I think the current way how Bambu Studio shows loaded filament in the AMS (after you sync Bambu Studio with AMS) is not the best and can lead to severe confusion, especially for beginners.
For example, I have my AMS lite currently loaded with A3 = PLA and A4 = PLA. A1 and A2 are empty.
In Bambu Studio it shows like this ( after i did sync with AMS)
As you can see, even after sync it shows in 1 and 2 filament.
A much better and easier way would be if Bambu studio show it like this
For me it makes no sense at all, that Bambu studio shows in 1 and 2 a filament if non is loaded on my AMS.
Yes, I think you miss something.
I mean no matter if Bambulab filament is loaded or not, whenever a place on the AMS is empty (unloaded) and the display shows on the printer only a ? for the AMS slot, the Bambu Studio should show this slot as empty as well.
This way it is much more clear on whish AMS slot A1 - A4 vs. 1-4 in the Bambu Studio is filament loaded and which one is empty.
Or in other words, it would be the best the in Bambu Studio 1 = A1, 2 = A2, 3 = A3 and 4 = A4 and if any of this AMS slots are empty Bambu Studio should show it as empty.
This filament list in Bambu Studio just isn’t intended to represent what is loaded in the AMS units. It’s best thought of the materials and colors used in or available to the current project. This is why 1 is not A1 and 5 isn’t B1. At print time, the project numbers (ie materials) are then mapped to the AMS numbers. It makes more sense to do it this way if you consider an example of a project that uses blue PLA in 1 and white PLA in 2 that was synced with the AMS so that A1 was blue and A2 was white. If I print this project later, I don’t need to worry about if blue and white are in the same positions or change them in BS (which will change the model colors), they just map at print time. My printers are rarely loaded the same, so treating 1 as A1 would simply be painful.
With a single printer and AMS that may work, just not as flexible. The sync gets you close as you’ve noticed, but the BS isn’t intended to represent what’s loaded in the AMS. This confused and annoyed me to no end at first, but once I realized how it works and its benefits, I wouldn’t want it to work any other way. Having them separate allows designed, saving and opening projects that can use the colors / materials you want regardless of how the AMS is currently loaded.
You don’t have to sync the AMS with Bambu studio. The color selection happens when you start the print either from the machine or BS, the printer or BS will try to match the materials and colors that you have used on the model with what’s available in the AMS pool.
As I have calibrated profiles for all my filaments I never re-sync the AMS because then I have to re-select all of them again. Instead I have a template project which I load (this would be a nice feature to have when starting a new project, to use a template) that has all my filaments added. Then I add the models and chose the colors. Never had an issue of using the wrong color.
You are in general right, you don’t have to sync the AMS with BS. But since you have to setup the filament on the printer when you load it, the printer knows already in which slot with filament is.
Now comes the so called “user experience” join the game when it comes to BS.
For a perfect, easy going and simple understandable user experience, it would be the best if slot 1- 4 in BS is all the time the same as A1 - A4 in AMS.
This way, you get the most out for user experience and it would be very simple to understand and reduces the amount of errors, specially for new users in 3D print.
Take a look of my second screenshot, this way it would be 100% understandable that only slot A3 on AMS (slot 3 in BS) and A4 on AMS (slot 4 in BS) is ready for print.
The current way how it works in BS is very complicated and really not a user friendly and easy way.
Since I’m a software developer myself and I build a lot of UIs, I can tell that the current way vs. my suggestion is a huge difference and user would not ask so much questions about how it works with AMS and BS and the slots.
My suggestion is a very simple way to understand with one look how the current situation is in AMS.
But of course it’s just a suggestion to make BS more user-friendly and easier to use and understand, nothing more
You can look at the AMS’s on the device tab. If I have saved a project which has the colors I need, I’d rather it didn’t change the project colors to match the current AMS setup.
I think I’m not understood correctly.
Now I try to make it more clear, to make it much easier than it is now and to give a much better user experience.
No matter what you have saved in your project nor what you have setup manually in BS, as soon as you have a AMS connected to the printer and BS is connected to the printer, the BS should ALLWAYS show only the correct configuration correlate to the AMS and spool setup in the printer. If a AMS slot is empty, than BS should show this as empty.
Simple example, you have saved your project with custom settings for spool 1 - 4 and you saved the project 2 weeks ago. No you open only the project in BS and think ok nice slot 1 - 4 has the right colors, but in real you have changed the spools on the AMS in the last to weeks, than you will not be happy if your print fails or has the wrong color and you waste filament.
I think, In a compinated system like Bambu Ai and AMS lite ( in my case) and BS which is connected to the printer and AMS, BS should all the time show the actual current setup on AMS and nothing else. This will reduce issues and make it much more easy for everyone and specially for people how are new to 3D printing.
Ok I get it, I think this may be an issue if you use other brands of filament. User error could cause a mismatch. I currently only use bambu filament so it’s very unlikely that this will happen because it knows where everything is. What about slots 5-16?
In your example of only showing what’s loaded in the AMS, how would you work on a project that isn’t going to be using the colors you currently have in your AMS? Or one where it has more colors than AMS slots you have? Both things I do extremely frequently. If Bambu Studio was switching my colors every time I opened my projects to match my current AMS setup I’d be really annoyed and would need to be changing them constantly. I think the way Bambu does it now is ideal. Chose the filament type and color in BS, verify the mapping to the AMS when you start the print. It’s very straightforward and takes 2 seconds to change a filament mapping if something didn’t map how you were expecting.
Not a good idea. That would prevent preparing a model for printing while another model is being printed, or preparing a print while the printer is turned off. Prepare/Preview operate independently from the Device tab and should continue to do so. If the sliced model does not match the contents of the AMS throw up a warning before printing, but don’t limit the Prepare tab to only the filaments currently in the AMS.
Can you please explain to me how you print with more colors than AMS slots you have? In my point of view this is not possible because how should the print during the print phase use a Filament where no slot is there for?
A project with several different plates of varying colors. I have 1 AMS but I have projects with 10+ colors on it at times. Depending on what plate I want to print next I will change out the filament in my AMS. No single plate has more than 4 colors so having 1 AMS isn’t an issue.
Agreed, it would be a nightmare if the prepare colors were locked to the AMS. As for the warning…maybe if your project calls for material type that isn’t loaded (eg PETG). I haven’t played with those scenarios and k factors for specific brands and colors, but I like the current automatic best match at print time and the ability to manually change it.
