A design for manufacturability (DFM) review checks whether a part, as drawn, can actually be built the way you're planning to build it — wall thickness, draft, radii, tolerancing, and whether the tool or fixture that makes it can physically reach every feature. Most manufacturers offer one for free as part of quoting your job. The catch: a free DFM review answers one question — "can we run this on our line?" — not the question you actually need answered, which is "is this the right way to make this part at all?" That's the gap an independent DFM review closes.
A DFM review from the shop that's about to quote your job is scoped to their process and their machines. If they run injection molding, they're checking your part against injection-molding limits: wall thickness (commonly 1.2–3 mm, with ribs held to 50–60% of nominal wall to avoid sink marks) and draft angle (a rough baseline of 1° per inch of pull depth, more on textured or Class-A surfaces). If they run CNC, they're checking tool access, internal radii against their standard cutter stock (often a 0.030 in. minimum before you're paying for a custom tool), and pocket depth against the usual rule of thumb — no deeper than 3× the tool diameter before chatter and tolerance drift set in.
None of that is wrong — it's necessary. But it's also entirely in service of one outcome: getting your part to run cleanly on their equipment, at their yield. The engineer reviewing your file is optimizing for their scrap rate, not for whether molding is the right process for your volume, or whether a small change to a boss location would let a second, cheaper shop bid the same job.
By the time a "free" DFM review reaches your inbox, you've usually already sent a finished model to that specific shop for a quote. The review functions as a gate, not a design partner — it tells you what to fix so the job can run, after most of the real design decisions are already locked in. Catching a draft-angle problem while it's still lines on a screen costs a few minutes in CAD. Catching the same problem after a mold has been cut turns into a conversation about who eats the tooling rework and the schedule slip.
An independent review sits earlier — before the model goes out for quotes at all, while there's still somewhere for the feedback to land.
CADmore is paid for the design and the review, not for the production run. It builds prototypes in-house, but strictly to validate the design — proving out fit and function before real money goes into tooling — not to win the contract that follows. That contract goes to your own manufacturer, or, if you don't have one yet, a referral into CADmore's partner network. There's no production run for CADmore itself to win, so the recommendation isn't shaped by whichever process would be most convenient for CADmore to run in-house.
Tens of thousands of projects have been submitted through CADmore, so the checklist a reviewer works from is grounded in real parts, not a textbook. Redesign work coming out of a review — updated CAD, revised drawings — moves on CADmore's standard design turnaround: as fast as 24 hours, typically 6–8 business days depending on complexity.
Worth being honest here: an independent review isn't always worth paying for. If the part is simple, you're already committed to one shop, and you just need a sanity check before a repeat order, the manufacturer's free review will catch the obvious stuff fine. Pay for a second set of eyes when the part is new, you're planning to competitively source it, the geometry is complex enough that process choice is genuinely in question, or the cost of being wrong — a scrapped mold, a bad production run — makes a second opinion cheap by comparison.
A reasonable starting point is a $100 consultation to scope the review, or start a project directly and flag that you want a DFM pass before it goes out for quotes.
What does a DFM review actually check? Whether the part as drawn can be built the way you intend — wall thickness, draft angles, internal radii, tolerancing, and tool or fixture access — checked against the limits of a specific manufacturing process such as machining, molding, casting, or sheet metal.
Is a manufacturer's free DFM review biased? Not maliciously, but it's scoped to protect their line, not your options. It checks whether the part will run on their equipment at an acceptable yield — not whether their process, or their shop, is the right choice for the part in the first place.
When in the process should a DFM review happen? Before the model goes out for quotes, while changes are still edits in CAD rather than tooling rework. A review that shows up bundled with the quote is checking a design that's already mostly locked.
Does an independent DFM review replace my manufacturer's review? No — it complements it. An independent review shapes the design and the RFQ package; your manufacturer still signs off on their own process-specific details once you've picked a shop.
How much does an independent DFM review cost? It depends on part complexity and component count, so there's no single number that fits every job. Most engagements start with a $100 consultation, which scopes the review for your specific part.
Whether the part as drawn can be built the way you intend — wall thickness, draft angles, internal radii, tolerancing, and tool or fixture access — checked against the limits of a specific manufacturing process such as machining, molding, casting, or sheet metal.
Not maliciously, but it's scoped to protect their line, not your options. It checks whether the part will run on their equipment at an acceptable yield — not whether their process, or their shop, is the right choice for the part in the first place.
Before the model goes out for quotes, while changes are still edits in CAD rather than tooling rework. A review that shows up bundled with the quote is checking a design that's already mostly locked.
No — it complements it. An independent review shapes the design and the RFQ package; your manufacturer still signs off on their own process-specific details once you've picked a shop.
It depends on part complexity and component count, so there's no single number that fits every job. Most engagements start with a $100 consultation, which scopes the review for your specific part.