# How to calculate the approximate volume of material used in 3d print?

Is there a reasonable way of approximating the volume of material used for 3D print by knowing only the STL file volume and infill percentage?

Or what is the formula for calculating the exact volume and which parameters can be fixed to reasonable values?

Can this be done easily using Slic3r or CuraEngine in command line?

Note: Supposedly 3Dhubs use Cura[*] software to calculate the print volume.

Any help is appreciated.

• by knowing only the STL file volume which else volume do you want? Jul 20 '16 at 17:32
• Are you sure you want the volume, or are you asking for the amount of print material required to print? The volume does not depend on the infill percentage, but the print material usage does. Jul 20 '16 at 20:07
• @dsalaj, so what you are saying is that you want to know the volume of the material used, and not the volume of the final print? Jul 21 '16 at 7:44
• @TormodHaugene You are right. I was ignorant thinking these two are the same. Obviously the volume after melting, cooling, etc. will change. I was able to work out the volume of material used know simply by using the filament length (calculated by Cura) and filament diameter. Jul 21 '16 at 10:31
• @TormodHaugene Thank you. Yes I have. I only need to figure out how to do it from command line with CuraEngine. I will do that, thanks. Jul 21 '16 at 10:38