CONNECT Service Description

CONNECT Service Description

BigRep CONNECT is a web-based service that gives authenticated users access to their BigRep printer’s data.

Prerequisites

In order to use BigRep CONNECT the following prerequisites must be met:

  • Compatible BigRep printer according to the following table
  • An internet connection (see section Security)
  • The newest HMI/Firmware software installed

Features

Printer Overview / Printer Detail

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users reading access to their BigRep pinters’ status data in order to

  • Monitor their printers
  • Receive notifications for printer events

Status data sending from BigRep printers is only activated if the printer is paired with CONNECT.

Printer status data include:

  • Serial number as primary key
  • Overall status (idle, printing, paused, out of filament, error, emergency stop)
  • Temperature sensor data
  • Printer settings (flowrate, offset values)
  • Installed HMI and firmware version
  • Active print job data (job name, estimated print time, estimated material use)

Job Management

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users reading access to their BigRep printer’s job list data in order to

  • Plan production

Print job data sending from BigRep printers is only activated if the printer is paired with CONNECT.

Print job data include:

  • Serial number as primary key
  • G-Code meta data
    • Job name (G-code file name)
    • Estimated print time according to BigRep BLADE
    • Estimated material use according to BigRep BLADE
  • Upload timestamp
  • Part preview picture generated with BigRep BLADE (with version 3.6.0 and newer)

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users the chance to upload print jobs onto their BigRep printers.

Allowed content for file upload:

  • G-Code files (*.gcode)

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users the chance to make notes/give comments on print jobs in the job list. These notes are a CONNECT-only and are not synchronized back to the printer.

Print History / Analytics

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users access to print report data from connected printers to

  • See the print history
  • Evaluate prints
  • See statistics on an analytics dashboard

Print report data sending from BigRep printers is only activated if the printer is paired with CONNECT.

Print report data include:

  • Reference to print job id to obtain print job data
  • Print start and finish timestamps
  • Calculated material usage
  • Finish state (success, error, aborted)
  • Evaluation of the print given by the operator on the HMI after the print (success, test print, failure, failure type)
  • Printer log snippet
  • Webcam image of the final result (for PRO only with HMI version 2.7.0 and newer)

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users the chance to evaluate print jobs in CONNECT and overwrite the evaluation given on the HMI. The evaluation data is not synchronized back to the printer.

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users the chance to upload additional content to a print report.

Allowed content for file upload:

  • Image files (*.png, *.jpg)

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users the chance to see statistical data based on the job reports on predefined analytics dashboards. It is not possible to customize the dashboards.

Team Management

BigRep CONNECT gives authenticated and authorized users the chance to set up CONNECT accounts for their team members and grant or withdraw access to individual printers of the customer company. This is only possible for users with the role “Account manager”.

Integration

All APIs of BigRep CONNECT are meant to be used solely by BigRep CONNECT frontend. Any integration of BigRep CONNECT APIs without prior confirmation by BigRep in written form is not in scope of use of this service.

Availability and Monitoring

Continuous monitoring of all service components (infrastructure and application) is deployed to proactively identify any component or service trending towards failure or approaching capacity.

Security

Authentication

BigRep CONNECT uses OAuth 2.0 mechanisms to secure every request to CONNECT APIs.

Users may utilize an optional 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) utilizing an email address, password, and a selected factor (soft token).

Authorization

Within BigRep CONNECT applications, role-based access control is used to secure application functionality and data records.  Additional prior to each data request it is checked

  • If the requesting user is associated to the requested printer
  • If the requested printer is associated to the company of the requesting user
  • If the requesting user is associated to the company the requested printer belongs to

Data integrity

All traffic to BigRep CONNECT is encrypted at the transport layer (TLS) to ensure data integrity.

Firewall settings

For the printers to send data the following port and domain whitelist settings have to be set in the customer’s firewall:

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