Questions

Every project is quoted individually. We slice your actual file before quoting, so the price reflects the real build rather than a guess from the file size.

Submit through the portal and you will have a quote back with a price, a production time and a delivery date. There is no charge for quoting, and no obligation to proceed.

Two models with the same dimensions can differ several times over in cost, depending on geometry, wall thickness, support requirements, infill, colour changes and quality level. A per-hour or per-gram list would either overcharge simple models or undercharge complex ones.

Quoting from the sliced file is slower for us and more accurate for you.

• Machine time — driven by geometry, height, layer height and quality level.
• Quality level — Premium runs slower settings and takes more inspection time than Standard.
• Supports — the material used, plus removal labour when cleanup is included. Student FDM orders are supplied with supports and any brim attached for the student to remove.
• Material changes — tool changes, purge material and extra print time depend on the printer and layout.
• Splitting and joining — more finishing work, though it can shorten lead time.
• File repair — if we have to fix geometry you could have fixed in CAD, that is chargeable time.

Reducing the model's scale can reduce material and print time. The actual saving depends on geometry, supports, wall thickness and print settings, so we calculate it from the sliced model.

Yes. Every project carries a minimum that covers setup, slicing, plate preparation, inspection and packing regardless of how small the part is. The figure is confirmed in your quote.

If you have several small pieces, submit them together rather than separately — one project with five components is cheaper than five projects with one each.

No. Quoting and printability review are free, including telling you that a file has problems and what to change.

The studio sets the lead time in your quote after reviewing the model and available capacity.

Estimated lead time is measured in calendar days from payment confirmation. Once the studio verifies your payment, your job page shows its target completion date. Tell us about a fixed deadline before approving the quote; printer scheduling is reviewed by an operator.

Often, depending on current queue load. Rush production is priced as part of your quote, because it displaces other work. Tell us your real deadline in the project notes when you submit and we will say what is possible before you commit to anything.

If a deadline is genuinely tight, submitting a clean file matters more than paying for rush — a file that goes into manual review can lose more time than rush handling saves.

We will tell you that up front rather than accepting the project and missing it. Where we can, we will propose alternatives — a smaller scale, a faster quality level, splitting the model across machines, or reducing detail that will not read at your scale.

After accepting your quote, send an Interac e-transfer to pay@printbylayr.com for the amount shown.

Copy the full PBL- reference from your quote or job page into the transfer message. The studio checks the funds and reference before confirming payment; the website does not automatically match bank payments.

After you approve the quote and before production begins. Nothing enters the print queue until payment is confirmed, which is also why the quoted lead time starts from that point rather than from submission.

Yes. Invoices carry your name, organisation, project name and order number. Ask at submission if you need a specific reference or purchase order number on the invoice.

Before production starts, a project can be cancelled and payment returned. Once a model is on a machine, material and time have been committed, so cancellation is handled case by case — contact us as soon as you know.

.stl, .3mf and .obj go straight to slicing. .step, .3dm and .skp are accepted but need conversion first, which adds a manual review step. Maximum size 200 MB.

Full detail is on the guidelines page.

The portal checks your model in the browser as soon as you select it and shows you the bounding box, whether it fits our machines, and likely geometry issues before anything uploads.

After submission each file is checked again properly. If something is wrong we tell you what it is and what to change, and hold the project rather than printing something that will fail. Small repairs we can make ourselves; larger problems need a revised file from you.

No. Larger models are split into sections, printed in parallel across several machines, and joined. This is standard practice and often finishes faster than a single continuous build. Submit the file as it is and we will propose a split with the quote.

Yes. Leave the model at 1:1 and put the target scale or the target overall dimension in the project notes — say which, since "1:200" and "must fit a 300 mm base" are different instructions.

You do. Files are used only to produce your models. We do not share, publish or reuse client geometry, and we will not post photographs of your work publicly without your agreement.

Open the private job link in your email for the current quote, status and timeline. The sequence is:

• Submitted — request received, awaiting the studio's quote
• Quote ready — review the price, lead time and expiry; accept or request a change
• Awaiting payment — quote accepted, awaiting the studio's payment check
• Preparing — payment confirmed and job ticket created
• Queued — preparation approved, waiting for an operator to begin printing
• Printing — the operator has confirmed printing started
• Finishing and quality check — the printed part is prepared to the quoted cleanup scope and inspected
• Ready — quality check passed, awaiting pickup or dispatch
• Delivered or collected — handoff confirmed by the studio

Email updates are queued when those steps are recorded; delivery can be delayed, so your job page is the place to check the latest status. Printers are not connected to the website yet. Keep the private link to yourself: anyone holding it can view that job and approve its quote.

Student FDM orders are supplied with supports and any brim attached for you to remove, keeping cleanup labour out of the price. Other FDM orders include support and brim removal in the quote.

Quality level is separate from cleanup: choosing Presentation or Premium does not change this policy. Request any different finishing needs in your notes so they can be included in the quote.

Resin parts are always washed and cured before handoff, including student orders.

Delivery to the University of Toronto's Daniels and Myhal buildings is free. Delivery to other addresses is priced in your quote. The destination and handoff details are confirmed with you before dispatch. Please include your preferred destination in the project notes.

Failures are our cost, not yours. If a build fails for a production reason we reprint it and keep you informed about the effect on your date. If a model fails because of a geometry problem in the file that we flagged and you asked us to proceed anyway, we discuss it before spending your money twice.

Tell us. If we produced something other than what was quoted, we make it right. If the geometry printed exactly as supplied but the design has changed, that is a new project — though repeat work on a model we have already sliced is quicker and easier to schedule.

Anyone who needs a model made properly — every project goes through the same portal, the same machines, and the same process. Deadline-driven work is well understood here.