This month's iPad and FieldPrinter 2 release refreshes Floor Elevation (Beta) with guided onboarding and a levelness check before measurement. It also updates the iPad Operator experience across Setup, Settings, Job Report, and Navigation, and adds improvements for cliff detection, slope safety, and print reliability. Print Images (Beta) now supports SVG files up to 256 KB, a 50× increase from the prior 5 KB limit, so the FieldPrinter prints richer graphics directly from the iPad.

This month's Portal release focuses on quality. The improvements in this release sharpen existing parts of the product: QR codes in the Portal layout preview now match what the FieldPrinter 2 prints, the Production tab and Production Report PDF are more reliable, and there is a Portal menu link to the Dusty Help Center.

What's in this release:

• Floor Elevation (Beta) refreshed UI: A guided onboarding flow on the iPad, flexible heatmap bin sizes, automatic outlier filtering for cleaner results, and a levelness check before measurement.
• Refreshed iPad Experience: A new Setup flow with a "What would you like to do today?" entry screen, a new Settings tab, a refreshed Job Report, and a navigation bar that shows battery and LTE status.
• Print Images (Beta), 50× larger: The maximum SVG file size jumps from 5 KB to 256 KB, so the FieldPrinter prints more detailed logos, wayfinding marks, and field graphics directly from the iPad.
• Shaped and Right-to-Left Text Printing: The FieldPrinter 2 prints layouts authored in Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, and several Indic scripts, with proper character shaping and right-to-left rendering.
• Cliff Detection and Slope Safety: More visibility into cliff detection accumulations on the iPad, safer recovery on slopes, and a low-battery slope message on the iPad.
• More accurate QR code previews in Portal.
• Support link in the Portal menu.

Read on for more details on each.

Floor Elevation (Beta): Faster, Cleaner Floor Flatness Measurement

Floor Elevation is currently available in beta. Workflows, availability, and outputs may change between releases as the feature is refined.

In this release, the Floor Elevation workflow has been cleaned up, and it addresses issues with outlier handling and tracker setup.

What's new:

• The first time an operator enters elevation mode, a Guided onboarding walks through the new workflow and major UI changes.
• Flexible heatmap bin sizes are selectable from the new Settings tab. Heatmap squares default to 12 in × 12 in, with smaller bins available for finer detail. The FieldPrinter adapts measurement spacing to the chosen bin size, and measurement plans re-optimize as obstacles are added.
• Grid-size change clears existing data. Changing the bin size after measurements begin wipes the existing heatmap, so the new grid starts fresh. A warning is displayed before the change is applied.
• Station-location verification is required before measurement. The Operator records a verification point after stationing; elevation measurement is blocked until the verification point lands. This protects the data from drift if the tracker shifted during stationing.
• Periodic levelness checks. The Laser Tracker re-runs a levelness check on every verification reflector cycle (roughly every 15 minutes), so accuracy doesn't drift if the tracker is bumped mid-print.
• Automatic outlier filtering discards a small number of extreme points before they distort the heatmap color range.
• Heatmap visual control adds a "Previous" color (pink), show/hide controls, and a tappable measure-area box on canvas for quick deletion.

Note: The FieldPrinter measures floor elevation only when it has an unobstructed line of sight to the Laser Tracker, unlike printing, which can continue briefly without direct visibility while maintaining precision. For best results, ensure no fixed or moving objects block the laser during measurement.

Refreshed iPad Experience: Less Hunting, More Doing

The iPad's Setup, Settings, Job Report, and Navigation surfaces have been redesigned to surface the most relevant information in fewer taps.

• The new Setup flow opens with a ‘What would you like to do today?’ entry screen where the Operator picks the day's mode: Print only, Measure Elevation (record individual measurement points), or Background Measurement (continuously record the heatmap while the FieldPrinter is driving, printing, or manually driven via joystick). The setup then surfaces previously stationed control points in the recorded list, shows a pop-up if any of those points were not used, surfaces a failure pop-up when the Laser Tracker fails the levelness check, and warns the Operator before a grid-size change. A Setup Complete window confirms when the workflow is done.
• Start New Station resets the entire setup in one tap, between What would you like to do today? and Connect Tracker. The Operator no longer needs to manually unselect control points or delete the verification point before stationing again.
• New Settings tab consolidates grid-size selection and other elevation settings into a dedicated menu, along with FieldPrinter information and controls such as Printer Position, Ink Type, and the Camera switch.
• Refreshed Job Report now shows the current task, project progress (printing lines, points, and text), a Point Elevation summary, and an Area Elevation summary that includes how many grids have been measured. The canvas button layout is reworked, and the measure-area box on canvas can be tapped to delete it.
• The navigation bar shows battery and LTE status alongside the existing controls.

Print Images (Beta): 50× Larger SVG Files for Richer In-Field Graphics

Print Images, introduced in April 2026, gets a major upgrade in this release. The maximum SVG file size jumps from 5 KB to 256 KB — a 50× increase that lets the FieldPrinter print far more detailed graphics directly from the iPad, without a trip through Portal.

What this opens up in practice:

• Detailed logos and brand marks that previously hit the 5 KB ceiling.
• Richer wayfinding marks, including multi-element arrows, icons, and area-identification graphics.
• Schematic and reference drawings captured in the field — site diagrams, equipment locations, or instructional graphics.
• Larger graphics that span multiple print swaths, with Print ETA now updating mid-shape so the Operator can track progress accurately.

The workflow is unchanged: long-press on the layout canvas at the target location, choose Print SVG, select the file from local iPad storage, set rotation, height, and alignment, then tap Print.

This release also increases the reliability of Print Images:

• Manual print-head selection now correctly sends the pen request to the FieldPrinter.
• Closing the file picker without selecting a file no longer shows an error.

For best results, use monochrome SVG files with true black (#000000) on a white or clear background. Vector paths, shapes, and text are supported; embedded raster images and filled areas are not. For detailed guidance, see Image Printing Guidelines and Best Practices.

Shaped and Right-to-Left Text: Print Layouts in More Languages

Text printing has been extended to support shaped and right-to-left scripts. The FieldPrinter now correctly renders:

• Arabic script with connected letterforms, including Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, and Persian.
• Hebrew is printed right-to-left.
• Thai with proper vowel and tone-mark positioning.
• Indic scripts with correct conjunct rendering, including Hindi (Devanagari), Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Bengali.

The iPad has also moved to the full Noto font family for emoji and CJK characters.

Inline-shaped and right-to-left text is authored on the iPad in this release. Portal still restricts the character set in inline line styles; broader support there is planned for a later release.

Cliff Detection and Slope Safety: Better Visibility, Safer Recovery

Building on prior cliff-obstacle work, this release improves how the FieldPrinter responds to cliffs and slopes, and how the iPad keeps the Operator informed when those conditions accumulate.

• Cliff detection accumulations on the iPad. When the FieldPrinter detects unmarked cliffs (whether or not they are already represented in the layout as obstacles), the iPad shows a notification with a running count: "Robot is operating in an unsafe environment with [N] unmarked cliff(s)." Cliff detection also works while the FieldPrinter is on a slope.
• Print behavior near cliff obstacles. For a regular obstacle, the FieldPrinter prints up to contact so as much of the line lands as possible. For a cliff obstacle, the FieldPrinter stops short of where the cliff sensors would trigger, so an autonomous cliff stop doesn't interrupt the print. When operator-added cliff obstacles are present, the FieldPrinter also keeps a wider clearance than it does for regular obstacles.
• Drawing and scanning cliffs. Cliffs can be drawn or scanned from the Obstacles menu. Rectangle draw and circle scan are not available for cliffs.
• Safer recovery on slopes. Detecting a cliff no longer triggers a rotate-and-stop maneuver, which could itself risk the robot falling off the cliff.
• Cliff sensor state tracking. Telemetry and operations logs record when cliff sensors are disabled, so issues can be investigated after the fact.
• Cliff obstacles created as subsets. When the FieldPrinter encounters a cliff next to a regular obstacle, it now adds a new cliff obstacle as a subset of the original instead of mutating the original in place. The iPad shows the cliff alongside the obstacle in the layout, so the Operator can see what the FieldPrinter treats as a cliff and edit or replace it if auto-detection was overzealous.
• Low-battery slope message. The iPad shows a slope-specific message when the FieldPrinter is low on battery while operating on a grade.
• Battery state messaging cleanup. A genuine low-battery warning appears in place of a "no battery" message in cases where the radio briefly reported zero.
• Simulator fix. Spurious "cliff sensors obstructed" warnings during simulator runs have been suppressed.

Print Reliability: Accurate ETAs, Smarter Queueing

• Print ETA updates mid-shape. Print ETA updates while a long shape is printing, not only at queue transitions. Long SVG and image prints show accurate remaining time.
• Cut-line merging. Related cut lines are grouped into the shape merger, so multi-pass elements (a line plus an anchor-bolt cap, for example) print together more often. Shapes longer than 5 m are still excluded from merging.
• Add to Task Queue. The button stays enabled during active printing so additional shapes can be added to the queue, and each addition is capped at 300 shapes (matching the initial submission limit) to avoid overwhelming the FieldPrinter.
• Measurement re-optimization. Measurement lines re-optimize when obstacles are added, mirroring print-line behavior. The runway disconnect between the measurement task and the optimizer has been fixed, so feasible shapes are no longer rejected.

iPad and FieldPrinter UI Improvements, Small Updates, and Bug Fixes

• MEP point visualization scales with zoom, so points stay visible when zoomed out to see the full building.
• Confirmation prompt when deleting a control point now appears in the slide-to-delete and context-menu actions, matching the existing info-bubble confirmation.
• Station Info modal filters to control points that are recorded and selected.
• Scan Shape Obstacle now closes the obstacles menu automatically after Scan Shape is selected and shows a temporary indicator confirming the first scan point was recorded.
• Heatmap color consistency so colors no longer shift on disconnect, and the "Previous" heatmap color matches the rendered heatmap.
• Email .dusty files to Support. Operators can send a project's .dusty file directly from the iPad to Support. The iPad copy includes obstacles, edits, and other changes added in the field that aren't yet synced to Portal, so Support can debug what's actually on the Operator's device.
• Stationing state isolation. Switching between projects that share control points no longer carries stationing state from one project into the other.
• Last control point removal updates the canvas immediately, without requiring a project re-open.

QR Code Previews in Portal

QR codes in the Portal layout preview now render using the anchor and justification data from the source file. Previously, QR codes could appear offset in Portal even when the FieldPrinter printed them in the correct position. The anchor data made it all the way to the FieldPrinter but was ignored by Portal's display.

Three related fixes ship together in this release:

• Portal layout preview honors all nine justification anchors (top, middle, bottom crossed with left, center, right) when rendering QR codes.
• QR codes render consistently as images across all layouts. Some layouts previously displayed the target URL as plain text instead of a scannable code.
• The QR code in the Print Progress Viewer renders correctly. Earlier releases rendered the code as a series of horizontal lines in this viewer.

How to check your layouts:

1. Open any project with QR codes in Portal.
2. Select a layout to open the layout preview.
3. QR codes now appear in the position and justification set in the source file.

If you use QR codes in demo files or to position callouts on the slab, expect them to sit where the source file places them.

Support Menu Link

A new Support entry in the Portal menu links directly to support.dustyrobotics.com, so Operators and VDC Managers can jump to the Dusty Help Center without leaving Portal.

Portal UI Improvements, Small Updates, and Bug Fixes

• Esc key returns the user from layer properties back to the layer list during file prep.
• Trade list updates. Finishes is removed; Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment (FF&E) is added.
• Layout file details distinguish printable trade points from measure points in the file details panel.
• The Project Viewer role no longer sees the Start by adding a building and Add Layout buttons for projects where creation is not available.
• Rotated points stay visually centered on the layout. Rotating the angle of a point no longer shifts where the center of the point marker sits.
• Elevation values smaller than 1/32″ display as 0″ in the point elevation CSV. Previously the cell was empty or showed only a "+" or "-" symbol.
• Downloading an empty Point Elevation Report CSV from the Elevation tab is disabled.
• Uploading a layout shows the correct upload date immediately, instead of an incorrect date that only refreshes on reload.
• The uploader bubble shows user initials for files uploaded by a Dusty super user, instead of an empty gray circle.
• Layout name and print date no longer display "undefined" or "N/A" immediately after editing layout details; the updated values appear without a page reload.