Spooler for OrcaSlicer

Spooler is a fork of Spoolio by Dan J Moore that does the setup for you. Enter your Spoolman address once; the rest is automatic.

What the fork adds

• Your Spoolman filaments become OrcaSlicer filament presets, one per printer. For each of your printers, every Spoolman filament with a spool in stock shows up under User presets in the sidebar's filament dropdown, for example 3D Procer PLA Pérola @Snapmaker U1 and 3D Procer PLA Pérola @Sovol SV06. Pick it for a slot and OrcaSlicer sets the slot to the filament's colour. No more editing colours or cloning profiles.
  • Each preset inherits the closest preset OrcaSlicer already has for that printer, so the printer's own tuning is kept: Snapmaker SnapSpeed spools on the U1 get Snapmaker PLA SnapSpeed @U1, other PLA gets Generic PLA @U1 0.4 nozzle, silk gets the silk preset, and so on. The vendor's own preset wins when OrcaSlicer has one.
  • On top of that it carries the filament's colour, vendor, nozzle and bed temperatures (the bed temperature on every plate type), density, diameter and cost from Spoolman.
  • Calibrated settings come along too: add a text extra field orca_settings to filaments in Spoolman (Settings > Extra Fields) and put a JSON object of OrcaSlicer filament settings in it, either for every printer or in sections named after part of a printer preset's name, * for all: {"*": {"filament_flow_ratio": "0.98"}, "Snapmaker U1": {"filament_max_volumetric_speed": 20}}. Supported: flow ratio, max volumetric speed, pressure advance, retraction length and speeds, Z hop, ironing flow, speed, spacing and inset, nozzle and plate temperatures, fan speeds, slow-down settings, shrinkage (also in Z), softening temperature, density, diameter, cost and notes. Other keys are ignored, and so is text that isn't one number (say "0,95") for a number setting.
  • Spooler adds three number fields to Spoolman's filament form, Flow ratio, Pressure advance and Max volumetric speed, for the values people calibrate most. They apply to every printer; a value in orca_settings wins over them.
  • The presets follow Spoolman: new filaments appear, filaments whose spools are all archived disappear, and changes are picked up on each refresh (every 60 seconds while the Spooler tab is open).
  • "Your printers" are the printers behind every printer preset with a host address (Printer settings > Connection), plus the printer currently selected.
• Change a preset in OrcaSlicer and it reaches Spoolman. Edit a Spooler preset in OrcaSlicer's filament settings and leave it a few seconds: while the Spooler tab is open the change is sent to Spoolman by itself (or press Send to Spoolman on the Spools tab; never Save, which makes a copy that stops following Spoolman). Density, diameter and cost go to Spoolman's own fields; the other settings go into the filament's orca_settings field, in the section for that preset's printer (the field is created when Spoolman doesn't have it). The presets are then rebuilt, so the preset keeps your change and shows no unsaved changes. A setting changed in Spoolman meanwhile keeps Spoolman's value and stays unsaved in OrcaSlicer, for you to send again or discard. Colour, vendor, material and name are changed in Spoolman. To send only by hand, set "auto_send": false in Spooler's settings file.
• Spool list: spools of the same filament (vendor, name and colour) fold into one row with their total; click it to see each spool. The name filter and a colour filter, which picks a colour family from swatches, sit above the list.
• You choose what's shown. Settings > Display switches each part of the spool list and of the printer slots on or off; printer slots can show the loaded spool in full (manufacturer, grams left, spool number, location, preset).
• Save a copy, keep the change. OrcaSlicer's Save on a Spooler preset makes a separate copy; Spooler sends that copy's changed calibration settings to Spoolman, so the Spooler preset has them after its next rebuild.
• Settings in OrcaSlicer's plugin manager too (Plugins > Spooler > Config), with Restore defaults.
• Works with u1control on the Snapmaker U1. With u1control installed, the Printer tab uses the spool u1control bound to each toolhead (on stock firmware it is the spool's Spoolman location, Snapmaker U1 T1 and so on). Spooler publishes its preset names in <OrcaSlicer data folder>/spooler/profiles.json so both pick the same preset, and while Keep Slots Synced runs u1control leaves the plate's slots to it. Filament use on the U1 is booked by u1control, not Spooler. The binding is found when u1control's printer name is Spooler's printer label or model, or ends in "U1" (the default "Snapmaker U1", or e.g. "Workshop U1"); with two U1s name them apart in u1control.
• Klipper/Moonraker printers are found for you. Any printer preset with a host address appears in the Printer tab with no further setup:
  • Snapmaker U1: all four toolheads, matched to your Spoolman spools by the spool id the printer reports, else by RFID tag, else by vendor, material and colour.
  • Klipper printers with a filament changer run by AFC, Happy Hare or another tool that writes Moonraker's lane_data (e.g. Elegoo Centauri Carbon with CANVAS on OpenCentauri): every lane, matched to your Spoolman spools by the spool id the lane reports, else by vendor, material and colour.
  • Single-extruder Klipper printers (e.g. Sovol SV06 with Klipper): the spool Moonraker's Spoolman integration has marked as active.
  • Anycubic Kobra X (and other Anycubic printers in LAN mode): each slot of the multi-colour box (ACE) and the external spool, matched to your Spoolman spools by material and colour. Turn on LAN mode on the printer and put its IP address in the printer preset's host field. Hover a slot to see which OrcaSlicer preset matches it. Hosts that aren't Moonraker are ignored.
• Plugins > Run > "Spooler: Load Printer Filaments" puts the preset for the filament each toolhead or lane holds into the plate's filament slots, for the printer currently selected.
• Plugins > Run > "Spooler: Keep Slots Synced" does the same and keeps doing it. When it starts, and whenever a lane's spool changes, the lane's slot gets the Spooler preset. A slot that gets a system preset (OrcaSlicer's own Sync filaments assigns those) gets the Spooler preset back; one of your own presets stays until the lane's spool changes. Each change goes through OrcaSlicer's normal preset selection, so it can ask about unsaved changes in the filament settings. Run it once per OrcaSlicer session; run it again to stop it.

Everything Spoolio already did is still there: spool cards, the Bambu Cloud source, Bambu Live Link, filament usage booking and the after-slice filament check.

Limits

• Needs a current OrcaSlicer with the plugin preset APIs (orca.host.preset.bundles.reload_local and orca.host.preset.filament.begin_update); tested against OrcaSlicer 2.5.0.
• OrcaSlicer only lets a plugin assign presets to the plate's slots from a Plugins > Run action, and gives plugins no way to change a slot's colour. "Load Printer Filaments" and "Keep Slots Synced" therefore set the right presets but leave the slot colours as they were; picking the filament in the slot's dropdown, or OrcaSlicer's own Sync filaments, sets the colour.
• Generated presets are owned by Spooler and are rewritten from Spoolman. OrcaSlicer can't save over them: Save makes a separate user preset that no longer follows Spoolman. Use Send to Spoolman instead.
• Filament usage on Klipper printers is best tracked by Moonraker's own Spoolman integration.

Images

Regenerate them after interface changes with python scripts/store_images/render.py (needs Google Chrome or Chromium).

Install

From Orca Cloud: open the Plugin Hub, find Spooler and subscribe, then in OrcaSlicer open File > Plugins, click Refresh and tick Activate. Updates arrive the same way.

Manually: download the file for your system from the latest release:

System	File
Windows (x86_64)	spooler_win_x86_64.py
Windows (arm64)	spooler_win_arm64.py
Linux (x86_64)	spooler_linux_x86_64.py
Linux (arm64)	spooler_linux_arm64.py
macOS (Apple silicon)	spooler_macosx_arm64.py
macOS (Intel)	spooler_macosx_x86_64.py

Place it in its own folder called spooler inside OrcaSlicer's plugin directory (one Spooler file per folder):

OS	Plugin directory
Windows	%APPDATA%\OrcaSlicer\orca_plugins\
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/OrcaSlicer/orca_plugins/
Linux	~/.config/OrcaSlicer/orca_plugins/

Restart OrcaSlicer, then tick Activate for Spooler. A Spooler tab appears in the top bar.

Set Up

The Spooler tab opens on its Settings page on first run. Enter your Spoolman server address (for example http://raspberrypi.local:7912), click Test, once the connection is confirmed then Save & Close, which takes you back to your spool list. You can also set the low-stock threshold, the cart button and how weights are shown here, and reopen the page any time with the Settings button.

Prefer Bambu Cloud? Choose Bambu Cloud under Choose Your Source, enter your Bambu email and password, pick Global or China, and enter the verification code if Bambu asks for one. Spooler never stores your password, only the sign-in token Bambu returns, and Sign Out removes it.

OrcaSlicer asks before a plugin does anything sensitive. Granting Spooler full access in the permission dialog avoids repeated prompts; otherwise each new address it reads (Spoolman and each printer) is approved once and remembered. Expect a prompt the first time the plugin connects to Spoolman, Bambu Cloud or a printer, the first time it writes the filament presets into OrcaSlicer's user folder, and the first time you click a reorder cart to open your browser.

Tip

Printer Tab

The Printer tab sits beside Spools and shows a card for each of your printers. Click + Add Printer, then add an AMS or an external spool, you can create it to match your setup, and use + Assign Spool to choose which of your spools is in each slot. This is stored in Spooler only and nothing is changed in Spoolman or Bambu Cloud. With Bambu Cloud, spools your library has linked to a slot also show, but that can lag behind what is physically loaded.

Live Link

To read a printer directly, press Live Link on its card and enter its IP address, its serial number (optional, Spooler reads it from the printer's certificate when left blank) and its access code, all found in the printer's network settings with LAN mode on. The slots then show what the printer reports and how long ago it was updated. Spooler keeps the access code in a private file on your computer and only reads from the printer. Removing a printer also removes its Live Link.

Tip

Filament Usage Booking

With Spoolman as your source and a Live Link on the printer, Spooler can book the filament a print used. When a print finishes, it works out which spool was in each slot from the RFID tag, matching it to your Spoolman spools by the tag extra field on the spool (or the long serial Bambu uses for RFID detection), and books the grams from the sliced G-code to that spool. Under When a Print Finishes choose Ask Me Before Booking, Book Automatically or Do Not Track.

Slots whose spool can't be identified, and prints that were cancelled (where the grams are estimated from the progress), always have to be booked manually, and nothing is booked twice. Bambu Cloud has no booking, as there is no way to write to its filament library.

Important

Bambu Cloud Limitations

• Unofficial and experimental. This uses Bambu's unofficial cloud service, which Bambu can change without notice. If it stops working, sign out and back in, if that still fails then please report it.
  • Sign-in expires. Spooler keeps only the sign-in token, not your password, so when Bambu expires the token you'll be asked to sign in again from Settings.
• Spooler can only read your Bambu filament library but cannot write to it, so nothing you do in Spooler changes your Bambu spools.
• Filament usage booking is only available with Spoolman. Spooler has no way to write used weight back to the Bambu library, and I haven't verified whether being logged into Bambu Cloud tracks remaining weight itself for RFID spools.
• There is no live AMS through the cloud. A printer in LAN mode isn't bound to your account, so Bambu Cloud doesn't list it and sends no AMS data. Use Live Link (works with either source) for live slots, or assign spools by hand.
• The spools your library has linked to a slot are a representative view only and can differ from what is physically loaded.
• The Printer tab setup is local. Printers, AMS units and slot assignments you set up are stored in Spooler on your computer, not in your Bambu account.

Live Link and Booking Limitations

• Live Link needs the printer on the same network with LAN mode on, and only connects while the Printer tab is open or usage booking is on.
• Booking assumes the slicer's filament slots follow the order of the printer's slots (AMS 1 slots 1 to 4, then the next AMS, and so on), so check the first few bookings if you use a different mapping.

Tip

Filament Check

After each slice, Spooler compares the filament the plate needs with what is left on your spools. You get a short-lived notification when there is enough, and one that stays until you dismiss it when there may not be enough filament loaded.

To use it, switch on Spooler Filament Check in your process settings, under Others > Slicing Pipeline Plugin. The results also appear in a This Plate panel on the Printer tab, where Re-check runs it again with fresh data and Dismiss hides it until the next slice. You can hide the notifications and the panel, or change the safety margin (10% by default), on the Settings page.

• Each filament the plate uses is matched to spools in Spoolman by vendor, material and colour. Slots that hold the same filament are treated as one supply, because the AMS moves on to the next spool of the same filament when one runs out: their use is added together and compared with the spools' combined weight. Spare spools that aren't loaded never count towards it.
• If a matching spool is too low to cover print on the plate, and you have another spool available to the one that is loaded, you get a warning to make sure the right spool is loaded. Archive finished spools in Spoolman so they aren't counted.
• If no spool matches, or Spoolman can't be reached, you get a short note and nothing else.
• Slicer figures are estimates and real use can differ a little, so the safety margin gives you headroom.

Feedback

Encounter a problem or have an idea? Please report a bug or request a new feature.

Acknowledgements

• Spoolio by Dan J Moore, which this fork is built on, including its interface.
• Spoolman by Donkie and contributors.
• OrcaSlicer by SoftFever and contributors.
• q2-offload, whose plugin showed the local preset bundle approach.

This is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Spoolman, OrcaSlicer, Snapmaker, Sovol, Anycubic or Bambu Lab.

Contributing

Bug reports, printer data and pull requests are welcome. CONTRIBUTING.md covers the setup, the tests and how to try a build in OrcaSlicer, and docs/how-it-works.md is a tour of the code.

python -m unittest discover -s tests   # unit tests, with a stand-in for OrcaSlicer's orca module
ruff check plugin scripts tests        # lint
python scripts/build.py                # per-OS plugin files and an all-OS wheel in dist/

Please report security problems privately, as SECURITY.md explains. Everyone taking part follows the code of conduct.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.