Print time calculation by .stl file size?

We have just purchased a 3DP1000 printer here at my company. We are in manufacturing which involves several people within any given project. I am curious if there is a "calculator" or formula of some sort that can give a somewhat accurate idea for print time on a 3D printed part? We are using the simplyfy3d software which I'm aware will give you print time, but I'm interested in giving my planners an easier way to calculate print time and material usage for the planning stages of these projects. For example - we have a project currently that has 60 parts. At any given time - we could have multiple projects going on at once which equals a large number of parts that will need to be printed. Like our CNC machines and water jet machines, we have a schedule that dictates when the machines will be in use as well as when they will be available for use. Our planners and engineers dictate these schedules. To keep our planners from having to load each individual file into the software to identify print time and material usage, I challenged our engineering department to come up with a formula that uses .stl file sizes to dictate the print time = (.stl mb*13.8)+12. The first run seemed to get "somewhat" close, but not close enough. I have found material usage calculators, but nothing for print time. The formula that we came up with is easy to apply to an entire spreadsheet of part .stl files which is what I am after. Are there any "calculators" or formulas out there that would do what I am asking? This would take a huge work load off of my other departments by just giving them a quick tool rather than individual seats of the software and taking all the time to individually load each file. Maybe a pipe dream here!

Print time wouldn't depend on volume of material deposited as much as the total X/Y distance traveled and print speed. A piece sliced at 300 microns would take 1/3 as long as the same piece sliced at 100 microns, all other things (including material dispensed and stl file size) being equal.

Even with a standard print speed, infill percentage, layer thickness, and total material used, printing a fist would take less time than printing an open hand with fingers sticking up - due to all the nonprinting moves between the fingers.

However, some slicers (like slic3r) will generate an estimated print time, based on X/Y distance traveled and print speed.

what davo said.

If you are using the same printing specifications for every job. Then after a few jobs you'll have avery good idea how long things will take.

I usually change settings depending on what I'm printing. So rely on s3d to give me printing times and material usage.

It's the easiest and quickest way to do it I know of

I will say this.

I have a part that I printed, it took 13.5 hours.

I changed one or two settings, it now takes 3 hours.

Its the same part. See the problem?

Hi DBFIU, I don't see where your problem is. Slicing a stl in S3D is what ? 3 minutes ? You get all the data from there.

If you make a draft print, at max speed and big layer height and low infill, it will be faster. If you want an aesthetically pleasing outcome, you'll need to radically change the parameters, but not that many of them.

So yes, a few critical parameters influence print time. And I agree with Curious Aardvark and Davo : print time is dependent on tool paths i.e. slicing parameters.

If you never change your parameters and if your parts are often similar you could build a table listing the volumes and times and perhaps find a rough correlation between duration and volume. But I change parameters often and my parts never look the same so... I just slice every time. As I said, 3 minutes.

lambda -dbfiu was just explaining the problem to the person who asked the question. Did you read the whole thread ?

There could have been some things lost in translation there too. "See the problem?" is a rhetorical question, might not have translated to french that well.

Anyways, XYZ does a fairly accurate job of estimating the print time, usually +/- 2% or so, and that's usually due to environmental effects on the heating element. But then, the printer boots up, and always overestimates by 600-700% of the print time, and by about 25%, it has corrected itself to a more accurate time.