We’ve just struggled to set up Form 4 partly due to our network settings but also because within Preform, it has two different ways of connecting to the printer. Great prints, slightly bumpier UX than I expected.
On the Preform tab, where you orientate and slice models and send to the printer, we have now got the printer showing correctly as online over the local network. We cannot monitor print status from here.
But on the very next tab, Dashboard, the printer is showing offline and cannot be monitored on the local network. I understand Formlabs takes care to protect privacy but we are not going to be sharing printer data with the Formlabs server. Why can the Dashboard not connect over the LAN on port 35, like the slicer does? In this diagram from Connectivity and security article, we see that “Printer status” is sent to Preform via port 35. There seems little point having a desktop app which just skins a browser page that cannot work when disconnected from the internet, when a viable data connection is available over the LAN. Do your US government customers with network security restrictions also live without a way to monitor print status from the desktop?
You’re absolutely right. Out IT security also restricts connections to the internet. I really don’t know why Formlabs so much sticks to the “cloud” solutions. It’s the same situation as:
why we can not define devices network name manually?
why we can not define custom NTP server address?
why I can’t download logs from printer via USB and send them from PreForm?
I’m the Product Manager for PreForm - thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re actively working on improving the monitoring capabilities in PreForm. Can you share what you’d like to be able to monitor? I’m also happy to get on a call and learn more from you.
Some historical context - Dashboard was designed for customers managing multiple printers (like print farms) or those with multiple users (like shared makerspaces). To make it easier for those customers, we added the Dashboard tab in PreForm which as you rightly called out is a skin over a browser. But it can cause confusion with users who want to use the printer offline like you.
Some of our defense and other customers have built an “offline Dashboard” using the Formlabs API. It wouldn’t be as seamless as the Dashboard experience but it has most of the features.
Hi @hasank thanks for your insightful reply and for connecting with me as a very appropriate person to do so from the Formlabs side!
I have actually seen a “print time remaining” widget in the Preform Tab with my first print since being able to solve our network issues, today. So actually that is the main thing I need.
However, ideally I would be able to see recent print stats in the Dashboard. Material usage would also be helpful so we can see consumption rates etc. We are testing the viability of prototyping and low volume, high mix production with our Form 4. If it is successful, we have a product which means we will probably add a Form 4 L and I think the dashboard stats will come in handy for production management beyond seeing a single printer at any one time. It also allows someone to see how many batches have been run of a particular build plate, I presume (having not seen it in use), in the recent past, so as a team we can all keep track of how we are doing against a production schedule.
But I can’t upload them from PreForm.
It is not possible to upload it manually using website as our security rules don’t allow this (uploading whaever anywhere is restricted due to possible data leakage) and the site is blocked by our IT. So it’s a dead spot.
These features are not commonly used or required for setting up printers. Can you please help me understand why you require it?
I work for big (BIG) company and we have literraly thousands of network devices. We have strict cybersecurity rules and the only devices which can have our name are allowed to be connected. The name must contain “what is it, number, where is it”. Without this is again dead-spot.
The same situation is with NTP server - it is not allowed that any device can connect anywhere. The traffic must stay in our network. We have out NTP server so it does make sense to use. If I can’t set it manually again: dead-spot.
I’m also a Form 4 user running the printer on LAN/offline in corporate environment and getting no use of the Dashboard. Access to the stats would be nice, I’d also be interested in seeing the camera stream as well - just to check in all is well during the printing.
+1 for LAN access to cameras. I hadn’t originally thought to ask for it because it required internet / remote server permissions but it would be good over LAN.
