Workflow & governance
What is print job?
A print job is a single unit of 3D printing work as tracked by an operations system: a model file plus the metadata, approvals, assignment, and outcome record attached to it.
Also known as: 3D print job, job, print request
A job is more than a file
The file is the smallest part of a print job. What makes a job manageable is everything wrapped around it:
- Who submitted it, and on whose behalf
- Why: the purpose, project, course, or order it belongs to
- What it needs: material, printer model, and other requirements
- What was decided: approved, rejected, or flagged, by whom, and when
- What happened: which printer, how long, how much material, success or failure
Operations that only track the file end up unable to answer any question that matters later: what the lab cost to run, which machine is unreliable, or who authorised a particular print.
Job states
A well-formed job lifecycle is short and unambiguous: submitted → reviewed → queued → printing → complete, with failed as a first-class terminal state that can spawn a reprint rather than a new submission.