Regarding points. Makers and users, i need your help

MakerWorld
1

A quick explanation about the problems i faced during 5/6 months of printing models from Makerworld and why i need your help.

As a Bambu user i used their cloud for a long time. I was against some of their changes but in the end, i kept using one machine exclusive for printing some creators models, leaving most of the other machines offline (LAN mode). Or should i say, i made my A1 Mini my wife’s exclusive machine so that she could print what she wanted from the phone or directly from the slicer.

I never checked if the printed models were being counted towards the creator since it was my wife that wanted to print things from Makerworld and not me (i print mostly my own parts). A few weeks ago she said to me that she didn’t knew that she could rate those prints/profiles and asked me if i could teach her so that she could tell the creators how awesome some prints were. When i went to the account (same account on MW and in the printer) and to the ratings i saw that there were almost no models to rate, the last ones being from 5 to 6 months ago. I quickly started doing some tests with my X1C and the H2S to see what was happening.

Steps i made to be sure that there was no firewall or router problems. This was tested in 2 separate connections, using 2 separate routers. Also tested in a second household, away from my own house. This was to make sure it wasn’t something with my internet provider or my router or firewall.

My test methodology:

  • Find a model that i wanted to print
  • Download that model in 3mf format as usual
  • Open with the slicer, slice it and click “Print”
  • Open with the slicer, slice and click “Send to Printer”
  • Open with the Handy app and click “Print”

My findings in the same order as above:

  • Found several small but also medium sized models
  • Downloading counts towards the model. Creator gets a download point.
  • Opening in the computer, slicing and clicking “Print” gives the creator the count, as it should. Creator gets the print points (2 points extra). I could rate the model afterwards
  • Opening in the computer, slicing and clicking “Send to Printer” does not count as a print. Can’t rate the model afterwards. Creator does not get points.
  • Opening the model with the Handy app and clicking print rewards the creator and the model can be rated afterwards.

The problem:

Most users are not aware of this or don’t use the “Send to Printer” command and will always click the “Print” button on the slicer and can rate the model accordingly.
Those who, for example, are printing at the moment and send their files through the slicer to the printer for being printed later (started from the printer display) are not contributing to the creator and won’t be able to rate the model afterwards.

This is not only about the “earnings” but also to check if there was any unannounced change to the way we print. I went and search for it and didn’t find anything.

From my understanding, clicking the “Send to printer” button should retain the metadata of the 3mf file and count towards the model creator even having started the print through the printer display. It does not and something was changed a few months ago, at least. In my case, my wife wanted to have all the models ready in the SD card in the printer so that she could print them whenever she wanted, without having to go through the slicer every time.

This change could be what is affecting the boost tokens, also discussed in this forum heavily, since the prints are not being counted as such, and so, the user doesn’t get his boost tokens to give away as often, if ever, and creators start noticing less boost tokens being received. Again, in my case i didn’t get a single boost token to give in 5/6 months. Also, this affects the print counts, as i can also see from my own models where the downloads/print ratio are way offset. I know it’s never the same but since a few months ago i started noticing that there were no prints being registered but downloads were still rising as normal.

Why i need your help and how can you help, so that the problem can be reported to Makerworld for a fix or an announcement about it, in case they are aware or even in the case that they made that change without notifying the users.

  • Pick a small model (about 30 minutes print time, at least). Any model. Single color to be faster and spend less material
  • Download it as 3mf. Not STL, not STEP… Must be 3mf because it contains the metadata about the creator, profile, etc.
  • Open it with Bambu Studio and slice it
  • Instead of clicking “Print”, choose “Send to printer” and wait until it’s sent to the cloud and then downloaded to the machine. The file goes to their cloud as usual and downloads to the machine, also as usual.
  • Go to the printer, pick the file you sent and in the printer screen press print.
  • Afterwards, after a successful print, see if you can rate that model.
  • Report your findings here please

If you, maker, printer or community member, are able to help, then thank you. And sorry for the looooong text.

1 Like
Incentive or rewards for parameterizable models
Why We’re Upgrading Our Points System
No more rating feature after completed printing?
No Boost tokens received since 11.2024
2

I would think it’s on purpose. Of course you can still stop a print after clicking “print” but “send to printer” does not mean it will eventually get printed.

3

I get that line of thought but the bottom point is that the model is getting printed and not “it could be stopped halfway”. Until a few months ago it worked exactly like that and there were no announcements about a change regarding the use of the print now or print later. The important is that the model gets printed. That’s why users use their cloud and the models get checked against their server. The way it works now it seems to prioritize only the Handy app users instead or those who print right away.
That doesn’t work if the model is multi plate, for example. Pressing “Print” only prints one plate and it still can be rated and counted as the total print. Isn’t that worst? Having a model that needs, for example, 8 plates and the user prints the smallest one and the creator still gets rewarded without even needing the user to print the others. It feels like this could be exploited, if done right or if a user know about it and uses it to farm easy points and rewards.

But thanks, will keep looking into it and maybe @MakerWorld or @SupportAssistant could give a hint about this issue in the meantime.

4

Make sure you’re using the profile exactly as its downloaded, swapping to different types of materials (for example PLA to ABS and re slicing it) will not result in being able to rate that profile, you also can’t change to a different profile, it also has to have successfully completed

I have no issues being asked to rate things i’ve downloaded in the past, i printed a mothers day gift a couple of days ago and rated it today

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5

Profile or any settings are untouched.

Again, i am also prompted to rate if… i click print in the slicer, as explained. Sending to printer is the problem, even without touching any setting. It’s also explained above.

But i can also state that changing settings, including pla to abs/petg also counts, if you click to print from the slicer. You can also rate it.

Thanks anyway. It could be a problem from my side but i also had confirmation from another user in a discord server. I just wanted to do it here to be discussed in detail :grinning_face:

1 Like
6

Then it probably isn’t registering because the current print wasn’t sent from the cloud, yes i am aware you sent the file from the cloud to the printer, but the print wasn’t started from the cloud, its the same reason the skip object feature doesn’t work in the P1S if the print was started locally

7

Again, i see what you mean but if the file gets through the cloud to reach the printer and it still contains all the metadata, it should count as a print, as it always did.

It worked like that a few months ago. I am 100% sure because i barely used the “print” button in the slicer. I always sent my files to the printer through the slicer (important step to retain data). The “send to printer” is part of the Bambu cloud and it serves as a way to have a backlog in the sd card of the printer.

I didn’t meant to be rude at all, just to let you know. I just want some data so i can send a report to Bambu but it seems that there isn’t much interest. And then i see the boost tokens topic and people complaining about it and it’s related to this.

Is as if makers earn so much that they don’t even care or notice and users who print only want the end result without caring for ratings. Both are important, at least to me.

Anyway, seeing that no one has data to provide or to counter my findings, and Makerworld had no announcement about it in the last few months, i assume it was a sneaky change, once more, without notification.

Thanks for your input.

8

Open the Bambu Handy app.

Go to the bell icon on the top right

Go to Design Works/ rating reminders

Rate away… although I have found that it takes time for that rating prompt to appear.

9

Err… i think you didn’t get it.
That is the whole point. There are no rating reminders because there were no prints on the system because the “send to printer” does not count towards completed prints. I could also go to my profile, click my username and then click Ratings and they should be there. It’s not a “me” problem from what i found. It should happen to everyone, if the steps i supplied above are followed correctly.

Sorry but sometimes i really think that users just scroll past topics without really reading what’s inside and then answer to totally different questions :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Thanks anyway and have a great weekend

10

I apologise. I just looked and you are correct…

I print from the computer and then often do reprints from the app hence why I was a bit mixed up…

11

No worries. Glad you saw it.

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12

Yeah but we are assuming that the metadata is the only requirement, and not that the server needs to track that the job started and completed in order for it to know it was actually done so that you couldn’t, for example, send a 3mf, take it off the card and replace model files inside it to make the print complete faster by printing a different model and still “count” as a completion

Or just spoofing the web connection entirely

13

That would be too much work for the common user that uses Bambu printers. Don’t forget that most users don’t even know what a slicer is because they only use the Handy app :slightly_smiling_face:

But… again, that’s how it worked since i remember and it should still work because it’s being sent through a 3mf made specifically for bambu printers, from their webpage, with their own metadata (creator, model, cover, profile, user id, etc) sliced and sent by Bambu Studio, through Bambu Connect, through their internal slicer plugin, into the user cloud id and down to the user machine, registered with the user account (for synchronizing). There is no reason for it not to work (again, that’s how it worked since the start).

Since there were no announcements, no warnings, no changes, i just want to figure out why it does not work, at least for me. And that takes me to the initial point that is: without the help from the community, i can’t know if it’s a problem on my side, my account or a general problem. Until now i just read “what if…”. Again, i am not being rude but this affects everyone, if true. Just read the boost tokens topic to see that this is what could be affecting those. Maybe… or i am wrong and the problem is really with my account, to which @makerworld should check and respond… next year, with luck :grinning_face:

How i miss the old-school forums. This was already tested by hundreds of members and the result was already known, studied and heavily discussed. Now it’s just “oh, it’s a you problem! It’s not bambus fault! You are doing it wrong! Clean your plate! Format your hdd and reinstall Studio!” :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Thanks again

1 Like
14

It’s probably to prevent rating padding/abuse. Heck if you stop the post print filtering it will report as a failure even though the filament is unloaded, the bed lowered and its 100% printed. Where there is a point system, there will be abuses.

1 Like
15

Gotcha. Have you tried it? Care to share data?
Because it has always worked and i think most people here are missing the initial point or are simply too deep into the bambu system to a point where “no fcks were given” except if it affects the own person.

It’s ok to be dismissive, but it won’t help. Should i accept it and print everything without counting towards the creator? Will a creator that gets no points keep uploading his work here? Because i doubt it. And that is the point. And i am discussing this as a user and not a maker.

Anyway, thank you

16

Hi,

I am giving it a try but to be honest I never use this option to print a model.

I always use the “Print plate”/”Print” option because it goes so much faster, I don’t need to access the printer.

Anyways, I will let you know if I get a reminder to rate the model I chose.

1 Like
17

Yeah, unfortunately I confirm that printing when it was send to the printer does not bring a reminder to rate the profile :frowning:

1 Like
18

New findings, and even worse than it seems.

Customizable models are also a problem. If you, a creator, has a model that can be customized, after customizing and downloading, the print will not count for the creator and the user who printed it can’t rate it. This time the model was printed directly from the slicer through the “Print” button.

That means that the creator gets 1x points for the download but not the extra 2x points for printing it successfully.

The user can’t rate it too. That means that no boost tokens will be given to the user who printed.

Will do some more tests and share my findings. Thankfully i had 1 member of the community that was happy to help and that was what got me into this discovery. If this is true for everyone, i can assure you that when people start noticing that they are not having their models rewarded, they will stop uploading new things, eventually.

If anyone wants to be of any help, the first post description is the same and easy to follow. The more data and users, the better. Without data, Makerworld will not be able to help or do anything.

In the meantime i would love to see if @MakerWorld @SupportAssistant can be of any help or even care to try and give a rational explanation for these occurrences.

2 Likes
19

Indeed, as much as I enjoy the challenge of creating a customizable model, it’s a bit sad to not be able to track which models are successful or not.

On one side, I will not deny it, the recognition is satisfying. However, I’m also interested in the feedback to see how I can improve my models, how people customize my models.

If I see this: 61 customizations but only 3 prints.

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I get that not everyone prints after customizing but still, this is something I see all around my models. Like this one below: 95 customizations, 118 have added it to their collections, 9 prints only and no profile rating?:

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What hurts the most on the last one is the total lack of comment :frowning:, but that’s something else.

20

That’s incorrect. The slicer when doing “print” asks to rate the print profile even if VERY heavily modified.

I checked - sliced and sent to printer → click “print” from printer screen → not counted as “print” on model page.
Clicking “print” and from slicer → counted as print

I deliberately put my printer in cloud mode (it’s in lan most of the time) to check this.

Confirmed. All my “customizable” models have print count exact to sum of print count of profiles provided by myself. I tried to find customizable models with no print profiles but it looks like “no print profile” search filter got lost some time ago and finding such models is hard. That being said I do think the creators of customizable models don’t get point for prints of customized models at all.

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