Bambu Lab X1 Carbon · Claude desktop app · one plugin

Print a part on your Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, from a chat with Claude

For someone who has the printer, Bambu Studio, and the Claude desktop app - and nothing else. No coding, no terminal, no settings changed on the printer.

You describe the part in words. Claude builds it, checks it against the X1 Carbon's real limits (wall thickness, overhangs, the plate, the corner the plate can't use), picks which way up to print it, slices it with your own copy of Bambu Studio, and leaves a file in a folder you chose. You open that file and press Print, exactly as you would for anything else. First time through takes about ten minutes; after that a part is a couple of sentences.

Download nativecad-mcp.mcpb Get a free key Start here

Before you start - the checklist

You need	Where it comes from
The Claude desktop app (Windows or Mac), signed in	claude.ai/download
Bambu Studio installed in the usual place and opened at least once	You already have it if you print. On Windows it lives in `C:\Program Files\Bambu Studio`, on a Mac in `/Applications`.
The plugin file `nativecad-mcp-0.27.0.mcpb`	In the folder that came with this guide, or https://featureboard.ai/nativecad/releases/nativecad-mcp.mcpb
A licence key (looks like `CSLV1-...`)	The person who gave you this guide has one for you. Otherwise a free maker key is e-mailed from https://featureboard.ai/register?source=nativecad
Your X1 Carbon, switched on, exactly as it is	Nothing changes on the printer. It stays on Bambu Cloud, Handy keeps working, no Developer Mode, no LAN code.

Install the plugin (three minutes)

Double-click nativecad-mcp-0.27.0.mcpb. Claude opens and asks whether to install NativeCAD. Click Install. (If double-clicking does nothing: in Claude, Settings -> Extensions -> Advanced settings -> Install Extension... and pick the file.)
Claude shows the extension's settings. Fill in two of them:

Export / output directory - pick a folder you can find again, e.g. Documents\NativeCAD. Every print file lands here.
License key - paste the CSLV1-... key.
Bambu Studio (optional) - leave it blank. Fill it in only if the troubleshooting section below tells you to.

Make sure the NativeCAD switch is on and start a new chat.

Check it worked. Type:

Say to ClaudeIs NativeCAD working? Run cad_server_info and tell me the version and licence.

Claude should answer with version 0.18.2 (or newer), a tool count in the 170s and a license.licensed: true. If it says the tool isn't available, quit Claude completely (on Windows, from the tray icon) and open it again.

Describe the part

Say what it is, what it's for, and the sizes in millimetres. Three that work well as a first print:

Say to ClaudeMake me a cable clip for a 6 mm cable that screws to a desk edge with one M4 screw. Keep it under 30 mm. It's for my X1 Carbon, PLA.

Say to ClaudeA 16 mm die with the pips recessed 0.6 mm, corners rounded 2 mm.

Say to ClaudeA name tag 60 x 25 x 3 mm with "WORKSHOP" engraved 1 mm deep, and a 4 mm hole in one corner for a keyring.

Claude builds it with the modelling tools (cad_box, cad_cylinder, cad_fillet_edges, cad_engrave_text ...), and reports what it made: overall size, volume, mass in PLA. Ask "show me a picture" and it renders one (cad_preview_body). Ask for changes the same way you'd ask a person: "make the hole 5 mm", "round the top edges", "twice as thick".

"Get it ready to print"

Say:

Say to ClaudeGet it ready to print on my X1 Carbon in PLA.

Behind that sentence Claude makes one call - cad_print_prep - and the printer pipeline runs end to end:

Stage	What happens	What you see
DFM check	The part is measured against the X1 Carbon's own numbers: at least 0.84 mm for a wall at the 0.4 mm nozzle, overhangs past 45 degrees, bridges, thin pins, tiny text, the 256 x 256 x 250 mm plate and the 18 x 28 mm front-left corner the plate can't use.	A pass, or a list of rules it failed and the fix for each.
Orientation	Every sensible way up is tried; the one with the least support and the best face on the plate wins.	"printed on face Y-, support area 0 mm2".
Bambu project	A `.3mf` written the way Bambu Studio writes one - it opens with no "not from Bambu Lab" warning, filament slot already set.	`Documents\NativeCAD\prints\<part>.3mf`
Slice	Your Bambu Studio is run in the background with the stock 0.20mm Standard @BBL X1C profile. Takes 10-60 seconds for a small part.	`prints\<part>.gcode.3mf`, plus print time and grams of filament, as the slicer measured them.
Send	Skipped by design in this guide - see Step 4.	-

Read the report Claude gives back. Two things matter:

method: "slice" means the time and grams are real, measured by Bambu Studio. method: "estimate" means Bambu Studio was not found and the numbers are a rough band - the .3mf project still exists and you can slice it in Bambu Studio yourself, but see troubleshooting first.
A DFM refusal is not a failure. It names the rule (say, "a 0.6 mm rib is under the 0.84 mm two-wall floor") and the exact fix. Say "fix that and try again" and Claude applies the fix and re-runs. If you know better than the rule, say "force it" - the file is produced and the warnings stay in the report.

Print it

Open the .gcode.3mf from your output folder in Bambu Studio (File -> Open, or double-click it). It opens as a sliced plate, preview and all. Press Print plate, pick the printer and the AMS slot, Send. Same as any print you've ever done - the printer doesn't know or care that Claude made the file.

Two other ways, if you prefer them:

Bambu Connect. Say "give me the Bambu Connect link" and Claude returns a bambu-connect:// link (cad_print mode:"connect"). Click it, Bambu Connect opens with the file loaded, pick the printer, print.
Straight from the chat to the printer over your Wi-Fi. The tools can do this (cad_print), but it needs the printer switched into LAN-only + Developer Mode, which takes it off Bambu Cloud while it's on, and it needs a network library the plugin deliberately doesn't ship. Skip it. Nothing in this guide needs it, and the two paths above are complete.

Nothing is ever sent to your printer without you pressing Print.

If something goes wrong

Every refusal Claude gets back has a code and a plain-language hint; ask Claude "what does that mean and what do I do?" and it will tell you. The ones you might meet on day one:

You see	It means	Do this
licence key required / `E_LICENSE_REQUIRED`	The key isn't set.	Paste it into the extension settings (Step 1), or tell Claude "activate this key: CSLV1-..." (`cad_license`).
`slicer_missing` or `method: "estimate"`	Bambu Studio wasn't found.	Open the extension settings and fill in Bambu Studio: on Windows browse to `C:\Program Files\Bambu Studio\bambu-studio.exe`; on a Mac `/Applications/BambuStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/BambuStudio`. Restart Claude.
`slicer_failed`	Bambu Studio ran and didn't produce a file.	Open Bambu Studio by hand once - finish its first-run setup, let it download its printer profiles, log in if it asks - close it, try again. The report carries Bambu Studio's own error text; paste it to Claude.
`slicer_object_outside`	Too big for the plate, or sitting in the unusable corner.	Say "scale it to fit", "split it in two", or "rotate it and try again".
`dfm_blocked`	A rule the printer really can't print past.	"fix that and try again", or "force it".
A time or gram count that looks wrong	Check `method`.	`"estimate"` is a band, not a measurement. Get the slicer found (row 2) and re-run.
Something else		Say "report this as a bug" - Claude files it with the details (`cad_report_bug`), and it reaches the people who built this.

Once it's working - things worth trying

Two colours. "Make it two bodies: the tag in black, the letters raised 1 mm in white" - each body gets its own filament slot in the .3mf, and Bambu Studio maps the slots to your AMS trays.
A print-in-place gear train. "A planetary gear set, sun 12 teeth, three planets, ring, herringbone, printed assembled" - cad_gear builds it and cad_print_in_place_check sweeps the train through a turn and measures every gap against the X1C's printed-clearance floor before you spend filament finding out.
Something that fits something real. Measure it with calipers, tell Claude the numbers and what fits into what. Tell it which fits you need and the DFM pack checks them against the X1C's printed-clearance band.
Ask why. "Why did it choose that orientation?" "What would change at a 0.6 nozzle?" "How much would ABS weigh?" Every stage keeps its reasoning and Claude can read it back.

What this is (one paragraph, for the curious)

NativeCAD is a real solid-modelling kernel - the same kind of engine behind a CAD package - packaged as a plugin Claude can drive. The print pipeline is five of its 140-odd tools chained together: a design-for-manufacturing pack transcribed from Bambu Lab's published X1 Carbon profile, an orientation search, a Bambu-format 3MF writer, a wrapper that runs your own Bambu Studio from the command line, and the report that ties them together. Bambu Studio itself is never bundled - it's your copy, run as-is - which is why the plugin asks where it is only when it can't find it. The printer end is documented for developers in docs/PRINT_PIPELINE.md.