Hi there. I just finished printing one part of the project and went to check, removed the print and it looked fine. Then when I went back to the computer to print the next object the project was gone. Bambu Studio had shut down by itself. I hadn’t saved the project yet, unfortunately, so everything was gone. What the heck. Has anyone else encountered this? It’s not my computer, I have plenty, 32GB of memory and the computer did not reboot either. So I guess lesson learned. Do your design, settings etc. and save it right away. Normally programs have an auto save and when you re-open the prgram you get asked if you want to recover your previous work. I guess it doesn’t work with ‘Untitled’ if you haven’t given your project a name by saving it for the first time. One way this could be handled would be to require you to save your work at least before you print it or at the time you print something from that project. In my case I opened BS (not a good acronym), imported an STL, did some slicing and repositoning and configured settings and sent off the print lob of a part. So if I had saved it before printing everything would have been alright.
Anyways, sorry for the gripeing.
Wrong spot, wonder if somebody can move this to the Software issues side
I hate to break the bad news to you but this is inherent to the bad design that is underneath the hood. Studio and Orca both fail on the same component, that component is BambuSource.dll and how it communicates with the Bambu firmware.
So I’m afraid you’re going to have to just get used to restarting the application. If there is good news is that the designers know they have a piece of sh*t under the hood and that’s why they have a “Save every XXX Seconds Option” so that you can easily recover your work.
Bambu Labs ultimate hypocrisy
Bambu is talking out of both sides of their mouths and the industry has called them out on it. On one hand, they are leveraging open source software, PrusaSlicer which itself is derived from three other open source slicer programs. Bambu Acknowledges in their license agreement.
But then they violate the open source license agreement by not publishing the source code to BambuSource.dll and their firmware. Many have called them out for it with an offer to help improve Bambu’s product but that and their firmware they keep under wraps. Then they have the gall to ask you to agree to their license agreement. That to me is hypocrisy at its highest.
I agree it looks like hypocrisy. But I myself have used both open source and our own copyrighted code in the same application. We did protect our code and the whole app with copy right, for what it’s worth. It never got to a point where we had to ree=inforce it, unlike a patent protection. So BL can have a hybrid app that they don’t want to make open source as they like. But downside is that they are totally responsible for ‘their’ part of the code and won’t get any help from outside since they don’t want to share. They are only left with bug reports and no help with fixes. Their choice.
btw how do you turn Auto save on?
Well, the hypocrisy I refer to is the gall of demanding agreement to their license agreement in the same breath as violating the license agreement that their product is derived from.
Something we have to live with. unfortunately.
Any info on the auto save option please. Where can I turn it on.
On another note, my SD card always says ‘unformated’ but on the PC it reads fine. Do I have a bad SD card reader in the console?
Preferences are found under CTRL-P or under the file menu.
Then in preferences check the box. Believe me, this will save your sanity indeed.
On the subject of the SD card not being recognized. The simplest explanation might be dirty contacts but I doubt it on any of the printers shipped in the last year. However, have you tried formatting the SD card in the printer through the format utility? I found that with some of my SD cards where I had a read problem, the format on the card was just not being recognized by the Printer. Formatting it using the printers format function seemed to help despite that there is no logical reason why it should. Give it a try, you’ve got nothing to lose.
If it is dirty contacts, then I use a pencil eraser on the card to clean the contacts, it’s an old trick from the ISA card days. Oh boy do I feel old right now. 
Thanks for the detailed info. I should have checked all the options whem I switched on Dark Mode. But it was set to every ‘10’ seconds by default. So what happens if the project isn’t saved yet and is still ‘Untitled’ as in when you use ‘open with’ to open an stl file with Bambu Studio and then it crashes after a while (more than 10 s later haha)? Will it create an ‘Untitled.bak’ or something like this? Should be in the same folder as the stl file that was opened, if it did create a backup. When I was writing software back in the days with buggy OS’s(boy do I feel old now too) I put in plenty of options to safe-guard for data loss. But one can’t safe-guard for everything.
So I tested the the ‘Open with’ Bambu Studio and the ‘import’ option to open stl files. Curiously it names the project ‘Untitled’ in the first case and ‘the stl file name’ in the second case. Even though the ‘object’ opened has the stl file name. When the project is ‘Untitled’ and you try to close it it prompts you with a save option with ‘stl-filename’.3mf though. But one should assume in a crash scenario it would have also ‘set aside’ bachup file ‘stl-filename’,bak or .3mf or something like that. It’s getting confusing.
Anyway I will make it a habit now to avoid using ‘open with’ and use Import instead.
Cheers.
Hardware, software, firmware same thing. One can’t work without the other.
What urks you? Did you have a bad day?
It’s important to remember that within the slicer, only the 3MF is created. Anything you import remains the same, it’s only within the slicer that the STL, STEP, OBJ etc get treatment. But also remember that once they are imported they all get converted to a mesh anyway just like Blender does.
So in context, when you set up Orca or Bambu as the default STL or STEP,STP program, all it’s doing is converting it to a mesh that then gets stored in a 3MF file.
I agree, that it is counterintuitive that when you save the file it forgets the name of the file that opened it. But we can thank the Chinese philosophy chabuduo for that.
As far as a crash situation goes, next time it happens, open the app and see if you get the message that looks something like - but don’t quote me -
“Your application didn’t close properly, do you want to open it where you left off”
Try this cool trick. Navigate to C:\users
Then go into your search field in file explorer and enter the term:
ext:.3mf
And hit search. There you will find all of the files that were created in the apps temp folder when the app crashed. In my case, since August, if the file count is any indication, I have crashed over 250 times. If I didn’t have the “save every XX seconds feature, I would have burned my printer in gasoline long ago” 
I know windows does this. but why doesn’t BS or Orca. Word has a recovery mode when you reopen it and so does FreeCad which I have been using a lot recently. It is just weird that BS calls the ‘Project’ Untitled when you open stl files with ‘open with’ but when you open a ‘new’ project and the import a stl files it names the project after the stl file. Very inconsistent.
Well enough of that. I have another problem, maybe.
The ‘rear’ tab on my PEI hot plate, where the X1C wipes ‘its’ nozzle is worn down to the metal already. I see blank stailess steel. That can’t be good. Metal against metal, one or both will wear down. I know the nozzle is supposed th be ‘hardened’ steel so the stainles one will suffer more. But come on, I just bought this plate 2 weeks ago. I don’t print that much. Have you encontered this also? Is this normal or something to worry about? Or do I need to stop using this build plate and buy a new one? I’m somewhat annoyed and concerned about this printer.
Take care.
Yes its normal. It drops the temp, performs a Z offset. Then cleans the tip of the nozzle by scraping the build plate.
Then doing an accurate Z offset and bed mesh before starting your print job.
It’s not as inconsistent as it might seem. As someone who started his software career using punch cards and then growing up in industry with microprocessors, I’ve been able to observe the evolution of software devs. In the beginning, priority was placed on tight and efficient code because hardware was the biggest expense. However, today, it’s manpower that is the biggest expense and with many of the tools out there that almost write the code for you(Visual Studio), software devs have become lazy.
What you see as counter intuitive is an unwitting bias that we who grew up with Windows all have. That’s not by accident. Back in the early days of Windows 1, 2, 286 and 386, Microsoft was really struggling to get the GUI right. They stole a lot of there ideas from Apple who stole them from Xerox PARC when they invented the GUI in 1984.
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However, one thing that Microsoft did get right in my view was that starting with Windows 286/386(the version right before Windows 3.0 and 3.1), Microsoft published a developers style guide which gave us this ubiquitous format. It’s what we got used to and guaranteed that every program would “feel” the same thus aiding in reduction of user retraining for each new app.
Now fast forward to Windows 95(released in 1996) and you start to see two backlashes brewing in the late 90s. The first was a backlash against American tech companies who many international companies felt were bullying the standards industry(they were probably right). This was fostered by the anti Windows crowd and embraced by Western European academics. If it was an American Idea, then it was bad and they went out of their way visa vi the Open Source initiative to do everything exactly opposite to the Microsoft Style guide. That community gave us some great software like Linux, but it also gave us some software like FreeCad which although glossy on the outside, is a mess on the inside. Gimp is another example, If Adobe did it in Photoshop by God Gimp was going to punish you for expecting it to work like Photoshop. Same for Open office.
Now what am I driving at? I see exactly this same ethos in the open source vibe you get from RepRap descended slicers. I mean really? We are all used to the File, Edit, Help menu format. So why would one create a menu structure to deviate that well-understood standard unless one has a proverbial anti-establishment academic chip on their shoulder.
I mean seriously, who puts two different file menus in the same header? I’ll tell you who, those who resent the US tech hegemony and are going to do it differently just because.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are solely mine.
To quote that famous 1970s Philosopher, Inspector Harry Callahan of the SFPD
“Opinions are a lot like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink”
I read that it’s part of the normal print prep and necessary for the extrusion to perform nominally. But I am still concerned that there is possibly something off with either the alignment, i.e. z-offset, or the firmware settings for this procedure or even the build plate (in that case I just need to get a new one before the nozzle is damaged). This seems a little extreme to me to wear the ‘coating’ of the build plate down in such a manner, all the way down to the metal. What do you think? Should I submit a ticket with Bambu Lab on this issue?
This is my build plates that I used since I have had my printer. Over 1800 hrs.
But yeah you could still submit a support ticket.
Included with every plate description in the Bambu store you will find this:
Before auto-leveling, it is necessary to repeatedly rub the nozzle in the special wiping area of the build plate to completely remove any residual material at the tip of the nozzle. The coating in the special-designed wiping area will gradually become worn over time. This is normal and does not affect print quality or nozzle lifetime, so there is no need to worry about any quality issues.
That tab at the rear is designed specifically to be wiped. The separation allows that thin section to flex a bit more.
Thanks for the reply. Looks just like my PEI hot plate. After a closer look I noticed that surface of this part of the plate is lower than the build surface and is part of the steel plate and has a special coating. This coating is very thin, like paint, and of course will ‘rub’ or peel off under these intense use conditions. I wonder what it’s purpose is then in the first place? For looks? It certainly comes off in just a couple of weeks of use. My only concern is that after it ‘rubbed’ of the nozzle makes contact with the stainless steel surface and will cause some wear. That can’t be good in the long run. Did Bambu Lab engineers figure that in, as in ‘the nozzle will wear out from passing ‘tough’ and abrasive filaments anyway and needs to be replaced at some time anyway’ so ‘a little’ additional wear won’t hurt that much. I just feel uneasy when I see the hotend rubbing against the tab now, knowing there is metal-against-metal action going on. And I wonder how soon will I have to replace the nozzle. Is it by design so that we need to replace the nozzle like we need to with inkjet cartridges once they are spent? Consumables? More money for BL?
One wonders.
Thanks, I read this before. I was just surprised it happened within two weeks after purchase of the hot plate. If it rubs off anyway why not leave it blank in the first place then since the coating doesn’t seem to have any function other than
looks’. Or perhaps the edges of the coating around the rubbed-off area help to ‘clear’ the nozzle tip? Then why not leave the area blank in the first place. If not, since the tab is quite large, why not use all of it and choose a randomly selected spot for each print to spread the wear out over time? I assume the wear of the nozzle is less when rubbing against the coated surface, right? Or not?
Again, one wonders.
No I think it’s just because it’s how the system works best. I have over a thousand hours on my machine and haven’t had to replace the nozzle yet. Even when I do need to replace it, Bambu sells nozzle assemblies at a very reasonable price compared to other printer system. I think the only weakness in the nozzle systems is that they have a tenancy to bend at the heat break when hitting parts on the bed that curl up.