Job estimate — thread, bobbins, machine time and cost

The Stats tab tells you what one piece needs. Before you accept an order of 250 caps you also want to know how many cones and bobbins to put on the shelf, how long the machine is busy and what a piece costs. The Job estimate section in the Stats tab does that with the same engine function as the threadsmith-design-stats tool.

1. Open a design

Open the Botanical leaf template and click the Stats tab in the inspector. The metrics at the top show 2,230 stitches, a sewing time of 4 min 33 s at the project's machine speed and 9.1 m of top thread for one piece.

2. Describe the job

Scroll to Job estimate and fill in:

• Pieces 250 and Machine heads 4 (four caps are sewn at once).
• Hooping per cycle 45 s for hooping and unloading.
• Thread per cone 5000 m and Price per cone 9.5.
• Thread per bobbin 100 m and Price per bobbin 0.35. Check the length printed on your pre-wound bobbins.
• Machine and operator cost per hour 38 and Currency EUR.

The values are remembered in this browser for every design, because they describe your workshop rather than the design.

3. Read the estimate

• Top thread for 250 pieces 2,277.5 m.
• Bobbins needed 6.
• Machine time 5 h 33 min: 63 machine cycles of 4 min 33 s sewing plus 45 s hooping.
• Pieces per hour 45.3.
• Total cost 217.89 EUR and Cost per piece 0.87 EUR.

The table below lists every thread with its length per piece, its length for the job and the cones: Emerald needs 2,030 m, which is 1 cone (40.6 %); Malachite 207.5 m and Walnut 40 m each fit easily on one cone. Colour stops that use the same thread are added up, so a design that returns to a colour later still counts one thread.

Most of the cost is machine time. Shorten it in the design (fewer trims, a sensible sewing order) or reduce the hooping time, and both the time and the cost per piece fall.

4. The same numbers in the Threads tab

The Threads tab shows the usage per thread from the same calculation, for example 1,879 st · 8.12 m · stop 1 for Emerald. Change a fill's density and both tabs update together.

Good to know

• Thread lengths include 0.8 mm take-up per stitch and 5 % waste; the bobbin is about a third of the sewn length. Real consumption depends on tension, fabric and stabiliser.
• Leave a price empty to leave that part out of the cost.
• The threadsmith-design-stats tool on the website gives the same job estimate for a DST, PES, JEF or EXP file, also through the API and MCP.