For fabricators who quote from a customer's specification

AI quoting for custom metal fabricators.

Give it the customer's specification, drawings and addenda. It lists every requirement that changes the price, each with its page number, shows where the documents disagree, and drafts the first quote in your own pricing logic. Your estimator checks it and decides the number. If your requests arrive as CAD files for cut and bent parts, a different kind of tool will serve you better, and this page says which.

Book a DemoHow we test it →
From three public documents for fabricated products
  • 18 ppA rule on where the iron and steel may come from appears on eighteen pages of one water tank package.
  • p.6A dam crane specification asks the crane builder for capacity calculations on the building, with a professional engineer's stamp.
  • p.117A drawing calls for grooved timber on a gangway deck. Page 102 of the specification names a different product.

None of these is a cutting or a welding cost. Each one is a sentence in the customer’s documents, and each one moves the price.

What our software found in one package

On fabrication built to a specification, most of the quote is reading.

Your shop knows its rates for material, cutting, welding and coating. What it cannot know before reading is what this customer has asked for. We ran one public package through our software to count what the documents hold: a town waterfront in New York, with a gangway and floating docks.

179
Pages read
44 sec
Reading time
214
Statements, each cited to its page
7
Places the drawings and the specification disagree

The seven disagreements include two decking materials for the same structure, and two deflection limits on the same page. One limit is twice as strict as the other, and it drives the framing. None of that is in a price book, because none of it is a property of your shop. It belongs to this document, for this job.

The software did the reading. It did not decide the deck material, choose the deflection limit, or set a price the estimator had not reviewed. We have not published a reading of a miscellaneous metals package yet, and we say so here and on our pilot page.

That package, read page by page →Our scorecard, including the mistakes →
The whole package, not only the drawings

Every document in the request settles a different part of the price.

Mavlon reads all of it together, because the answers are not in one place and not in one form. Each example below is from a public document for a fabricated product, with its page.

The standards

Which materials you may use, and which rules your welding follows.

A federal crane specification names 43 publications on its first three pages, including welding codes and twelve ASTM material standards.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 27 pages
The drawings

Lengths, counts and sizes. Quantity is most of the price.

In a town waterfront package the gangway length, 46 feet, sits on exactly one sheet, in the corner of a side view. The specification only says to see the plans.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages
The coatings section

Surface preparation, the coating system, and what is done in the shop.

On a public water tank bid the steel is prepared by commercial blast cleaning to SSPC-SP6, and the sealer is called out by a named product.

South Eastern Water Association, Kentucky, 356 pages
Where the steel may come from

Which mills and suppliers you can buy from, and the paperwork that goes with it.

The same tank package requires iron and steel produced in the United States. The rule appears on eighteen pages, with a certification form for the manufacturer.

South Eastern Water Association, Kentucky, 356 pages
Calculations and stamps

Engineering hours that are not fabrication.

Page 6 of the crane specification asks the contractor for capacity calculations on the building's slabs and beams, with a professional engineer's stamp.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 27 pages
The addenda

What changed since you last priced it.

An amendment to that crane specification changed a few sentences and left the paragraphs written around the old choice.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 27 pages
What your estimator gets

AI quoting for metal fabrication, as a reading you can check line by line.

Four kinds of line come back. The examples are from the public documents above, which are read in full in our guides.

01

Every requirement that changes the price

Each one carries the page it came from, so checking it takes seconds instead of a search.

CoatingsCommercial blast cleaning to SSPC-SP6 before the coating goes on.
02

Whose it is

Yours, the installer's or the owner's. The documents are usually written to the contractor, not to the fabricator.

PilesPiles by others. Pile guide count assumed for budgetary purposes.
03

Questions for the engineer

Where the documents disagree, both readings are stated. Nothing is averaged and nothing is quietly chosen.

Same pageDeflection limit: L over 360, or L over 180? Both are on the same page.
04

Quantities from the drawings

Lengths, sizes and counts, each with the sheet it was read from, so your estimator can confirm them.

1 sheetGangway length 46 feet, from the side view.
Then the quote

A first draft, priced from your own rules: your rates, your formulas and your past quotes, exported in your own quote format. The rules in your spreadsheet become the rules the draft is priced from, and the margin stays with you.

What it does not do

It does not create shop drawings, and it does not fill in the customer's forms. It is not takeoff software for a whole steel frame, and it does not price a part from its CAD model. It reads lengths and counts from the drawings and shows the sheet for each, and your estimator confirms them. It does not decide your margin, and it does not decide whether you bid.

Two kinds of fabricator

Some shops quote from a CAD file. Others quote from somebody else's documents.

Custom work

Mavlon is the right tool when

  • The request is an engineer's specification and a drawing set, written for one project.
  • You build platforms, stairs, tanks, frames or structures to that design, not parts to a model.
  • Materials, coatings, tests and stamps are spread across sections you have to find.
  • The drawings and the specification disagree, and you have to ask before you can price.
  • One quote takes hours of reading before the arithmetic starts.
Parts from a CAD file

A geometry quoting tool is the right tool when

  • Requests arrive as CAD files or flat patterns for cut, bent and machined parts.
  • The price comes from the geometry: cut length, bends, weight and machine time.
  • You quote many small parts a day, and speed per part is what you need.
  • Paperless Parts is the best known tool of this kind, and for this work it will serve you better than we will.

We make Mavlon, so weigh this sort with that in mind. Our buyer guide compares the tools for both kinds of shop, including where others beat us. Corrections are welcome at atishay@mavlon.co.

Do not take our word for it

Test it on a package you can download.

The Cape Vincent waterfront package is public. Hand it to any vendor, including us, and see whether the software finds these without being told where to look.

  1. The two decking materials for the same gangway: page 102 of the specification against sheet CM-5.01 on page 117.
  2. The two deflection limits on the same page, L over 360 and L over 180.
  3. The gangway length of 46 feet, which is on one sheet only.
  4. That the piles are by others, and what that does to the pile guide count.
  5. All seven places where the drawings and the specification disagree.

Score it the way you would score a new hire. Did it find the item? Did it cite the page? Did it show you the conflict, or quietly pick a side?

The buyer guide, for both kinds of shop →Our pilot protocol and pass bar →
What we have published so far
  • A 179-page public waterfront package: 214 statements, each cited to its page, and 7 places where the drawings and the specification disagree.
  • A 668-page treatment plant specification book: the 14 sections relevant to the equipment, found without being told where to look.
  • No published run on a miscellaneous metals package yet.
  • The fair test is a quote of your own that you have already priced.
The pass bar: seven of ten totals within 15 percent, agreed in writing first.
We did the reading first

Guides and tools for people who quote fabricated work.

GuideAI quoting software for manufacturingThree kinds of tool, and which shop each one fits.GuideReading bid packagesWhat five real public packages taught us.GuideQuoting custom equipment before the design existsWhat three public bid packages had in common.GuideAI quoting software for metal fabricationOur earlier guide to the field.ToolMetal weight calculatorPlate, bar and tube in nine materials.ToolSpecification compliance matrixAn Excel template for answering a specification line by line.
What does AI quoting for metal fabrication look like in practice?

The software reads the documents your customer sent: the specification, the drawings and the addenda. It lists every requirement that changes the price with the page it came from, sorts whose scope each one is, shows where the documents disagree, and drafts a first quote from your own pricing rules. Your estimator reviews it and decides the price.

We are a job shop and we quote parts from CAD files. Is this for us?

Probably not. A shop that quotes cut, bent and machined parts from a model needs a tool that prices from the geometry, and Paperless Parts is the best known of those. Mavlon is for fabricators whose requests arrive as a specification and a drawing set written for one project. See the buyer guide for both kinds of shop.

Does it do takeoff from the drawings?

It reads lengths, sizes and counts from the drawings in the package and shows the sheet for each, and your estimator confirms them. It is not takeoff software for a whole steel frame with thousands of members. For that work a takeoff tool is the right place to start.

Does it replace our estimating spreadsheet?

It replaces the spreadsheet, not the logic. The rules in your Excel file and in your senior estimator’s head become the rules the draft is priced from, and they stay yours. Your estimator still reviews every draft and decides the price.

How do we find out whether it works on our quotes?

Bring a quote you have already priced. The pilot is a blind test on your own past quotes, scored against a pass bar that is agreed in writing before anything runs. The whole protocol is published on our pilot page. Read the pilot protocol.

Who sees our customers' documents?

An NDA is signed before any document of yours moves. Deployment options, encryption and the controls that keep your documents out of model training are set out on our security page. Read the security page.

Questions fabricators ask

Asked plainly, answered in writing.

Bring one fabrication package you have already priced.

We read it together on a call. Compare what it finds against what your team found. If you would rather not share a document on day one, we can read the public waterfront package together instead. An NDA is signed before anything of yours moves.

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The newsletter

Field Notes

The numbers that change your next quote. Once a month.

  • 01A material price that shifted this month, with the number.
  • 02What contracts in one segment actually closed for.
  • 03A real bid package taken apart page by page.

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