QR Workflows - Scan a Tag on the Printer, Tap the Next Step

Once a farm runs more than a handful of printers, the person clearing beds spends more time finding each printer on a screen than pressing the button. Loading filament has the same problem: find the printer, find the slot, find the color, then confirm.

QR Workflows puts a tag on the thing itself. Scan the printer and it opens with Confirm ready as the main button when it's waiting for the bed to be cleared, Resume when it's paused, and every other action listed below. Scan a slot and the main button is Assign filament. Scan a spool and it's Update grams.

Tags for Every Printer, Slot, Color and Spool

• Printers and slots: select printers on Printers and choose Print QR tags > Printers, Slots or All. Slot tags go on AMS slots and external spool holders.
• Filament colors: Print tag on a material's color, for the shelf or bin it sits in.
• Spools: Print labels on a material's Spools tab, or right after receiving filament, with Filament Inventory and spool tracking.
• Blank tags: print a sheet ahead of time and set each one up the first time you scan it, on a new spool or a printer that doesn't have a tag yet.

Every Print opens the same Print labels page, with sizes for thermal label printers and Avery sheets. Printing a tag again reuses it, so a replacement sticker scans exactly like the one it replaces.

Two Tags, One Action

Scan two tags together and the main button names what will happen. A filament and a slot assigns the filament to the slot. Two slots move or swap filament between them. A spool and a printer loads the spool into the slot Printago picks for it, which you can change before you confirm. No menus, no typing.

Scan with a Phone, a Tablet or a Barcode Scanner

Scan in the Printago app's Scan tab, or on the web with no app at all. On a phone, Scan opens a full-screen camera. When it reads a tag, the camera turns off and the tag fills the screen with its actions, so a label on the printer next to it can't be read by accident. Scan next tag adds a second tag to the first, and Start over goes back to the camera.

On a computer or a tablet on a stand, the scan page becomes a station: the camera and a box a USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner types into, the tag and its actions, and This session, every tag scanned and action run in that tab. A packing bench or a spool shelf can work down a row of printers and see which ones it has done. Enter runs the main button and Esc starts over.

Decide What Every Scan Offers

Settings > General > QR workflows lists every tag type and pair of tags with its actions and a preview of what the app will show. Switch off what your floor shouldn't use, and drag the rest into order: the top action that's on and can run is the main button. The same page sets which slot a scanned spool goes to, whether a scan may move a spool out of another slot, and the weight a new spool starts with.

Every action still needs the person's own permission, such as printer.ready for Confirm ready, so a scan never lets anyone do more than they could on the web.

Built on the Same Records as the Rest of Printago

A scan acts on the same printers, slots and materials the queue routes jobs to. Confirming a printer ready from a tag lets FabMatic and the Smart Queue send its next job. Assigning filament from a tag is what Material Intelligence matches against. Loading a spool from a tag is what Filament Inventory draws down.

Get Started

QR Workflows comes with every Printago store. Print your printer tags from Printers > Print QR tags, stick them where you can reach them from the floor, and scan one with the Printago app or the Scan button on the web.

See the QR Workflows docs for every tag type, every action and where to stick the labels.