9.2.6 Managing the printer queue

From a printer “MANAGE” screen, see Figure 9.9, you can access the printer’s current queue of pending jobs: clicking the “QUEUED” tab shows a screen of any currently pending jobs in the printer’s queue. Figure 9.35 shows a printer with three jobs queued. Note that the print queue is also displayed on the printer dashboard; see Figure 9.36 which shows the printer dashboard view of those same three queued jobs.

As the owner or as a manager of a printer, you have quite a bit of control over the jobs in the print queue. The printer owner or a printer manager may:

• At the printer dashboard, discussed in much more detail in Section 10.4.2:
  • Tell the printer to begin a job: click the “START” button.
  • For OctoPrint controlled printers, after a restart of the OctoPrint server, the OctoPrint server does not by default reconnect the USB to the printer (because for some printers that OctoPrint can control, reconnecting after a server restart will abort any print job that might currently be printing on the printer). So after an OctoPrint server restart, the printer “Status” will be “USB DISCONNECTED” and a “CONNECT” button will be present on the printer dashboard in place of the usual “START” button. If there isn’t a currently printing job on the printer to be concerned about, click the “CONNECT” button to have the OctoPrint server reconnect to the printer, and then the usual “START” button will appear on the printer dashboard instead.
  • “PAUSE” or “STOP” a currently printing job.
  • “CHANGE FILAMENT” to swap in a different color or type of filament during a print job.
  • Use the dashboard temperature dial to “Adjust Extruder Temperature”, thereby modifying the extruder temperature on-the-fly, while a job is printing.
• At either the printer dashboard or the printer management “QUEUED” screen, by clicking on the three vertical dots towards the upper right of a print job tile, bring up a job modification menu to:
  • Modify a job in the queue, perhaps adding additional objects to the build plate, or merging separately submitted print jobs so that objects print simultaneously on the build plate.
  • Shuffle the order of jobs in the print queue, moving a job to the head of the queue (if currently elsewhere) or to the tail of the queue (if currently at the head of the queue).
  • Download the .stl files or slicing profile (PRINT SETTINGS) or G-code (for print jobs which had slicing performed in the Polar Cloud) for a job.
  • Move a print job to a different printer.
  • Delete a print job from the print queue.

Members of a group with “Control Printers” access to a shared printer may:

• View all print jobs in the queue.
• Use the dashboard controls, e.g., start or stop jobs, change filament, adjust the extruder temperature, etc.
• Rearrange (shuffle) the order of any print jobs in the queue, including the print jobs of other Polar Cloud members.

General users of a printer who are not managers of that printer¹¹ may view the printer dashboard as well as (a limited version of) the printer management “QUEUED” screen, but only such a user’s own print jobs will be displayed in the queue,¹² the user may only modify their own print jobs, and the user will not be able to use the (grayed-out for non-managers) printer dashboard control buttons.

Note that the printer dashboard, because it includes the control buttons and a camera display of what the printer is currently doing, is more commonly used than the printer’s “QUEUED” screen for print queue management. However, the printer’s “QUEUED” screen does provide a convenient way to quickly check (and even modify) print jobs from the printer’s overall “MANAGE” screen when performing other printer management tasks. And the “SEARCH” button on the “QUEUED” screen (towards the upper right of the screen, below the “SETTINGS” tab), allows searching for print jobs via criteria such as Job Name or member Display Name.

For further, much more detailed, discussion of Polar Cloud print queue operations and management, see Section 10.5.