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Filament Intelligence (Inventory)

Digital spool inventory engine

By Jeremy Smith

• 6 articles

What is Filament Intelligence and how does it calculate usage?

Stop Wasting Plastic Filament Intelligence is SoLoPrint's flagship inventory engine. As you print through the SoLoPrint platform, our cloud receives extrusion data (E-steps, filament density calculations) and deducts the exact gram weight used from your digital spool inventory in real-time. Why track by gram? Most slicing packages output G-Code stating exactly how many grams of plastic a job will require. Before dispatching a job from the Cloud Slicer, SoLoPrint cross-checks the job's requirement against the remaining weight of the spool assigned to your printer's hotend. The Math If a 24-hour helmet print requires 820g of PLA, but your assigned spool only has 750g remaining, SoLoPrint halts the job and flashes a warning. You can swap the spool before wasting 24 hours of plastic on a headless print.

Last updated on Mar 31, 2026

Creating and managing your digital spool inventory

Building your Workspace Library Whenever you buy a new physical spool of filament from Amazon, MatterHackers, or MicroCenter, you must log it into SoLoPrint. How to Add a Spool 1. In the Dashboard, click on the Filament tab on your sidebar. 2. Click the large Add New Spool action button. 3. Brand: Identify the manufacturer (e.g., Polymaker). 4. Material: Select the chemical makeup (PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU). 5. Color: Select from our color picker. The spool will render dynamically in this color within your UI. 6. Starting Weight: Input the raw plastic weight (excluding the cardboard spool). Usually 1000g or 3000g. 7. Price: Add the total cost to let SoLoPrint calculate your print ROI (Return on Investment) over time. Managing Spools If a spool snaps or gets damaged in an active dryer box, you can manually override its remaining weight by clicking the Edit pencil icon next to the spool in your inventory table.

Last updated on Mar 31, 2026

The Spool Assignment workflow: Linking a spool to a printer's hotend

Connecting the Digital to the Physical Creating a spool in your digital library is not enough. When you physically walk up to an OctoPrint machine or Bambu printer and load that plastic into the hotend, SoLoPrint needs to be informed. The Assignment Protocol 1. Navigate to the Printers dashboard. 2. Locate the specific printer you are standing next to. 3. Expand its card, and look for the Active Material section (which usually defaults to No Spool Assigned). 4. Click Assign Spool. 5. A modal will appear showing your entire digital inventory. Select the specific spool you just loaded. The UI will update, showing the exact color and remaining weight of the active spool atop the printer's telemetry card.

Last updated on Mar 31, 2026

Customizing material properties (Temperatures, Flow Rate, K-Factor) per spool

Hardware Specifics Different brands of PETG require different baseline temperatures to flow perfectly. Some require 230°C, and others require 255°C. Locking in Properties SoLoPrint allows you to attach Material Profiles directly to your spool inventory objects. When editing a digital spool in the Filament tab, you can input: - Ideal Extruder Temperature (e.g., 210°C) - Ideal Bed Temperature (e.g., 60°C) - Flow Rate Multiplier - Pressure Advance (K-Factor, standard for Klipper firmwares) The Benifit When this spool undergoes the Spool Assignment operation and gets linked to a printer, the SoLoPrint Cloud Slicer instantly retrieves these properties and injects them into the toolpath. Standardizing your hardware has never been faster.

Last updated on Mar 31, 2026

Printing and scanning QR Codes for physical spool tracking

Tacking the Real World Managing 150 black PLA spools that all look identical is a nightmare for a busy print farm. QR Code Generation When you click on any spool in your Filament tab, SoLoPrint natively generates a unique SVG QR Code tied explicitly to that database ID. 1. Use a standard Brother/Dymo label printer or Avery sticker sheet to print the generated code. 2. Slap the QR Code onto the physical cardboard rim of the spool. Mobile Scanning When standing in your print farm holding a random spool of black PLA with your sticker on it, simply open the native camera app on your smartphone and scan the code. The link will immediately open the SoLoPrint mobile dashboard to that spool's exact detail page, displaying its precise remaining weight, assigned printer, and material history.

Last updated on Mar 31, 2026

Low-Filament Alerts: Preventing mid-air prints before they happen

Real-time Peace of Mind SoLoPrint runs intelligent algorithms across all your assigned spools in the background. The 10% Warning When any active spool drops below 10% of its initial starting capacity (e.g., 100g remaining on a 1kg frame), SoLoPrint will: 1. Show a prominent Yellow Alert Badge on that printer's hardware card. 2. Dispatch a warning notification to your dashboard notifications tray stating the threshold breach. 3. Send an email to the workspace owner. Job Interception If you ignore the alerts and attempt to push a new 150g G-Code job to that same printer via the Cloud Slicer, SoLoPrint blocks the deployment entirely and triggers a Red Modal Error forcing you to acknowledge the risk or execute a Spool Assignment swap.

Last updated on Mar 31, 2026