GFITpro Auto Print: hands-off printing

This tutorial shows you how to add GFITpro Auto Print as a destination in a Send-To Preset so that every finished render parks itself in a print queue the GFITpro desktop app polls and prints automatically — with no manual file transfer and no risk of printing the same order twice.

How it works

When you fire a preset that includes a GFITpro Auto Print destination, Templified places the finished render in a server-side print queue. The GFITpro desktop app running at your station polls that queue, claims each order atomically, downloads and prints it, then sends an acknowledgment back to Templified. Once acknowledged, the order is marked complete and never pulled again.

The queue is keyed by event code. Each GFITpro station polls for the event code it is configured to watch, so stations at different events stay in separate lanes automatically.

Before you start

Your GFcrew/GFITpro account must be connected under Settings → Integrations. Paste your GFIT Key and click Connect if it is not already connected — the same key authenticates both GFcrew sends and the print queue, so no extra credential is needed.
You need an owner or admin role to create and edit presets. Members can use existing presets but cannot modify them.
GFITpro Auto Print is only available to organizations with a connected GFIT key; it does not appear for organizations that have not connected GFcrew.

Step 1: Add GFITpro Auto Print to a preset

Go to Settings → Send-To Presets.
Open the preset you want to use, or click New and name it (for example, Print 8x10).
In the preset editor, click Add destination.
From the destination type dropdown, choose GFITpro Auto Print.
Configure the event codes:
- Main Event Code — leave the field empty (the placeholder reads "leave empty to pull from design") to let Templified use the event code on each design automatically. Enter a fixed code only if this preset always prints for one specific event.
- Destination Event Code — optional secondary code GFITpro uses to route within an event. Leave empty unless your GFITpro setup requires it.
Click Add destination to save it to the preset.
Click Done.

The Add destination panel in the preset editor with GFITpro Auto Print selected and the Main Event Code field empty

Step 2: Fire the preset

From Studio or the editor, open the Send To tab, select your preset, and send. Templified renders the design and places the resulting file in the print queue. The Send To tab shows dispatch status as the send completes.

If a design's event code is not set and you left the preset's Main Event Code blank, Templified will prompt you to enter a code before dispatching. You can avoid the prompt by storing the event code on the design or by setting a fixed code in the preset.

Step 3: GFITpro polls, prints, and acknowledges

No action is needed on the Templified side after dispatch. The GFITpro desktop app at your station polls the print queue for new orders on its configured event code, claims each order, prints it, and sends back a success acknowledgment. Templified marks the order complete on acknowledgment.

If GFITpro reports a failure — for example, a printer jam — the order is returned to the queue and tried again automatically. After three unsuccessful attempts the order is marked permanently failed; you can re-send from Templified to create a new queue entry.

Duplicate-print safeguards

The queue is built to prevent double-printing even under concurrent or unreliable conditions:

Atomic claim with a per-order lease. When GFITpro claims an order, that order is hidden from any other poll for 60 seconds — long enough to download the file and acknowledge it. If the station drops out before acknowledging, the order reappears on the next poll instead of being stranded. This per-order lease is separate from the per-event claim described below: one covers a single order, the other covers who owns the whole event code.
Claim-token acknowledgment. GFITpro must echo the exact token it received when it claims an order. A stale or duplicate ack that does not match the current token is silently ignored — the order's status is unaffected.
Idempotent enqueue. If Templified dispatches the same render twice (for example, because of a network retry), the second dispatch detects the existing active entry and returns it instead of creating a duplicate row.

One station per event code

Only one GFITpro station may poll a given event code at a time. Two stations on the same code would split the queue between them, so each would print only part of the run — so Templified gives the event to whichever station polls first, and refuses the second one.

When a second station polls a code that is already taken, GFITpro shows an error naming the machine that holds it and how recently that machine was heard from — for example: Event 1379 is already being polled by MPL3-02 (last seen 5s ago). Stop this poller — running a second poller on one code makes them compete for the same prints. The fix is to stop the extra station (or print from the machine already polling); the refused station claims nothing in the meantime, so no order is lost or duplicated.

A few things to know when you run more than one station:

Two stations printing for one event should use Print Locations. Give each station its own routing code and point it at that code instead of the event code. Each station then owns its own lane and neither locks the other out. See Pointing GFITpro at a Print Location.
Each station's identity has to stay stable. GFITpro sends a machine identifier with every poll, and the claim is held for that identifier. If a station's identity changes between polls — a reinstall or a reconfigured machine name — Templified treats it as a different machine and locks it out until the previous claim expires.
The claim releases itself. Every poll refreshes the claim; once a station stops polling, the claim expires about 90 seconds later and the event is free again. A station that crashes or gets closed mid-event never strands the queue — just wait about a minute and a half before starting the replacement station.

Integrators wiring their own poller can find the exact error contract in Print-queue API: polling and acknowledging print jobs.

One GFIT key, both destinations

Connecting your GFIT key once under Settings → Integrations enables both GFcrew sends and GFITpro Auto Print in every preset. There is no separate credential to manage. If you ever disconnect the integration, both destinations stop working until you reconnect.

Routing prints to a specific station (Print Locations)

If you run multiple GFITpro stations simultaneously — for example, one per booth at a large event — Print Locations lets each station poll its own dedicated routing code instead of sharing a single event-code queue. This is a beta feature available by request. See Pointing GFITpro at a Print Location for setup instructions.