I print out parts for people and get all kinds of different shapes. I want to be able to tell the distance that a nozzle moves on one layer. This will help me determine price. Is that possible? :}
Uhm, S3D already tells you how many meters of filament is needed to print sth. with these settings. You can also set a price for the filament, and it will tell you the costs... What exactly do you want to achieve, other than that?
I want to see how adding holes to a model affects filament usage and overall print time. The overall estimates are usually off but that is about as good as a slicer can do.
Hm I haven't measured the real consumption of filament vs. what S3D estimates. but since you can specify width and density for every filament, I think the calculation of Filament Consumption in S3D is more reliable than the estimation of printing time. Did you measure it?
Not yet. My clients are adding holes to lower print volume but this adds more edges. Edges print slower than infill so I think adding holes to models is a loss for me.
I have to do similar and so far I haven't come across print times that are less than actual print times. so I am always covered.
volume of material i think is pretty spot on. it's based on the amount extruded so I am pretty confident that it will wither equal or just a little more than actual so again I am covered.
my prices have 5% for the unforeseen and then 10% for some form of profit margin.