How do I design for the best value?

By designing your drawing as efficiently as possible, you keep the costs as low as possible. Below, we have compiled some tips to ensure you get the most out of your order. Read more here about how the price is structured.

Follow the drawing rules.
It may seem obvious, but by adhering to the general guidelines described in the drawing rules , you avoid unnecessary machine work and save costs. 

Keep parts as small and simple as possible. 
After all, large, complex parts cost more than small parts, both in material costs and processing costs.

Place parts close together to save a lot of material.
By nesting parts together, you save significantly on material costs.In some cases, objects can be placed in the leftover material of other objects. Also, keep our standard material sizes in mind to avoid unused leftover material. You can find the standard sizes on the materials page.

Flat engraving vs line engraving.
Depending on your design, it may be cheaper to use flat engravings or line engravings. Generally, when shapes are small and complex, flat engraving is cheaper; in other cases, line engraving is usually cheaper. There are also other factors to consider with flat engravings, we have written an extensive article on how to best design engravings.

Choose material as thin and soft as possible. 
Thinner and softer material is generally cheaper and can be cut faster.The faster the cutting is done, the lower the cutting costs!

Share cutting lines.

Designs with many identical parts or many straight lines where the dimensional accuracy can deviate by a fraction of a millimeter can be designed with shared cutting lines. This means that these objects share a cutting line on one side, but it is important that one of the two overlapping lines must be removed.

This technique can significantly reduce cutting costs (especially on thick materials), but on the other hand, sometimes the part can shift by a few tenths of a millimeter before it is completely cut. Therefore, do not use this technique for parts where the dimensions are critical to the millimeter.