What a design-only order is
In a normal lab case, the lab designs the restoration in CAD software, fabricates it, finishes it and ships it to you. A design-only order stops after the design. The lab's technician designs the crown, bridge or other restoration from your scan, you review and approve it, and the lab sends you the finished design data. Your clinic then mills or prints the restoration, finishes it and seats it.
Nothing physical is shipped, so there is no shipping time and no shipping charge. What you are buying is the technician's design time and experience.
Who it is for
Design-only work makes the most sense when your clinic has fabrication equipment but limited design capacity. Typical situations:
- Chairside mills. You have a mill but designing every case chairside ties up a dentist or assistant. Sending the design out frees that time while the mill keeps working.
- In-house 3D printers. Clinics printing temporaries, splints, models or permanent crown resins often have the printer and the post-processing workflow, but not a full-time designer.
- Overflow. Your team designs simple single units but sends out complex cases or busy-week overflow.
- Learning and consistency. Some clinics use lab designs as a reference while their own team builds design skills.
If you do not have fabrication equipment, or your equipment cannot process the material you want, a regular full-fabrication order is the simpler choice.
What to send the lab
A design is only as good as the scan and the instructions behind it. Send everything a lab would need for a full case, plus details about your own equipment.
The scan
- Preparation arch with a clean, fully captured margin all the way around.
- Opposing arch, complete enough to show the cusps that will contact the restoration.
- Bite registration scan, ideally on both sides of the arch.
- Adjacent teeth on both sides, so the technician can set contacts and emergence correctly.
- A pre-op scan or a scan of the temporary if you want the design to copy existing anatomy.
The prescription
- Tooth number(s) and restoration type.
- Planned material, for example zirconia, lithium disilicate block, hybrid ceramic, PMMA or a printable crown resin. Different materials need different minimum thicknesses and connector sizes, so the lab must know this before designing.
- Your mill or printer, and the CAM or slicing software you use, so the lab can check that the file will open in your system.
- Any preferences: occlusal contact intensity, contact tightness, cement space if you set it in the design rather than in CAM, anatomy style.
Tell the lab if your milling software applies its own cement gap or tool compensation. If both the design and the CAM software add space, a crown can end up loose; if neither does, it may not seat.
What you receive
You typically receive two different things at two different points:
| Stage | What you get | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Design review | A design preview, often a 3D viewer file you can open in a browser | Check margins, contours, contacts and occlusion before approving |
| After approval | The final design data for fabrication, usually a mesh file such as STL | Import into your CAM or slicing software to mill or print |
STL is the most widely accepted format for open systems. Some mill and printer ecosystems prefer or require their own formats, and some are partly closed to outside designs, so confirm compatibility with the lab on your first case rather than after the design is finished.
How design approval and revisions usually work
- Lab designs. The technician checks the scan, flags problems (for example an unclear margin or not enough room for the material), and designs the restoration.
- You review. Open the preview and look at the margin line, contour, contacts with neighbors, and clearance to the opposing teeth. Check that the design is thick enough for the material you plan to use.
- Request changes if needed. Be specific: "lighten the distal contact," "reduce the buccal bulge on the cervical third," "lower the mesiobuccal cusp." Vague notes like "doesn't look right" cost a round trip.
- Approve. Once you approve, the lab finalizes and sends the fabrication file.
- Fabricate and seat. Mill or print, finish, try in and cement or bond.
The design approval step matters more in a design-only order than in a full case. In a full case, a lab technician also looks at the physical restoration before shipping. In a design-only order, the next person to see it is you, after you have already spent material and machine time.
Pros and cons compared with full fabrication
| Design-only | Full fabrication | |
|---|---|---|
| Turnaround | Design time only; no shipping. You fabricate when it suits your schedule. | Design, fabrication, finishing and shipping. |
| Cost to you | Design fee plus your own material, tools, machine time and staff time. | One fee covering design, material and finishing, plus shipping. |
| Equipment | You need a mill or printer that handles the chosen material. | None. |
| Finishing and esthetics | Your team stains, glazes, sinters or post-cures. | Done by the lab's technicians. |
| Who owns fit problems | Shared: design issues are the lab's, fabrication and finishing issues are yours. Harder to sort out. | The lab owns the finished restoration. |
| Best for | Single units and temporaries in materials your equipment handles well. | Complex esthetics, layered ceramics, large bridges, materials you cannot process. |
The biggest practical drawback is the split responsibility. If a design-only crown is tight, the cause could be the design, the cement space setting, a worn milling bur, sintering shrinkage settings or printer calibration. Keep your equipment calibrated and record the settings you used, so that when something does not fit you can tell which side to look at first.
How this works on HERi2go
On HERi2go, some products in the catalog are design-only. When every item on an order is design-only, the order follows a shorter path:
- The lab designs the case and sends a design preview for your approval, usually a 3D viewer file that opens in the browser or in the HERi2go Clinic mobile app.
- When the design is approved, the order is paid with your HERi2go points, the same as any other order. If the design needs changes, reject it with a note and the lab will revise it and send it back. If you have turned on automatic design approval for a lab, or the case is a rush case, approval and payment happen automatically when the lab submits the design, unless the lab requires your approval or your balance is short, so turn that off if you want to review every design-only case yourself.
- The lab then completes the design data. CAD files can be large, so the lab may attach them to the order or send them to you directly, for example by email. If the file is not attached to the order, you will see a notice that the lab is sending it separately.
- Because there is no shipment, the shipping steps are skipped and no shipping fee applies. The order moves straight to waiting for your purchase confirmation. If you do not confirm, it is confirmed automatically a few days after the design data is delivered, so check the files as soon as they arrive.
- If the data has a problem, you can raise a claim while the order is still waiting for your confirmation, and use the order chat (with built-in translation) to explain the issue to the lab.
If an order mixes design-only items with physical restorations, the whole order follows the normal fabrication and shipping process.
Quick checklist
- Confirm on your first case that the lab's file format opens in your CAM or slicing software.
- State the material and your machine on every prescription.
- Agree who sets the cement space: the design or your CAM software.
- Send complete scans: prep, opposing, bite and adjacent teeth.
- Review the design preview carefully; it is your last check before material is used.
- Give specific, measurable revision notes.
- Check the delivered files promptly, before the order closes.
- Keep your mill or printer calibrated and log the settings for each case.
Most design-only fit problems trace back to the same causes as lab-made crowns. Our guide on how to reduce crown remakes covers those in detail.