DocsOrders & fulfillment

Order parts

Order printed parts from your own files — one part or up to 500 — paid at checkout, with no store listing.

5 min read

Order parts (a custom order) is how you have PrintPort print your own files and ship them to you or anyone else — a single sample, or a run of up to 500 parts. There is no listing to build and no SKU to match: upload a file, choose a material and color, type how many, enter an address and pay at checkout. PrintPort then prints, inspects, packs and ships it.

Two common reasons

Sellers use it to hold a sample before taking a product from Draft to Live. Everyone else uses it to get parts made — a batch of brackets, enclosures, spare parts or a short production run — with no store at all. Nothing about an order placed here touches your store, your listings or your SKUs.

Overview

A parts order differs from a normal store order in two ways. First, it is prepaid: whoever places it pays the full amount at checkout, so your saved PrintPort card is never charged for it afterward. Second, it appears in your order book with a custom_ order number, which distinguishes the jobs you place from the orders that flow in from a store.

Open it from Orders with Order parts. It works on a brand-new account with nothing connected — no Shippo, no storefront, no card on file.

Only here for parts? Sign up from the PrintPort3D Parts page, or turn on I’m here to order parts in Settings → Fulfillment. Your setup checklist then asks only for a file, and Overview leads with Order parts instead of the Shippo and storefront steps. Turn it off any time to sell products.

Before you start

You need a file that has finished processing. You can upload one inside the order itself: step 1 has an Upload button, and a file still being measured shows in the list, greyed, until it is Ready. A file that errored does not appear.

A design file — STL, 3MF, OBJ or STEP — uploaded and Ready (or upload it in step 1)
The full shipping name and address
The materials, colors and any hardware you want, from what PrintPort currently stocks

Review File requirements so your model passes analysis on the first attempt.

Placing an order

The flow is five short steps. A progress bar at the top tracks your position.

1
Parts
Select each file and type how many you want — from 1 to 500 — or use − and + for small changes. Each row shows the part’s print time. The running total at the bottom counts parts and price.
2
Material and color
Pick one material and color per file; it covers every copy. To split a run, use Split into another color and type how many go in that color — the first color holds the rest (500 in black plus 20 in red reads “the other 480”).
3
Hardware (optional)
Add non-printed parts such as magnets, threaded inserts, screws or a MagSafe ring from what is in stock. Skip this step if the parts do not need any.
4
Ship to
Enter the full name and address to ship to. It can be yours or anyone’s.
5
Review and pay
PrintPort fetches a live shipping rate and shows one line per part and color, the quantity saving, the shipping (with the number of boxes for a big order), the total, and the order’s total print-hours. Continue to Stripe’s secure checkout to pay and place the order.

The total is an estimate until checkout

The shipping line is a live rate pulled when you reach the review step. A complete address is required to price shipping. If a rate cannot be found, checkout does not continue until the address is corrected. The checkout re-prices everything on the server, with the same rules, before Stripe charges.

How it is priced

Each part is priced the way your make cost always is: material weight times the filament’s stocked price per gram, plus labor at $3.00 per print-hour (pro-rated under an hour), plus the price of any hardware, with a $2.00 minimum per order. Parts ship as printed; a parts order is not assembled.

Quantity pricing. Copies of one file in one color take a graduated discount on labor: 10% off from the 2nd copy, 20% from the 5th, 30% from the 10th. It works like tax brackets — copies 2–4 get 10%, copies 5–9 get 20%, the 10th onward 30% — so ordering more never costs less in total. It applies when two copies fit side by side on the printer bed (about 118 mm or less on the short side); a larger part is priced per copy. Material is never discounted. The review shows the saving and, when one is close, how many more copies reach the next step.

A run of 100

A part that takes 1.5 hours and weighs 40 g, at $0.02 a gram, costs $4.50 in labor and $0.80 in material: $5.30 on its own. At 100 copies in one color, copy 1 pays $4.50 in labor, copies 2–4 pay $4.05, copies 5–9 pay $3.60 and copies 10–100 pay $3.15. The run is $401.30 before shipping — about $4.01 a part.

For the full breakdown, see How you get paid and Costs & pricing.

How it is paid

The full total — parts plus shipping — is prepaid at Stripe checkout before anything is printed. That single payment covers the entire job.

Your saved card is not charged for a parts order

On a normal store order, PrintPort later charges your saved card the make cost, and the shipping label bills to your own Shippo account. A parts order is the opposite: it is paid in full at checkout, so your card is never charged again afterward and the label is already covered.

Shipping and timing

Every order ships from the PrintPort warehouse in Orange, CA at the cheapest USPS rate to the recipient. An order too big for one parcel is packed into identical cartons of up to 24 × 18 × 18 in and 40 lb each; the review shows how many, and shipping is the rate for one carton times the count.

Every order goes to the printers when it is paid. An order with up to about two days of printing ships within 3 business days. A bigger run takes as long as its print time — the review shows the total print-hours and, past two days of printing, asks you to check a ship date with Support before you pay.

Parts orders vs. store orders

A parts order is prepaid in full; a store order charges your card the make cost later.

	Parts order	Store order
Where it comes from	You place it in Order parts	Flows in from your store
Order number	custom_…	Your channel’s order number
Store listing	Not needed	Sold through your listing
Quantity	1 to 500 parts, quantity pricing on labor	Whatever the customer bought
Who pays, and when	Full total prepaid at Stripe checkout	Your saved card, at label purchase
What that covers	Parts (at least $2.00) plus shipping, upfront	Make cost only (material plus labor, $2.00 minimum)
Shipping label	Already paid at checkout	Bills to your own Shippo account

Where it comes from
Parts order
You place it in Order parts
Store orderFlows in from your store
Order number
Parts ordercustom_…
Store order
Your channel’s order number
Store listing
Parts orderNot needed
Store order
Sold through your listing
Quantity
Parts order
1 to 500 parts, quantity pricing on labor
Store order
Whatever the customer bought
Who pays, and when
Parts order
Full total prepaid at Stripe checkout
Store order
Your saved card, at label purchase
What that covers
Parts order
Parts (at least $2.00) plus shipping, upfront
Store order
Make cost only (material plus labor, $2.00 minimum)
Shipping label
Parts orderAlready paid at checkout
Store order
Bills to your own Shippo account

Limits

A single checkout is subject to the following server-enforced caps.

Server-enforced caps on a single parts-order checkout.

Limit	Cap
Printed parts per order	Up to 500
Copies of any one file	Up to 500 (within the order’s 500)
Files in one order	Up to 100
Hardware component types	Up to 50
Quantity of any one component	Up to 100
Shipping cartons	Up to 50

Printed parts per order
CapUp to 500
Copies of any one file
Cap
Up to 500 (within the order’s 500)
Files in one order
CapUp to 100
Hardware component types
CapUp to 50
Quantity of any one component
CapUp to 100
Shipping cartons
CapUp to 50

For a run bigger than 500, place it as more than one order, or email support@printport3d.com to plan it.

Parts orders are non-refundable except for defects

Because each order is made to order, it cannot be refunded on request. The exception is a genuine defect. If something arrives wrong or damaged, open the order and use Get help with this to reach Support. See Refunds & replacements.

After payment

Once payment clears, PrintPort creates the order and begins production. It prints the parts, packs them, buys the USPS label and ships from Orange, CA. There is nothing more for you to approve.

The new order appears in your Orders book with a custom_ number and moves through the same production statuses as any other order: Queued, then Shipped, then Delivered. Tracking appears on the order once the label is bought.

Next steps

The Orders pageWhere your parts order lands and how the order book is organized.Order statusesEvery status label an order can pass through, and what each means.Tracking & deliveryFinding the tracking number and following a shipment to the door.Costs & pricingThe rate card, the order minimum and the quantity ladder in one place.