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Priming a printer and starting a remote print (Formlabs LFS printers)

Priming a printer and starting a remote print (Formlabs LFS printers)

Print on-the-go with just your computer. You can insert consumables, send a print job, and start the print from anywhere.

Note:

Remote printing requires a Formlabs account and that your printer be connected to the internet.

Priming a local printer

Note:

Priming a printer is a deprecated feature for Form 3, Form 3B, Form 3L, and Form 3BL printers. It is only available for Form 3/Form 3B printers running firmware versions 1.20.33 or earlier and Form 3L/Form 3BL printers running firmware 1.11.14 or earlier. The feature has been replaced with automatic printer readying.

Prime a printer without enabling Remote Printing to automatically start a print when your computer is on the same network. As long as a printer is Primed beforehand, you can send a print job to the queue and have it automatically begin printing from several rooms away.

  1. Tap Prime on the Home screen. The printer’s touchscreen and PreForm status both display as Primed.
  2. Open PreForm.
  3. Add or select your primed printer.
  4. Match the material settings for your print job to the inserted consumables in the printer.
  5. Open, orient, and support your model.
  6. Name your print job.
  7. To send a print job to the printer, do one of the following:  
  8. Track your print’s progress in Dashboard.

 

Note:

If you are away from your printer or connected to a different network, then the primed printer is disabled in PreForm and the print job does not upload to the printer queue. Enable Remote Printing to print from a different network than your printer.

Setting up remote printing

When Remote Printing is active, the printer does not communicate with PreForm directly. Instead, both PreForm and the printer pass information to Dashboard and Dashboard shares information between the two.

Ensure you’re all set up and ready to go before sending a print job to the printer:

  1. Log in to a Dashboard account to begin.
  2. Register your printer to a Formlabs account by tapping Settings > Connectivity > Register to Dashboard on the printer’s touchscreen.
  3. On your printer’s touchscreen, tap Settings > Connectivity > Remote Printing to enable.
  4. Insert a build platform, a resin cartridge, and a resin tank to print.
  5. Tap Prime on the Home screen. The printer’s touchscreen, PreForm status, and Dashboard status all display as Primed.
  6. Open PreForm and click Account to log in to your Formlabs account within PreForm.
  7. Add or select your primed printer.
  8. Match the material settings for your print job to the inserted consumables in the printer.
  9. Open, orient, and support your model.
  10. Name your print job and send it to the printer’s queue. Uploading to the printer may take up to several minutes depending on the print job’s file size; the printer begins printing when the upload is complete.
  11. Track your print’s progress in Dashboard.

Note:

You must be logged in to the same Formlabs account within PreForm to see your remote printer in PreForm.

Making remote printing part of your workflow

Sending a print job to a printer with Remote Printing enabled adds that print job to the print queue. If the inserted consumables do not match the selected PreForm material, then the print job does not print and must be reuploaded with matching materials to begin.

To start another remote print:

  1. Remove the previous print from the printer and insert a new build platform.
  2. Ensure the printer has remote printing enabled by tapping Settings > Connectivity > Remote Printing.
  3. Ensure the printer’s status is Primed by tapping Prime on the Home screen.
  4. Use the same Formlabs account to log in to PreForm.
  5. Add the primed printer to PreForm or select it.
  6. Match the print job’s material settings to the inserted consumables in the printer.
  7. Name your print job.
  8. Send your print job to the printer.
  9. Track your print’s progress in Dashboard.

Note:

Prevent continued use by disabling Remote Printing.