Flatbed Digital Printing Plugin

The new Flatbed Digital Printing plugin for EstiMate represents a great leap forward in pricing technology, not just for flatbed printing, but for EstiMate overall. We’ve really put our all into this one and if you have a flatbed printer, and are using EstiMate, it’s an absolute no brainer to get this plugin. If you’re not using EstiMate, this just may be the reason you should grab a trial and get started.

Complicated Flatbed Print Pricing Made Simple

This plugin, though similar to our Wide Format Inkjet plugin, is quite a different beast. Once you’ve selected your print media, you can specify quite a few options for pricing the job. You enter the usual quantity, width, and height for your print – plus a print margin if you want space between them when you print the job. Then you can select a printer and print mode (all of which can be configured in the defaults for the printer you most use in your shop).

There is a spot for you to enter material setup charges, and optionally apply them to each sheet – so for example, if it takes you 10 minutes to get a sheet loaded in the printer, calibrate the print head height, and get it all ready to go — this plugin will let you build that time into your price. And it automatically calculates the number of sheets required based on “best fit” nesting logic (more on that later).

When you select the ink you will be using for the print, you can specify the ink, the coverage per print, and whether or not the ink should be double hit or needs a white underprint.

Details Easily Handled

Surface preparation is taken care of as well. You can select the prep solution and adhesion promoter you are using (if any) and the material cost and time to wipe will be added into your price. You can even charge for RIP time here.

Laminates are available (top and bottom) which will be calculated for waste the same way as the print media.

Speaking of waste, that’s where this plugin really shines…

Flatbed Printing Material Waste Calculation

Waste is a huge consideration when printing on a flatbed printer. You never know how prints will fit, and there is a lot of time in proper quoting devoted to figuring out how to fit the prints, what the waste percentage is, and how to charge for that. The Flatbed Digital Printing plugin makes that easy.

First, the plugin will calculate the “best fit” nesting for your prints, and let you know what the leftover waste will be for your prints. Next, it allows you to specify how to charge for that waste! The three options are:

1. Do Not Charge For Scrap: use this selection if you will re-use the scrap for other jobs and do not wish to charge the customer for it.
2. Charge The Same Markup For Scrap As For Printed Material: this is the old EstiMate stand-by. It will grab the markup percentage you specified for this print material and use it as the markup for scrap.
3. Charge A Different Markup For Scrap Than For Printed Material: this allows you to specify a specific percentage you wish to charge for scrap material on this job.

By using this tab, you can control your costs and charges for markup on materials to the penny. Laminates will use the same settings to help build the price.

Integrated with EstiMate's visual pricing metaphor, you don't have to figure areas or find ink, media, or laminate prices before quoting. This means you get to your quote in seconds and can stay in "production mode" while quoting a job - no more task switching or putting on your "business hat" to quote a job.

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