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Send from Bambu Studio (virtual printer)

Send a sliced file from Bambu Studio or OrcaSlicer straight into your print queue, and what to check when it won't connect or send.

Pictures taken from Layers3D 2026.13.94 on Oct 7, 2026

Your shop agent can show up in Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer as a printer called Layers3D Queue. Slice, press Send, pick it, and the file goes into your print queue. The queue then sends it to the next free printer of that model.

Set it up

  1. Go to Settings › Production › Printing and find Virtual printer.
  2. Switch on Run the virtual printer and pick the model in Acts as. Slice your files for that model.
  3. Wait for the card to say Running, with your slicing PC's address.
  4. On Windows, press Set up this PC on the card, then click Yes when Windows asks on the slicing PC. It adds the certificate to Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer and opens Windows Firewall in one go. If the card shows steps instead, press Download the certificate, open the slicer's printer.cer in Notepad as administrator, paste the certificate at the very end and save.
  5. Close the slicer fully and open it again. In Task Manager, use End Task if it is still running.
  6. In the slicer's Device tab, refresh. Layers3D Queue appears. If it doesn't, add a printer by IP with the address on the card.
  7. When it asks, type the Access code from the card.

To send a job: slice, then press Send (the small button next to Print) and pick Layers3D Queue. Print works too, but the slicer will then say the print started. It is only queued.

Having trouble?

Find what you see below and work down the list. Most problems are fixed by one of the first two.

Layers3D Queue doesn't show up

  1. Check the card says Running. If it says Waiting for the shop agent, the agent PC is off or its agent is older than 1.14. Open the agent and let it update.
  2. The slicer and the agent PC must be on the same network. On a different PC, add the printer by IP with the address on the card.
  3. Windows may be blocking it. Set the network to Private, and allow Layers3D Agent through Windows Defender Firewall on Private networks.

Set up this PC on the card opens the firewall for you. Still blocked? Open the rules by hand. On the agent PC, right-click Start, open Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin), and run these two lines:

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Layers3D virtual printer" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 990,8883,3000,3002,50000-50099 -Action Allow -Profile Private

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Layers3D virtual printer discovery" -Direction Inbound -Protocol UDP -LocalPort 2021 -Action Allow -Profile Private

"Connect failed" or code=-1 when connecting

The slicer doesn't trust the virtual printer yet. Press Set up this PC, or add the certificate to printer.cer by hand (step 4 above), then close the slicer fully and open it again. A slicer update can replace printer.cer, so after an update you may need to add it again.

Can't find printer.cer from Notepad's Open window? Notepad only shows .txt files at first. Change Text Documents (*.txt) at the bottom right to All Files (*.*). When you save, keep the name printer.cer, so it doesn't become printer.cer.txt.
A code=-1 pop-up that shows once, right after it connects, is harmless. It comes from a calibration question a real printer answers. Sending still works.

"Incorrect password" or it asks for the code again

Type the Access code exactly as the card shows it: eight letters and numbers. If someone pressed New code, the old one stops working. Remove Layers3D Queue from the slicer, add it again and type the new code.

"Sending failed"

  1. Update the agent. Sending needs agent 1.14.19 or later.
  2. After the agent updates or restarts, close the slicer fully and open it again, so it reconnects to the new agent.
  3. Use Send, not Print, and pick Layers3D Queue, not your real printer.

It sent, but nothing is in the print queue

  1. Give it a minute. The agent passes the file on to Layers3D.
  2. Update the agent to 1.14.19 or later. Older agents could save a large file with its end missing, and the queue can't open it.
  3. Slice for the model in Acts as. A file sliced for another model is not queued.
  4. Send a sliced plate. The file must be a sliced .3mf.

Still stuck

On the agent PC, open http://localhost:4011/log in a browser. It lists every connection the virtual printer saw, including what the slicer asked for. Copy it and send it to us with Report a problem, along with a screenshot of the slicer's message.

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Still stuck? Inside Layers3D, open Help and choose Message us. A person answers.