Print planning
Plan a print on a canvas — orientation, supports, plates, filament changes, time and grams — and tune a Bambu Studio print in Benchy Desktop.
Print planning is Benchy's own plugin. On a canvas in Studio, select 3D models and one of your printers, and Benchy works out each part's orientation and supports, how the parts share build plates, where the filament changes, and roughly how long it takes and how many grams it uses, then places the plan on the canvas. Separately, in Benchy Desktop, Benchy can tune a Bambu Studio project to print faster or lighter.
Plan a print
- The workspace's owner installs Print planning once, from Plugins under Browse. See Install a plugin.
- Add your printer, with its build volume, on the workspace's Machines page. A plan always starts from a real printer.
- On a canvas, select the 3D models (STL, 3MF or GLB), then choose Plugins → Print planning from the canvas menu.
- Choose the printer and material, and for each model the number of copies and, optionally, its colour. A model with no real size, such as a generated one, also needs its longest side in millimetres.
- Choose Plan print. The plan appears beside your selection and undoes in one step.
Screenshot: a print plan on a canvas — two plates drawn to scale, the parts numbered, the totals above.
What the plan decides
| Question | How Benchy answers it |
|---|---|
| Which way up | Benchy compares the ways each model can sit on the bed, keeping your modelled orientation unless another is clearly cheaper |
| Supports | Whether anything overhangs past 45°, and about how many grams of support it takes. A printer that turns the part to print overhangs needs none |
| Fit | Whether each part fits, square to the bed or turned across it. A part that doesn't is listed with what to change: split or scale it |
| Plates | The parts and copies on as few plates as they fit, 10 mm apart and 5 mm from the edge. A part that only fits turned across the bed gets its own plate |
| Filament changes | Each plate prints in one filament, so different materials or colours go on different plates, grouped to minimise changes |
| Time and grams | For each plate and in total, including support |
Times and grams come from Benchy's production check and are good to about 30%; slicing the plates gives exact figures. The plan also lists the main things to fix in each part, such as walls thinner than the material allows. It slices nothing and sends nothing to a printer. See A person approves every print.
Ask Benchy
With Print planning installed and the models selected, ask in the chat beside the canvas: “Plan these for the P1S in PETG, four of the bracket.” Benchy shows a card with the printer, material and copies, and plans once you approve. If the workspace has several printers and you didn't name one, Benchy asks.
Tune a print on your Mac
In Benchy Desktop, Benchy can tune a Bambu Studio .3mf project for a Bambu Lab P1S, in PLA or PETG, to print faster or use less filament without changing how the part looks or lowering its strength. Point Benchy at the project with @ and ask: “Make this print faster.”
Benchy slices the project once in Bambu Studio to measure time, filament and the strength of every layer, then tries changes that save time or material, slicing each, and keeps only those that pass every check. It reports the result, and you decide whether to use it.
It never changes the model, its placement, the printer, the nozzle, the filament, the plate, the printer's start and end code, or the cooling. It runs on your Mac with Bambu Studio installed, one file at a time, with nothing in the cloud.
What Benchy checks
A tuned change is kept only if its print file passes all three checks:
| Check | Means |
|---|---|
| Same look | The settings that shape the outside — outer walls, top surfaces, seam, supports and the like — stay as they are, and their speeds can only go down |
| Same strength | Every layer at least 95% as strong as the original, measured from the toolpaths |
| Slices in Bambu Studio | The project slices in Bambu Studio without errors |
What you get
A before-and-after table: print time (Benchy's estimate beside Bambu Studio's), filament, and every changed setting with why. A change that prints a different interior, such as another infill pattern, is called out. A gain under 0.5% is within the slicer's own variation and reported as none. Nothing is sent to a printer: you open the file and start the print yourself.
Screenshot: a tuned print's before-and-after table in a Benchy Desktop chat.