📷 The image and the camera
In 30 seconds
- Each printer's image is the job's thumbnail and, if there isn't one, the latest camera photo.
- With the printer stopped you see its last print, darkened, with how it ended and when.
- From the printer's page you can Watch live or Take photo.
- The camera needs the local agent: through the manufacturer's cloud there's only the thumbnail.
Which image you see
The same rule applies on the gallery card and on the printer's page. The thumbnail (the picture your slicer made) is preferred, because it tells you what's being printed. A label says which of the two you're seeing: Thumbnail or Photo.
| Situation | Image |
|---|---|
| Printing, with a thumbnail | The thumbnail. On the card, with the progress bar on top; on the page, with the layer and the time remaining. |
| Without a thumbnail (some machines don't provide it, such as resin ones) | The latest camera photo. It's taken automatically roughly every 3 minutes while it prints, is paused or waits in Attention with the print open. |
| In Attention or Failed, without a thumbnail | The camera photo (for Failed, the final photo), instead of going blank. |
| Idle or disconnected | The one from its last print, darkened, with the Last print label and, at the bottom, how it ended and when (for example "Completed · 3h ago"), in that outcome's colour. If that print had no thumbnail, you see its final photo. |
| No image at all | A gap of the same size, so the cards don't jump around. |
When there's a thumbnail no automatic photos are taken: to see how it's going, there's the live view.
Which machines provide a thumbnail and which a camera depends on how they're connected: it's in Printers → What you see for each printer. Each print's final photo is shown in its window in the Print history.
The two buttons on the page
Below the large image on the printer's page:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Watch live | Opens the camera while you're watching. Where the camera provides video you see it as video (for example, on the Bambu H2C and X1); on the rest, up to one image per second. The label says Live, with a red dot. It cuts off by itself when you leave the page, switch tabs or after 15 minutes; Stop live view cuts it off sooner. When it stops the thumbnail comes back or, if there isn't one, the latest image stays. |
| Take photo | Asks for a new photo now, without waiting for the automatic one. It arrives in a few seconds, is shown even if there's a thumbnail and carries the time it was taken. |
Only one connection at a time
Many of these cameras allow only one connection at a time: while you have the live view open, the manufacturer's app or the slicer may not see it, and vice versa.
When they can be used
Take photo only works while there's a print in progress: printing, paused or in Attention (for example, stopped because it ran out of filament). Watch live also works with the printer idle, but it needs a camera and a connection: every reason below applies to it except the first.
If a button can't be used, it's greyed out with a padlock and the reason next to it:
- there's no print running;
- the printer isn't responding;
- it has no camera;
- the camera is disabled on the printer itself;
- it's only connected through the cloud (the camera needs the local agent).