Skip to content

Clubs, Classes, & Official Functions#

By default, prints you submit to 3DPrinterOS are charged to you personally. This page details information on printing for RIT-affiliated entities like clubs, classes, etc. in such a way that you personally are not charged.

If you are a professor looking to set up one of these for a research group or class, please contact us at make@rit.edu.

Note

The following processes only work if you complete the normal access trainings and quizzes for the 3D printers. See make.rit.edu for more details.

3D Printing for Classes#

When printing for classes, there are 2 routes that the SHED can accommodate for 3D printing; No-Cost and Pre-Paid

  1. In No-Cost mode, students in the class are given an option when slicing their print to set the cost to $0.00, as part of the class. This allows for printing as much as needed, but with the downside that the system will not put any automatic restrictions on it. Once all printing is completed, the totals are combined into a bill. See No-Cost Printing Workflow for more information.
  2. In Pre-Paid mode, all students are given a flat amount of printing credit. This effectively sets a budget for the prints. If students exceed this pre-paid amount, it would start to take from their personal budget (Tiger Bucks). On the flip side, if the students do not use the entirety of their credit for the class, they can use the balance for personal printing. In this mode, the bill is based on student headcount and can be sent before or after printing. Faculty, email make@rit.edu to set this up for your class.
  3. Dedicated Printing Account. For classes that will involve a lot of printing, at varying budgets, across multiple technologies (like MSD or Capstone), a dedicated printing account may be a better option. Students, see Dedicated Printing Account for Classes below for more information on how to set up your account. Faculty, email make@rit.edu to set this up for your class.

To set up printing for your class, please contact make@rit.edu.

No-Cost Class Printing Workflow#

If you are printing for a class that didn't specify a budget, you will have a slicer profile you can select that sets the price to $0, that way you are not charged!

This slicer profile is applied while you are Slicing your print, see Intro to 3DPrinterOS: Slicing for Self-Serve for more information.

Accessing the Class Workgroup

To access the slicing profile, you need to first register for the class workgroup in 3DPrinterOS.

Before continuing, your professor should have given you an access code. It will be a random string of letters and numbers.

In 3DPrinterOS, on the top of the "Printers" page, hit the "..." and "Add Workgroup Printers".

You can then enter your access code from your professor on the window that pops up, and hit "Connect to Workgroup"

Warning

This only gives you access to the slicers, you still need to finish your 3D Printing Self-Serve Training to access the machines.

From here, you are all set! Continue slicing as normal, and select the correct slicer profile when slicing. If everything worked, the price of the print should be $0.00 (or no price visible).

If something appears wrong, please contact your professor and CC make@rit.edu on the email so we can investigate.

Dedicated 3D Printing Account for Classes#

For classes that will be doing a variable but large amount of printing, spread across multiple technologies, such as MSD or Capstone projects, a dedicated printing account may be a good idea. This allows students to keep a pre-determined balance associated with their class/project independent from their personal account.

Students, to start you need to configure your RIT email alias. This is the email that will be used to log into 3DPrinterOS for your class. Emails sent to this address will automatically be forwarded to your normal abc1234@rit.edu account. Your professor will give you a preferred format for this email address. To enable the alias, go to start.rit.edu, and select Email Preferences towards the bottom. Sign in with your RIT account, and find the section labeled Personalized Email Alias. Enter your email alias in this section, and then hit Save Email Preferences at the bottom.

Once your email is set, let your professor know and/or follow their next steps. Keep an eye on your email, you'll eventually get an email from 3DPrinterOS confirming your account is ready to go. The email will include a temporary password to log into 3DPrinterOS with. You can change this to a more memorable password once you are logged in.

Note

This new dedicated 3D printing account is NOT accessed via the SSO login for 3DPrinterOS! You can log in via this link. You can verify you are logged in with the right account based on the name/email in the top right corner once you log in.

3D Printing for Clubs#

To access this resource, club leadership should reach out to the makerspace at make@rit.edu to set up a club printing account. This account, generally registered to the club’s email address, is where all prints must be routed for to take advantages of this benefit.

When printing through a club account, the prints will be billed to the club directly, rather than to the user. Clubs can choose to set this up in one of two ways;

  1. Unlimited Print Balance - All prints submitted are accepted and processed, and a bill is generated at the end of the year.
  2. Prepaid Print Balance - The club transfers an amount of funds into their print account, and prints will go through until that is depleted. It can then be re-filled as needed, to help control spending.

In addition, club accounts can request to be made “Advanced” accounts. This eliminates most restrictions applied to users, such as being able to upload your own GCODE files, modifying slicer settings beyond their normal limits, and printing beyond the per-user limits. We ask that you be respectful of other makerspace users and not abuse your unlimited access taking up too many prints. Also as a reminder, you may be held responsible for equipment damage caused by deviating from the default settings, uploading your own files, or using other benefits of the Advanced account. See makerspace policies for more information.

To set up an account, please contact make@rit.edu.

In-Residence Clubs#

In-Residence clubs (those who have a permanent presence in the SHED, such as a storage space in the makerspace or an area of the Performance Team shop) have access to free self-serve 3D printing through the SHED makerspace, for use in official club projects and activities.

When logged in with the club printing account, proceed through the printing process normally. See the 3DPrinterOS documentation for more information. When you get to slicing, select the profile that has “(Clubs)” at the end of the name, and then slice as normal. If everything worked, there will be no price associated with the print.

This benefit applies to all self-serve 3D printing resources in the SHED, no matter the machine or material. This does not extend to full-serve 3D printing resources, such as resin, large-format, and SLS powder prints. However, if you want to submit such prints through your club account to prevent individual users from being charged, reach out to make@rit.edu to set up your account for billing.

Improper use or abuse of this resource may result in restrictions placed on how much or when you can print. Please make sure you are only using this free printing for relevant, proper, and official club work.

3D Printing for Research, Departments, or Similar#

RIT entities can elect to have a printing account created for their use. This account will need a dedicated email associated with it that is not a personal email. See This ITS Help Article KB0033833 for information on setting up a department shared inbox if you do not have one already.

Once you have an email set up, contact make@rit.edu to begin the process of setting up your account under this email. As part of setting up your account, we will ask what credit limit you want to set up for your account.

Once your account is set up, you can sign into it via the 3DPrinterOS Sign In link (NOT the SSO Link!), found here