Educators’ Preferred 3D Printing Software

From educational environment management to organizing campus-wide workflows,
AstroPrint for Education helps you provide the best service for your students

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Organize student design files

Shared folders, private folders, STL files & gcode filtering, color tags...you name it. Students can easily organize and share their files with other group members in the AstroPrint Cloud.

Manage large user groups

AstroPrint is SSO compatible, so you can get your students onboarded quickly. You can even set permissions for different types of users and groups. For example, teachers could have a different access level than students.

Monitor your 3D prints

Lab managers can check the status of all your printers from a single interface. Students can monitor, in real time, the progress of the jobs they submitted (if you granted them permission to do so).

Optimize your workflow

With Group Queues, students can upload files to a shared printing queue, however admins remain in control of reviewing files, slicing, and assigning jobs to a specific printer.

Get actionable insights

Track data such as number of prints going through each printer, filament used per printer or per student group, number of active users, and more. Use our analytics tools for calculating funding needs for your upcoming school year.

Designed for any skill level

No matter what your student’s skill level, AstroPrint makes it easy for them to start printing successfully from day one. They can visualize, prepare, and slice models in our in-browser (online) application, then send the files directly to your print queue.

Meet sanitary standards

With Covid-19, sanitary rules need to be updated for 3D Printer farms. AstroPrint allows you to eliminate unnecessary contacts between your users, which makes your 3D Printer farm safer for both students and teachers.

Trusted by the most successful companies to improve the way they 3D Print

"Utilizing state-of-the-art digital tools to increase productivity in a secure environment is key to success. The organized work flow and time savings we gain with Astroprint directly benefits our customers."
~ Matthew Fielder | Co-Founder & Head of Technology at re3D

"Your software is pretty much the best management system out there and is allowing me to expand rapidly without adding any additional staff."
~ Scot Refsland, Trainlab Founder (aka the Train Master)

"The AstroPrint software has been an invaluable tool for our print farm management leading to increased efficiency and structured workflow. Adding new machines to the pipeline is a breeze and cloud based file organization ensures our print jobs are easy to start and monitor" ~ Gordon LaPlante, gCreate Co-Founder

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I connect one AstroBox to multiple 3D printers?

No. You will need one AstroBox for each 3D Printer in your fleet. Attempting to run multiple 3D Printers off of a single AstroBox (i.e. Raspberry Pi Board) would likely result in failed prints due to hardware limitations of the board. (For example, GCODE stuttering.) At minimum, video streaming would be seriously affected.

What are the network requirements for the AstroBox?

The AstroBox can connect to a network using either WiFi (wireless) or Ethernet (wired) connections.

All the traffic between the AstroBox and our servers is SSL encrypted.

In order to communicate with our servers and deliver real time updates and monitoring we have the following requirements on the network that it connects to:

Automatic IP assignment via DHCP.
Route to api.astroprint.com using port 443 for HTTPS connections.
Route to boxrouter.astroprint.com using port 443 for a persistent Secure WebSocket connection.

In addition and optionally if you would like to use the live streaming feature, we need a Point to Point WebRTC connection to be established. The following 3rd party article explains well the requirements and pitfalls of establishing a WebRTC connection between two points. In our case it would be the AstroBox and the browser or app at the user requesting the video.

https://blog.addpipe.com/troubleshooting-webrtc-connection-issues/

Which slicing engines do you support for Cloud Slicing?

The AstroPrint platform is built with a modular Cloud Slicing system. This means that slicing jobs will be routed through the Slicing Engine you recommend for your printer(s).

Currently, we can route slicing jobs through:

Cura Engine - We work hard to have the most up to date version possible of Cura Engine in the AstroPrint cloud. You (and your customers) can set and tweak every setting available in Cura.
Slic3r, Prusa Edition - The Prusa Edition of Slic3r is by far the widest used at the moment, which is why we have it as an option. When choosing "Slic3r" as an option in AstroPrint, you are choosing the Prusa Edition of Slic3r.
Others - Almost any slicing engine can be integrated into AstroPrint. We'll consider adding more slicing engines as new engines hit widespread usage.

How expensive is the hardware to set up a full Printer Farm?

For technical reasons, each 3D Printer you connect to the AstroPrint platform will need to have an AstroBox connected to the printer. This is what allows the printer's data/images/status/etc to be accessible through your AstroPrint account (via web portal, mobile app, desktop software, etc). At first, it may seem like this would be very expensive, but there are ways to do this efficiently and cheaply.

You have two options for hardware. The AstroBox Touch (ABT) or the AstroBox Gateway (ABG). For each of these, you can purchase plug and play units from our store, or you can download the software and make your own (you source your own hardware components).

AstroBox Touch (ABT) - Purchase - The ABT is by far the preference of most users. The unit includes a touchscreen which increases the functionality of the AstroBox dramatically. Most 3D Printer Farms simply purchase AstroBox Touch units directly from AstroPrint. Currently they retail for $199, however we offer bulk purchase discounts for 3D Printer Farms. Please reach out to us for bulk pricing info. :-)
AstroBox Touch (ABT) - DIY - For a lower cost option, you can download the ABT software ($40/unit, bulk discounts are available), then source your own RPis, touchscreens, power adapters, and enclosures (or just print your enclosures). This will run you $80 to $100 per unit total. You will need to source your own hardware, flash software, assemble units, etc.
AstroBox Gateway (ABG) - The ABG provides the same networking functionality of the AstroBox Touch, but without a screen. This actually makes it much more technical to set up and maintain. Retail kits are $99. For a DIY version, you can download the software for free and source your own RPi, power adapter, and wifi dongle. This means you could make one of these for ~$60.
Honorable Mention - OctoPrint Plugin You can also use AstroPrint’s OctoPrint Plugin. The hardware cost is identical to using the AstroBox Gateway. Basically, you can use OctoPrint on your own RPis, with the AstroPrint Plugin installed. We do not charge for the plugin. This plugin will connect your OctoPrint box to the AstroPrint Cloud.
Please note: Due to limitations in OctoPrint there are some features that will likely never be available, such as out-of-network video streaming. Also, updates and bug fixes are released for AstroBox software before they are released for the OctoPrint plugin.

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