Can't select specific printer 4.3

[twlum 3]

Updated to 4.3, we have 4 UM3 on a network group run by a single host. In 4.2 and previous when you selected Print Over Network, you then had a choice of automatic or you could choose a specific printer. That option is now missing in 4.3, hopefully that can be added back with a patch? As it stands now, it just starts printing on a printer without giving you a choice.

[twlum 3]

I saw in the GitHub bug reporting that this feature was intentionally taken out. For our use case, there is no point in having them on the network if we can't select the printer. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by twlum

[nallath 1,120]

What is your specific use case? I never quite understood the logic of having the feature in in the first place (eg; why not just have them all as a group of one if you always want to select manually?)

[twlum 3]

38 minutes ago, nallath said:

What is your specific use case? I never quite understood the logic of having the feature in in the first place (eg; why not just have them all as a group of one if you always want to select manually?)

 

This is a university makerspace. New users can just connect to the host and then can print or monitor the 4 printers. Each printer has a different color filament and some have glass beds, some have flexible beds, so if you are printing something and want the same color filament again, you just select that printer. If you don't care, you can just select automatic. 

 

What is the option you are suggesting? What do you mean as a group of one? Would they need to add each printer individually with its own IP address? Not saying your idea isn't feasible, just trying to figure out the logistics.

 

Printers

Edited October 3, 2019 by twlum

[nallath 1,120]

Well, if you don't care about the color, the idea is that a user selects generic. Generic will match with any color on the printer. If you select blue PLA, it will only be printed on a machine that actually has blue PLA.

 

 

[tinkergnome 927]

15 hours ago, twlum said:

Would they need to add each printer individually with its own IP address?

 

Yes, if you want to send a specific job to a specific printer, this approach seems to be the only way possible from now on.

Or stay with the previous Cura version.

[twlum 3]

Is there a chance this feature will be added back or are we stranded with Cura 4.2.1?

 

Also, any idea why it needed to be removed?

[twlum 3]

5 hours ago, nallath said:

Well, if you don't care about the color, the idea is that a user selects generic. Generic will match with any color on the printer. If you select blue PLA, it will only be printed on a machine that actually has blue PLA.

 

 

Some do care about color but we use large rolls of ColorFabb filament that aren't official Ultimaker Filament so we just use the generic PLA choice. Wouldn't they otherwise have add each printer individually and then pick the exact color they wanted on that specific printer if they didn't know any better? My goal running the Makerspace is to lower the hurdles so people can get on the machines easier and not have to get into the details of which printer is which IP and are they in a workgroup or not. This update seems like a step backwards to me in that sense but obviously I do not know all the factors or requirements that go into displaying that dialogue box after you hit "Print over network".

 

I would hope that this feature could be added back if possible but if some of the people at Ultimaker acknowledge that they don't understand the logic of having this option then maybe I need to rethink how we are doing things in our space.

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by twlum

[nallath 1,120]

Well, we don't always know all the flows that people use. That's why i'm asking. I personally found the dialog to be insanely annoying. Also note; I'm not an engineer that is working on Cura Connect, so I don't have all the information regarding this.

It's not just the dialog that's the issue of course. What can happen is that you force something to be printed with a certain printer, but it simply can't ever print it. This causes all kinds of UX issues down the stream (and make the rest of the architecture a lot more complicated).

[twlum 3]

4 hours ago, nallath said:

Well, we don't always know all the flows that people use. That's why i'm asking. I personally found the dialog to be insanely annoying. Also note; I'm not an engineer that is working on Cura Connect, so I don't have all the information regarding this.

It's not just the dialog that's the issue of course. What can happen is that you force something to be printed with a certain printer, but it simply can't ever print it. This causes all kinds of UX issues down the stream (and make the rest of the architecture a lot more complicated).

 

Thanks for the reply, I will hold off on dismantling our Cura Connect group for one or two more updates to Cura and if the dialog box doesn't return, I will break out each printer on it's own and figure out some new method that works for beginners as well as more experienced users.

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by twlum

[timonw 0]

I too am disappointed by the removal of this feature. Why remove the feature to select which printer you prefer to print on????????? This is ridiculous. Why bother having several printers linked if you can't select which printer you want to send your job to????? Sure, I can connect to the individual printer and send my job that way, but that isn't my workflow, and sending jobs this way, defeats the concept of job history. Not to mention, I use a variety of filaments that Ultimaker doesn't support. So, when I insert filament into my printer, I have to select a plastic that has a similar working temp. So I may select Nylon in the Ultimaker menu as it has a similar print temp as a Co-Polymer, etc... If I choose PLA because it has the same temp as a filament I am using, then how do I specify which printer to send the job to??? Again, I know I can connect to the individual printer or use a USB, but you "Ultimaker" have made this great platform, and now you are removing features people have come to use and expect. 

 

Not to mention, you advertise a plethora of plastic vendors which make their own versions of filament, such as BASF, Dupont, etc. How does one print with these filaments with your locked down system? Why can't I add a user defined filament to the "Ultimaker" menu?

 

Thank you in advance for your timely response.

 

 

[timonw 0]

@Nallath, how can one mouse click be insanely annoying???? One annoying mouse click for you is the loss of so much more to those of use that actually like the ability to choose.

[nallath 1,120]

8 hours ago, timonw said:

@Nallath, how can one mouse click be insanely annoying???? One annoying mouse click for you is the loss of so much more to those of use that actually like the ability to choose.

It's annoying to me because I never select anything but automatic, so it's a personal opinion. Not a reason for it to be removed. I've also stated a number of (technical) reasons that I know about that made this a rather annoying feature to maintain. Also; I'm not involved with Cura Connect, so any information I give from that is from second hand (and should be treated as such).
 

Edited October 8, 2019 by nallath

[DaniK 0]

I will add another voice to this: We relied on this option for queuing up print jobs across our printers (university library). Having it removed has resulted in hiccups in our process, removed our ability to queue up multiple jobs ahead of time so that our student assistants can just remove the completed jobs and let the queue continue.

 

Since this feature is an annoyance to some, wouldn't it be easily possible to have this "ask before printing" or "assign to specific printer" feature as something that can be toggled off or on? So that those of us to really need it can keep it, and those who hate the extra click can just opt out?

[BitQuas 0]

@DaniK
This is the exact same way we use our printers at my work. For example querying up many prints on a specific printer, but leave 2 others free for use.

Default this should be asked before you print, if you don't want it there should be a option in the settings to disable it.

While we're on the subject I think there should also be a option in the printer cloud settings to change to a specific printer. (including a option to pre-override material settings)

[ctbeke 133]

I have created a PR (https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/pull/6580) to bring back this feature. We'll see if the Cura devs review and merge it for the 4.4 release.

[twlum 3]

Thanks for all the help and others weighing in on this topic. Fingers crossed!

[ahoeben 1,948]

The PR has been merged, so this should be part of 4.4 when it is released.