Print to order
Exactly what was sold goes into the queue, in the quantity ordered. Right for bulky items and made to order work.
KPL-0006
Keep your 3D printers in step with your orders.
Every paid Shopify order becomes a print job in SimplyPrint automatically. You map your products to a print file once, and after that the work is waiting at the printer before you would have thought about the order yourself.
Print jobsProduct mappingStockQueue groupsFilament colour
Set this up Free to start · 30 days unlimited
Print on demand lives or dies by the gap between the order and the printer. A bed that sits idle overnight because nobody saw the order is nine hours you cannot get back, and the customer is waiting for exactly those nine hours. This connector takes the gap out: the order becomes a job while you are asleep.
The sum
Three dragons is four print jobs, not three
A printed product is rarely one print. It is parts, and a bed rarely makes exactly one of each. So the interesting work is arithmetic: how many of this part go into one item, and how many usable ones come off one bed. You set those two numbers per file once, and after that a sale turns into the right number of jobs without anyone counting.
Paid Shopify order
#3312 Flexi Dragon 3 ordered
Only paid orders get this far. Cancelled orders and refunded units are taken off first, so no filament goes into something that will not go through.
- Print file Flexi Dragon body (8712345678901)
- 1 per item
- 1 usable per print
One bed3 prints Black PLA Queue group A - Print file Flexi Dragon clip (8712345678918)
- 2 per item
- 8 usable per print
One bed1 print Signal red PLA Queue group A
Into the SimplyPrint queue 4 jobs
- Dragon body Black PLA
- Dragon body Black PLA
- Dragon body Black PLA
- Dragon clips Signal red PLA
The queue group and the filament colour travel with each job, arriving as a material tag in SimplyPrint, so the work lands on the right printer in the right colour without anyone checking it again. A file is only ever queued once per order line, so a retry can never print the same thing twice.
The other mode
Or print nothing until the shelf gets thin
Printing one at a time is wasteful for an item a bed makes eight of. In stock mode nothing happens while your Shopify inventory stays above the threshold you set per product. Drop below it and Schakel tops the shelf up, exactly to the threshold and no further.
Shopify inventory
- 12 in stock
- 8 queued
- Threshold 20
And afterwards
The reprinted units are added back in Shopify, so the shelf your shop sells from is the shelf the printers actually filled.
You choose per connector
Print to stock
Nothing until the threshold is crossed, then a batch. Right for small parts a bed makes many of at once.
On the machines
What the connector actually does
Six things, all of them checkable afterwards in the queue history.
Print jobs on every paid order
The moment a Shopify order is paid, its files land in the SimplyPrint queue. Unpaid orders are left alone and refunded units are taken off the order first, so no filament and no printer hours go into something that is not settled.
Mapping by barcode, in one click
Put the EAN in the filename between parentheses, for example Flexi Dragon (8712345678901), and your whole catalogue maps to the right print files in one go. Whatever does not match you point at yourself, and that choice is kept.
Several files per product
Map every part an item is made of. Per file you set how many go into one item and how many usable ones one print produces, and the number of jobs is worked out from those two numbers.
Queue group and filament colour
Jobs can land in a fixed queue group, and per product you can send a filament colour along, which arrives as a material tag in SimplyPrint.
Nothing queued twice
What was lined up is recorded per order line and per print file, and that can only happen once. A line that was skipped or failed does keep retrying, because it has not been printed yet.
A product with no file is counted, not lost
It is skipped with the reason written in the queue history, and the number of products without a file sits on your dashboard. Map the file later and the next run picks it up.
Before and after
What the workshop day looks like
| Task | By hand | With Schakel |
|---|---|---|
| Noticing a new order | Checking the shop between prints | Queued the moment it is paid |
| Finding the right file | Digging through folders | Mapped by barcode, once |
| Working out how many prints | Counting parts and beds in your head | From the two numbers you set per file |
| Setting the filament colour | Remembered, or not | Sent along as a material tag |
| Choosing the printer | Whichever is free | The queue group you assigned |
| An unpaid order | Sometimes printed anyway | Left alone until it is paid |
| Refilling a thin shelf | Noticed when it is empty | Topped up at your threshold |
| A product with no print file | Quietly forgotten | Counted on your dashboard |
How you start
Four steps, then it runs
The third one is the only one that takes real time, and the barcode match does most of it for you.
- 01
Connect your Shopify store
You connect your store to Schakel once. If you already run another Shopify connector, that same connection is reused rather than asked for again.
- 02
Paste your SimplyPrint key
In SimplyPrint, under your account on the API tab, you will find an API key and your Company ID. You enter those two under Connections, and we test them right away rather than finding out later.
- 03
Map your products to print files
Import your catalogue and click match by barcode. Anything that does not match automatically you point at yourself, from your folders in SimplyPrint, and per file you set how many go into an item and how many one print yields.
- 04
Choose when to print, then let it run
Print on every order, or only when stock drops below a threshold. After that it keeps pace, and the queue history shows exactly what was lined up and why anything was skipped.
Ready to let your orders load the printers?
Connect the store, paste the key, map your files. That is the whole setup.
Your SimplyPrint key and Company ID are stored encrypted, and the Shopify connection runs through Shopify itself. Access can be revoked from either side at any time.
What you need
- A Shopify store on a paid plan
- A SimplyPrint account with API access
- Print files with the EAN in the filename, between parentheses
- A barcode on your Shopify variants
Not sure how to get those keys? Step by step:
Where it runs
On app.schakel.app, with your own Schakel account. No webshop required.
Another pair
Connect a different pair
Shopify and SimplyPrint is one of many. Pick two systems and see what travels between them.
Common questions
What happens to a product without a print file?
It is skipped, with the reason written next to it in the queue history. The number of products without a file sits on your dashboard so it does not stay unnoticed. Map the file later and the next run picks it up.
Does it print on every order?
You choose. Print to order and exactly what was sold goes into the queue. Print to stock and nothing happens while your stock stays above your threshold; Schakel only tops it up when it would drop below.
Can the same order be queued twice?
No. What was lined up is recorded per order line and per print file, and that can only happen once. A line that was skipped or failed does keep retrying, because it has not been printed yet.
And if a customer returns something?
Refunded units are taken off the order before anything is queued. If it was already printed, that stands; you remove it from the queue in SimplyPrint yourself.
Can you connect Shopify to SimplyPrint?
Yes. Schakel connects through the official APIs of Shopify and SimplyPrint, so you install nothing on your own server and nothing travels outside those two parties.
Does SimplyPrint need a complete address, and what if it is wrong?
SimplyPrint needs a full delivery address to make a label. If the country and postcode do not match up, that shipment is held and shows in the log, rather than a wrong label coming out.
Can I choose the carrier in SimplyPrint myself?
Yes. Which carrier and shipping method SimplyPrint uses you set there; Schakel only hands the shipment over complete.
What happens on a refund or partial cancellation in Shopify?
It comes across, so SimplyPrint matches what was actually settled and you correct nothing by hand.