From Blender geometry to a BambuStudio plate

This run turns a Blender scene into a sliced, local print artifact. Nothing here was sent to a printer.

1. Build and export in Blender

The hive-blender socket transport drove Blender 5.2 (Flatpak). A CodeGate-confirmed execute_code built a scene with 91 beveled hexagonal slabs; get_scene_info reported 102 objects. The export call used bpy.ops.wm.stl_export(..., export_selected_objects=True, apply_modifiers=True, global_scale=10.0) on the slab meshes. The STL is about 130 mm wide. Without source-side scaling, Blender units exported at about 13 mm for this model. The staged Blender images below are from that run.

hive-blender execute_code built the hexagonal geometry and staged its materials and viewport.

hive-blender execute_code produced the final staged Blender scene before STL export.

2. Slice with hive-bambu

bambu-slicer presets lists installed stock BBL profiles. The slice call takes a fingerprinted model (see hive-bambu.slicer.domain/artifact) and a printer/process/filament preset. FlatpakCliSlicer then runs the installed com.bambulab.BambuStudio Flatpak CLI, writes a new per-run output folder and reads estimates from the resulting .gcode.3mf.

{"command":"slice","request":{"model":{"path":"/absolute/path/hive-geometry-slab-130mm.stl","format":"stl","sha256":"<sha256 from artifact>","bytes":746284},"preset":{"printer":"Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 0.4 nozzle.json","process":"0.20mm Standard @BBL X1C.json","filament":"Bambu PLA Basic @BBL X1C.json"}}}

Use the actual artifact return fields rather than copying the placeholder path or size. The run took 15.1 s, wrote a 3.14 MB archive, and estimated 9,822 s (about 2 h 44 min) and 19.4 m of filament. The sliced archive reports 81 layers and 0 grams because its profile records zero density; grams are not a reliable estimate in this run. bambu-slicer export can package a model, its sliced project and an order sheet for a third-party print service. It does not submit an order.

bambu-slicer slice generated output.gcode.3mf; this plate image plots positive-extrusion G1 moves in its first Metadata/plate_1.gcode layer on the 256 mm bed. It is not an embedded BambuStudio preview. We inspected the actual archive: it contains G-code and slice metadata, but no PNG thumbnail. To reproduce the image from that archive without launching any GUI:

unzip -p output.gcode.3mf Metadata/plate_1.gcode > plate_1.gcode
bb dev/showcase/render_plate.clj plate_1.gcode out/
chromium --headless --hide-scrollbars --window-size=1200,1173 \
  --screenshot=$PWD/out/plate-first-layer.png "file://$PWD/out/plate-first-layer.svg"

The renderer splits layers at ; CHANGE_LAYER and draws only extruding XY segments (a G1 with positive relative E). It does not draw travel moves or simulate nozzle width or material color. It also writes plate-all-layers.svg, every layer stacked from low Z (dark) to high Z (bright):

The brighter slabs are the taller ones: the slab heights the Blender run computed survive the export and the slice. We used the large hive slab archive at ~/.cache/hive-craft-bambu/out/e550de4e-0a40-411f-b2f9-60580b23c862/output.gcode.3mf to make this image. The small test/fixtures/slice-info.gcode.3mf is metadata only and has no image.

3. Keep printing separate

A completed slice is a file, not an instruction to print. Mounting hive.bambu requires a config-declared :print-gate; bambu call refuses print.project_file rather than sending it directly. The base addon has no live printer transport. bambu catalog and doctor let an agent inspect the command vocabulary and the transport state without implying a printer connection. See the README for the config and a starting call.

Where the other craft tools fit

PhotoCraft made the separate hive geometry 2D art through its control channel. VectorCraft drew a separate golden-comb vector study using its control channel. Those images are parallel visual explorations, not toolpaths or input to this STL. The physical path in this showcase is Blender scene → source-scaled STL → hive-bambu slice → local .gcode.3mf and estimates. No printer execution was verified.