# Smart Print Routing: auto-match files to the right 3D printer in your farm

**Minimum Plan:** Free

Smart print routing auto-matches every 3D print job to a compatible printer in your farm. Bed type, material, nozzle, colour, build volume, filament weight and temperature all checked - mismatches are skipped before they hit a printer.

**Categories:** smart, organization, printing

*You populate the queue, we orchestrate*

##  We are the conductor of your print farm

A printer is a tool. Your team shouldn't have to remember which specific machine has the textured plate, the 0.6 mm nozzle or the spool of orange PETG loaded. You populate the queue, connect your printers, and keep their material / nozzle / bed up to date. SimplyPrint matches every file to a compatible printer and feeds the right job to the right machine, automatically.

## Stop hand-picking printers for every job

At three printers you remember which has the textured plate. At ten you start writing it down. At thirty you accept that someone, sometime, will send a 260C PETG file to a PLA-only printer. The matching engine removes the memory load entirely - the queue refuses to offer an incompatible job, 1-Click Print only starts the ones that fit, and AutoPrint keeps the fleet fed without anyone hovering over it.

## How the conductor routes a file

When a job goes into the queue, SimplyPrint reads the file's bed type, material, nozzle size and colour from the slicer metadata, then compares those requirements against every printer's currently loaded filament, mounted plate, nozzle config and tags. The job only becomes runnable on printers that satisfy every active constraint - that's why **1-Click Print** and **AutoPrint** can fire off a batch with no manual matching. Print bed size, max temperature, multi-material configuration and printer model compatibility are also factored in, so even a file with no tags at all won't be sent to a printer that physically can't run it.**
The bottleneck on a print farm isn't usually print speed - it's the seconds (or minutes, or hours) between one print ending and the next one starting. Smart routing's job is to remove that gap. As printers report ready, AutoPrint pulls the next compatible job out of the pool - on a shared, in-memory claim ledger that prevents two printers from grabbing the same job in the same tick. No one has to decide "which P1S takes this PETG run?" - the conductor decides. Combined with multi-material mapping**, **filament-loaded** tracking and **printer maintenance mode**, the matcher knows the real state of your fleet, not just the configured state.

## Routing by compatibility, not by FIFO

Most farm tools route by FIFO. SimplyPrint routes by compatibility - and silently skips mismatches before they hit a printer.

## What operators say

"This makes it easier to do 80% of the work you do every day, which is sending print tasks."

SimplyPrint customer, Feb 2026 survey

## Queue Inspector: see exactly why a file matches or doesn't

Open any printer's control panel and hit the **Queue Inspector** button. SimplyPrint walks every queued item through the matching engine for that specific printer and tells you, per file, exactly which checks pass and which fail. *"19 of 20 checks pass, fails on colour"*. *"Model not assigned"*. *"Bed type mismatch"*. Filter by issue type, search by filename, or expand any item to see the full criteria breakdown with one-click quick-fixes.

Most users never need to open it - matching just works. When something looks off ("why isn't *this* file showing up on *that* printer?"), the inspector is the answer in one click.

## Files tag themselves on upload

Matching only works if files actually carry tags - so SimplyPrint reads slicer metadata on upload and tags every file automatically. PrusaSlicer, OrcaSlicer, BambuStudio, ElegooSlicer, Cura, SuperSlicer and the SimplyPrint Cloud Slicer all write the metadata the parser reads. Bed type, material, nozzle size, colour - all parsed from GCode comments and 3MF metadata before the file lands in the queue.

You don't tag anything by hand unless you want to.

## Filename tag rules for files without metadata

Not every file comes from a slicer that writes clean metadata. For uploads from older slicers, downloaded prints or files renamed by hand, **filename tag rules** let you define regex or text-match rules against the filename - and any matching file gets the configured tags applied automatically on upload.

Example: a rule like ^(ABS|abs)_ tags any filename starting with "ABS_" or "abs_" with the ABS material tag. Combine multiple rules to catch your team's naming conventions and stop tagging files by hand entirely.

Available on Basic and above.

## Material and bed clusters - because PLA isn't always just PLA

Slicers tag files with the exact material name from the loaded filament profile - so the same physical roll might show up as "PLA", "PLA+", "Hyper-PLA" or a brand-specific name across different team members' profiles. **Material clusters** let you say *"all of these are PLA for matching purposes"* so a printer configured for one variant accepts files sliced for any of them. The same idea applies to bed types: **bed type clusters** group equivalent plates (smooth PEI variants, textured variants, etc.) so the matcher treats them as interchangeable.

Print farms with custom non-standard plates can add their own bed types on Print Farm and above.

## Set it up once, never touch it again

Open *Settings → Queue* once to pick which dimensions you want enforced strictly (e.g. material always required) and which ones to leave loose, define clusters and bed types specific to your fleet, toggle auto-tagging behaviour and author filename tag rules. After that, you don't come back unless something physical changes - a new printer model joins the fleet, you adopt a new plate type, or your team standardises a new naming convention.

## Frequently asked questions

### What does smart routing actually do?

It's the matching brain that decides which printer each queued file is allowed to run on. SimplyPrint tags every file (bed type, material, nozzle size, colour, custom tags) and tags every printer (with its currently loaded filament, mounted plate, nozzle config, etc.). The queue then only offers a file to a printer if every required tag matches. No more sending a PETG file to a PLA-loaded printer, no more bed-type mismatches.

### Do I have to tag every file by hand?

No - that would defeat the point. SimplyPrint reads slicer metadata at upload time and tags every file automatically from what the slicer wrote into the GCode or 3MF. For files without clean metadata, filename tag rules can catch your team's naming conventions and tag those automatically too. Manual tagging is the fallback, not the default.

### What if a file doesn't end up on the printer I expected?

Open the Queue Inspector from that printer's control panel. SimplyPrint runs every queued file through the matching engine for that specific printer and shows you, per file, which checks pass and which fail. You can filter by issue (colour, bed type, material, etc.) and expand any item for the full criteria breakdown plus one-click quick-fixes. It's the answer to every "why does this file route here?" question.

### Which slicers does the auto-tagger understand?

Every major slicer - PrusaSlicer, OrcaSlicer, BambuStudio, ElegooSlicer, Cura, SuperSlicer and the SimplyPrint Cloud Slicer all write metadata that the parser reads. For something more bespoke, the advanced metadata standard (; sp:key = value comments in GCode, or simplyprint-metadata.json in 3MF) lets you author tags from any source.

### What if my printer takes any material - do I have to assign anything?

No. If you leave a tag off the printer, the matcher doesn't enforce it. The system only blocks a job when the printer **has** a tag that conflicts with the file's tag. So a printer with no material tag accepts files of any material, but a printer tagged "PLA" only accepts PLA files.

### Can I group compatible bed types and materials?

Yes - that's what **clusters** are for. A bed type cluster like "Smooth PEI variants" groups every smooth-PEI plate together so the matcher treats them as equivalent. A material cluster like "PLA family" groups generic PLA, PLA+, Hyper-PLA and brand-specific PLAs so they all match a printer loaded with any of them. Build clusters that match how your team actually thinks about your fleet.

### How does this interact with 1-Click Print and AutoPrint?

Both features rely on the matching engine. **1-Click Print** pulls the next matching queue item for every available printer and starts them in one shot - it never offers an incompatible job. **AutoPrint** does the same continuously: every time a printer becomes free, AutoPrint asks the matcher for the next compatible job and starts it. Without smart routing, both features would have to fall back to dumb FIFO assignment.

### Which plans include smart routing?

The core engine (bed type, material, nozzle, colour, model clusters, slicer-metadata parsing) is on every plan including Free. **Filename tag rules** unlock on Basic. **Custom tags** (freeform tags beyond the built-in dimensions) and **custom bed types** (non-standard plates) unlock on Print Farm and above.

## Want the full setup walkthrough?

Our helpdesk has step-by-step guides for setting up the tagging engine. Start with [All about the Tags feature](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/all-about-the-tags-feature-mwvsst/) for the core concepts, then read [Auto-tagging & auto printer model selection](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/auto-tagging-auto-printer-model-selection-e84r3k/) for the matcher configuration, and [Advanced smart tagging](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/advanced-smart-tagging-file-metadata-filename-rules-automation-csvnv/) for embedded metadata and filename rules.


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**Learn more:** [Help Article](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/all-about-the-tags-feature-mwvsst/)