Case study · Software
Quote & Cut. Laser-cutting quotes, automated end to end.
Laser-cutting businesses spend hours quoting by hand (open the drawing, work out how the parts fit on a sheet, price the material and the cutting, send the email, wait), which is the problem this WordPress plugin development project set out to remove. Quote & Cut does it in seconds, on the customer’s own website. I built the WordPress plugin, the server-side nesting engine behind it, and the site that sells it.
- Product
- quoteandcut.com and the free plugin on WordPress.org
- Sector
- Software for laser-cutting and fabrication businesses
- Services
- Software development, WordPress, web design
- Built with
- PHP and JavaScript plugin, WooCommerce, a hosted nesting and pricing API
Quoting is the bottleneck in a laser-cutting business. Every enquiry arrives as a DXF drawing and a question: how much? Answering it means laying the parts out on a sheet, working out the material, the cut length and the time, and pricing it, usually by hand, usually hours later, often after the customer has gone elsewhere.
The brief was to remove that bottleneck entirely: let a customer upload their drawings to the cutter’s own website, see an accurate price instantly and pay for the job through a normal checkout. Three pieces of software, working as one: a plugin, an engine and a website.
The approach.
A plugin where the customers are, an engine where the hard maths lives, and a website that sells both.
A WordPress plugin that lives inside WooCommerce.
Laser cutters already run shops on WooCommerce, so the quoting tool was built as a plugin that drops into what they have. Customers drag in DXF files, pick material, grade and thickness, set quantities and watch the price update. When they are happy, the job becomes a cart item and goes through the shop’s existing checkout. No new platform to learn, no new payment system to set up.
- DXF and STEP upload with 2D previews and a 3D viewer in the browser
- Material picker with search, type, grade and thickness
- Folding, holes, etching and powder coating configured per part
- Add to cart straight into the existing WooCommerce checkout
A server-side nesting engine that does the hard part.
The price of a cutting job depends on how the parts fit on the sheet, which is a hard problem. The engine runs as a hosted service: it takes the cleaned geometry, lays the parts out with true-shape nesting, calculates material usage, cut metrics and cost, and returns the quote and the layout in seconds. Doing it server-side keeps the plugin light and the pricing consistent, and the same engine produces the nested cutting files for production.
- True-shape nesting and sheet utilisation
- Pricing from material, cut metrics and configuration
- Interactive layout viewer and downloadable nested DXFs for the workshop
Licensing, security and the business around it.
A product is more than its features. The plugin has a guided setup wizard, a style customiser so the quote form matches each shop, an order files panel for the workshop, signed webhooks for account status, rate limiting against abuse and careful handling of customers’ files. The quoteandcut.com website explains it, prices it and takes the sign-ups. Built to pass WordPress.org’s review and to be run as a business.
- Setup wizard, style customiser and admin tools
- Licensing API with signed webhooks and usage tracking
- Marketing site with pricing, demo and documentation
What was delivered.
- WordPress pluginA WooCommerce extension published on WordPress.org: upload, configure, quote and order from the customer’s browser.
- Nesting engineA hosted API performing true-shape nesting, material optimisation and quote calculation, returning layouts in seconds.
- Pricing modelPrices derived from material, sheet usage, cut metrics and job configuration, consistent across every quote.
- Customer quote builderMulti-file DXF and STEP upload, 2D and 3D previews, materials, finishing options, quantities, live totals and add to cart.
- Workshop toolsNesting results, nested DXF cutting files and the customer’s originals attached to every WooCommerce order.
- Admin experienceGuided setup wizard, API connection, style presets with live preview, diagnostic mode.
- Licensing and securityAPI-key validation, signed webhooks, rate limiting and documented data handling.
- WebsiteThe quoteandcut.com marketing site: features, pricing plans, demo, documentation and sign-up.
- ComplianceBuilt and documented to WordPress.org plugin guidelines, with bundled-library licences declared.
The result.
From hours of quoting to seconds, on the cutter’s own site.
A customer can upload a drawing, choose a material, see the price and pay, without anyone at the workshop lifting a finger, and the job arrives with the nested cutting files ready to run.
It is a complete product: plugin, engine, licensing and website, designed and built as one system by one person. This is what WordPress plugin development looks like when it starts from how a business actually works.
About software developmentServices used on this project.
Web Design
Bespoke, responsive websites designed around your customers and what you want them to do.
Learn more about web designSoftware Development
Custom web tools, WordPress plugins and integrations when a standard site isn’t enough.
Learn more about software developmentA process that still runs on email and spreadsheets?
Describe how the job gets done today and where it slows down. I’ll tell you whether software would help and what it would take to build.
- 1You send a few lines.What the business does and what the website needs to do.
- 2I reply, personally.Usually the same day, with questions and a time for a call.
- 3You get a written proposal.Scope, stages and price for exactly that. No obligation, no hard sell.
Monday to Sunday, 9am to 9pm. You talk to me, not an account manager.