Two different cost shapes
3D printing has almost no setup. The first part costs about what the hundredth part costs, because each part takes machine time and material. The price per part stays nearly flat as the count grows.
Injection molding is the opposite. A steel or aluminum mold has to be cut before one part exists. That mold costs thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on size and complexity. After that, each part is cheap because a cycle takes seconds.
The crossover
Divide the mold cost by the count and add the molded price per part. When that total drops below the printed price per part, molding wins. For a small enclosure the crossover often sits in the hundreds to low thousands of parts. A large or complex part pushes it higher.
That is why a waitlist price curve can change process at a tier. The first tiers print the case. A high tier pays for a mold, and the unit price falls at that break.
What molding asks of your design
Molded parts need draft angles so they release from the mold, even wall thickness so they cool evenly, and few undercuts. A design made for printing often breaks these rules. Check them before you commit to a mold.
01 flags draft, wall thickness, and undercuts on upload and links each flag to the feature. That keeps a design printable now and moldable later.
When to stay with printing
If the count never reaches the crossover, stay with printing. Printing also suits shapes that molds cannot make, and early runs that may change after buyers see the product.