Draft with AI on estimates
Press Draft with AI on an estimate. The buyer's drawings, the measured CAD figures, your machines with their costs and similar past estimates go to the SmartMy AI service. Back come material lines, steps on your machines with minutes, and the assumptions, for your estimator to check before anything is sent.
PLANSScale only
Why it matters
A small job shop loses enquiries because one senior estimator must read every drawing. Draft with AI gives that person a first draft in a few minutes: material, and steps on your own machines at your own hourly costs. It is guided by what similar jobs really took in your shop. Every line it adds is marked, its guesses are flagged, and its assumptions are written out, so the estimator checks rather than starts from blank. Buyers who do not want AI on their drawings are marked once and never sent, and nothing reaches a customer until a person sends it.
The problem it solves
- Enquiries with drawings pile up because only one senior estimator can work them out.
- A first figure takes two days, and the buyer has moved on.
- Each estimator prices the same kind of part differently, ignoring what the shop really took last time.
- Some buyers do not allow their drawings to be shared with outside services, and nobody keeps track of who.
How it works
- Switch it on once: Settings > Manufacturing > AI Estimates from Drawings. It is off to start with, per Entity.
- Open a draft estimate with its drawings (PDF or pictures) or CAD files on the Design Files tab, and press Draft with AI.
- Sent: up to 6 drawings (10 MB each), the measured figures of every design file, the job, its notes and quantities. Also up to 40 of your machines with their cost per hour, and up to 5 similar past estimates.
- Back come material lines, matched to your items by name or marked Cost Guessed by AI. Steps come on your machines with setup and run minutes. The AI Draft tab holds a summary, the assumptions and how sure it is.
- Check and change it like any estimate. Pressing Draft with AI again replaces only the lines the AI made; lines people typed stay. Nothing goes to the customer until you press Print and Send.
Everything it does
What the AI fills
- Material lines: name, quantity per piece, unit, cost, waste %; your item's own cost when the name matches an item, else the AI's guess
- Steps: name, your machine of that name with its cost per hour, setup minutes per batch, run minutes per piece. A rate per hour when no machine fits
- Quantities: only when the estimate had none (up to 6)
- AI Summary and Assumptions, AI Confidence (%), Drafted by AI (when)
- By AI marked on each line it made; a note in the estimate's history with the number of drawings and the confidence
Refused when
- AI Estimates from Drawings is off for the Entity
- The estimate is not in Draft
- The customer (or their company) is marked No AI on My Drawings
- There is no drawing and no measured CAD file on the Design Files tab
Privacy
- No AI on My Drawings on the customer's Sales & Purchase tab. A buyer who ticks it on the quote request page keeps it on the lead and the customer
- CAD files themselves are not sent, only their measured figures; PDFs and pictures are sent as files
- Your machines' names and cost per hour, and the job names and figures of similar past estimates, are part of what is sent
Credits
- Each draft uses AI credits: Scale includes 500 a month; more come from the AI wallet
- The AI's answer is a first figure, not a fixed price for a complex part
Who uses it
Planner / estimatorPresses Draft with AI, checks every line and the assumptions, and sends the estimate.
Manufacturing AdministratorSwitches AI Estimates from Drawings on for the Entity.
SalespersonMarks customers who said no AI on their drawings.
Where you use it
- Web: the estimate (Draft with AI button, AI Draft tab); Settings > Manufacturing
- Web: No AI on My Drawings on the contact's Sales & Purchase tab
- Not in the SmartMy Manufacturing app
What you control
Settings
- AI Estimates from Drawings: off to start with, per Entity
- No AI on My Drawings: per customer, off to start with
Questions
Is the AI's figure the price we send?
No. It is a draft for your estimator. Nothing goes to the customer until someone checks it and presses Print and Send.What if a customer does not want their drawings sent to an AI?
Tick No AI on My Drawings on the customer, or the buyer ticks it on the quote request page. Draft with AI then refuses for that customer's estimates.Does it use our own costs?
Yes. It gets your machines with their cost per hour and up to 5 similar past estimates. Material that matches one of your items takes the item's cost; anything else is marked as the AI's guess.Can it read STEP files?
It gets the measured figures of every CAD file (size, volume, surface, weight, cut length, pierces), not the file itself. PDF drawings and pictures are sent as they are.Has it been tried on real drawings?
Not yet inside the product with customer drawings. We try it on your typical parts with you before you rely on it.Related features
PRODUCTION AND JOB WORKEstimates priced by quantity, made into the item, BOM and quotationPrice a new job from its material, its steps on your machines, overhead and margin, at each quantity the buyer asks for. Send the estimate as a PDF; when it is won, the item, its bill of materials and the sales quotation are made from it.DESIGN FILES AND QUOTESDrawings and CAD files measured and shown in 3DKeep a buyer's drawings and CAD files with the estimate or the lead. STEP, IGES and STL models are measured for size, volume, surface and weight; DXF flat drawings for sheet size, cut length, pierces and holes. Anyone can turn the part in 3D and measure it in the browser, with nothing to install.DESIGN FILES AND QUOTESA quote request page that makes CRM leadsPut one link on your website or email signature. Buyers send what they need, the quantities, a needed-by date and up to five drawings or CAD files. Each request becomes a CRM lead with its files already measured, and your sales team is told by email.PLANNING, QUALITY AND COSTStandard cost roll-up from the BOMWork out what each item you make should cost, rolled up level by level. It counts its components, machine and labour time from the bill of materials, and your factory overhead. Keep each standard from a date, and print a cost sheet with office overhead, profit and a suggested price.PRODUCTION AND JOB WORKSales, purchase and CRM: from lead to goods receivedFollow enquiries through your pipeline, send quotations, take sales orders and invoice them, raise purchase orders and receive the goods into your plant. Every invoice and bill names its plant.
See your shop floor on it.
Tell us what you make, how many machines and people you run, and how production is recorded today. We will set up a line with you and run a job on the terminal.