Clear bed: why SimplyPrint asks after every print, faster ways through it, and when to stop asking
When a print ends, SimplyPrint asks someone to confirm the bed is empty before that printer takes another print. That's Clear bed - on a printer card it reads Print removed? This article explains why we ask, what the question is for, the faster ways through it, and how to stop being asked if you always empty the bed yourself.
What you'll find here
- What Clear bed does
- Why we recommend it
- What you can do in the Clear bed window
- Faster ways through it
- Stop asking after successful prints
- What you give up
- Who should keep it
What Clear bed does
- It marks the printer as ready. Until the bed is cleared, nothing starts on that printer by itself.
- It records how the print went, if you tell it: Print is good or Print was not good, and an optional rating of one to four stars.
- It offers the next step, such as starting the next print from the queue.
Statistics, filament usage and print cost are recorded when the print ends, not when the bed is cleared. Clearing the bed later, or not being asked at all, doesn't change them.
Why we recommend it
SimplyPrint can see that a print finished. It can't see whether the part is still on the bed. Everything that starts a print without a person standing at the printer relies on someone having said "the bed is empty":
Feature | What it does with a cleared bed |
|---|---|
Print queue and 1-Click Print | Only picks printers whose bed is cleared, when Printer beds must be cleared is on (Settings → Queue → 1-Click Print settings). |
Scheduled and staggered starts | A print waiting for its start time holds until the bed is cleared. |
AutoPrint | The clear is what runs your bed-clearing routine and starts the next print. |
Print history | The good / not good answer and rating are how you see which prints worked. |
If a part is left on the bed and the next print starts anyway, the nozzle prints into it. On a farm or in a classroom, where the person starting the print often isn't at the printer, that is the mistake Clear bed prevents.
What you can do in the Clear bed window
- Rate the print: Print is good, Print was not good, and an optional star rating.
- Mark a finished print as failed, even if the printer reported it as finished. A print from the queue can go back to the queue to be printed again.
- Open print troubleshooting or report a problem with the printer when a print was not good.
- Start the next print from the print queue on this printer, or Reprint the same file. If the printer has a note, it shows under the printer's name above the queue item it would start.
- Deal with a spool that's nearly empty, when your filament settings show that here.
Faster ways through it
If you agree with the step but not with the clicks:
- Hold Shift when you click Print removed? The bed is marked as cleared straight away, without the window, and a finished print counts as good. The first time, SimplyPrint asks whether you want that from now on. Shift-click to skip confirmations covers every action that works this way.
- Never show the window: Settings → General → Confirmations → Clear bed → Skip the dialog, Shift-click shows it. A normal click clears the bed; Shift-click opens the window when you do want to rate a print.
- Clear several at once with Ready all at the top of the Printers page, or on a printer group.
Some prints still open the window, because there is a question only you can answer: when AutoPrint would start the next print as soon as the bed is cleared, and when a print never finished.
Stop asking after successful prints
If you always empty the bed yourself - one printer on your desk, or you're standing at your machines anyway - SimplyPrint can stop asking.
- Open Settings → Printers and find When a print ends.
- Choose one of:
- Ask every time (recommended)
- Mark the bed as cleared after successful prints: a print that finished makes the printer ready straight away. Failed and cancelled prints still ask.
- Mark the bed as cleared after successful and cancelled prints: failed prints still ask.
The printer card shows the print as finished for a few seconds, then the printer is ready again.
A failed print always asks. Something went wrong, and someone should look before the next print lands on it.
Printers that use AutoPrint aren't affected. AutoPrint still decides when their beds are clear.
What you give up
Ask every time | Mark as cleared automatically | |
|---|---|---|
Clicks after a successful print | One (none with Shift-click or Skip the dialog) | None |
Print queue, 1-Click Print, scheduled prints | Wait for an empty bed | Treat the bed as empty as soon as the print ends |
A part left on the bed | The next print waits | The next queued or scheduled print goes on top of it |
Rating prints, marking a finished print as failed | In the Clear bed window | Not offered for those prints |
Statistics, filament and cost | Recorded | Recorded |
When this setting is on, Printer beds must be cleared for 1-Click Print has nothing left to check, so it is greyed out in Settings → Queue.
Who should keep it
Keep Ask every time if you print from the queue, use 1-Click Print or scheduled prints, run a print farm or a classroom, or want to know which prints worked. Shift-click or Skip the dialog make it a single click, or no click at all.
Consider marking beds as cleared automatically if you start every print yourself, at the printer, and don't use the queue to start prints on its own.
Related articles
- Shift-click to skip confirmations: pause, cancel, clear the bed and more without a dialog
- AutoPrint: put your printers on autopilot
- AutoPrint clearing methods: every way to clear the bed
- Auto-matching queue items to printers
- The "Staggered Start" feature
Updated on: 22/10/2026
Thank you!