Formlabs setup
Connect Formlabs printers through a shared site connection and select discovered devices.
Formlabs printers use a Formlabs Connection shared by printers at a site. Support configures this connection with your IT team; it uses PreFormServer to send jobs and Formlabs Dashboard to report printer state.
Before adding a printer
Contact support to arrange the site’s Formlabs connection. Have your printer models, site name, Formlabs account contact, and IT contact ready. The printers need to be registered to the appropriate Formlabs Dashboard account. Formlabs explains its connectivity requirements in its official integration overview.
In Admin → Formlabs Connections, authorized administrators can manage connections and use Login or Discover Devices from a row’s menu. Use the connection settings provided by support; do not guess server addresses or shared-folder values.
Add a discovered printer
- Open Printers → Add Printer and choose the site’s exact model.
- Select the Formlabs Connection for that site.
- Select the device in Printer Serial. Confirm you have the intended physical machine.
- Save and wait for its status to appear.
If no matching device appears, confirm the model and site, then use Discover Devices on the connection. Ask support to investigate if discovery remains empty.
Choose a model guide from Add a printer for the available controls and camera support.
Materials and print files
Upload a sliced .form file prepared for the correct printer model in PreForm. The resin requirement is fixed by that file; it cannot be substituted on the approval screen.
If the job says the material is not configured, open Admin → Material Mapping → Needs Mapping and map the reported resin to the matching variant. Check the printer’s loaded resin too. See Materials.
Status and camera images
Status comes through Formlabs Dashboard and may lag behind the machine. A lost connection is not confirmation that a print finished. Check the physical printer before retrying a job.
Form 4-family printers support periodic camera snapshots; Form 3-family printers do not. Snapshots are still images, not live video. If a capture is unavailable, the previous image may remain visible, so check its time before relying on it.
Pluraprint does not offer pause, resume, or stop controls for these printers. Use the printer’s own controls when intervention is necessary.