Filament

External Spool Configuration

If you’re not using an AMS or multi-material system, you can tell HelixScreen what filament is loaded by configuring an external spool. Tap the spool icon on the Filament panel to set the material, color, and brand. If Spoolman is configured, you can also link to a specific Spoolman spool.

Once configured, the external spool information is used throughout the UI:

Spool preset button — A dynamic preset button appears on the Filament panel with your spool’s material name and recommended temperatures. Tap it to pre-heat both the nozzle and bed to the correct temperatures for your loaded filament.
Temperature panel presets — The Nozzle and Bed temperature panels also show a spool preset button for quick one-tap heating.
Purge temperature — When you tap Purge, HelixScreen automatically passes the recommended nozzle temperature to the purge macro (as the PURGE_TEMP parameter), so macros that support it can heat to the right temperature.

The spool preset button only appears when the loaded material differs from the standard presets (PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU). For standard materials, just use the built-in preset buttons.

Tip: The spool preset updates automatically when you change the external spool configuration — no need to close and reopen panels.

Extrusion Panel

Manual filament control:

Button	Action
Extrude	Push filament through nozzle
Retract	Pull filament back

Amount selector: 5mm, 10mm, 25mm, 50mm Speed selector: Slow, Normal, Fast

Safety: Extrusion requires the hotend to be at minimum temperature (usually 180°C for PLA, higher for other materials). If HelixScreen knows what filament is loaded — either from an external spool or an active AMS slot — it skips the cold-nozzle safety warning and auto-preheats to the correct temperature instead.

Load / Unload / Purge

The Filament panel has dedicated Load, Unload, and Purge buttons. These run Klipper macros — HelixScreen auto-detects common names like LOAD_FILAMENT, UNLOAD_FILAMENT, and PURGE from your printer config.

Customizing which macro runs

You can override any of these buttons to run a different macro:

Go to Settings > Printer > Macro Buttons
Scroll to the Standard Macros section
Tap the dropdown for Load Filament, Unload Filament, or Purge
Select (Auto) to use auto-detection, or pick any macro from your Klipper config

This works whether or not you have an AMS system. If a slot is left empty (no macro detected or configured), the button is disabled.

With an AMS system: The Load and Unload buttons use your AMS backend instead of running a macro — they trigger slot-based load/unload through the AMS panel. The Purge button still uses your configured macro.

Manual extrude/retract

For manual control without macros, use the Extrude and Retract buttons on the extrusion widget with selectable amounts (5mm, 10mm, 25mm, 50mm) and speeds.

AMS / Multi-Material Systems

AMS Panel

For multi-material systems (Happy Hare, AFC-Klipper, ACE, Tool Changer, etc.). The AMS panel has two main areas: the slot view on the left and the sidebar on the right.

Slot View (Left)

The left side shows all your filament slots in a visual tray layout:

Spool icons — Each slot displays a 3D spool visualization with its filament color
Material labels — Material type (PLA, PETG, ABS, etc.) shown above each spool
Status badge — Slot number with color-coded background (green = loaded, gray = empty, red = error)
Tool badge — If a slot is assigned to a specific extruder tool (T0, T1, etc.), a badge appears in the corner

Below the slot grid, a filament path diagram shows the routing from slots through the hub/selector to the toolhead. This updates in real time during load/unload operations, including eject animations when retracting filament at the slot sensor.

Above the slot view, a mini temperature graph shows live nozzle, bed, and chamber temperatures (when a chamber sensor or heater is present) so you can monitor heating during filament operations without switching panels.

Reading Error States

When a slot runs into trouble, HelixScreen shows it visually so you don’t have to dig through logs:

Error dot — A small colored dot appears at the corner of a slot’s spool when that slot reports a problem. Red means an error (jam, runout, hardware fault); amber means a warning. With animations enabled, the dot gently pulses to draw your eye.
Buffer-health tint — On systems with a buffer between the slots and the toolhead (AFC TurtleNeck, or Happy Hare with sync feedback), the hub on the filament path diagram changes color as the buffer drifts toward a fault: green when healthy, yellow when approaching the fault threshold, and red when at or past it.

To recover:

Tap the affected slot and choose Reset Lane to clear a jam or error on that one slot (shown only on backends that support per-slot reset).
For a system-wide problem, use Reset in the sidebar, or Recover in the AMS Management overlay (Settings), to bring the whole system back to a known-good state.

The right sidebar shows the status of the currently loaded filament and provides quick-access controls.

Currently loaded section:

“Current: Slot N” — Header showing which slot is active (or “Current: Bypass” when bypass is enabled)
Color swatch — Large color indicator matching the loaded filament
Material name — e.g., “Red PLA”, “Prusament PETG”
Remaining weight — Estimated filament remaining (e.g., “750g”), if available
Clog detection meter — When your system has flow monitoring (encoder, FlowGuard, or AFC buffer), an arc meter shows the current flow rate percentage

During load/unload operations, the sidebar switches to a step progress display showing each stage of the operation:

Load (fresh): Heat nozzle → Feed filament → Purge
Load (swap): Heat nozzle → Cut/form tip → Feed filament → Purge
Unload: Heat nozzle → Cut/form tip → Retract

Each step updates in real time so you can see exactly where the operation is.

Action buttons (hidden while an operation is in progress):

Button	Action
Bypass (toggle)	Feed filament directly to the extruder, bypassing the AMS. Only shown if your hardware supports bypass.
Unload	Retract the currently loaded filament back to its slot
Reset	Reset the AMS system state (useful after jams or errors)
Settings	Open the AMS Management overlay for advanced controls

Tap any slot to open a context menu with actions for that specific slot:

Action	Description
Load	Feed filament from this slot to the toolhead. Disabled if the slot is empty.
Unload	Retract filament from this slot. Only available if this slot is currently loaded.
Eject	Push filament fully out of the lane to release the spool, when the slot has filament in its lane but not loaded into the toolhead. Replaces the Unload button in that state. Only on backends that support per-lane eject (AFC and Happy Hare).
Reset Lane	Clear an error or jam state on this slot. Only shown if your backend supports per-slot reset.
Spool Info	Open the filament editor to view or change material, color, vendor, and remaining weight.
Select Spool	Assign a saved Spoolman spool to this slot. Only shown when Spoolman is configured.
Scan QR Code	Scan a filament QR code to auto-fill spool data. Only shown when Spoolman is configured.

On systems that support Endless Spool, the context menu also includes:

Backup Slot — Choose a backup slot to automatically switch to if this spool runs out mid-print. The backup must hold a compatible material; the menu warns you if you pick an incompatible one. Shown only on backends that support endless spool (AFC, Happy Hare, and CFS auto-refill).

Assigning tools: Tool-to-slot mapping isn’t set from the slot context menu — it’s done from the filament mapping card that appears when you select a file to print. See Tool Mapping below.

Editing Filament Properties

Tap Spool Info in the slot context menu to open the filament editor. This lets you tell HelixScreen what’s loaded in each slot — important for systems without automatic detection (RFID).

What you can edit:

Color — Tap the color swatch to open a color picker
Vendor — Select from a dropdown (e.g., Prusament, eSUN, Hatchbox)
Material — Select the filament type (PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, Nylon, etc.)
Remaining weight — Tap the pencil icon to enable a slider and set how full the spool is (0–100%)

Read-only info:

Nozzle temperature range — Recommended printing temperatures (e.g., 200–230°C)
Bed temperature — Recommended bed temperature (e.g., 60°C)

Spoolman actions (when Spoolman is configured):

Choose Saved Spool — Browse your Spoolman database and assign a spool. This auto-fills the vendor, material, color, and temperatures.
Scan QR Code — Scan a filament spool’s QR code to look it up in Spoolman
More actions button (▾ dropdown) — Tap the dropdown arrow for additional actions:
- Spool Details — View the full Spoolman spool record
- Unlink — Remove the Spoolman association (appears only when a spool is linked)
- Print Label — Print a physical label for this spool (appears only when a label printer is set up)

Tap Save to apply your changes, or Cancel to discard them.

Tool Mapping

For multi-tool prints, you can control which AMS slot feeds each tool the slicer expects (T0, T1, T2, …). The mapping controls appear as a filament mapping card on the file detail screen — open a file from the print browser and, if your file uses multiple tools and your AMS supports editable tool mapping, the card shows a compact row of color pairs. Tap the card to open the Filament Mapping dialog.

In the dialog you get one row per tool in the file:

Map to closest colors with matching material (toggle at the top) — When on, HelixScreen auto-assigns each tool to the loaded slot with the nearest color and a compatible material; the rows become read-only. When off, you assign tools yourself.
Manual assignment — With the toggle off, tap a tool’s row to pick which slot feeds it.
Mismatch warnings — A warning icon appears on any row mapped to an empty slot or a slot whose material doesn’t match what the tool needs.

Tap Done to keep your mapping, or Cancel to discard it.

Note: The mapping card only appears on backends with editable tool mapping. On fixed 1:1 systems (Snapmaker U1, ACE) tools always map directly to their matching slot, so there’s nothing to assign.

Syncing with OrcaSlicer (2.3.2 and later, including 2.4.0)

When you edit spool info in HelixScreen — on any supported filament system (AD5X IFS, Snapmaker U1, ACE, CFS) — that information is saved to your printer in the standard location OrcaSlicer 2.3.2 and later reads automatically. Open OrcaSlicer after editing and your slot’s vendor, material, color, and temperatures show up in the filament panel with no extra setup.

AFC (Box Turtle) and Happy Hare work the same way automatically — your lane assignments flow through to OrcaSlicer with nothing to configure.

Either way, your printer’s filament info and OrcaSlicer stay in sync. The sync is one-way (your printer → OrcaSlicer): editing in OrcaSlicer doesn’t change what’s loaded in your AMS.

Tip: For the cleanest match, use material names OrcaSlicer recognizes (PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, etc.). OrcaSlicer matches your slot to a filament preset by material name, so a slot set to “PLA” auto-selects a PLA preset.

Requirements: OrcaSlicer 2.3.2 or newer, connected to the same printer’s Moonraker. Nothing to enable on the HelixScreen side — it’s automatic.

AMS Management (Settings Overlay)

Tap Settings in the sidebar to open the AMS Management overlay with advanced controls:

Home — Return the AMS to its home position
Recover — Attempt to recover from an error state
Abort — Cancel the current operation immediately
Bypass Mode — Toggle direct-feed mode (if supported by hardware)
System status — Current system state and firmware version

Below the top-level controls, device-specific settings appear as expandable sections that vary by hardware. Tap a section to open it; inside you’ll find buttons, on/off toggles, and sliders for that group, and changes apply immediately.

AFC (Box Turtle and friends) exposes the richest set, organized into sections:

Section	What’s inside
Setup	Run Calibration Wizard, Bowden Length, LED toggles (system + per-toolhead), Quiet Mode
Speed Settings	Forward and reverse move-speed multipliers
Toolhead	Sensor-to-nozzle, unload, and post-sensor clear distances (per tool)
Maintenance	Test All Lanes, Change Blade, Park, Clean Brush, Reset Motor Timer
Hub & Cutter	Cutter enable, cut distance, hub bowden length, assisted retract
Tip Forming	Ramming volume, unloading start speed, cooling-tube length and retraction
Purge & Wipe	Purge enable/length, brush-wipe enable

Other backends show their own (usually smaller) set of sections, or none at all.

Tips

When an AMS slot is actively loaded, its material information drives spool preset behavior — you’ll see a spool preset button on the Filament and Temperature panels, and purge macros receive the correct temperature automatically. See External Spool Configuration for details.
The filament path diagram at the bottom of the slot view is interactive — you can tap slot entry points to trigger a load.
During a load or unload, watch the step progress in the sidebar to track exactly where the operation is.

Multiple Filament Systems

HelixScreen supports running multiple filament management backends at the same time. For example, a toolchanger printer might use both a Tool Changer backend and Happy Hare for different parts of the filament path.

When multiple backends are detected:

A backend selector appears at the top of the AMS panel
Tap to switch between systems (e.g. “Happy Hare” vs “Tool Changer”)
Each backend has its own slots and status display
Slot assignments and controls are independent per backend

Supported system types:

System	Description
CFS	Creality Filament System (K2 series, plus K1/K1C/K1 Max with the official CFS upgrade)
Happy Hare	MMU2, ERCF, 3MS, Tradrack, EMU
AFC	Box Turtle, OpenAMS, ViViD
ACE	Anycubic ACE Pro (via ValgACE/BunnyACE/DuckACE Klipper drivers)
Tool Changer	Toolchanger-based filament routing
AD5X IFS	FlashForge Adventurer 5X Intelligent Filament Switching (requires ZMOD firmware v1.7.0 or newer)
SnapSwap	Snapmaker U1 4-toolhead changer (parallel, one independent toolhead per slot)

Each system displays its own logo in the AMS panel header. Happy Hare and AFC show their firmware logos; specific hardware variants (ERCF, Box Turtle, ViViD, etc.) show hardware-specific logos when detected.

Single-backend setups are unaffected — the panel works exactly as before with no selector shown.

Creality Filament System (CFS)

The CFS is an enclosed filament storage and delivery system for Creality printers. It ships on the K2 series, and is also supported on the K1, K1C, and K1 Max once you install Creality’s official CFS upgrade kit and firmware. Each CFS unit holds 4 spools of filament, and up to 4 units can be connected (16 total slots). HelixScreen auto-detects CFS — and the correct macro dialect for your printer (K2 uses CR_BOX_* macros, K1 series uses BOX_*) — when connected.

K1 series note: CFS on the K1, K1C, and K1 Max requires Creality’s official CFS upgrade firmware (v2.3.5.33 or newer). HelixScreen detects the K1 macro dialect automatically; no manual configuration is needed.

Slot Layout

CFS uses a TNN address format to identify each slot:

Unit	Slot A	Slot B	Slot C	Slot D
Unit 1	T1A	T1B	T1C	T1D
Unit 2	T2A	T2B	T2C	T2D
Unit 3	T3A	T3B	T3C	T3D
Unit 4	T4A	T4B	T4C	T4D

Each slot displays the detected filament color, material type (PLA, PETG, ABS, etc.), brand, and remaining filament length.

RFID Detection

CFS units have built-in RFID readers that automatically detect Creality filament spools:

Place a spool in any slot and its material info appears within seconds
Supported materials include Hyper PLA, Hyper PETG, Hyper ABS, CR-PLA, CR-Silk, and more
Remaining filament length is tracked automatically
If a spool isn’t recognized, a generic entry is shown — you can identify it manually

Tip: If a slot shows incorrect info, remove and re-seat the spool to trigger a fresh RFID read.

CFS Device Actions

Tap the menu icon on the CFS panel to access device actions:

Action	What It Does
Refresh	Re-read all RFID tags across all units — useful after swapping spools while the printer was off
Auto-Refill	Toggle automatic backup spool switching — when enabled, if the current spool runs out mid-print, the system loads the next spool of the same material
Nozzle Clean	Trigger the nozzle cleaning routine using the CFS’s built-in silicone strip

Snapmaker U1 (SnapSwap)

The Snapmaker U1 is a 4-toolhead changer, not a shared-path AMS. Each of its four slots has its own independent toolhead, so the topology is parallel — slot 1 always feeds tool 0, slot 2 feeds tool 1, and so on (a direct 1-to-1 mapping). There is no hub or selector to share between slots.

RFID Detection

Each channel has an RFID reader that reads Snapmaker filament tags automatically:

Material type and sub-type (e.g. “PLA SnapSpeed”), manufacturer, and brand appear per slot
Color, recommended nozzle/bed temperatures, and spool weight come from the tag
When you physically swap a spool, the new tag is detected and any stale metadata you’d previously entered for that slot is cleared automatically

You can still edit spool info manually from the slot context menu for spools without a tag.

Runout and Resume

The U1 tracks filament with a motion sensor per tool. When a runout fires mid-print, HelixScreen prepares the printer before resuming — disabling the runout sensor, heating the tool, priming a short length of filament past the encoder, and re-enabling the sensor — so a plain Resume actually continues the print. If the motion sensor reports a runout but filament is still physically present (a stale sensor reading), HelixScreen recovers silently without prompting you.

Note: Because each toolhead is independent, the Snapmaker backend has no Home, Recover, Reset, Bypass, or Endless Spool controls — those apply to shared-path AMS hardware only.

Spoolman Integration

Spoolman

When Spoolman is configured:

Spool name and material type displayed per slot
Remaining filament weight shown
Tap a slot to open Spool Picker and assign a different spool

Spoolman Panel

Access via the Filament nav tab. Browse, search, and manage your entire spool inventory:

Search — Filter spools by vendor, material, or color name
Context menu — Tap a spool to set active, edit, or delete
3D spool visualization — Color-coded fill level at a glance

New Spool Wizard

Tap + Add in the Spoolman panel to create a new spool in 3 steps:

Select Vendor — Search existing vendors or tap + New to add one
Select Filament — Pick an existing filament or tap + New to create one with material, color, temperature ranges, and weight
Spool Details — Set remaining weight, price, lot number, and notes

The wizard creates all records (vendor, filament, spool) atomically in Spoolman.

Tip: You can print physical spool labels with a QR code linking to Spoolman. See Label Printing for setup instructions.

Filament Drying

Many filament materials absorb moisture from the air over time. Wet filament prints poorly — you may see popping, stringing, reduced layer adhesion, or a rough surface finish. Drying the filament before or during a print removes that moisture and restores print quality. Hygroscopic materials that benefit most include Nylon, PA-CF, TPU, and PETG; PLA is less sensitive but still benefits after long storage.

Supported Systems

Dryer control is available on hardware that includes an integrated heated chamber:

System	Notes
Anycubic ACE Pro	Built-in drying chamber with fan
Happy Hare	On MMU setups where a heater is configured
QIDI Box	PTC heater in the filament storage unit (QIDI PLUS4, Q2, MAX4)

Systems without a dedicated drying chamber (AFC Box Turtle, Creality CFS, AD5X IFS, Snapmaker U1, tool changers) do not have dryer controls — the option won’t appear for those.

Using the Dryer

Open the dryer controls from the multi-filament panel:

Open the Filament panel from the sidebar.
Tap Settings to open the AMS Management overlay.
The dryer controls appear if your hardware supports drying.

From the dryer panel you can:

Set target temperature — Use the slider or tap the value to type a temperature. The target is automatically clamped to the safe maximum for your unit (typically 65–90 °C depending on firmware).
Set duration — Choose how long to dry, in hours. Some systems accept a custom duration; others offer material-based presets.
Pick a material preset — If presets are available, tap a material name (PLA, PETG, Nylon, etc.) to fill in the recommended temperature and time automatically.
Start drying — Tap Start to begin. The heater activates and the chamber temperature climbs to your target.
Watch the countdown — While drying, the panel shows the current chamber temperature, humidity (when a sensor is present), and the time remaining.
Stop early — Tap Stop at any time to turn off the heater. Remaining time is discarded; it is safe to stop mid-session.

QIDI Box note: QIDI Box drying control requires recent QIDI firmware that exposes the box_extras Klipper plugin. On older firmware, the heater still works but the session timer won’t be tracked — the heater runs until you tap Stop.

Typical Drying Parameters

These are general-purpose starting points. Your filament manufacturer’s guidance takes priority.

Material	Temperature	Time
PLA	45 °C	4–6 h
PETG	55 °C	4–6 h
ABS / ASA	60 °C	4 h
TPU / TPE	50 °C	4–8 h
Nylon (PA)	60 °C	8–12 h
PA-CF / PA-GF	60 °C	8–12 h

Filament that has been stored open for a long time may need the longer end of the range.

Multi-Unit Setups

If you have multiple Box units connected, each unit has its own dryer with independent controls. The panel shows which unit you are controlling. You can run dryers on multiple units at the same time — each unit heats independently.

Filament

External Spool Configuration

Extrusion Panel

Load / Unload / Purge

Customizing which macro runs

Manual extrude/retract

AMS / Multi-Material Systems

Slot View (Left)

Reading Error States

Sidebar (Right)

Slot Context Menu

Editing Filament Properties

Tool Mapping

Syncing with OrcaSlicer (2.3.2 and later, including 2.4.0)

AMS Management (Settings Overlay)

Tips

Multiple Filament Systems

Creality Filament System (CFS)

Slot Layout

RFID Detection

CFS Device Actions

Snapmaker U1 (SnapSwap)

RFID Detection

Runout and Resume

Spoolman Integration

Spoolman Panel

New Spool Wizard

Filament Drying

Supported Systems

Using the Dryer

Typical Drying Parameters

Multi-Unit Setups

See Also