Reserving Printers

A reservation holds one or more printers at a single site for a named body of work. While it’s active, those printers only take jobs assigned to that reservation. Ordinary jobs continue using the rest of the fleet.

Create a reservation#

You need Manage printer reservations permission. On Printers, open a printer’s menu and choose Reserve…. You can also create one from the reservations page.

1. Name the reservation so operators recognize it, for example “Robotics workshop”.
2. Choose printers from one site.
3. Start now or choose a future start time. Times use your browser’s local timezone.
4. Choose an end time, or keep it reserved until someone ends it.
5. Leave Let held jobs use other printers too off to keep its jobs on the reserved printers. Turn it on to allow overflow onto compatible, unreserved printers.
6. Optionally add a note, then choose Reserve.

A printer can’t have overlapping reservations. Reservations can meet at the same instant: one can end at 5 p.m. when the next starts.

The printer remains visible and keeps its normal operational status. A Reserved badge shows the reservation’s name. Scheduled reservations appear as Reserved soon. A job already printing when the reservation starts finishes normally.

Assign jobs#

You need Assign jobs to printer reservations permission. Open a waiting job’s three-dot action menu on Queue, its detail page, or its preparation page, and choose Add to reservation…. Choose a reservation and select Save reservation. The action appears only when there’s an active reservation the job can join. Jobs with a site can only join reservations at that site; jobs without a site can join any active reservation. To assign several jobs at once, select them on Queue and choose Add to reservation….

Permitted submitters can also choose a reservation before uploading a file, including an upcoming reservation. At a station, open the job’s three-dot action menu and choose Add to reservation…. The station template must enable reservation assignment. It asks for identification when the template requires it, then opens the same picker. Saving a reservation is separate from approving the job.

Held jobs show their reservation. Use Change reservation… in the action menu to move one to another active reservation, or choose No reservation to release it. An existing upcoming hold can still be changed or released before it starts.

Only jobs that haven’t been sent to a printer can change reservations. A bulk assignment reports jobs it couldn’t move, including jobs that started dispatching during the save.

Reservations don’t waive ownership, approval, quota, model, or material requirements. If the reserved printers can’t run a member job, it waits. Queue estimates explain when jobs are waiting for a reservation to start, for reserved capacity, or for compatible reserved printers. With overflow enabled, a member job can use the shared fleet even before its reservation starts.

Route jobs automatically#

In Admin → Automation, select A print job is submitted to the queue, add a condition such as the owner’s roles including “Workshop”, and choose Hold the job for a reservation. Select the reservation by name.

The rule runs before queue admission and each effect applies once per job. Test mode previews the assignment without changing anything. Use conditions that route a job to one reservation; every matching rule applies. If routing fails, submission stays out of the queue until the problem is resolved. An ended or deleted reservation can’t accept new assignments, so disable or update rules that reference it.

Reprints retain the original job’s reservation. An ended reservation no longer constrains them.

Change or end a reservation#

Open View in the reservation summary on Printers to reach the reservations page. You can edit its printers, name, note, end time, and overflow setting. A reservation stays at its original site. End or delete a printer’s current reservations before moving that printer to another site or deleting it.

Choose End now to release an active reservation early. Delete a scheduled reservation to cancel it. When a reservation ends, its printers return to the shared fleet and leftover member jobs become ordinary waiting jobs. This happens by the clock even if the background worker is delayed. Jobs already printing continue normally.

Past shows ended reservations. Deleting a reservation releases its member jobs and removes its record; the audit trail retains the action.