---
title: "An enquiry form that reads the drawing and prices it before you send it"
description: "A laser cutting shop’s enquiry page: drop in a DXF and the site reads the outline, the cut length and the holes straight out of the file, prices it against material and quantity, and fills the whole thing into the form that was already there."
canonical: https://aumcreate.com/lab/instant-quote
dateModified: 2026-08-25
---
# An enquiry form that reads the drawing and prices it before you send it

A laser cutting shop’s enquiry page: drop in a DXF and the site reads the outline, the cut length and the holes straight out of the file, prices it against material and quantity, and fills the whole thing into the form that was already there.

## The problem

A cutting shop has the standard enquiry form on its website: name, email, attach your drawing, tell us what you need. A customer uploads a DXF and writes “please quote”. The file goes to the office, someone opens it, measures the perimeter, counts the holes, then emails back to ask about material, then again about quantity, then again about deburring. Three emails and two days. And none of that needed a person: the perimeter and the hole count are already written in the file, and the price is arithmetic. What does need a person is the part nobody gets to — whether a 4 mm hole in 8 mm plate is going to cut cleanly, whether this batch belongs on a different machine. Those questions cannot even be asked until the material and the quantity are settled.

## What we built

The form stays where it is. We just made it work out everything that can be worked out before it gets sent. DXF is a text format: the bounding box, the total cut path, the number of holes and the smallest hole diameter are all in there, and a parser reads them — no model, no guessing. The rest is arithmetic: material by area, thickness and density; cutting by path length and thickness; setup divided by the quantity. Every line can be explained, because a price with no reasoning behind it is not something a buyer can take to a competitor. The parts that genuinely need process judgement become two notes: a 4 mm hole in 8 mm plate leaves dross underneath, so those get drilled as a second operation — that one is a heads-up; and 8 mm mild steel cuts cheaper on the plasma table than the laser — that one is a button. Press it and the price drops. Then one more press and all of it lands in the original form: file attached, specification written out, price and lead time included.

## Try it yourself

- The demo drops the sample drawing in by itself and comes back with a price.
- Move the quantity from 50 to 100 and watch the unit price fall — it says by how much.
- Set the thickness to 8 mm. Two notes appear: one about small holes in thick plate, one offering a cheaper machine.
- Press the suggestion, then press “Put this in the enquiry” and watch the form on the left fill itself in.

## Who this suits

Any business where the quote is calculated but somebody calculates it by hand every time: cutting, sheet metal, machining, moulding, printing, packaging. The test is simple — if your quotes come off a spreadsheet, that spreadsheet can live on the website instead.

## Facts

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Type | Interactive demo built by AumCreate — not a client project |
| Built on | WordPress, WooCommerce |
| Live prototype | https://aumcreate.com/prototype/instant-quote/index.html |
| Brand shown | AumCut — fictional; models, specifications and prices are invented |