this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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3DPrinting

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[–] daannii@lemmy.world 1 points 1 minute ago* (last edited 18 seconds ago)

Unpopular opinion but. A company doesn't owe you open access to their tech or software.

Bambu spends an enormous amount of money on r&d.

They have incredibly high quality printers that are intuitive and easy to use.

They collect data to improve their machines.

You can opt out of that collection.

The replacement parts are cheap. Comparable to other brands.

And you can buy non Bambu parts. That fit. But why when official high quality parts are available for same price.

I don't know why everyone is so mad that Bambu won't let them tinker with the software. Or "jail break it".

Why would you want to on a Bambu. ? It already works optimally.

if you want a tinker printer than get one that's open.

Most people don't need that. They just want to print things.

I get that people think "it's my device and I should be able to jail break it if I want". Ok

Then buy a device that lets you.

It would be different if Bambu printers were crap and needed tinkering but wouldn't allow it. Or they lied about being open. But that's not the situation.

Bambu has been up front since the begining that their printers would not be open.

They never mislead about that.

Why are you mad about something they made clear from the begining ?

And yes I know they used open source data to base a lot of their tech on. But they have proprietary software and hardware now that was a result of their own investments into research and development.

You can't hold it against a company for not giving away advancements they made to their competitors.

With so much unethical and anti-privacy , companies blocking right to repair. And all the shitty tech companies out there, it's hard for me to take the complaints against Bambu as anything other than grifting and online created drama.

Their products were always closed. They never said they would be open.

Use a different brand if that's a problem for you.

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Can I get a tl;dr for someone who isn't into 3d printing (yet)? I like to know about companies to avoid and why, but it'll still be a while before I get into 3d printing.

[–] ralakus@lemmy.world 14 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Bambu lab a while ago came out with printers and an ecosystem that was very easy to use compared to other printers for the price. However, there were a few red flags like proprietary parts, software which required the cloud, and DRM chips in filament. Bambu lab promised they weren't gonna exploit any of that and that they will keep their printers and ecosystem open and all the red flags were just used to aid in user experience like automatic print settings for DRM chipped filament, easy to swap parts, and cloud monitoring and notifications. Despite the promise, they're still a corporation and thus went against their word and closed off 3rd party slicers and firmwares so you must use their cloud and their software.

You do not own the printers, Bambu does. So now you cannot install third party firmware on your Bambu 3d printer or use a different slicer. Everything you do on your Bambu printer goes through their cloud unless you take countermeasures and use old versions of software and firmware before the lockdown happened and you completely block internet access to the printers.

People saw these big red flags early on and called them out on it saying they're gonna lock down their ecosystem later on but people kept buying into Bambulab since they were so easy to use and got amazing prints out of them.

Tl;Dr, Bambulab released printers and software that were so easy to use for the price but came with many red flags. Bambulab ended up closing down their entire ecosystem so they have full control of the printers and you are at their mercy if you wanna keep using it.

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 1 points 12 minutes ago

They never promised to keep anything open. It never was open.

[–] Benaaasaaas@group.lt 1 points 52 minutes ago

You also forgot that their slicer was based on AGPL licensed Prusa Slicer and at first they tried to avoid releasing their source. In general a lot of their work was based on open source hardware and software and they closed it down.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 15 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I never bought a Bambu in the first place because all of this was foreseeable. Bambu costumers simply didn‘t care at the time.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 8 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

That's their market my brother bought 3 of them because he wanted to start a 3d printing business (with no additional planning so it did not last). Now I have one and my dad has one. I haven't actually set mine up because I have my old Creator X clone dialed in and don't really need anything more. Those two would probably never have gotten started if not for how easy the Bambus are. It took me a month to get decent results off my first printer and they were up and running in a few hours tops.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

Those two would probably never have gotten started if not for how easy the Bambus are. It took me a month to get decent results off my first printer and they were up and running in a few hours tops.

I've got to admit, I've never understood that sort of issue. I've owned two 3D printers, a Monoprice MP Select Mini (bought back when it was the only 'cheap' printer in existence... holy shit, probably almost a decade ago) and a Creality Ender 3 V3 SE (because it was the best 'cheap' printer as of a couple years ago), and both of them gave me decent prints pretty much out of the box. After bed leveling, obviously, but without any other weird hardware adjustment or excessive experimentation with slicer settings.

I feel like the vaunted 'superior ease of use' of the Bambu stuff is overblown, but IDK, maybe I've just been lucky.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

Bambu are not the only easy to setup anymore, but they did influence the trend.

They also have MakerWorld/Bambu handy that makes it really easy to start a print from anywhere.

So they are extremely easy to use.

But they are trying to leverage that to close their ecosystem and lock users in with shady practices..

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 4 hours ago

Admittedly I started pretty early on with the commercially available ones and I'm sure things have improved since then but that was my experience. I was fighting it for weeks screwing with leveling and temps, I completely burned through one set of leveling screws and had to replace them before I gave up and took the extruder apart and constructed a jig to make sure the nozzles were even. After that I started getting better results. By comparison my brother was given the exact same model by a coworker of his and he gave up on it because he's just doesn't think about technical things the same way I do. When he got the bambu though he was able to just go with it because he didn't have to really troubleshoot anything.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 6 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I'm never watching this video again! I already didn't watch it, and I'll do it again!

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 6 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

(please someone correct me if I'm wrong on this)

Doesn't boycotting Bambu ignore that they are one of the biggest names in 3D printing with a product that is cheaper and better than their main competitor (Prusa). Frankly, I don't think anyone is going to spend 2x the amount for literally a worse product (Bambu P2S @ $550 vs Prusa Core One @ $999)

I get all the arguments about the repairability and longevity of Prusa printers, but when someone is saving for months to buy a luxury item I simply cannot see them making all those sacrifices

[–] Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

I get your point, but when a part broke on my Prusa, I jury rigged it, downloaded and printed a replacement part and swapped out the broken part for the (improved) new one. With many other brands it would have been an expensive purchase and I would have had to wait for parts to arrive.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 17 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Turns out, the 3D printing world is thankfully NOT a duopoly. You have Qidi (their Q2 is very competitive from what I have heard), Sovol (makes a lot of good budget printers), Elegoo (lots of people love the Centauri Carbon), and even Voron machines if you're into those! And a majority of the competitors make good machines that can be on par, and often times cheaper, than Bambu's machines.

Additionally, Prusa not only is better for longevity, but you will also get far better customer support (Bambu's support isn't great)

Bambu is no longer to be trusted as they have been hostile to the open-source community, have blocked third-party software that used to work and hardware that people have bought, and no, putting it under a hidden developer mode doesn't fix the issue. There are additional restrictions like not being able to access your printer remotely without something like Tailscale!

And given that they already have RFID tags on their filaments, I believe it's a matter of time before they become the HP of 3D printers and block third-party filaments from being used

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

TY I'm going to look into those. I appreciate the detailed response, hopefully someone releases a CFW for all the bambu users out there.

The RFID thing i feel like could be rectified pretty easily by just cloning the tag (hopefully), if nintendo couldn't combat that for amiibos, i doubt bambu will be able to.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago

The RFID thing i feel like could be rectified pretty easily by just cloning the tag (hopefully)

I don't want to give Bambu any ideas, but I think they could modify their plastic to require special settings (maybe it requires a lower temperature to print or something, needs a certain extrusion speed, etc.) and ensure that the print settings are automatically set depending on the RFID tag (this already exists, but they could easily disable the ability to manually change some of the print settings given they now have a monopoly on the slicer software), so putting the same RFID tag on another spool would cause the print to look bad. Of course, I believe this is unlikely, but it is still a possibility. At the very least, it will be annoying to rip out a tag from a Bambu spool, making third-party spools undesirable for users.

TY I’m going to look into those.

No problem!

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I'm looking to upgrade my ancient Ender-5 Plus and have been eyeballing Anycubic for the excellent pricing on multicolor printers.

You seem pretty knowledgeable, any recommendations or things to stay away from?

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago

I can recommend the Elegoo Centauri Carbon, a CoreXY and enclosed 3D printer that is raved on by reviews. If you will only print PLA, PETG, and maybe some ABS with a bit of tinkering with settings, it's a nice option. It won't be as good for engineering-type filaments, and it doesn't have a multi-material unit (yet, but don't buy things based on promises!)

The Qidi Q2 is an upgraded version of the Q1 Pro, the latter having been noted as an exceptional value. The Q2 is relatively new and doesn't have too many reviews, but from the specs, it is a big jump from the Q1 Pro (it has a heated chamber, for example). The Q2 is also compatible with their "Qidi Box" multi-material unit, which could be something you are looking for given that you want multi-colour prints!

And of course, if you want the most reliable machine with the best customer service, you have Prusa's Core One. It's expensive, but you're supporting a company that emphasises upgradeability and manufactures their hardware in Europe. It won't be the best value though purely based on feature set, but if you like what Prusa stands for, that could be of value to you!

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 10 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

If you buy a Bambu P2S, you don't really own it. Bambu can see and control each file printed, and are suing anyone that attempts to rectify that change.

If you buy a Prusa Core One, you do own it.

The boycott just makes financial sense.

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Excuse my own ignorance on this issue, i was under the impression that in response to the BS they pulled last year they committed to always having the option for a fully offline (but potentially less-featured) printer?

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 2 points 4 hours ago

The video covers that "option".

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 46 points 9 hours ago (5 children)

Let's add CAD.

I've been screaming to everyone I know... Use freeCAD or other opensource CAD systems or free form modelers like Blender.org.

People who don't know about Auto desk and PTC don't know how evil those companies are. They're dinosaurs and need to go. Let's opensource the future.

[–] lyrial@anarchist.nexus 3 points 3 hours ago

I would absolutely love for freeCAD to have complete feature and usability parity with MasterCAM, but it isn't even kind of close to usability or functionality to the major corporate offerings.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 23 points 9 hours ago (14 children)

God, I long for the day we get a decent open source CAD program but we just arent there yet. Script-based cad like OPENSCAD is just awful, especially for anything complex and extra-especially for assemblies, and while freecad has improved massively it's still a very similar UX to Sketchup circa 2009 :(

CAD/CAM is one of the biggest underrepresented areas for opensource software, unfortunately largely because it's so damn hard. There's a reason basically every open-source polymodeling system pulls from Blender, and that's because it's the only robust opensource option out there that's usable (though blender UI/UX is notoriously terrible for good reason, even after 2.8 and 3.2).

And unfortunately blender isn't CAD software. Fun for noodly 3D printed parts and technically you can design functional components in it... but it's deeply miserable to do.

IDK I'm just screaming into the void. grrgh.

[–] mortalic@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Its not only that the ui/ux is bad. It's that the people working the project seem to constantly rename, or change tool names which effectively eliminated every YouTube tutorial that came before. I've tried several times to get into it, and still recognize how necessary it is that it exists and thrives, so I keep trying. But ffs, be consistent.

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Hey thanks, I'll check it out!

[–] pigup@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago

Agree. Using freecad coming from Pro-E/Creo /Fusion 360/on shape/Solidworks is brutal.

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[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 6 points 8 hours ago

Unfortunately the open source options for CAD have to come a very long way before I could even consider using them. Onshape is the only "free" option I've found that is bearable to use compared to the likes of SolidWorks and Creo.

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[–] Mac@mander.xyz 19 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Oh yeah? Well I'm never buying one in the first place because these problems were obvious.

[–] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 hours ago

Same here, and I think it was also obvious to Jeff (from the OP), but I'm glad he bought one because he's in a position to raise awareness of the issue.

[–] Dultas@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

I never let mine on the internet and use lan only using Orca slicer too so I don't have to worry about Bambu Studio pushing an update to it which probably wouldn't be an issue cause it was always garbage at connecting via lan anyway.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 32 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

This goes beyond buying a printer. Most people buy a printer and then use it for years. I believe it's necessary to get away from Bambu entirely.

That means no maker world. That means aggressively discourage others from buying bambu or using maker world. That means calling out online creators who promote Bambu or any of their products. And yeah, it means call out designers who put their STLs on MakerWorld.

I believe it is necessary to send a very strong message that Bambu that does not and will not own the 3D printing community.

SirEDCaLot

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