AutoPrint: put your printers on autopilot

AutoPrint starts the next matching item from your print queue automatically, the moment a printer is free and its bed is clear. Pair it with a way to clear the bed between prints and your printers keep running on their own, day and night, working through the queue without anyone clicking start. This is the hands-off sibling of https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/1-click-print-batch-start-prints-across-your-printers-nwr2xn/ and the unattended end of the https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-manage-schedule-and-automate-your-prints-1syc86o/.

Table of contents

• What AutoPrint does
• AutoPrint vs 1-Click Print
• Turning AutoPrint on
• The AutoPrint cycle
• Clearing the bed between prints
• How AutoPrint picks the next item
• Scheduling and distribution
• Printers AutoPrint will skip
• The inline printer timeline and next-print estimate
• Working hours and turnaround time
• When a print fails or the bed is not clear
• Tips for reliable AutoPrint
• Custom gcode to clear the bed
• Related articles

What AutoPrint does

AutoPrint is continuous, unattended printing. When a print finishes and the bed is clear, SimplyPrint finds the next queue item that fits the printer and starts it, then does it again, and again, for as long as there is matching work in the queue. You load the queue, set up a bed-clearing method, flip the switch, and your printers work through the list on their own.

It is enabled per printer, so you choose which machines run unattended and which you keep manual. Everything AutoPrint does respects the same shared queue and the same matching rules as the rest of SimplyPrint, so a printer on AutoPrint draws from exactly the same queue as one you start by hand.

AutoPrint vs 1-Click Print

AutoPrint and https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/1-click-print-batch-start-prints-across-your-printers-nwr2xn/ are two sides of the same engine, and they share their matching and distribution settings so they behave consistently.

The difference is the human in the loop. With 1-Click Print you press the button; with AutoPrint there is no button, so the bed-clearing and verification steps matter far more.

How is this different from the "Continuous Print" OctoPrint plugin?

The Continuous Print OctoPrint plugin works well for continuous printing on a single printer. SimplyPrint takes the same idea across a whole fleet: it is cloud-based, so you can manage it from anywhere, and it is built for a multi-printer (and multi-user) setup with a single shared queue that every printer draws from, plus smart matching that routes the right file to the right printer by filament, nozzle, bed type and tags.

Turning AutoPrint on

AutoPrint is enabled per printer, from the printer's control panel.

1. Open the control panel for the printer you want to automate. If you have several printers, click the one you want.
2. Find the AutoPrint widget and flip the switch on.

You can do the same from the SimplyPrint app for Android or iOS: tap a printer to open its control panel, scroll to the bottom, and flip the AutoPrint switch.

The AutoPrint cycle

Once AutoPrint is on, every time a print finishes the printer runs the same loop:

1. Print finishes. SimplyPrint detects the print has completed and the printer enters a finished state.
2. Bed cools. SimplyPrint waits until the bed reaches a temperature you set, or waits a fixed number of seconds. A cooler bed releases parts more easily.
3. Bed clears. SimplyPrint runs your chosen clearing method (a gcode push-off script, a hardware mod, or simply waiting for you to remove the part).
4. Bed is verified clear. SimplyPrint confirms the bed is actually empty before going further (see When a print fails or the bed is not clear).
5. Next item is matched. SimplyPrint searches the queue for the best item this printer can run (see How AutoPrint picks the next item).
6. Next print starts. The matched item is sent to the printer and the cycle repeats.

If no item in the queue matches the printer, it sits idle and waits. As soon as a matching item appears, or you change the loaded filament so something matches, the cycle picks up again.

Clearing the bed between prints

The bed has to be empty before the next print can start, so the heart of any AutoPrint setup is your bed-clearing method. Each option below works as long as it works reliably for your printers and parts.

Hardware mods and kits

These names match the hardware method picker inside SimplyPrint:

• swapmod (swap-systems.com) swaps out the print plate on Bambu Lab A1 Mini printers.
• JobOx Mod (jobox.tech) swaps the plate on Prusa MK4, MK3S+ and Mini printers.
• Loop Mod (github.com/Pierro55/Loop) uses a deployable arm to push prints off the original Prusa MK3S+.
• Belt printers, also called infinite-Z printers, carry finished prints off the end of the belt automatically, so they continuous-print out of the box.
• 3DQue Ejection Kit (3dque.com/hardware) uses the print head to push prints off the bed, and supports a range of printers including the Prusa Mini, Ender 3 and more.

Push the print off with the print head

A simple but effective method is to use the print head itself to push the finished part off the bed. On a smooth PEI or similar surface that has cooled down, parts release easily, and the force of the print head moving into the part is often enough to clear it. You configure a custom gcode script in SimplyPrint to run this sweep (see Custom gcode to clear the bed at the bottom of this article).

How AutoPrint picks the next item

When a printer is ready for its next job, AutoPrint searches the queue and runs the first item that the printer can actually print. An item matches a printer when:

• the printer is eligible for the item's queue group,
• the printer's loaded filament and nozzle match the item's tags,
• the item's printer, model or group assignment allows this printer,
• the item is not at its max concurrent printers limit (the cap on how many printers can run one item at once),
• and the item is not paused.

Among the items that match, the one nearest the top of the queue wins, so your sort order is respected. AutoPrint and https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/1-click-print-batch-start-prints-across-your-printers-nwr2xn/ use the same matching logic, so an item that 1-Click Print would start is the same item AutoPrint starts. If you ever wonder why a particular printer is skipping an item, the https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/why-wont-my-printer-print-this-queue-item-using-the-queue-inspector-1ue6woy/ explains the exact reason, and the https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-to-do-list-what-to-change-to-unlock-more-prints-1rrldti/ turns those reasons into a checklist of physical changes that unlock the most prints.

Back-burner items

The back-burner is a low-priority lane for filler work like spare parts or test prints. By default AutoPrint only reaches for a back-burner item when nothing in the normal queue matches the printer, so urgent jobs are never blocked but your printers still have something to do when the main queue runs dry.

If you would rather AutoPrint never touch the back-burner, turn on Exclude back-burner items from automatic matching in your queue settings. With that on, back-burner items are only ever started manually. Because the setting is shared, it applies to 1-Click Print too.

Scheduling and distribution

AutoPrint follows the same Scheduling and distribution settings as 1-Click Print, configured at Settings > Queue. Setting them once gives both features consistent behaviour. The main controls are:

• Item scheduling mode. Sequential finishes every copy of item 1 before moving to item 2. Round-robin runs one copy of each item at a time, cycling through them, which is handy when a set of parts should all finish around the same time.
• Printer distribution. By printer position (the default) hands work to printers in the order they appear on your printers page. Randomized and Least recently used spread the work, and the wear, more evenly across your fleet.
• Process queue groups fully before moving on. When on, AutoPrint clears one queue group before starting the next. When off, items interleave across groups.
• Never skip queue items. A printer waits for the right filament rather than jumping ahead to something it can print right now. This pairs with the https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-to-do-list-what-to-change-to-unlock-more-prints-1rrldti/, which tells you which filament to load to unlock the waiting item.
• Max queue positions to search. How far down the queue AutoPrint is allowed to look. You can set a fixed number, a percentage of the queue, or both (the smaller wins). This stops AutoPrint diving to the bottom of the queue just to keep a printer busy. Leave it empty for unlimited.

These settings have their own article, since they shape both AutoPrint and 1-Click Print: see https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/scheduling-and-printer-distribution-how-simplyprint-assigns-prints-1vwl6l3/.

Printers AutoPrint will skip

AutoPrint only sends prints to printers that are ready for them. It will skip a printer that is:

• in maintenance mode (an active maintenance job that puts the printer into maintenance), or
• marked out of order.

In both cases the printer is left alone, the queue will not match items to it, and 1-Click Print leaves it out of selection too, so a machine being worked on never gets a surprise print. The printer rejoins the rotation automatically once it leaves maintenance or you clear the out-of-order flag. For the maintenance side of this, see Printer maintenance.

The inline printer timeline and next-print estimate

The AutoPrint widget shows an inline timeline for the printer: what it is running now and an estimate of when the next print will start. The estimate accounts for the current print finishing, the bed cooling and clearing, and the turnaround time you have configured, so you get a realistic picture of the printer's next handoff rather than a guess.

For the bigger picture across every printer at once, the https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-timeline-see-your-whole-farm-on-a-gantt-chart-1ngmxfk/ draws the whole fleet as a live Gantt chart, including an "until all done" estimate for the entire queue. It even has a Simulate AutoPrint mode so you can preview how AutoPrint would work through the queue before you commit.

Working hours and turnaround time

AutoPrint's estimates are honest about when a human is around. If a print ends overnight, it is not really "done" until someone clears the bed in the morning, so the estimates respect your https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/working-hours-and-expected-finish-times-in-the-print-queue-19my6yv/: SimplyPrint shades the hours you are not staffed and never assumes a 3am bed clear.

You can tell SimplyPrint roughly how long a bed clear takes, as a turnaround time, for the whole account or per printer. AutoPrint factors that turnaround into its next-print estimate, and a per-printer override lets a slower or faster machine carry its own value. Together, working hours and turnaround keep the next-print estimate and the timeline grounded in reality.

Working hours also change when AutoPrint actually starts the next print, depending on how your bed gets cleared:

• Manual or push-off clearing. If clearing the bed needs a person (you remove the part by hand), AutoPrint waits for your working hours before starting the next print, so it never kicks off a job at 3am when nobody is there to catch a problem.
• Fully automated self-clearing. With a setup that clears the bed on its own (swapmod, JobOx Mod, a belt printer, a 3DQue Ejection Kit and the like), there is no one to wait for, so AutoPrint keeps running through the queue 24/7.

When a print fails or the bed is not clear

AutoPrint is built to handle the rough edges of unattended printing rather than charge ahead blindly.

• A print fails. The queue item is not counted as done, so it stays in the queue for another attempt. AutoPrint moves on and matches the next item instead, rather than re-running a job that just failed.
• The bed is not clear. If verification finds the bed still has a part on it after a clearing attempt, AutoPrint does not start the next print. It can retry the clearing step or wait, so a new print is never laid down on top of an old one.
• Nothing matches. The printer sits idle and waits until conditions change, when you add a matching item, change the loaded filament, or free up an item that was at its concurrency cap.

This is why bed-clear verification matters so much for AutoPrint: it is the safety check that stops the loop when something is not right, instead of stacking a print on a bed that was never cleared.

Tips for reliable AutoPrint

1. Test the full cycle before walking away. Run the whole loop several times while watching. Confirm the bed clears reliably, parts release cleanly, and verification catches a bed that is not empty.
2. Mind your prime lines, skirts and brims. With a push-off method, place the prime line close to the part and on the side opposite the push direction, so it gets cleared along with everything else.
3. Tag your items accurately. Correct filament and nozzle tags are what route the right files to the right printers, so accurate tags are the difference between a smooth queue and a printer that sits idle.
4. Start with a small queue. Test with a handful of items before loading a big batch, so you catch any issue before it repeats across fifty prints.
5. Keep a few back-burner items. Low-priority filler keeps printers busy when the main queue empties, without ever blocking urgent jobs.
6. Set your working hours and turnaround. They make AutoPrint's estimates and the https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-timeline-see-your-whole-farm-on-a-gantt-chart-1ngmxfk/ honest about overnight prints, so you plan around real finish times.

Custom gcode to clear the bed

The script below is for Cartesian printers with rectangular beds. It uses SimplyPrint gcode variables to fill in the correct bed coordinates, so it can only run through SimplyPrint unless you adapt it.

The script sweeps the print head front-to-back across the bed at low height to push the finished part off the front edge:

G90 ; Set to absolute positioning

G1 X40 Y{bed_y} F3000 ; Move to the back, X40

G1 Z1.5 F600 ; Lower the head to 1.5mm

G1 X{{bed_x} / 2} F3000 ; Move to centre X

G1 Y0 F3000 ; Sweep to the front

G1 Y{bed_y} F3000 ; Return to the back

G1 X{{bed_x} - 40} F3000 ; Move to the right side

G1 Y0 F3000 ; Sweep to the front

G1 Y{bed_y} F3000 ; Return to the back

G1 X40 F3000 ; Move to the left side

G1 Y0 F3000 ; Sweep to the front

G1 Y{bed_y} F3000 ; Return to the back

M400 ; Wait for the moves to finish before the next print starts

That is three front-to-back sweeps (centre, right, left) to clear parts off the front edge of the bed.

Related articles

• https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-manage-schedule-and-automate-your-prints-1syc86o/ - the print queue overview and everything it ties into
• https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/1-click-print-batch-start-prints-across-your-printers-nwr2xn/ - the click-to-start sibling of AutoPrint
• https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/scheduling-and-printer-distribution-how-simplyprint-assigns-prints-1vwl6l3/ - the shared scheduling and distribution settings
• https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/working-hours-and-expected-finish-times-in-the-print-queue-19my6yv/ - working hours, turnaround time and honest finish estimates
• https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-timeline-see-your-whole-farm-on-a-gantt-chart-1ngmxfk/ - the live Gantt timeline, with Simulate AutoPrint
• https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-print-queue-to-do-list-what-to-change-to-unlock-more-prints-1rrldti/ - the to-do list that tells you what to load to unlock prints
• https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/why-wont-my-printer-print-this-queue-item-using-the-queue-inspector-1ue6woy/ - why a printer will not pick up a given item
• Printer maintenance - printers in maintenance are skipped by AutoPrint
• The Staggered Start feature - offset simultaneous prints across the farm
• AutoPrint feature page and the pricing page

Updated on: 24/06/2026