Machine Integration in CraftOps: OctoPrint, Bambu, and More

Your machines are the heart of your fabrication shop, and CraftOps is designed to connect with them rather than sit apart from them. Whether you run a fleet of 3D printers managed through OctoPrint, a lineup of Bambu Lab machines on Bambu Cloud, laser cutters from various manufacturers, or CNC routers and mills, CraftOps provides integration pathways that bring machine data into your shop management workflow. This post covers the supported integration methods, what data flows between CraftOps and your machines, and how to set up each connection type.

3D Printer Integrations: OctoPrint and Bambu Cloud

For shops running OctoPrint instances, CraftOps connects through the OctoPrint API. You provide the IP address or hostname of each OctoPrint server along with the API key, and CraftOps establishes a persistent connection. Once connected, CraftOps pulls real-time data from each printer: current status (idle, printing, paused, error), print progress percentage, estimated time remaining, hotend and bed temperatures, and the name of the file currently being printed. This data appears on your CraftOps machine dashboard, giving you a single-screen view of every printer in your shop without needing to check individual OctoPrint interfaces.

Beyond monitoring, the OctoPrint integration enables job dispatch directly from CraftOps. When a job is scheduled and ready for production, you can send the sliced G-code file to the target printer's OctoPrint instance and start the print without leaving the CraftOps interface. If a print fails or is canceled on OctoPrint, CraftOps detects the status change and updates the job record accordingly, logging the failure and making it easy to reschedule or reassign the job to another printer.

Bambu Lab printers connect through Bambu Cloud. You sign in with your Bambu account credentials, and CraftOps discovers all printers registered to your account. The integration provides similar monitoring capabilities: live print status, progress tracking, AMS filament information, and error reporting. For shops using Bambu's multi-color AMS system, CraftOps tracks which filament slots are loaded and can alert you when a job requires a material that is not currently loaded on the target printer. Bambu's LAN mode is also supported for shops that prefer to keep their printers off cloud services, using local network discovery instead.

Laser Cutters, CNC Machines, and Generic Equipment

Laser cutters and CNC machines come from a wide range of manufacturers with varying levels of connectivity. CraftOps takes a flexible approach to these machines. For equipment that exposes a network API or serial interface, CraftOps can connect directly and pull status information such as whether the machine is running, idle, or in an error state. Supported platforms include popular controllers like GRBL, Smoothieware, and Mach-compatible interfaces.

For machines without direct connectivity, CraftOps provides a manual status management system that still gives you the benefits of centralized tracking. Operators update the machine status from the CraftOps dashboard or mobile app when they start or finish a job. While this does not provide the automatic monitoring of a connected printer, it keeps your job records accurate and your dashboard current. CraftOps timestamps every status change, so you still get data on machine utilization, actual run times versus estimates, and idle time between jobs.

The queue management system works the same regardless of the connection type. Each machine has its own job queue showing what is currently running and what is coming next, ordered by priority and scheduled time. Operators can reorder the queue with drag-and-drop, and the changes are reflected immediately for all team members. When a machine finishes its current job, the next job in the queue is highlighted as ready, and the assigned operator receives a notification to load the next file and start the run.

Managing a Mixed Fleet

Most fabrication shops run a mix of machine types, and CraftOps is built for this reality. Your dashboard shows all machines in a unified view, whether they are fully connected 3D printers streaming live data or manually tracked laser cutters. You can group machines by type, location, or any custom category that makes sense for your shop layout. The fleet view shows utilization rates, current status, and queue depth for every machine at a glance, making it easy to identify which machines are overloaded and which have capacity to spare.

When assigning jobs to machines, CraftOps filters the available machines by compatibility. A job requiring PLA 3D printing will only show FDM printers with PLA capability. A job requiring quarter-inch acrylic laser cutting will only show laser cutters with sufficient power and bed size. This prevents accidental misassignment and speeds up scheduling decisions, especially in shops with dozens of machines across multiple types.

Tip: If you are setting up OctoPrint connections for the first time, create a dedicated API key in each OctoPrint instance specifically for CraftOps rather than reusing your personal key. This makes it easy to revoke access later if needed without affecting your own OctoPrint usage, and it keeps the access scoped to what CraftOps needs.

What's Next

Connecting your machines is the first step toward a data-driven shop. The next post in this series covers real-time machine monitoring in depth, showing you how to use the live dashboard, set up alerts for failures and temperature anomalies, and track utilization metrics over time. If you are specifically interested in 3D printing workflows, our dedicated post on 3D printing in CraftOps covers slicing integration, multi-printer queuing, and batch printing strategies. For shops running laser cutters and CNC machines, we have a separate workflow guide covering material thickness settings, cut path optimization, and job nesting.