With Bambu Lab’s announcement of Filametrics, it’s time to talk about the open-source alternative, Spoolman.
The purpose of both of these tools is to manage an inventory of filament spools. As someone with far too many spools in the workshop, I can say that this is really a function that more 3D printer operators should consider using.
With a broadening range of materials, the question of “Do I have enough of XXX material to complete this print?” is becoming more complex to answer. Spoolman can do this for you.
It runs as a standalone website that you can set up on a leftover server in your workshop. Spoolman can easily integrate directly into Octoprint and other 3D print software.
There have been spool manager plugins for Octoprint before, but Spoolman is different. The difference revolves around the problem of how to keep the data up to date. That’s the curse of any database: it’s only good if you keep putting new data into it. Early spool managers were essentially manual, requiring the operator to manually input any changes in status.
Spoolman is able to do this automatically. It integrates with Klipper on the 3D printers to update spool weights in real time — even as jobs continue, and on multiple printers at the same time, too. That single feature alone removes a huge amount of manual effort to maintain a spool inventory.
Another interesting feature is that there is a community-maintained database of filaments, meaning it should be much easier to add spools.
Spoolman can also print labels that can be placed on spools for easy identification. This is far easier than using manufacturer’s labels, as they will be visibly consistent for all spools in your collection.
Spoolman also integrates with Home Assistant, a popular open-source home automation system, which is becoming increasingly the protocol being used by home automation systems.
While Bambu Lab’s Filametrics promises additional functions, it seems that Spoolman likely offers more than enough function for most 3D printer operators.
Via GitHub
