Opens the STEP file and pulls the envelope, mass, wall range, cored features, draft and feature counts, then scores seven complexity factors against the process family the shape belongs to. Mass tells you what the metal costs and nothing else; complexity is what explains the other two thirds of the price.

Matches the signals against three process signatures and returns a ranked verdict with a confidence figure and the evidence behind it: every row traceable to a line in the CAD read-out above it. Processes the geometry rules out are named as ruled out, with the reason, rather than quietly priced.

Takes the billet or blank mass against the finished mass, prices both at the grade's rate and scrap value, adds the conversion route for the confirmed process, then applies overhead and margin in that order. Where a grade is changed on the form, the material lines recompute against the same basis.

Derives the tool's size from the part: a pattern cut oversize for machining and shrinkage, a die block sized by the force it has to hold shut, then costs it as a tool shop would, line by line. The build cost is divided across the pieces the tool will actually make, and that division is the amortisation line in the breakdown.

Sorts every input into read, assumed or unknown, and turns that into an AACE 18R-97 estimate class with the accuracy band the class implies. The ± on the headline figure is not decoration: it is the width of what is not known, itemised here so it can be argued with.

Renders four orthographic views as a drawing sheet (dark on white, because that is what survives printing) and lays out the cost summary and tool specification as a real document with selectable text, not a screenshot of a web page.