Costing Module for Inventor

[Aadithya01]

Hi All,

Recently I see some requirement for a costing module in my market. I know that Solidworks has a plug-in called as Solidworks Costing , which has been quite well known for its cost calculation capabilities. 

Is there a similar commercial tool for Inventor, may-be available through some 3rd Party ?

Looking forward for some answers. 

[SharkDesign]

This is the third time in 3 weeks it's been asked so if you search you will find various replies. 

The short answer is no. It's impossible because how will Inventor know how much your raw material supplier/outsourcers charges for material, labour etc?

There are some external apps you can try though. 

[SharkDesign · Accepted solution]

Try this, a few links in here:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/pricing-software-that-works-with-inventor/m-p/10484046

[BDCollett]

It must be possible, as its in Solidworks. I have never used it but it would be interesting to see how useful it is. I would assume it's for working with defined prices and then gives features a set price. So a price per hole in sheet metal etc. 

. 

[Aadithya01]

Exactly right , that's how it works. We would have to predefine the raw materials and manufacturing processing costs. 

[SharkDesign]

But you only know that for in house parts. You've no idea on your outsourced company raw costs, overheads, labour rates, markup, delivery, so if you send a lot of stuff out is quite limited. 

[BDCollett]

I can see how that would be helpful. You could write some iLogic to do some of that I am sure. 

[BDCollett]

@SharkDesign

Think of it more from a shop doing quoting. They don't outsource and know the prices. They can quickly open a model, click a button that reads the material, holes, tapped holes etc and based on set criteria gives you a price. That's basically how they work it out but the software would be doing it automatically.

Quoting is never perfect but the time spent working out the cost is time spent too. 

[Aadithya01]

Ahh ... That a nice idea , Will try it out. 

[SharkDesign]

I've been writing some iLogic code to do this and you find yourself in a massive rabbit hole with no end in sight.

If you can get one of those apps in the link I posted to work, then that would be the easiest option. 

[Aadithya01]

Yeah  @SharkDesign , went through the links . apriori costing module sounds professional and interesting. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Here is another interesting app on Inventor App Store.

iBOM Export BOM to Excel / Word with images & more

https://apps.autodesk.com/INVNTOR/en/Detail/Index?id=7958477212958307920&appLang=en&os=Win64

Many thanks!

[Eide.N]

It also depends if you are trying to get a quote or a cost - these are two very different animals!

Try searching for some MRP solutions. They can take your BOM and give you any flavor of a quote/cost/work order/etc. 

Search terms: MRP ERP Quoting BOM import

Anything with "cloud" usually has a better chance of a decent user interface too.

[BDCollett]

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@Eide.N wrote:

It also depends if you are trying to get a quote or a cost - these are two very different animals!

Try searching for some MRP solutions. They can take your BOM and give you any flavor of a quote/cost/work order/etc. 

Search terms: MRP ERP Quoting BOM import

Anything with "cloud" usually has a better chance of a decent user interface too.

---

There is a difference between a BOM Item and some features in say a sheet metal part. A BOM won't tell you how many holes, folds etc there are.

The solidworks tool seems to not only take into account purchased items with a known cost but also looks at features in a part and can add that all together at an assembly level. Very handy.

[Aadithya01]

Hi @johnsonshiue , Thanks for your reply. I saw the iBOM videos in the exchange app store, where I saw that the app is using the Pound, Dollar and Euro currency system. In my client's case, they use the Indian Rupee system . Is this app customizable ? 

[Aadithya01]

Rightly said, the solidworks costing module can even recognize the features used in the model and is way powerful. 

[Eide.N]

Being curious, I did a little research into the Solidworks tool and this phrase stuck out:

• "Based on part geometry, NOT SOLIDWORKS features"

I'm speculating here, but it would seem that this is more of a Protolabs or Xometry type quick-quote type tool.

It doesn't look like a silver bullet - a lot of data needs to be entered to get a result (as expected). Here's a list of things that are used to calculate the costs (from link above):

• Raw material types and costs
• Manufacturing processes, machines, tooling, and associated costs
• Direct labor rates for specific machines and processes
• Company specific manufacturing process information, including feeds, speeds, and setup costs
• Any custom operations, such as deburring, painting, anodizing, data entry, shipping, etc.

I also assume the more data you put in the better the result - but the more data you have to put in the less convenient this may be.