Filaments and printer slots
A project made for one printer often doesn’t match how yours is loaded: eight colors and a four-slot AMS, or the white you need is in slot 3, not slot 1. Each target row’s Filaments box says how the project’s filaments land in that printer’s slots, and opens an editor to change it. You pick every merge; 3MF Translator never guesses one.
The Filaments box
| It reads | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Source | The project’s filaments go in as they are: filament 1 in slot 1, and so on. |
| 8 → 4 | The project’s 8 filaments are mapped to 4 slots. |
| Edited | Same slots, with colors you changed. |
Hover over it to see each slot’s filaments and color. It’s off while no project is open.
The number of slots comes from the target’s Printer Slots, which you set in the target: see Set up your printers.
When there are more filaments than slots
The row says so in amber. What the target does with the extra filaments depends on the slicer:
- Bambu Studio, Orca Slicer and their relatives: Filaments 7 and 8 are not assigned to a slot. They will be added as extra filaments after slot 4: choose their slots in the slicer before printing, or merge them in Filaments.
- PrusaSlicer, QIDISlicer, SuperSlicer and UltiMaker Cura: Unassigned filaments 7 and 8 will be assigned to slot 1. Merge them in Filaments to choose which slot.
The warning never stops a translation; it tells you what you’d get.
The editor
Click the Filaments box to open Filaments for your target.
- Source filaments, at the top, holds every filament in the project. A spool already in a slot is dimmed.
- Printer slots sets how many slots the printer has.
- Slot 1, Slot 2, … each hold the spools that print in that slot. The spool in front is the slot’s filament: the slot prints with its preset, type, settings and color.
Moving spools
- Drag a spool from the top into a slot, from one slot to another, or back to the top to take it out of its slot.
- Drop a spool onto a slot that has one to merge them: both print in that slot, and the slot keeps its filament.
- Right-click a spool for Move to slot n, Make this filament the slot n filament, and Remove from slot.
- Right-click a slot for Empty this slot.
If a slot mixes types, the editor says what it prints as, for example Slot 1 mixes PLA and PETG: it prints as PLA.
Colors
Click a slot’s color square or its color code to pick another color, for example to match the spool you actually have loaded.
Filaments the project never uses
Some projects list filaments that no object uses. They stay in the project unless you take them out: drag one out of its slot (it’s crossed out), right-click it and choose Drop (not used by any object), or click Remove unused to take out every one of them at once and close up the gaps. A filament the project uses can’t be dropped; merge it instead.
Finishing
- Reset puts every filament back in its own slot, with the colors from the project.
- OK keeps your changes; Cancel throws them away.
What follows the new slots
Everything that names a filament follows your changes: each object’s and part’s filament, painted colors, color changes, height range modifiers and the slicer’s own per-feature filament settings. A color change to a filament you merged into the one already printing is dropped, since there is nothing to change to.
How long a mapping lasts
A mapping belongs to the project you have open. 3MF Translator keeps it for each target while that project stays open, and starts over when you open another one. It isn’t saved.