Additive manufacturing software from powder to part.

Additive manufacturing software manages the production side of 3D printing: materials, print queues, post processing, part records and cost, while slicers prepare the print file. Sutton does this in one system. Powder, resin and filament are tracked as lots, builds are scheduled against your printers, and every part carries a record of its material, machine, parameters and inspection. Costs roll up from the same data, so quotes and COGS start from what actually happened on the floor.

Sutton tracks each powder, resin or filament as a raw material with its own lots, so every batch keeps its supplier, receipt date and certificate. Add the material to a bill of materials with the amount each build needs, and every manufacturing order commits it automatically and draws stock down. You can see what is available versus committed at any time, and because each build records the lots it used, you can trace a lot forward to the parts and customers it reached.

A job in Sutton can draw on more than one lot, such as a virgin lot and a reused lot, and Sutton records how much of each was used. Every part traces back to those lots, so you can see everything a given lot touched. To document the blend on the part itself, add a field to the serialized output, for example 40 percent lot A and 60 percent lot B. Reuse limits and sieve rules vary by machine and alloy, so they are set up to match your process.

Add each printer as equipment and assign it to the routing steps it can run. When a manufacturing order is created in Sutton, operators see which printer to use, and each work order records the machine that ran it. A build can also carry parts from several orders, with machine time and material split across them by the rule you choose, which Sutton's team sets up with you during onboarding.

Yes. Sutton turns depowdering, support removal, heat treat, HIP, curing and finishing into routing steps, each with its own work orders and queue, so you can see where parts are waiting and which station is the bottleneck. Steps can run in house or be sent to an outside vendor, and each one is recorded on the part's history.

Utilization comes from the machine on record for every build, and failure rates come from yield tracking. In Sutton, each printer is set up as equipment and workers select it when they start a work order. Sutton Machine Monitoring adds live run time and downtime from each machine's electrical use, and any machine or system that can send data to Sutton can feed in as well. Turn on yield tracking for an item and Sutton shows yield live on manufacturing and work orders, with failed builds and scrap recorded by reason.

In additive manufacturing, the ability to track and see the manufacturing history of a component or subassembly is referred to as part traceability.

This is done by using a tool or software that keeps a complete digital record of how a product gets manufactured, not just updating its quantities after production runs. For this to work properly, you need a solution that can:

• Connect the design file and its revisions
• Record the origin and history of the materials used
• Save the machine and parameters involved in the build
• Document the build conditions
• Recognize the operators and actions taken
• Save any post processing steps the part went through afterward

Traceability solutions built for additive manufacturing typically include serialized inventory functionality, which assigns a unique identification number or code to an item so it can be tracked through production, inventory and sales.

Sutton supports part traceability through labels. Every serialized item gets a label that identifies either a specific unit or batch, and operators use a barcode scanner to track it through each production step. Because each part's record includes its powder lot, you can trace in both directions: from a suspect lot forward to every part and customer it reached, or from a finished part back to the lot, machine and parameters behind it.

Serialized tracking and full end to end traceability are necessary for tracing warranty claims, repairs and quality issues. Serialization is also a legal requirement in some industries and helps launch recalls or investigate defective products quickly.

Aerospace and medical customers typically ask for the same core records: material lot and certificate, powder reuse history, machine and build parameters, post processing and heat treat records, inspection results, and a serial number tying them to each part. Sutton keeps these on each part. Certificates, scan reports, inspection results and photos attach to each build and part, and the as built record can be packaged for a customer or audit. Standards such as AS9100 and ISO 13485 set what your customer requires, so your quality team confirms the specifics.

Add up machine time, powder or resin including supports, finishing labor and inspection, then split a shared build across its parts. Sutton does this from your recorded work orders, lot costs and work center rates. When you quote, bring in the build time from your slicer, and after the job runs Sutton shows quoted versus actual cost, so the next quote is closer.

Yes. Sutton syncs natively with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, NetSuite and Sage Intacct, so bills, invoices and expenses flow between the two without double entry. Design files such as STL and STEP attach to quotes and jobs so they travel with the order, and an open API and webhooks connect other tools your team uses, such as a quoting tool.