CadVex user guide · Chapter 3

Set up your shop

CadVex prices every part with your rates, on your machines, from your stock. Set these once in Settings and every new analysis starts from them.

Updated 22 October 2026 · 7 min read

A new CadVex account starts with demo values: a fictional material catalog, common stock sizes, sample rates and a demo letterhead. They let you try CadVex at once, but they are not your shop. Replace them before you rely on an estimate.

Where the settings are

Click Settings in the left menu. The tabs are:

In Cloud, shop settings are shared by your whole team, and only an administrator can change them. Other members see them read-only.

Currency, language and units

Open Settings → My Profile.

• My Details: your name, job title and phone number.
• Shop Details: your shop name, legal name, contact details, tax or VAT number and address, plus:
• Default currency. Every price and quote uses it. Set it first: CadVex asks for it before your first part.
• Language: English or Français. The change applies at once.
• Units: Metric (mm, g) or Imperial (in, lb).

Click Save Shop Details when you are done.

In Desktop, changing the currency asks you to confirm first: "Change currency from … to …?" CadVex does not convert amounts from one currency to another, so you choose what happens to your rates and other money values:

• Change currency and reset monetary defaults puts them back to the recommended values for the new currency,
• Change currency and keep current values keeps the same numbers, now in the new currency,
• Cancel keeps the old currency.

Hourly rates

Open Settings → Shop Rates. Your rates live in a rate profile. Most shops need one; you can keep several, for example a standard profile and a profile for a large customer.

• New Profile, Duplicate, Rename, Save Profile and Delete manage the profiles.
• Set as Default chooses the profile every new analysis starts from.

A profile has these sections:

Click Save Profile after your changes.

Machines in your shop

In Shop Rates → Machines in your shop, tick the machine types you have:

• 3-axis mill
• 4-axis (rotary)
• 5-axis (3+2)
• CNC lathe
• Turn-mill / live tooling

CadVex prices a part only on routes these machines can run. A cheaper route on a machine you do not have is shown as information, never used as the price. See Routes and quantities.

Until you save this list, CadVex assumes your shop has every machine type. A banner reminds you: "CadVex currently assumes your shop has every machine type…". Click Set up machines to fill it in, or Not now to hide the banner.

Materials

Open Settings → Materials & Stock Sizes and choose Materials.

• CadVex Material Library gives you common engineering materials. Untick Include CadVex material library to hide them; this does not delete them.
• Shop Material Catalog holds your own materials, with your prices. Click + Add Material, enter the name and choose an engineering profile: the CadVex material your grade behaves like. CadVex needs the profile to estimate cutting time.

A material marked Needs mapping can be saved, but cannot be used for quoting until you choose its engineering profile.

Stock sizes

Choose Stock Sizes in the same tab.

• Use CadVex standard stock sizes gives practical starting sizes.
• Shop Stock Sizes holds the bar, plate and tube you actually buy. Click + Add Stock and enter the form and dimensions.

CadVex matches sizes by form and dimensions, whatever the material. It picks the smallest size the part fits in, and prefers your shop sizes over the CadVex sizes when they are equivalent. A round bar is chosen only when the whole cross-section of the part fits inside the bar, so a square block is never priced from a bar too thin to hold its corners.

Import materials or stock from a spreadsheet

You can load your list from Excel or CSV instead of typing it.

1. Click Import shop materials or Import shop stock sizes.
2. Click Choose Excel or CSV file and pick an .xlsx or .csv file.
3. In Match spreadsheet columns, tell CadVex which column holds what, for example the material name, grade, cost per kg and supplier, or the stock form and dimensions. Choose — ignore — for columns you do not need.
4. Review the rows. CadVex counts new rows, rows that already exist, rows with invalid dimensions and materials that need an engineering profile. Invalid rows are skipped.
5. Choose the Import mode:

• Merge updates matching rows (prices included) and adds new ones. Blank cells keep the existing values. If a row appears twice, the last one wins.
• Replace replaces your shop list with the reviewed rows.

1. Click Import reviewed rows.

A spreadsheet can be up to 8 MB, with up to 10,000 rows per import, in Cloud and in Desktop. Password-protected workbooks cannot be read.

CadVex's own materials and sizes are never changed by an import. Clear shop list removes your shop entries only.

Markup

Markup is part of the rate profile, in Shop Rates → Markup. There are two:

• Material markup %, for the material you buy,
• General markup %, your general margin.

The low and high range percentages set the band CadVex shows around each estimate. You can also change markup for one part, in the Shop Rate Card step of its Cost Analysis; that change stays in that analysis.

Rates in Settings versus rates in one analysis

This is the most important rule in this chapter:

When you start a new analysis, CadVex copies the default rate profile into it. From then on, the analysis has its own copy:

• If you change a rate inside one analysis (in Cost Analysis, step Shop Rate Card), that change stays in that analysis. It is saved with it and is still there when you reopen it. Your Settings do not change, and no other part changes.
• If you change your Settings later, analyses you already saved keep the rates they were saved with. New analyses use the new rates.
• To load a profile into an open analysis, choose it in the Shop Rate Card step and click Apply Profile.

The same goes for the machine ticks in the Shop Rate Card step: they count for this estimate only. Your shop-wide list stays in Settings.

Quote template

Your quotes print on your own letterhead. Open Settings → Quote Template and follow the six steps:

1. Upload PDF: your blank letterhead, as a PDF.
2. Place fields: drag the quote number, date, customer and the other fields onto the page.
3. Place line items: drag each column onto the first line row, then place the Next row marker to set the row spacing.
4. Totals & terms: choose No tax or add a tax rate, and place the totals.
5. Test quote: click Generate test quote and check the result.
6. Save: click Save Template.

Other pages of your PDF, such as your terms and conditions, are added to every quote unchanged.

• In Cloud, the template PDF must be small (about 3 MB). Only an administrator can change the template.
• In Desktop, the PDF can be up to 15 MB and 25 pages, and the quote number, date and total must be placed. Each saved template is a new version; quotes you already saved keep their PDF.

Team (Cloud)

Open Settings → Team to invite colleagues to your shop.

1. Click Invite a member and enter their email.
2. Click Send invite, or Copy the invitation link and send it yourself.

You can remove a member or revoke an invitation from the same page. The Free Evaluation includes one administrator and no invited members.

CadVex Desktop is for one user per license and has no Team tab.

Next: Run an analysis.