Bambu Studio on iPad

There is no iPad version of Bambu Studio, and there is not going to be one soon. Bambu Studio is a desktop program for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is not on the App Store, iPadOS will not run a Windows or macOS program, and no setting or workaround changes that. What you can do is prepare the file somewhere else and send it to the printer from your iPad — that part works, and it works today.

Free, no account, nothing installed. Works in Safari on an iPad or an iPhone.

Why it cannot simply be ported

Bambu Studio is built on the same foundations as PrusaSlicer and OrcaSlicer: a large C++ desktop application with a desktop windowing toolkit under it. Getting that onto iPadOS is not a recompile, it is a rewrite of the entire interface, and it would still have to pass App Store review as a new app.

People sometimes suggest running it in a remote desktop session against a PC at home. That does work, and if you already have a PC sitting there it is a fine answer. It is not an answer if the iPad is the computer.

What an iPad can actually do

Two things have to happen between a downloaded model and a printed object. The first is preparing it: getting it the right size, the right way up, and turned into a file the printer understands. The second is sending it to the machine.

Sending it has always been possible from an iPad — the Bambu Handy app does it. It was the first half that had no answer, and that is the half this page is about. Handoff3D does the preparing in Safari itself. You open a web page, choose your model, pick your printer and your size, and it writes a finished Bambu project file straight into your Files app.

It is free, there is no account, and your model is not uploaded anywhere — the work happens on the iPad, inside the browser tab.

Which printers it covers

Every current Bambu Lab machine, with the bed size and the print settings taken from Bambu Studio's own profiles rather than guessed at: A1 mini, A1, P1P, P1S, P2S, X1, X1 Carbon, X1E, X2D, A2L, H2C, H2S, H2D, H2D Pro. Each of them in 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mm nozzle versions, because on a Bambu machine the nozzle is effectively a different printer, with its own layer heights and its own line widths.

What you still need Bambu Studio for

Plenty, and it is worth being straight about it. Supports placed by hand, painted-on settings, multi-colour assignment, custom filament profiles, tuning towers, changing anything about how the printer moves — all of that is desktop work. If you have a computer, use Bambu Studio. It is free, and it is better at its job than any web page.

What is covered here is the common case: a model somebody else designed, printed at a sensible size on standard settings. That is most prints, and it was the case with no iPad answer at all.

Common questions

Is there a Bambu Studio app for iPad?

No. Bambu Studio is a desktop application for Windows, macOS and Linux, and there is no iPadOS version on the App Store. Bambu Lab publishes Bambu Handy for iOS and iPadOS, but Handy sends and monitors prints — it does not prepare a model.

Can I run Bambu Studio on an iPad some other way?

Only by remote-controlling a computer that is already running it, through a remote desktop app. There is no way to run it on the iPad itself.

Can I prepare a model for a Bambu printer without any computer?

Yes. Handoff3D runs in Safari on an iPad and writes a print-ready Bambu project file into the Files app. Bambu Handy then sends it to the printer.