Print planner

The Planner page (its own row below Fulfillment in the sidebar, and the Queue / Planner switch at the top of Fulfillment) puts every order line that still has to be printed on a printer and tells you when to be there.

It is a Farm feature. On Free and Pro, there is no Planner row and Fulfillment has no Planner switch; More with Farm, just above Settings, opens Settings → Billing, which lists what Farm adds. Opened by search or a direct link, the page shows what it does and an Upgrade to Farm button.

A plate is one print: everything on the build plate at once. The planner splits each order line into plates.

The planner uses fixed rules and no AI. Lines with a due date come first. The others follow by priority, then in the order they were added. Give a rush order a due date to move it up. A plate goes to the printer that can start it first, and prefers one that already has the right spools. It changes spools as little as it can: a plate on the spools already loaded goes before one due up to about a day earlier, unless that one would then be late. Plates start only when someone is there, but may keep printing after, so long plates run through the night.

A plate never goes on a printer that is too short for the part, on a printer its product is not set to print on, or where it would take off a spool marked Keep on. See Plate setup and Spools and materials on a printer.

Times are in your shop's time zone. If none is set, each person sees their own device's time, and the page asks you to set it (Settings → General → Localization).

Check these once:

1. Planner settings (header button): work hours, people at the printers, swap times. Until you save them, the page asks you to check the work hours and uses 08:00 to 22:00 every day, 10 minutes plate swap, 5 minutes spool change, 1 person, combine orders on.
2. Printer setup: on a printer card, open the spool line (for example "1 spool slot") or the card menu and choose Spools and materials….
3. Plate setup (header button): enter each product's print time and pieces per plate. Without a print time, a line cannot be planned.

The planner reads the same open orders and restock runs as the Fulfillment queue.

Open Plate setup. For each product, type how many pieces fit on one build plate (Pieces per plate) and how long a full plate prints (Full plate prints), then press Save. The button shows how many products still miss a print time, for example Plate setup (3 missing).

Two more boxes per product keep it off the wrong printers:

• Height (mm): how tall the part prints. When you add a print file to a product that has no height yet, the height is read from the file. For a file added before that, press Read from print file next to Height, then Save. The planner leaves out printers whose build height is lower. Set a printer's build height in its Spools and materials. A printer with no build height takes any part.
• Prints on: tick the printers this product prints well on. Any printer (nothing ticked) lets the planner choose from all of them. In the list, a printer lower than the part's height says (too short).

A line that no printer can take is listed under Needs attention with the reason.

Print time is saved per unit. A full plate of 8 that prints in 4 hours is saved as 30 minutes a unit. The same values are on the product: on Farm, the Materials tab has a Print planner group with Print time per unit (hours) and Pieces per plate.

A free-text line has no product, so it has no print time and cannot be planned. Needs attention lists these lines under Not in the plan: order lines with no product, each with a link to its order. Some may be fees or shipping. To plan one, open its order and pick a product for the line.

Open Planner settings. Owners and admins can change them. Everyone else can read them.

• Work hours: check each day someone is there and set the start and end. Plates only start inside these hours. An end before the start means the next day, so 20:00 to 04:00 is a night shift. 00:00 to 00:00 is all day.
• People at the printers: how many plate swaps can happen at the same time.
• Plate swap (minutes): taking a finished plate off and putting a clean one on.
• Spool change (minutes): added for each spool that has to change.
• Combine orders on one plate: fills a plate with the same product from several orders.
• Keep printers chosen by hand: see Assign printers to lines.

Someone is here today until, above the tiles, is shared by the whole team and only changes today. It replaces today's work hours. Leave it empty, or press Use work hours, to go back to them.

Through the day, the planner says when someone has to be at each printer. As plates go on and come off, you tell it with Mark started, Mark done or Mark failed.

When to be there lists each time someone has to be at a printer. Each printer card shows Now, Next (when to start it, and which spools to Load and Unload) and Later. Next names the spool to use by its number, such as FIL-0002 Bambu PLA Black: one already on that printer, else the one the plan takes from another printer, else one no printer holds. Two printers are never given the same spool.

1. When you put the next plate on the printer, press Mark started. This only records the start in FoxTrack and sends nothing to the printer. It moves the plate's lines to Printing, and records the spools Next names as on that printer (they come off any other printer).
2. When the plate comes off fine, press Mark done. When the Bridge reports that the printer has finished, the card says "The Bridge says it finished. Clear the plate, then mark it." FoxTrack never marks it for you.
3. If it failed, press Mark failed and its units go back into the plan. Recording the wasted filament, taking off a plate started by mistake and Undo are in Mark failed, Remove plate and Undo.

A plate with a print file can also be sent to its printer from the card (see Printing from the planner).

A line printed without Mark done still counts as to print. Move it to its next status on the Fulfillment page to remove it from the plan.

When a plate's lines have a print file, the planner can send it to the printer for you, on one printer or on several at once. Printing a file needs FoxTrack Bridge: a Klipper printer only needs to be connected through it, and a Bambu Lab printer must also be in LAN Only Mode with Developer Mode on (see Printing a file from FoxTrack under Integrations).

When the next plate's lines are all one product variant with a print file, the card also shows Print. It opens the Print dialog with the plate's printer picked, sends the file through FoxTrack Bridge, and marks the plate started once the printer starts. Keep the dialog open until then; if you close it early, press Mark started yourself. A plate of several products has no single file, so it shows only Mark started. A file with several plates asks which Plate to send, and Print on several printers is not offered from here.

When the printer's next plate has a print file, the Now card also has Mark done and print next. It marks the plate done, then opens the Print dialog for the next plate, with the build plate box already checked. If the printer is ready and nothing needs a look, it sends at once. Otherwise the dialog stays open and says what needs a look, and you press Print yourself. If nothing with a print file is next on that printer, it only marks the plate done and says so.

When two or more free printers each have a next plate with a print file, and each printer is linked to a Bridge device, Print next plates (2) shows above the printer cards (the number is how many printers). It opens a list with one plate per printer, each with when the plan has it: now, or the planned time.

1. Check the plates to send. Ready plates planned within the next hour start checked, and you can check the others.
2. Choose Start the printers: All at once, 1 minute apart, 2 minutes apart or 5 minutes apart (1 minute by default).
3. Check the box to confirm every build plate is clear and the right filament is loaded.
4. Press Start 2 prints.

Each printer uses the AMS slots FoxTrack picks and levels the bed first. Each plate is marked started when its printer starts, so keep the dialog open until then. If you close it, prints that are waiting for their start time still start, and you press Mark started on each plate yourself.

A failed plate goes back into the plan with Mark failed, and a plate marked started by mistake comes off with Remove plate. Undo takes most planner actions back for a few seconds.

Press Mark failed when a plate failed. Its units go back into the plan. Mark failed and record waste also takes the wasted filament off the spool. With several lines on the plate, the waste goes on the line with the most units, and the dialog names it.

When the plate is one product with a print file, Grams lost starts from the grams in the file's first plate and how much of its print time ran (the dialog says it was worked out from the print file). Without such a file, it starts at the grams of that spool's filament the plate's units use (units times grams per unit). You can change it. Spool starts at the spool of the line's filament on that printer.

A plate printed in several filaments shows a Grams lost and a Spool for each one, each starting at the roll of that filament on the printer and the grams the plate's units use of it (with a print file, the file's grams split the same way). Each comes off its own spool, and the line still counts one failed print.

Mark failed and Remove plate (not printed) also move the plate's lines back from Printing to the first status, unless another plate is still printing them.

Remove plate (not printed), in the card menu, asks first, then takes away a plate you marked as started by mistake. It sends nothing to the printer. A line that got the printer from Mark started goes back to No printer yet. A printer that was set to maintenance or offline while a plate was on it keeps a card, so you can still mark that plate done or failed, or remove it.

Undo shows for about 8 seconds after Mark started, Mark done, Mark failed, Remove plate, Assign printers to lines, and moving printed lines to the next status. It does not cover Mark failed and record waste. Undo of Mark started also puts the spools back where they were.

Choose Spools and materials… from the spool line or card menu of a printer:

• Spool slots: how many spools it holds at once. Use 1 for most printers, and 4 for a 4-spool changer such as one Bambu AMS. A plate with more colors than this never goes to that printer.
• Build height (mm): the tallest part it prints. A part taller than this (its Height in Plate setup) is planned on another printer. Empty means not set: any part fits.
• Materials it can print: none picked means any material. PLA also allows PLA Matte, Silk PLA and PLA+.
• On it now: check the spools on the printer. Mark started does this for you. A spool on another printer says so (on Alpha P1S); ticking it here takes it off that printer. On a printer linked to FoxTrack Bridge, the planner uses the spools the Bridge reports while it is online, and the spools you checked count when it is offline.
• Keep on, next to a checked spool: the planner never takes that spool off, never moves it to another printer, and plans on this printer only work that fits next to it. Use it for a spool you do not want to change, such as a multicolor spool that prints well there. With 1 spool slot, a kept spool means the printer only prints that filament.

A spool is used on one printer at a time. With fewer spools of a color than printers, a printer can wait for a spool, and its card says so. The planner keeps a spool on the printer that has it instead of moving it after every plate.

On the Timeline, select a plate. Its times show below the timeline, with Move to printer: pick a printer and the plate goes there. The move is for the whole line: every plate of that line still to print goes on that printer, until you choose Let the planner choose. A plate with lines from several orders moves all of them. Undo shows for a few seconds.

Move to lists only printers that can print it (spool slots, materials, build height, the product's Prints on and spools kept on). A moved plate shows a pin on the timeline. Moves are shared by the team. If that printer is set to maintenance, offline or retired, the line is listed under Not planned with a Let the planner choose link.

To change the order on one printer, select a plate and press Print earlier or Print later. The lines up to that plate stay on that printer in that order, before anything else it prints, until you choose Let the planner order this printer. Undo shows for a few seconds. With a mouse you can also drag a plate: along its own row to change the order, or onto another printer's row to move it there.

On the timeline, hatched stretches are hours nobody is there and a short dark bar is a plate swap. A plate still marked printing after its planned time shows a mark at the start of its row (Should be done by now): mark it done or failed on its printer card. The plan keeps a plate on the printer it showed a minute ago unless another printer is clearly better, so plates do not hop between printers while you look.

Assign printers to lines writes the plan's printer onto each line, after you confirm. The Fulfillment queue and the Printers page then show the same printers as the plan. It replaces a printer you chose by hand. Undo puts the old printers back. It copies the plan onto the lines and does not change the plan: to put a print on another printer, use Move to on the timeline (see Move a print to another printer).

A printer on a line (chosen on an order, a restock run or the Fulfillment queue) does not steer the plan, unless Keep printers chosen by hand is on in Planner settings. Then a line that has a printer is only planned on that printer, and Assign printers to lines makes every line it writes stay on that printer. This setting is shared by the team.

A printer linked to FoxTrack Bridge that is printing is busy until the time the Bridge reports. A plate you marked as started keeps its printer busy for its print time.

For a print started outside the planner on a printer without a Bridge, choose Printer busy until… in the card menu and set when it is free. Free now clears it. This is shared by the team.

Printers In maintenance, Offline or Retired are left out of the plan. Set one back to Ready on the Printers page.

Needs attention lists what you can fix. When all is well it says "Nothing needs attention."

• Late order lines: the plan finishes the line after its due date, or its due date has passed and it is under Not planned. Add work hours or a printer, or set Someone is here today until.
• Not planned, with the reason: no print time (open Plate setup; for a line with no product, pick one on its order); no printer can take work (check the Printers page); no printer is set to print its material; it needs more spools at once than any printer holds (raise the spool slots); every printer that could print it keeps other spools on (untick Keep on); it is taller than every printer it may go on (check its Height in Plate setup and the build height of the printers); none of the printers chosen for its product can take it (change Prints on in Plate setup); it is kept on a printer that is not available (a line moved there by hand has Let the planner choose; see also Keep printers chosen by hand); no work hours ahead; or more than 28 days of work ahead.
• Not enough filament: the plan needs more grams than are on the spools. This counts grams already promised to open orders. Add a spool (the link opens the Filament page) or lower the quantity on the order.
• Printed, ready for the next step: every unit is printed. A button moves the line to the status after printing.