Changes and reorders

What counts as a revision

A revision is any change to what gets made. That means geometry — a hole moved, a wall thickened, a radius added. It also means material, finish, and requirements: swapping 6061 for stainless, adding powder coat, tightening a dimension that used to be a general note, changing what the part has to mate with.

The last two catch people out. Nothing about the model changed, so it feels like a note rather than a revision. It isn't. A finish change can move the part to a different process and a different schedule. A tightened dimension can move it to a different shop, because tight-tolerance work is routed to a partner who can supply a CMM report. Treat any of those as a revision and you'll get the right quote instead of a surprise.

How to submit a revision

Send three things:

• The new file, with a new revision identifier in the filename. Rev A to Rev B, v1 to v2, a date — the convention doesn't matter, but it has to change.
• What changed, in one or two lines. "Moved the two mounting holes 4mm outboard, added a chamfer on the top edge."
• Why, if it affects how the part is used. If the holes moved because the mating bracket changed, say so. We'll look at the rest of the part differently.

STEP is the right format for a revision to 3D geometry, for the same reason it's the right format the first time: it carries structure, units, and product manufacturing information. An STL is a bare mesh. If the only thing you send is a new STL, there's no evidence in the file of what changed, and we'll be comparing meshes by eye. A PDF drawing alongside the model is welcome. A PDF instead of the model isn't enough to build from.

Never overwrite

Send a new file with a new revision marker. Don't replace the old one and don't reuse the old name.

This is the single rule most worth following, and it costs nothing. Two files called bracket.step are indistinguishable once they're both in an inbox, and the version on the machine is whichever one someone opened last. A superseded revision is also evidence — when a part comes back wrong, the first useful question is which revision it was cut from, and that question is unanswerable if the old file was overwritten. Revision identification is a standard practice for exactly this reason; ASME Y14.35 is the US standard covering how drawings and associated documents are revised and marked.

How you know which revision is being built

Your project folder carries the folder structure and the revision name, and you can see it. That's the reference point. The revision also appears on the final invoice, so the version you were billed for is written down in a place neither of us can quietly edit later.

If you need a revision mid-cycle — after the job is already moving — you request it through your dashboard. Someone here confirms whether it's still possible at that point in the build. If it is, they update the time, price, and notes against the job, and those changes are emailed to you automatically. You don't have to chase anyone for the new number; it arrives.

saying so before the work goes ahead. A change you weren't told about isn't a change we made.

What a change costs depends on when it arrives

The same edit costs different amounts at different points in the job. Not because of a fee schedule, but because of how much work has already been done to the old version.

Before the quote. Effectively free. Nothing has been priced against the old file, so the new one is simply the file we quote.

After the quote, before you approve. Cheap. The quote gets redone against the new revision. The only cost is the requoting itself, and a quote is only meaningful against a specific revision anyway — a final quote should always name the exact revision you intend to approve.

After approval, before the build starts. More involved. Material may already be committed, programming may already exist, and the job has a place in the schedule. The change is absorbable, but it's no longer just a document edit.

After the build starts. Now the change costs whatever has already been consumed. Material that's been cut is cut. Setup time that's been spent is spent. Depending on the process, some of the work carries forward and some of it doesn't — a fixture may survive a change that scrap material won't.

After a first article or T0 sample has been approved. The most expensive point, and the least obvious one. A first article exists to verify a first representative unit of a new or changed run. Changing the design after it's approved re-opens that verification by definition, so the change doesn't only cost the parts — it costs the confirmation step that made the run trustworthy.

The shape to remember: the cost of a change rises across the life of a job, and rises fastest at the end. If you think a change is coming, telling us early is worth more than getting it exactly right.

When a change becomes a change order

A revision is a new version of a file. A change order is a formal amendment to a job that is already agreed and running.

The line is the baseline. Once you've approved a quote against a specific revision, that revision is the agreed scope, and work — programming, material, scheduling — starts against it. A change after that point isn't an edit to a document. It's a change to something both sides have committed to, so it gets recorded as an event rather than absorbed silently.

A change order captures what changed, what it affects, the price impact, the schedule impact, and who approved it. That record is the point. It exists so that six weeks later there's no argument about what was agreed, by whom, and when.

Some changes we'll ask you to requote rather than raise as a change order — when the change is large enough that amending the old job would obscure more than it explains. A different material, a different quantity, or a change that moves the part to a different process is usually cleaner as a new quote. That isn't a refusal. It's the version that gives you a number you can trust.

Reordering a part

If you've had the part made before, the reorder path is short. Send:

• What you want made — the part name or the previous order it came from.
• Which revision, if you know it. If you don't, say which order it was and we'll work from that.
• How many.
• The file, if anything about it changed, or if you'd rather work from your copy than ours.

Same part, same revision

The simple case. Same geometry, same material, same finish, same revision identifier as last time. There's a recorded baseline and a revision history, which is the whole reason "the same part" is a meaningful phrase at all. Confirm the revision, confirm the quantity, and it's a repeat of a known job rather than a new one.

Same part, new revision

Treat this as a revision, not a reorder. Send the new file with a new revision identifier and say what changed, exactly as you would mid-project. It matters more than it sounds: a repeat run at a new revision is genuinely a different event from a repeat at the same revision, and if it's a production run it re-opens first-article verification the same way a mid-job change does.

When a reorder needs a new quote

Often. Here's why, plainly.

• Material cost moves. Metal prices are not a constant, and a quote written against last quarter's stock cost isn't a real number today.
• Quantity changed. Cost per part isn't linear. Ten is not ten times one, and a hundred isn't ten times ten. A different quantity is a different job economically.
• Time has passed. Quotes are valid 30 days. Past that, the quote has expired rather than become negotiable.
• The process or the capacity changed. A part that ran one way last time may run differently now — different machine, different partner, different routing.

Previous pricing doesn't automatically carry forward. We're not going to imply it does and then send you a different invoice. Ask for a current quote on the reorder and you'll get a real number against today's cost and today's revision, same business day and usually within the hour, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern, closed federal holidays.

The short version

• Any change to geometry, material, finish, or requirement is a revision.
• Never overwrite. New file, new revision marker, one line on what changed.
• Your project folder and your final invoice both carry the revision name.
• Mid-cycle changes go through your dashboard, get confirmed by a person, and the updated time and price are emailed to you.
• Changes get more expensive the later they arrive, and most expensive after a first article.
• Reorders at the same revision are simple. Reorders at a new revision are a revision.
• Ask for a fresh quote on a reorder. Old pricing doesn't carry itself forward.

Questions on any of it: (321) 321-9220 or [email protected].