The bridge: what it does and how to install it

The bridge runs on a PC on the same network as your printers. It connects out to PrintSol over HTTPS, so no router ports need opening. It is the only part of PrintSol that can send a file to a printer and press start.

Downloads

Printers → Connect printers → The bridge offers three Windows builds:

• Windows installer: installs the bridge with Start menu and desktop shortcuts, can start it with Windows, and offers to install Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer and Bambu Connect. It also takes care of ffmpeg, which the bridge needs for X1 camera frames.
• Windows app (portable): the same app without installing.
• Windows command line: run "printsol-bridge pair <code>" once; it keeps running in that window.

There are no macOS or Linux downloads yet.

The bridge window

The app opens its own window and sits in the system tray; closing the window keeps it running. Its sections include Overview, Printers, Find & add, Pairing, Activity (a coloured log of what it did), Doctor (checks for when something says offline) and Settings (start with Windows, and the label printer for work labels).

What it does

• Reports status, AMS contents and printer messages to PrintSol.
• Uploads sliced files and starts them, and runs pause, stop, light and speed commands.
• Grabs camera frames.
• Prints work labels on a label printer attached to that PC.

Several bridges

You can run more than one bridge, for example one in the print room and one at the packing table. Each printer is driven by one bridge at a time; the others keep it set up as a standby. To move every printer to one bridge, press Drive all printers on that bridge's row (owners and managers only; refused while another bridge's printer is printing).

Under each bridge, "Seen on its network" lists the printers it found, with the protocol it would use and whether they are already in PrintSol.