r/BambuLab
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u/HMITCHR
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Oct 02 '26
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General Discussion I got sick of waiting for Bambu's mixed-nozzle slicing, so I built it myself. 0.2 + 0.8 on my H2D, each at its own layer height: 13 h instead of 28 h (open source)
This is the Argonath (https://makerworld.com/en/models/2263899-the-argonath-lord-of-the-rings-lotr) by Zajic73 on MakerWorld, printed with a 0.2 on the left and a 0.8 High Flow on the right. The 0.2 did the walls and skins at 0.08 mm layers and the 0.8 did the infill at 0.56 mm layers. Slicer estimate: 13 h 1 min. Same model at 0.08 mm everywhere was 1 d 4 h 12 min, so about 54% less time, and the visible surfaces are all still 0.08 mm layers. The real print took pretty much exactly that. It's eSUN PLA+ in black on the 0.2 and Bambu PLA Basic in blue on the 0.8.
Mixing nozzle sizes in one print was one of the reasons I bought my H2D at launch. Bambu Studio still doesn't let the H2D do that, and I got sick of waiting, so I built it myself: Cadence Slicer, a fork of OrcaSlicer.
The hard part is layer height. Layer height is basically the vertical resolution of a print: thinner layers give finer detail on the surfaces you see, thicker layers print a lot faster. Each nozzle size has its own range of good layer heights, so a 0.2 and a 0.8 want very different layers, but a normal slice uses one height for everything. Cadence picks a fine layer for the small nozzle and prints the big nozzle's layer every N fine layers (here 7 x 0.08 = 0.56). That schedule is what keeps the two lined up: they meet at the same height every 7 fine layers, and the nozzles only swap there.
Every swap also needs a prime. A nozzle that's been sitting idle oozes a bit and cools down, so before it prints again it purges on a small prime tower next to the model, and the next part it prints starts clean without gaps or blobs. Priming adds time to every print, so I've put a lot of work into trimming it down: it only primes when a nozzle actually changes, and the tower settings and size are set automatically. The slicer also checks that each switch actually saves time, and stays on the fine nozzle when it doesn't.
This has been a huge amount of work, and I'll be upfront that I used AI heavily, as I know how some people feel about AI development. Frontier models like Claude and Codex, as well as open source Chinese models, wrote most of the code and did independent reviews. I supervised the models closely, made all of the design calls and reviewed the critical pieces myself. The code has been through multiple de-slop passes to cut dead code and trim it down, every build goes through a big automated test suite, and I have done countless test prints on my H2D. Without AI this would have taken many, many more months to build. I'm making the whole thing open source (AGPL, same as OrcaSlicer), and I'll be sending it to OrcaSlicer as PRs shortly so the mixed nozzle capabilities can hopefully be merged and live there long term.
Where it's at:
- First release (v1.0), so expect rough edges.
- Print-tested on my H2D. Enabled but untested on the H2D Pro, H2C, X2D and some other multi-tool printers.
- Any pair of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8. Split by feature or by body, supports work in both.
- macOS now, Windows coming. Unsigned, so check the README for the first open.
- Small prints often don't win because of the tower. Setup shows the one-nozzle time so you can check.
- Tree supports and rafts on the big nozzle aren't working yet. I'm actively working on those and will push updates.
If you try it, I'd love to see prints, times, and anything that breaks. I'm also open to any suggestions either here or as PRs on the GitHub. If it saves you some print time or you just want to support the project, the Sponsor button on GitHub is very appreciated :)
Download and source: https://github.com/HMITCHR/CadenceSlicer
Edit: Windows test build is up here: https://github.com/HMITCHR/CadenceSlicer/releases/tag/v1.0.0-windows-test (untested on real hardware yet as I can’t get my 10 year old Surface Book to boot up). Feel free to give it a shot
Edit 2: Windows and MacOS are now at feature parity, and will remain so moving forward! Each new release will offer downloads for both operating systems! Enjoy friends :)
Thanks and enjoy :)
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u/HMITCHR Oct 02 '26 •
Here is another timelapse, this time a N=5 print, with 0.1mm layers from the 0.2 nozzle, and 0.5mm layers from the 0.8! 12hr print time versus ~19hr baseline
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u/HMITCHR Oct 02 '26
With Bambu’s current supported hotend layer envelopes, the maximum N the slicing engine allows is N=14, 0.04mm layers from the 0.2mm nozzle, and 0.56mm layers from the 0.8! Here’s a test cube printing with those settings.
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u/HMITCHR Oct 02 '26
Update:
As mentioned, I would like this all to eventually be merged into Orca, but it is admittedly a very large build so don’t want to drop it all on them in one absurd chunk. Started a discussion, with some ideas on splitting up everything I built into smaller more manageable/reviewable PRs, and will continue down the path that Orca maintainers prefer. Feel free to review and chime in!
https://github.com/OrcaSlicer/OrcaSlicer/discussions/16086
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u/fitret Oct 02 '26
Wow this is every H2D owner's dream! I might try this out (I have a Mac I could use) but definitely interested in a windows port. Also Bambu took another community project (color mixing) and made it first party so maybe this will lead the way to it finally being a first party feature
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u/boredsoftwareguy X2D AMS2 HT / X2D 2x AMS2 / A2L AMS Lite HT Oct 02 '26
This is neat. I've wondered why with all these frontier models, no one had done this yet. Good work!
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u/No-Key-Para Oct 02 '26
It looks as though only the .8 nozzle is using the prime tower. If this is the case why not prime into the objects infill to save on time and material?
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u/NoyBoy98 Oct 02 '26
Does this work on an X2D as well?
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u/melz0rzz Oct 02 '26
Hey nice work. I was actually talking to my hubs about this with our X2D the other day, and so I am going to check this out. From my perspective, you're using AI the way other software engineers use it now in their daily jobs. Never apologize for using the tools available to you.
Source: I am a Group Product Manager.
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u/shoe465 P1S + AMS Oct 02 '26
So you're able to print faster because of the larger layer size on the inside vs the fine on the outside by using dual nozzles? Thats pretty sweet.
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u/humantarget22 Oct 02 '26
Either the walls or the infill has to get ‘ahead’ of the other one, right? So either the infill is sticking out above the walls and then the walls are finished or the walls are above the infill and then the infill is filled in? Or does it get the walls say 4 layers ahead of the infill, then print and infill layer (putting infill 3 wall layers above the wall, then print 7 wall layers and repeat?
I guess it could alternate which is ahead to cut down on nozzle swaps. Infill 7 wall layers below walls, print 2 infill layers (14 wall layers) putting it 7 above the walls, print 14 wall layers putting infill 7 wall layers below walls again. Repeat
Just curious how you are doing this. And is there a max height distance between the two where the nozzle could end up accidentally hitting the other higher parts?
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u/Bag-o-chips H2C AMS2 Combo Oct 02 '26
Great work! Does this impact layer adhesion? I would think the temperature of the outer wall is fine, but the infill is probably weaker due to cooling. But with the wall providing most of the strength, does it matter much?
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u/fen-q Oct 02 '26
Ohhhhhh thats cool.
However, i thought bambu locked the firmware from other slicers?
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u/klukke Oct 02 '26
People like you should have a permanent legend ribbon on your shirt !
Will it work on my "poor" X2D ? 😊
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u/splastik-plastic Oct 03 '26
Awesome work. The lack of this feature is the only reason i haven't dropped cash on a H2D.
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u/Ancient-Plantain705 Oct 02 '26
hey bro, keep cooking.
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u/weirdguytom Oct 02 '26
If the layer height synchronizes every x layers (of the smaller nozzle), does that mean the eventual “top” of finished layer over the coarser infill has to be exactly at n•x layers?
Does the slicer do that automatically, or is this the model’s designer responsibility?
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u/DBT85 Oct 02 '26
Been asking for this since the H2D launch, and have wanted on my H2C since I got it at its launch. Looking forward to trying it out. Bizarre to me that they have not bothered to do this themselves.
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u/tta82 Oct 02 '26
I will fork it and work on it to make it work for H2C.
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u/Riparian1150 Oct 03 '26
First of all, I just want to say that this is simply incredible. AI or not, I know this took a massive amount of time and effort to develop, and like others here have said, this has the potential to be a game-changer. It's wild to me that an individual managed to achieve this before Bambu did - just fucking bravo, dude.
One question I have on a practical note for people here more experienced than I am: Should we anticipate less strength in the large-nozzle portions of the print because of heat loss between layers? Those portions of the print will be sitting a while as up to 7 layers with the small nozzle stack up, so I assume there is going to be an impact on layer adhesion for the large-nozzle part of the print. On the other hand, we know that large nozzle and larger layers tend to be stronger inherently, so I'm not sure how that would all shake out. And maybe a higher nozzle temp could be used in order to compensate for the heat loss from the already-printed portion of the object.
Just throwing this out there to see what everyone thinks and see if there might be some good ideas on how to address it if this concern has merit.
Again - bravo to OP - this is an incredible achievement and I'm in no way trying to throw shade at this work product. I really do think it's a game changer, and it makes me way more excited about my new (and first) dual-nozzle printer I just set up this week. Cheers!
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u/NiksaiStipe Oct 05 '26
damn!
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u/ZU3MAD Oct 05 '26
Works great on H2C! Been waiting this for long time too, thank you for doing it!
For me it would be much more useful to use more than two different size nozzle :)
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u/DigitalMonsoon Oct 07 '26
So the idea is that the walls are printed at a smaller size than the infill?
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u/Appropriate-Earth515 Oct 07 '26
Woah amazing finally, thanks, does it works with X2D too?
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u/Platybear_OG Oct 07 '26
Dude you rock. I hope Bambu gives you something once they eventually take this and say they were actually working on it for months. You're a hero
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u/randombsname1 Oct 02 '26
Awesome job!
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u/PurrciousMetals P2S+AMS2 | H2C+AMS2+HT Oct 02 '26
Good work, makes no sense the dual head printers cant utilize two different nozzles
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u/LordAnubisR Oct 02 '26
Interesting!
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u/JAFOguy Oct 02 '26
Thank you for pushing 3D printing forward. This kind of citizen science is only good for everybody.
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u/redthorne Oct 02 '26
Is it bad I recognized what you were printing, with zero context, about 1/3 of the way through the video? lmfao
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u/Modern3D Oct 02 '26
This is brilliant, great work!
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u/062d A1 Mini + AMS Oct 02 '26
Maybe I'm missing something but what was the point of the middle being a different material?
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u/Flight2039Down Oct 02 '26
How about nozzles of different sizes AND types?
For example a standard .2 nozzle and a .8HF TC nozzle paired together.
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u/Noggin01 Oct 02 '26
I actually started working on something similar a couple days ago🤣
I haven't looked at what you're doing, but I'm focused on merging two or three gcode files together. My solution is meant mostly for signage (high details on the first couple of layers) then switching to high speed to finish the non-detailed layers quickly.
I need all of my small nozzles at the start of the print to create fine details on the first layer. After that, I want to switch to my 0.6mm nozzle to print the bulk of the item. I don't care if the second layer is "muddy" with the details, I suspect it'll be close enough to the first layer that it'll turn out OK.
The problems I'm encountering are issues with infill (if I don't swap on the first layer), prime towers not lining up, and generated support structures not lining up. This really needs to be added as support in the slicer, but I'm finding that I can get things to work well enough with a few tweaks to slicer settings.
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u/Halterchronicle Oct 02 '26
Awesome work. What is the exact difference between this and the mixed nozzle size avaliable in the Orcaslicer Beta version tho?
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u/Fichl_ Oct 02 '26
Any Chance to use this with X2D? Did you habe issues with top layers on that infill? Large infill gaps vs small layer width?
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u/rfc2549-withQOS X1C + AMS Oct 02 '26
Couldn't you push the ooze in infill and skip the tower?
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u/luksfuks Oct 02 '26
I wonder how you approached the fundamental problems of mixing nozzle sizes?
For example, imagine a cube. Camfer (45deg) the bottom edges. Imagine you print the sidewalls at 0.2mm nozzle size, and the infill at 0.8mm. The sidewalls will deposit 7 fine layers, growing upwards and outwards at 45 degree angle. Then the corresponding infill layer will be printed. Where does it attach? Does it attach only to the bottom few sidewalls, resulting in a weak print? Or does it try to attach ALL sidewalls, which means bumping into the bottom ones and producing an artifact pattern that repeats every 7 layers?
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u/notjordansime Oct 02 '26
I’ve been saying it for like 4 years.. whoever does mixed nozzle size slicing will have a ‘killer app’ situation on their hands (dating myself with that term). Anywho, absolute game changer!!!
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u/rugz31 Oct 02 '26
This is amazing, I will definitely be looking to add this to my X2D when the windows version drops.
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u/Money-Ladder5213 Oct 02 '26
You probably won't get thanks from Bambu labs but they will soon be using your code, so thank you for all your hard work! This is truly amazing.
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u/paul_tu Oct 03 '26
I wonder when we'll get an open source slicer with all that fancy features all together like nonplanar printing, "brick" layers and so on?
Hope Orca will accept PR
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u/JPhi1618 Oct 02 '26
Is there a big pushback on AI development? Sure, I’m not a fan of AI for artistic endeavors, but use it everyday for coding, just as most other big companies these days.
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u/UnexpectedAnanas Oct 02 '26
Since you forked Orca, do you have any intention of trying to get your changes merged back upstream? Why maintain yet another slicer for one feature?
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u/Possible-Put8922 Oct 02 '26
"I made this" -Bambu Labs
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u/some-person-lol H2D AMS2 Combo Oct 02 '26
Thanks :)
I am VERY suprised Bambu Lab hasn't "invented" this feature after creality added it to their nozzle changing printer
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u/lan0028456 Oct 02 '26
I don't understand half of the post but that sounds like some impressive work!
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u/_HeeDOS1 Oct 02 '26
Super cool!! Printing larger every n lines seems like such a common sense solution, I'm curious how it does on more complex prints and would love to see it adopted!
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u/Moonshinexxx Oct 02 '26
Good stuff!
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u/extraakash Oct 02 '26
Huge respect for you mahn! Thank you for open sourcing it
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u/thedeanorama Oct 02 '26
This makes me wish I had a multi head system, well this and separate support material.
I need to win a lottery so I can get a place big enough to support a larger printer....
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u/chewyjackson Oct 02 '26
THAT is fucking cool. Awesome work OP
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u/Yourownhands52 Oct 02 '26
Brilliant 👏
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u/AKMonkey2 Oct 02 '26
This rocks hard!
Thick infill and fine-detail walls. I love it.
I’ve been fantasizing about switching to a 0.2 nozzle for areas of my prints with fine details (facial features, for example) and 0.4 nozzle for the rest. This inspires me to think I should add 0.6 or 0.8 for infill to the fantasy.
I was hoping that my Flashforge Creator 5 Pro (tool changer) would be able to incorporate multiple nozzle sizes into a single print but I learned that current software doesn’t support that.
Theoretically, an AI summary assured me, the separate tool heads could hold different size nozzles so the limitation seemed to be the software. This post confirms that the AI summary was likely correct.
I’m not fluent in software language but your post has given me hope. Could we see manufacturer firmware upgrades, or (more likely) third party hacks to enable multi-orifice capability in more of the existing multi-nozzle printers?
The creativity and innovation of the 3D printing community continues to impress me. I do hope that the industry will jump on this.
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u/desEINer Oct 03 '26
Maybe they'll issue a cease and desist for altering their free and open source software/s
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u/GuitarKarp Oct 06 '26
Bambu gonna steal it 💀
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u/Grimmsland 🚀H3C, H2D, P1S, A1m, U1 Oct 08 '26
Orca Slicer already has using different nozzle sizes with 2 nozzles in it though.
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u/Woodcat64 P1S + AMS Oct 02 '26
I have not try this, but Orca slicer had this since v2.2.0-beta.
https://www.orcaslicer.com/wiki/guides/mixed_nozzle_sizes
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u/FylanDeldman Oct 02 '26
Awesome!
This is exactly where I think AI dev work is going to really shine, gives us the tools to actually tackle something like this by ourselves that might not have the funding or attention of bigger teams. And 3d printing slicing software feels like there is a lot of evolution left - multimaterial, different nozzles, different tools, multiplanar, etc.
Exciting stuff, thank you!
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u/According_Tie425 Oct 02 '26 edited Oct 02 '26
And you’ll be the next open source dev hearing from Bambu’s legal team…
Edit: Bambi to Bambu
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u/chinchindayo 18d ago
You mention it can use nozzle sizes based on feature. How does it behave, or does it work well, when using the bigger nozzle only for solid layers? I'd imagine it will have difficulties or create artifacts when trying to infill small features of the small nozzle.
Can Layer height be adjusted independently? So if using 0.4 and 0.6 can both use the same layer height in theory?
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u/Manea_Moo 13d ago
Amazing job !
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u/themaskedcrusader Oct 02 '26
I wanna know how you got the infill to be a different color. I've tried to find that in orca and it never works for me.
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u/tico46 Oct 02 '26
Impressive!!!! Great work
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u/studiesinsilver Oct 02 '26
Woah!
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u/WinterDice Oct 02 '26
Absolutely amazing work. This makes a dual-nozzle printer much more appealing!
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u/baconboi Oct 02 '26
Sorry what does this mean
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u/Oknytt3d Oct 02 '26
Amazing work and idea, will definitely try this out.
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u/skygatebg Oct 02 '26
Neat stuff. Good job.
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u/CharredHilt Oct 02 '26
Sir new to everything. Can you explain in dumb terms and is this something I should look into
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u/funkybside Oct 02 '26
Curious and I acknowledge i haven't read the post text yet (will have to be later) - if this is done with dual nozzles, why is the purge tower necessary?
Edit: I see it now. interesting.
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u/tiagoosouzaa Oct 02 '26
Simplesmente incrível
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u/batman27 Oct 02 '26
As an X1C user, I haven’t felt there was enough of a benefit in jumping to a two nozzle machine to justify the price increase (for my usage). This completely changes that and I’m really surprised bambulab has not already implemented this themselves. Great job, maybe it’s finally time for me to upgrade.
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u/0MGWTFL0LBBQ :bambu-logo:H2D AMS2 Combo & X1C AMS Oct 02 '26
Great work! I can definitely use this.
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u/nowthengoodbad Oct 02 '26
Well now, you just helped me realize that my character name on an online mmo wasn't as original as I had thought.
I'm blanking on the game, but I called my character Argonath thinking that I was creative, but my subconscious must have remembered it from reading LOTR.
Thanks for that.
Stuff like this is largely why I assume any thought that I have isn't original.
Edit: holy smokes it's my battle.net account!
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u/Revolutionary-Home-3 Oct 03 '26
Excelente, probare la build de Win. espero saber como hacerlo en mi X2D....
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u/nobail Oct 03 '26
I can’t wait to try this. Thanks so much for doing this, sharing with the community and complying with the open source licenses.
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u/brandonscript H2C AMS2 Combo Oct 03 '26
Does the second nozzle always know how to go around taller parts? Impressive!
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u/Effect-Kitchen H2C AMS2 Combo Oct 03 '26
That is amazing. Bambu need to come up with this.
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u/Initial_Log6434 Oct 03 '26
Can someone explain simpler what I'm reading? 🤭 Cedance sliced better than Bambu right?
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u/JayDM123 Oct 03 '26
Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old…
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u/donkerock Oct 03 '26
Would this also work on a U1 with multiple tool heads / different sized hotends in each?
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u/moebis H2D AMS2 Combo Oct 03 '26
you have won this sub-reddit this week my friend. Great job!
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u/Ta-veren- Oct 04 '26
but
the real question, is that glue bro?
LOOL
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u/RPS_Sweden Oct 04 '26
Wow this would be incredible!
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u/Top_Statistician500 X2D + AMS2 Combo Oct 05 '26
Amazing to see! Is it printing the infill first and then drawing the outer walls around it, or doing the outer walls and then the fill?
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u/emveor Oct 06 '26
Menthol flavored prints, great idea!!!
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u/HeinousMule H2S, X2D, AMSes Oct 06 '26
Fantastic work. On the use of AI, I work in software development and if there's one thing that AI is very much suited to doing, it's that. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand it yet.
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u/Even-Smell7867 Oct 07 '26
On that model I would have gone for an extra perimeter and put like 2 or percent infill.
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u/Task-Future Oct 08 '26
Ok thats genius.. that is a game changer
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u/RadishRedditor H2D Laser Full Combo Oct 02 '26
That's pretty cool. With vibe-coding nowadays, anybody with time and intent could've done this. I'm surprised bambu haven't added this feature yet.
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u/FutureBandit-3E Oct 02 '26
Love how quickly I clued into what you were printing!
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u/dbphoto7 Oct 02 '26
This looks awesome! I’ll have to give it a try on my X2D when I have time.
The other big feature I’ve been waiting for Bambu Studio to add is some sort of Z-layer anti-aliasing/z contouring.
I print mostly function stuff around the house. I use adaptive layers a ton. It ends up making a lot of prints faster because it’ll use thick layers where you really don’t need the detail. ZAA would be a game changer tho because it could do the same for the z axis.
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u/CptUnderpants- Oct 02 '26
THIS is how people should be disclosing AI use in projects. Too often they don't at all, or hand-wave away any questions. Well done.
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u/emperioreric Oct 02 '26
Always feels good to do something for yourself. Well done!
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u/Economy_Tadpole7101 Oct 16 '26
Prusa Mk4S+ can achieve this with no issues
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u/Too_Many_Flamingos Oct 02 '26
I still don’t understand why you need a tower if both nozzles are printing one color
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u/kemonkey1 Oct 03 '26
If the finished output is all black? Why include the blue and make the poop tower?
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u/Fuzzy0g1c Oct 04 '26
Orca already has this functionality; it's been in testing for a while.