Just starting to play around with TPU and I understand it can’t work in the AMS which means doing multi material prints with it is very difficult/manual. I would love if a workflow that still enables me to print from the AMS for appropriate filaments but enables me to sideload TPU (or other filaments) manually and have it all sliced neatly for the appropriate filament. Something like below:
Add a 5th filament to Bambu Slicer
Paint the model/set change filament by layer height (eg. PETG from AMS, and then change to side load TPU at layer height x for rest of print, just one filament change)
When commencing printing, if use AMS is ticked, and TPU cannot be used in the AMS, have option to select ‘Manual Loads’ which is any other filament not in the AMS that you have added to the project, such that BambuStudio prompt/confirm that at each change the print will be paused, any AMS filament unloaded, and the printer will wait for TPU to be manually loaded, then when loaded, printer purges and continues printing.
This means that all the filament settings are correct, the only thing the user needs to do is load the corresponding filament. No custom G-Code or anything like that. I understand this is not a perfect solution, and would not work well for multiple filament changes, but for one or two changes with TPU would not be too cumbersome. Far less so than currently!
Just remember that, in addition to manually loading the external filament, you will have
to fully pull back the manual filament in order for the AMS to load the next one.
Pulling back manually is acceptable for me.
Just unload filament, pause and call me to change it. Even if I’m forced to not use AMS at all it would satisfy me.
I’ve tried multimaterial without AMS and it just printed all with the first one that was loaded… (there were just 2 colors of PET-G, done only for testing)
I’d love to print RC tires with TPU enforced a bit with PA. Just 2 to 4 narrow lines of PA to prevent “balooning”… like this:
I believe you can add a pause command on new layer… I don’t know the one, as I never tried. But it should be as easy as changing temperaturę…
but still… in my case: I need to do this in them middle of layer…
Would like to see this Feature aswell,printing with 2 colors of TPU via external feeding, im helping myselft with Filament end G Code atm and manual loading/unloading, but thats not nice
Your idea of adding a 5th filament to Bambu Slicer sounds interesting. It could provide a solution for handling different materials in a more streamlined manner. For example, you could paint the model or specify a layer height where the filament needs to change (e.g., PETG from AMS and then switching to manually loaded TPU at a specific layer height for the rest of the print). This way, users could have the option to select “Manual Loads” if TPU cannot be used in the AMS. BambuStudio could then prompt the user to confirm each filament change, pausing the print, unloading the AMS filament, and waiting for TPU to be manually loaded. Once loaded, the printer would purge and continue printing.
This approach would simplify the process for users since all the filament settings would be correctly set up, and they would only need to load the corresponding filament without dealing with custom G-Code or complex configurations. While it may not be a perfect solution, I agree that it would be less cumbersome for prints involving one or two TPU filament changes compared to the current workflow.
