Calculate manufacturing costs for any part — every process, one engine.
Most cost tools stop at milling and turning. ARCNM costs the whole part. It reads the process off the STEP geometry, plans the operations across your fleet — machining centres, lathes, laser, plasma and waterjet, punches, press brakes, wire EDM, grinders, moulding presses, printers — simulates every cycle time from physics, and reads the drawing for the heat treatment, coating and welding a physics model alone would miss. One auditable unit cost across the lot-size curve. For people in the workspace; for software and AI agents through the REST API and MCP server.
Which manufacturing processes can ARCNM calculate?
- Machining: CNC milling (3-axis, 3+2, 5-axis), CNC turning (2-axis, live-tool, Swiss-type, mill-turn), drilling, reaming, tapping, boring, thread milling, keyway slotting, sawing.
- Sheet metal and cutting: fibre laser, CNC plasma, abrasive waterjet, turret punch, guillotine shear; press-brake, roll and tube bending.
- Precision finishing: surface and cylindrical grinding routed automatically from the drawing's tolerances.
- Forming and additive: injection moulding, laser powder-bed fusion and industrial FDM.
- From the drawing, as subcontract lines with order minimums: 38 heat treatments (ISO 4885), 37 coatings and surface finishes, arc and laser welding read from ISO 2553 symbols and priced per metre of seam (a brazing symbol is read and priced at the same rate).
The engine by the numbers
- 54 operation types in the process taxonomy — milling, turning, cutting, bending, EDM, grinding, moulding, printing, treatments
- 26 machine classes — the cheapest suitable one is chosen per lot size
- 536 material grades with their own cutting data — steels, cast irons, light and heavy alloys, polymers, composites — 1,913 designations
- 62 workpiece material groups behind the cutting data — ISO 513 groups, each with its own cutting data; a material of your own joins one
- 22 manufacturability checks — per feature, graded by severity, before the shop floor
- 38 + 37 heat treatments, coatings and surface finishes priced from callouts — each with its ISO / DIN designation, DE and EN
- 10 lot sizes on every curve — 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,500
- 2 inputs, at most — a STEP file and a PDF drawing — the drawing is optional
How does one engine cost so many processes?
One engine, one auditable unit cost per lot size for every process. The process follows the geometry — a rotational part is turned, a folded sheet is cut and bent, a ribbed housing is moulded — and the heat treatments, coatings and welds come from the drawing. Every operation is planned on the cheapest feasible machine in your costing environment, the lot-size curve marks the optimum lot and the machine chosen at each quantity, and every euro traces back to the feature that caused it.
Who uses it, and for what?
Buyers and cost engineers to get a defensible should-cost before a negotiation; design engineers to see what a tolerance, a material or a bend costs while the part is still on the screen; estimators and work preparation to derive a routing and times from the model; developers to price parts from code, and AI agents — through the MCP server — to answer “what should this part cost, and why?” inside the tools people already use.
Frequently asked questions
Can I calculate manufacturing costs from a STEP file?
Yes. Upload the STEP model, optionally the PDF drawing, pick a costing environment and a lot size, and ARCNM returns the process plan, cycle times and an itemised unit cost across the lot-size grid — in the workspace, via one REST call, or from an AI agent over MCP.
Do I need my own machine data?
No. ARCNM runs from day one with its own machine data, rates and material prices. Add your fleet, rates and material prices to a costing environment — or calibrate from a handful of real costs — and the numbers reflect your shop.