Dear SimplyPrint users - we're out of beta!!
We have really been looking forward to releasing this new big update, which is now live.
After months of works, the new and improved SimplyPrint platform is finally ready - let's outline what that means, what's new in this update, and what's to come!
What's new?
It may sound boring, but the most important part of this big update, is all the stuff you cannot see - everything that happens behind the scenes - as well as all the UI you do see, has been completely re-built from the bottom up. This has allowed us to build a much more stable and future-proof platform, that allows us to more easily carry out the dreams we have for SimplyPrint!
We've learned from our mistakes over the past 2 years, and now have a platform with a foundation tailored to what SimplyPrint is & can be.
The notable changes and additions are;
- New way of connecting your printers; much faster communication while using a fraction of the network traffic that we used before
- A brand-new App! Just like the web platform has got a huge update, so has our app - go find it in the App or Play Store!
- New "Device health" widget for the Control Panel; you can now see, in real-time, how your Pi / device that runs SimplyPrint is doing. CPU and memory-usage and temperature
- Proper multi extruder support
- Official Klipper support! Using Mainsail, Fluidd or just Moonraker
- "Farm mode" for Print Queue on multi-"Ready all" ("one-click-start-all")
- Preheat and cooldown multiple printers at the same time (by printer group, or all printers)
- User-accessible API for automation! This feature is currently in closed beta - write to us if you wish to try it
- Faster livestream (still in testing - but almost double the speed for all our subscription plans)
- Updated UI & up to 500x increase in load speed
- Drag n' drop files to printers, printer groups, print queue
- More reliable job updates, even if your printer/Pi is offline (without internet) when the print finishes; it's still picked up
- Completely new Bed Levelling helper
- Completely new (and much better) Filament Change helper
- "Compact" and "List" printer view (for multiple printers); see up to 3x the amount of printers you could see before
- Completely revamped setup guide
- Revamped GCODE analysis; we can now catch more errors in your GCODE files, and prevent a bunch of nasty errors!
- New control panel layout
- Assign printer groups to print queue jobs
- Add job images to email notifications
- Enterprise-only (farms & schools);
- Printers reserved upon starting & slicing
- "See who cancelled" option & permission
- Revamped "Hub";
- More secure
- Better "Temporary login" design; now logs out after 5 minutes of inactivity, rather than after each action
- Easier assigning of filament
- Revamped "Statistics" page
- Revamped "Print jobs" page
- Revamped "Print job view" page
- Helpdesk integration; helpdesk pops up via the livechat, so you can stay on the site while browsing help articles
- All-around UI improvements & smoother experience
- A trillion bug-fixes - or maybe more!
We hope you enjoy these features, and enjoy the overall improvement that the platform is seeing!
What's changed?
- Prints now start automatically when you send the file.
Originally had to wait until the file was received by the printer, whereafter you had to click the final "Start". Many of you expressed frustration with this way of doing it, so we changed it!
If the print fails to start, the browser tab will play an error-buzzer sound.
There is a setting in "Settings > Printers" to use the old method of requiring the extra confirm, if you wish to go back 🙂 - No more forced "Setup guide".
Before, the SimplyPrint registration started with you being in a forced setup guide, requiring you to add your first printer before entering the platform. This is no longer the case. - All users now start on a 14-day trial of our "Advanced" plan. This counts for all new users that join the platform (since Nov. 21), as well as for all of our existing users that are on the free plan - each one of you, has been given a trial for the Advanced plan.
- All our servers are now located in Frankfurt, Germany, instead of the UK
- The "View multiple streams at the same time" feature has been moved to the "Advanced" plan
- Sadly, the "Fast direct local livestream" has been removed. This is a choice we had to make, not one we wished to.
The browsers have made it increasingly difficult, due to the fact that there's network traffic between a secure host (SimplyPrint), and an unsecure one (OctoPrint / your camera). To compensate a bit, we have - as mentioned - improved the stream speeds that everyone gets, and we wish to improve it even more. We're working on a full 30 FPS livestream, so stay tuned for that! - Roadmap re-prioritized; we started out with a lot of ideas on where the development of this platform should go, but ultimately some of the early ideas we had years and years ago, were not something that many of our users really wished for.
What's coming soon?
We have grand plans for the future - many of them, thanks to your awesome suggestions!
- Full screen livestream
- Printer maintenance overview
- Thumbnail images for GCODE files
- Print price calculation
- More features for print farms; better overview, continuous print support
- Tags for printers & printer groups
- US & Asia servers;
To cut down load & ping-time, we're going to have more SimplyPrint servers out there, so you automatically connect to the one closest to you - And much more... Do come with your suggestions!
We wish to keep improving the platform as much as possible, and we count on you to keep being awesome with your feedback!
If you have any issues, bug reports or just a suggestion; let us know! We love hearing from our customers. You can check out our new Discord server here;
Thank you!
We cannot thank you enough for using our platform and helping us improve it every single day. Here, starting the third year of our company's life, we are now 4 developers on the project, with a few freelancers as well, and we plan on adding more to the team whenever we can.
This means we are spending a lot of money creating this platform, and providing a free option for so many thousands of users. We have dedicated 3 full years of our lives to this project, and don't plan on stopping anytime soon.
So, if you like SimplyPrint, and you're not yet on a paid subscription plan; we ask you to please consider supporting our development by upgrading to a paid subscription to help support our continued work!
We never wish to force anyone to upgrade, and there will always be a free plan for SimplyPrint - so if you can't support us financially, we fully understand - there are other ways to show support as well; you can spread the word about SimplyPrint in the 3D printing community, drop us a kind message on Discord, rate us on Trustpilot, Google or Facebook - and especially, by helping keep us on our toes by reporting bugs and suggesting changes.
Hope you enjoy the new update! We apologize for the rough start on the update (resulting in a bit of downtime - of course planned the first day, not so planned the other days...). We're working day and night to ensure everything is running smoothly - please let us know in our live-chat, on Discord or via e-mail, if you find a bug (we're trying to squish them all!)
We apologize for any frustration this might've caused - we knew there were going to be some issues here and there the first week, but it's a risk we were willing to take, as an investment into the future of SimplyPrint; the old platform walked, so the new one could run.
Thanks for all your continued support!
- Albert & the rest of the SimplyPrint team