The formed model is not the blank
Pricing surface area or a bounding box misses developed length, bend behavior, and retained internal cutouts.
Sheet metal quoting software
Price the developed blank, bends, stock, and real nesting constraints.
RapidRFQ supports flat and formed sheet workflows with validated unfolding, cutouts, bend tables, brake capacity, mixed-part nesting, remnants, and estimator approval.
Sheet-metal quote risk
The formed model is not the material plan.
Nesting assumes perfect stock
Real sheets have edge margins, clamps, defects, grain rules, kerf, remnants, and purchase-lot constraints.
Brake work is hand-waved
Tonnage, bend length, V-die inventory, radius, thickness, and material assumptions determine whether the route is even feasible.
01 / 03
Use a validated flat basis
For flat models, RapidRFQ extracts the outer and inner contours used to estimate cut length and nesting. For supported formed sheets, it develops tangent-connected planar walls and straight cylindrical bends while retaining cutouts.
Boundary closure, concentric thickness, self-intersection, and neutral-area checks protect the result. Unsupported or non-developable geometry remains blocked until the estimator maps a revision-matched customer flat.
- Flat STEP and IGES contours
- DXF and DWG layer control
- Validated 3D development
- Customer-flat revision mapping
02 / 03
Model the shop's bend reality
Press-brake configuration records tonnage, bed length, V-die inventory, die ratings, K-factors, radius multipliers, tensile assumptions, and a safety allowance.
The quote chooses a compatible tool and calculates nominal tonnage. When confirmed capacity is insufficient, the forming operation routes to subcontract review instead of presenting an impossible in-house plan.
- Shop bend tables
- Tool and V-die selection
- Tonnage and bed checks
- Subcontract fallback
03 / 03
Allocate material you can actually buy or pull
Mixed-part nesting tests deterministic placement strategies against configured sheets and remnants. It respects margins, spacing, kerf, rotation, grain policy, and no-go rectangles for clamps or defects.
The result exposes every allocation, unused region, purchase quantity, and price source. It is estimator material planning, not a claim of compensated CAM toolpaths or a mathematically global nesting optimum.
- Finite sheet inventory
- Mixed-part placement
- Grain and rotation constraints
- Whole-sheet purchase costing
Straight answers
What the sheet-metal workflow does—and does not—claim.
Does RapidRFQ unfold every sheet-metal part?
No. It validates supported developable geometry and blocks unsupported cases until a matching flat is supplied.
Does it replace nesting CAM?
No. It provides quote-stage material planning and comparison evidence, not compensated production toolpaths.
Can it use remnants?
Yes. Confirmed remnant profiles can carry dimensions, quantity, cost source, grain policy, and unusable regions.
Test the material plan
Bring the formed part your spreadsheet cannot explain.
Compare the developed blank, cutouts, bends, brake capacity, sheet allocation, and estimator review against your known result.