Scheduling and printer distribution: how SimplyPrint assigns prints

When SimplyPrint picks which queue item to start next, and which printer to start it on, it follows a set of rules you control. This article explains the scheduling and printer distribution settings that drive both 1-Click Print and AutoPrint, so the queue behaves the way your farm or classroom actually works. It is part of the wider print queue.

In this article

• Where these settings live
• Item scheduling: sequential vs round-robin
• Printer distribution: which printer gets the job
• Process queue groups fully before the next group
• Exclude backburner items from automatic matching
• Never skip queue items
• Max queue positions to search
• Related articles

Where these settings live

You will find all of these options under Settings > Queue, in the "Scheduling & distribution" section (the direct path is /panel/settings/queue). They sit alongside the rest of the queue settings.

The key thing to understand is that this one section controls the assignment engine shared by both 1-Click Print and AutoPrint. 1-Click Print is the manual matcher you trigger with a button; AutoPrint runs the same logic automatically as printers free up. Because they read the same rules, you only configure assignment behaviour once.

Item scheduling: sequential vs round-robin

The item scheduling mode controls the order in which queue items are assigned to printers when an item has more than one copy. There are two modes.

Sequential finishes all copies of the first item before it moves on to the second item, then the third, and so on. If queue item 1 has 10 copies, all 10 start (across whatever compatible printers are free) before item 2 gets a look-in. This is the default and it is what most people want: it clears items off the queue one at a time, top to bottom.

Round-robin assigns one copy of each item at a time and cycles through: one copy of item 1, one copy of item 2, one copy of item 3, then back to item 1 for its next copy. Instead of draining one item before starting the next, it spreads early copies across all the items near the top of the queue.

When to use each

Use sequential when items are independent and you just want them done in order - the typical "work through the list" farm or shop setup.

Use round-robin when a set of parts should finish at roughly the same time. A good example is a multi-part assembly or a kit: if you need every part of a model before any of it is useful, round-robin gets a first copy of each part going early, so the whole set lands together rather than one part being finished hours before the last one even starts.

Printer distribution: which printer gets the job

Once SimplyPrint has decided which item to start, printer distribution decides which of the eligible printers actually runs it. All three options only ever pick from printers that can run the item (right filament, nozzle, bed and so on) - distribution just breaks the tie between several valid printers.

By printer position is the default. It follows the order your printers appear on your printers page (first group first, then the next group, and so on). Work fills from the top of that list down, which keeps assignment predictable and easy to reason about.

Randomized picks a compatible printer at random rather than always favouring the ones at the top of the list.

Least recently used prioritises the printer that has not printed in the longest time. Over a day this spreads jobs evenly across your fleet instead of hammering the first few printers while the rest sit idle.

Process queue groups fully before the next group

If you organise your queue into groups, this toggle decides whether the assignment engine drains one group before touching the next.

When it is on, all items in a group are processed before SimplyPrint moves to the next group (for example A1, A2, A3, then B1, B2, then C1). When it is off, items interleave across groups and SimplyPrint assigns from any group as printers become free.

Turn it on when your groups represent a real priority order - finish everything in the "rush orders" group before starting "stock prints". Turn it off when your groups are just an organisational split and you want all of them progressing at once.

Exclude backburner items from automatic matching

The backburner is a secondary, low-priority lane for items you want to keep around but not run yet. The "Exclude backburner items from automatic matching" setting controls whether the automatic matchers are allowed to touch it.

When on, backburner items will not be automatically assigned to printers by 1-Click Print or AutoPrint. They stay parked until you start them by hand. You can always start a backburner item manually regardless of this setting.

This is useful when the backburner is your "only if there is spare capacity, and only when I say so" pile. Leave it off if you would rather the matchers fall back to backburner work to keep printers busy.

Never skip queue items

By default, if the next item in the queue cannot run on any free printer right now (wrong filament loaded, wrong nozzle, and so on), SimplyPrint moves past it to the next item a printer can actually print. That keeps printers busy, but it means a blocking item can get leapfrogged again and again.

When never skip queue items is on, printers will not skip past items they cannot print. Instead of jumping ahead to the next matching item, a printer waits until the blocking item is fixed or removed - for example until you load the right filament or change the nozzle.

How it pairs with the to-do list

"Never skip" only makes sense if you have a fast way to see what is blocking each printer, and that is exactly what the to-do list is for. The to-do list reads your whole queue and tells you the single highest-impact change that would unlock the most prints right now - put PLA in this printer, swap that nozzle, refill that spool. With "never skip" on, the queue holds position and respects your intended order; the to-do list tells you which physical change to make so the held item can finally start. The two are designed to work together: order is preserved, and you always know what to grab.

If you would rather keep every printer running at all costs and sort out blockers later, leave "never skip" off so the queue keeps flowing past anything that cannot start yet.

Max queue positions to search

This setting caps how many of the top queue items the automatic sort is allowed to reorder. It is a sort-scope limit, not a search-depth limit: only the items inside the cap can be rearranged by automatic sorting, and any item beyond the limit keeps its existing order. It does not stop a printer from considering work lower down - the matcher always scans the whole list to find something a free printer can run; the cap only constrains how far the automatic reordering reaches.

You can express the limit three ways:

• A fixed number of positions (for example, only sort the first 20 items).
• A percentage of the queue (for example, only sort the top 25 percent).
• Both at once - when you set both, the smaller of the two wins, so the sort never reaches past whichever limit is tighter.

Leave the field empty for unlimited, which lets automatic sorting reorder the entire queue.

Related articles

• The print queue - the hub for everything below
• 1-Click Print - the manual matcher these settings drive
• AutoPrint - the automatic loop these settings drive
• Queue settings - deadlines, table columns and the rest of the queue settings page
• The to-do list - what to physically change to unlock held items
• Working hours and expected finish times - how staffed hours shape estimates

For a wider look at how matching works, see the 1-Click Print and AutoPrint feature pages. If you stagger starts to avoid drawing too much power at once, see staggered start. Plan details are on the pricing page.

Updated on: 24/06/2026