There is currently no way (as far as I know) to utilise the external spool while also using the AMS opportunity.
It is one or the other.
If your model uses 5 colours and you have access to a single 4 spool AMS, it is still possible, one old way, often the best and one new way, possible, if the colours chosen work out.
-
Old way, my preferred
Provided you model doesn’t use all 5 colours in the same layer, you can simply swap out one spool at the correct time to use the fifth colour.
I first played with it on this print profile for a model designed by a different designer.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/103244-articulated-teddy-bear-print-in-place#profileId-175273
The bear has five colours, brown, beige, black, white and red. (The text below formatted poorly due to this editor, it is dumb).
I painted this so the white eyes were painted red, this is important.
I added a PAUSE command at a layer above the bow tie and before the white pupils are printed.
When the print pauses, remove the red spool and replace it for a white spool, resume and you have five colours. You can extend this to any number of colours provided, you never have more colours in any one layer than your AMS units can deliver and you can plan the PAUSE commands and the swaps, so you do not do them out of order.
I also used the logic on many of my own models, this is one. It uses 7 colours and can be printed using a single AMS.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/501459-proud-willy-articulated-fidget-toy-keychain#profileId-416515
-
Combine colours
The latest versions of Bambu Studio allow you to mix two colours together from the ones in your AMS to visually appear as a single colour.
If you remember back to your childhood school art classes, you will remember mixing colours. Your 2D printer uses a version of CYMK to print full colours.
You can do the same on your 3D printer.
It is achieved by using thin layers of one colour, then a different one, then repeating. It is best used for edges and becomes less visibly mixed on sharper angles like curved surfaces.
You simply need a recent build of Bambu Studio. Look under the filament chooser in the prepare tab, to see a new option. Add a new mixed filament and choose two different colours you have already added to your palette. That new colour(s) becomes as accessible to paint or colour parts as any standard single colour.
Three caveats:
- Each mixed colour, increases filament swaps and waste (poop) equal to the number of layers that colour is used on. This can drastically increase the print time.
- Depending on how you use it (where the colour is) the visual quality can be great or poor. Experimentation teaches how to benefit most.
- If you need an orange, two of your AMS colours must create it when combined, red & yellow, or Magenta and Yellow with no or very little Cyan.