Congratulations! You’re the proud new owner of our latest and greatest CloudDock! With this awesome piece of technology, you can control your 3D printer over the Internet. BuildBee is comprised of two products. Firstly, a physical control box called the CloudDock which acts as the brains for the 3D printer, allowing it to shake hands with the cloud. The second product is a web app which allows you to run, maintain and manage access to your 3D printers.

Enterprise subscriptions: You might need an IT staff member to help you if your school/organisation has an unusual network environment.

Here’s how to get started:

Before you start

1. Windows 8.1 or above
   
2. MacOS Mountain Lion or later
   

1. Microsoft Edge version 15 or above (not Internet Explorer)
   
2. Google Chrome version 45 or above
   
3. Safari version 10 or above
   
4. Firefox version 55 or above
   

Create an account

Any account created this way is a Free tier account.

Method 1 - Create an account using your email address

- Navigate to https://app.buildbee.com/.

- Select 'CREATE ACCOUNT'.

- Enter a valid email address and create a password in the provided spaces. 

Your password must be at least 8 characters and include at least one capital letter and one number. 

- Click 'CREATE ACCOUNT' to finish. A verification link will be sent to your email, this may take a few minutes.

- When you receive the email, click the verification link to confirm your account. You can now navigate back to https://app.buildbee.com/ and sign in using your new account details.

Method 2 - Create an account using 'SIGN IN WITH GOOGLE' button

- Select the 'SIGN IN WITH GOOGLE' button.

- This will automatically create an account for you with your Gmail or Google enterprise email (this includes DET addresses). You will be automatically logged after confirming your details.

From here, you can start configuring printers to use with your account or be added to a site that has printers associated with it. Make sure you then get the correct rights applied to your account.

Configuring a BuildBee CloudDock

To connect your printer to the BuildBee app you must first configure your BuildBee CloudDock to access the Internet. You can also use this process when changing networks or connection type (WiFi or Ethernet). This process takes around 5 minutes to complete and you will need a valid BuildBee account, your network details and a FAT32 USB drive.

Step 1 - Log in to BuildBee

- Navigate to https://app.buildbee.com. 

- Sign in using an account that has the right to configure printers.

Step 2 - Create the configuration file

- Select the printer list icon in the top right corner of the screen. 

- Select 'CONFIGURE PRINTER' from the top of the printer list:

- Fill in your network details in the spaces provided and select the 'GENERATE CONFIG. FILE' button.  

WiFi network names and passwords are case sensitive. Any errors will cause the configuration process to fail.

Step 3 - Save the BuildBee configuration file to a USB drive

- Select the 'Download' button to save the .conf  file to your computer.

- Move the configuration file to the root folder of a USB flash drive (not within any other folders). 

We recommend using a USB drive from a known manufacturer (e.g. Toshiba), formatted to FAT32, without any partitions. Promotional USB drives are not reliable for this process.

Step 4 - Load configuration file onto a CloudDock

- Remove ALL cables from the BuildBee CloudDock (no power, no USB cable).

- Insert the USB drive into the BuildBee CloudDock.

- Plug the power supply into the BuildBee CloudDock with the USB drive inserted. 

Do not connect the printer yet.

- The CloudDock will read the configuration file and erase it from the USB drive, replacing it with a 'configuration receipt' (send us this receipt if something goes wrong):

- If the CloudDock can successfully reach the internet, it will appear in your printer list. 

It may take up to 4 minutes to complete the registration and you may need to refresh your browser for it to appear.

- The CloudDock that represents the printer will first appear as 'DISCONNECTED', simply meaning there is no printer connected. At this point you may safely remove the USB drive. 

- Connect your CloudDock to your 3D printer via USB cable. The CloudDock will then appear as 'READY' in the printer list.

If you're having trouble with configuration, please run through the troubleshooting guide in the A printer is showing up as 'Offline' help article.  

Adding users to your site (Enterprise)

To allow users to access the same printers, they will have to be added to your BuildBee site.

To add other users to a site, you must have an account with the right to manage groups, users and printers within that site.

Site managers

Step 1 - Access enterprise tools

Step 2 - Generate a join code

- Access the 'users' section:

Each code can only be used while the site is open and is no longer valid once you select 'CLOSE'.

Users joining a site

Step 1 - Open the 'Join School/Organization' page

Step 2 - Enter the site registration code

 - Lastly, refresh your page to apply the changes.

If you aren't seeing any printers, check if your account is in a group that allows access to printers. If you have any further issues, please submit a support request.

Creating groups (Enterprise)

To use groups and permissions features, you must be on an enterprise level subscription.

The BuildBee group management tools allow you to apply different access permissions to individual user accounts within the same site.

These permissions include:

1. Submit print jobs to a supervised queue
   
2. Print unsupervised on any printer attached to this group
   
3. Access the maintenance console of any printer attached to this group
   
4. View the site overview dashboard within the enterprise tools
   
5. Access the lesson plans for teachers
   
6. Create, modify and delete groups; access all printers and control the queue
   

Step 1 - Access groups in enterprise tools

- Then, select the 'groups' button on the left side of the page:

Step 2 - Create a group

Step 3 - Add users and printers to the group

- Access the group you just created.

- Select the pencil 'edit' button located just under the name of the group:

Add users

- Select the 'USERS' tab.

- To add users to the group,  select the large 'plus' icon:

- Select users from the left column labelled 'Unselected' to grant access to them. If you make a mistake, you can select them on the right hand column to remove them from your selection.

- Select the 'ADD SELECTED TO GROUP' button to confirm your selection and return to the group page.

Add printers

- Select the 'PRINTERS' tab.

- To add printers to the group,  select the large 'plus' icon:

- Select printers from the left column labelled 'Unselected' to grant access to them. If you make a mistake, you can select them on the right hand column to remove them from your selection.

- Select the 'ADD SELECTED TO GROUP' button to confirm your selection and return to the group page.

Step 4 - Assign group rights

Rights are additive. This means that if an account has gained the right to perform an action, it will retain that right even if another group removes that right. The account must be removed from any groups with contradicting rights. We recommend reading our help article on recommended group structures to get some tips on how to set up your groups to achieve the level of access you wish to provide.

If you don't select 'SAVE', any changes to users and/or printers you made will be lost.

Enabling the print queue (Enterprise)

Once the right to print to a queue is enabled, users will see the option to add to a queue in the printer selection step in the print process.

Site-wide queuing

Step 1 - Access enterprise tools

Step 2 - Update global rights

By default, no access permissions are granted to any users within the site.

Group queuing 

Step 1 - Access enterprise tools

Step 2 - Edit group rights

- Select the 'groups' section from the side menu:

For information on how to use the queue, refer to the help articles listed below:

• Submitting to a queue
  
• Managing the print queue
  

Using BuildBee is fairly intuitive but if you want to learn more about how it works or if you need to troubleshoot anything then check out our support articles for more info. Happy Printing!