Use one consistent material price

This first version uses a single blended price per kilogram. To combine two materials, multiply each material’s grams by its price per kilogram, add those products, then divide by total grams. The result is the weighted average price per kilogram.

A weighted example

If a job uses 100 grams of material costing 20 per kilogram and 50 grams costing 32 per kilogram, the material cost is 2.00 + 1.60 = 3.60. The weighted average is 24 per kilogram across all 150 grams. This assumes those grams include every material category being priced.

Compare actual sliced alternatives

For single-color versus multicolor, save two estimates using the time and material totals for each version. This tool does not predict purge volumes, choose machine settings or guarantee savings from printing more copies.

Put your own time, material and business costs into the estimate.

Open the calculator ↗

Related: Full calculation method · All field notes