12 hours ago, ctbeke said:Hi,
Here's some answers to your questions:
- How are these printers getting grouped in the first place? I suspect that the users who aren't as familiar with the system as I am (and others in the team that helped to deploy them are), and they are blindly clicking a prompt that is suggesting a group, but I can't be sure because I haven't seen the prompt myself.
Printers will certainly not group by themselves, so very likely someone else in the same network has done that.
- Can grouping of printers be prevented?
We have released Firmware 6.x for the S3 and S5, which allows you to enable a firewall which blocks all local network access to the printer (and by doing so blocking the ability to group printers). You'll have to use the cloud-based Digital Factory or USB to print if the firewall is enabled.
- Is this grouping method even useful when the printers all have different materials loaded? Some may have Ultimaker filament loaded, others are using generic PLA, etc. My understanding of this grouping process is that you send a print to the host, and it relays it to another printer in the group if it is busy. Is this correct? How are materials managed then? Normally, I would connect to a printer with Cura, use the dropdown to determine which material is loaded in it, and then I print with that material in mind...
Grouping is mostly useful if you want to treat all of your printers a just a single production unit, not caring about which print job ends up at which printer. If you use different materials in each printer, it might be easier to have them all separate indeed and just select the correct one in Cura on the top left when slicing.
- Are these printer groups really part of the "Digital Factory", or is this more of a subset of that (since I don't believe that we have created any teams with printers associated to them)?
Originally printer grouping was part of "Cura Connect", then became "Ultimaker Connect", and now is part of "Ultimaker Digital Factory". However the grouping still runs in the local network, and the cloud functionality is built on top of that. I personally prefer not to use the grouping (as it can cause other issues due to the wide variety of local network configurations out there) and just connect every printer by itself to the cloud, and then sign into Cura and automatically access all the printers.
Chris
Thanks Chris, some of that is helpful, but you prompted a few more questions...
1. Can you tell me what circumstance might be creating a pop-up notification that might prompt a user to group a printer? I would like to recreate this and screen shot it with some instructions for the users on how to proceed in those cases.
2. If the printers are connected via the cloud does this pose any network security risks? I would like to inquire with our IT department about this and see if they have any concerns. Can you provide a link to some documentation that explains how this works (user management, etc)? Does this require an Essentials subscription?
3. Is the pricing shown on your web site for the Essentials subscription a per company cost, or a per user cost?
4. With the cloud option, I assume that we wouldn't need to VPN into our corporate network to access the printers anymore? Anyone with an account and permission to access them would be able to see them (this probably falls under #2 above).
I will do some more looking on your site for more details on the Cloud factory option, but I am signing off here from work now. 🙂
Thanks again!
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ctbeke 133
Hi,
Here's some answers to your questions:
- How are these printers getting grouped in the first place? I suspect that the users who aren't as familiar with the system as I am (and others in the team that helped to deploy them are), and they are blindly clicking a prompt that is suggesting a group, but I can't be sure because I haven't seen the prompt myself.
Printers will certainly not group by themselves, so very likely someone else in the same network has done that.
- Can grouping of printers be prevented?
We have released Firmware 6.x for the S3 and S5, which allows you to enable a firewall which blocks all local network access to the printer (and by doing so blocking the ability to group printers). You'll have to use the cloud-based Digital Factory or USB to print if the firewall is enabled.
- Is this grouping method even useful when the printers all have different materials loaded? Some may have Ultimaker filament loaded, others are using generic PLA, etc. My understanding of this grouping process is that you send a print to the host, and it relays it to another printer in the group if it is busy. Is this correct? How are materials managed then? Normally, I would connect to a printer with Cura, use the dropdown to determine which material is loaded in it, and then I print with that material in mind...
Grouping is mostly useful if you want to treat all of your printers a just a single production unit, not caring about which print job ends up at which printer. If you use different materials in each printer, it might be easier to have them all separate indeed and just select the correct one in Cura on the top left when slicing.
- Are these printer groups really part of the "Digital Factory", or is this more of a subset of that (since I don't believe that we have created any teams with printers associated to them)?
Originally printer grouping was part of "Cura Connect", then became "Ultimaker Connect", and now is part of "Ultimaker Digital Factory". However the grouping still runs in the local network, and the cloud functionality is built on top of that. I personally prefer not to use the grouping (as it can cause other issues due to the wide variety of local network configurations out there) and just connect every printer by itself to the cloud, and then sign into Cura and automatically access all the printers.
Chris
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