Last reviewed: 2026-11-11
Choose filament before you price
Direct answer: Choose the filament family for the SKU’s heat, UV, and toughness job before you lock a list price. €/kg alone misleads: scrap and operator hours often dominate unit cost. Price from slicer filament grams, not bounding-box volume. Raise scrap % for ABS (enclosure / warp remakes). Use /tools/print-cost with the family presets (PLA 1.24 / €22, PETG 1.27 / €26, ABS 1.04 / €25)—then override with your invoice.
Estimates only. Grade, pigment, and your process window will differ.
Why sellers choose filament first
Farms and founders quote jobs, not nozzle temperatures. Wrong family → remakes, enclosure
labor, brittle returns. Desk notes live in the repo at
printing-designs/data/materials/ (pla.json, petg.json,
abs.json). PETG property bands draw from the LookPolymers PET unreinforced overview
where available (glycol-modified FDM PETG is not identical to bottle-grade PET). PLA and ABS
LookPolymers overview URLs were unavailable on 2026-11-11; those rows are curated plus calculator
presets. Always prefer what you pay and what your slicer reports.
PLA vs PETG vs ABS (commercial)
| PLA | PETG | ABS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When to choose | Indoor decorative, prototypes, low-heat SKUs | Functional parts, light outdoor, impact over PLA | Heat/toughness when you already run enclosed printers |
| Heat / UV | Softens ~55–60 °C; poor outdoor UV | Better heat than PLA; outdoor OK for many brackets—ASA still wins long sun | Higher heat than PLA/PETG; poor UV (prefer ASA outdoors) |
| Scrap risk | Low | Medium (stringing / dry discipline) | High (warp, adhesion, enclosure misses) |
| Labor | Lowest setup/pack among common FDM | Dry time + cleanup vs PLA | Enclosure, adhesion fails, post-process raise hours |
| Density / €/kg starters | 1.24 g/cm³ · €22/kg | 1.27 g/cm³ · €26/kg | 1.04 g/cm³ · €25/kg |
Starters match the print-cost calculator presets. ABS looks light on density and mid on €/kg; scrap and labor usually decide the quote.
How to price after you pick
- Enter filament used (g) from the slicer. Prefer grams over volume × density.
- Set scrap for the process you actually run—raise scrap % for ABS until remake history says otherwise.
- Apply target margin (and marketplace fees if you sell on-platform). See /guides/how-print-cost-is-estimated and /guides/margin-vs-markup-fees.
Try: /tools/print-cost, /tools/pla-print-price.