Submit a new AlignerBot case

Submitting an AlignerBot case is the first step of the aligner workflow in Cympha dental lab case management software: the intake form sends the case to your lab's queue.

Audience: Orthodontists and general dentists running clear-aligner cases. You have a Cympha account with the Clinical role, an intra-oral scan ready, and either a lab in mind or you plan to use GuideMia's first-party design service.

You'll come away knowing: how to fill the AlignerBot intake form on app.cympha.com/cases/new, what files to attach, and what the status ladder looks like after you press submit.

Time required: Around eight minutes the first time. About three to five minutes per case after that — most of which is uploading the scans.

Before you start

You need:

An intra-oral scan, ideally per-arch STL or PLY exports for the upper and lower jaw. Open-bite or quadrant-only scans work too, but the AI will use the limits you set in the form, not guess from the geometry.
The patient's name. Date of birth, gender, and chief complaints are optional but useful — they appear on the lab slip and the AlignerBot's planning notes.
A clear idea of plan range (e.g. canine-to-canine, premolar-to-premolar, full arch) for each jaw. You can change this later by requesting changes; choosing right at submit avoids a round trip.
(Recommended) The Cympha Agent Manager already installed on your workstation if you have an OrthoPlus install — it lets you push a full case folder in one click instead of dragging files into the browser. See the Install and pair Cympha Agent Manager doc.

Step 1 — Open the new-case page

Sign into app.cympha.com and click New Case from the sidebar, or go directly to app.cympha.com/cases/new. The page header reads New Case.

A draft case is reserved the moment the page loads — that lets you start dropping files immediately, even before you've picked a lab. The case doesn't reach the lab until you press Submit Case.

Step 2 — Pick the lab

The first section is titled LAB. You have two choices:

GuideMia Design Lab — the first-party AI design service. The card description reads "First-party AI design — orthodontic planning, clear aligner design, and implant guides." Click it if you don't have a lab partner, or if you want AlignerBot to run on GuideMia's central workstation.
Have your own lab? Find it by lab name, or your lab manager's name or email — search box below. Type the lab manager's email (the exact address they use to sign in to Cympha) and pick from the dropdown. There's no public directory; you have to know the manager.

If you pick GuideMia Design Lab, you'll see three category tiles next — Ortho, AlignerBot, Implant. Click AlignerBot.

If you pick a custom lab, look for an AlignerBot-style service in their Service list. Otherwise, follow the lab's own intake form.

Step 3 — Let the AI fill the form (optional but recommended)

Under AI Extraction there's a paste box. If you have a clinical paragraph already typed in your notes ("28-year-old female, mild crowding upper canines, plan upper 3-3, automatic IPR allowed, expand premolars …"), paste it and click the extraction button. The form below fills in based on what the model parses out of your text.

This isn't perfect. You should review every field after extraction. But it cuts the typing for the common-case AlignerBot form significantly.

Step 4 — Upload the scans

Scroll down to the Files section. You can drop files directly into the dropzone, or click Upload via Agent if your Cympha Agent Manager is paired (the button appears only on desktop, only for non-designer roles, and only when the agent is reachable).

What to upload for an AlignerBot case:

Upper STL and lower STL — the actual intra-oral scan meshes.
Bite scan if your scanner exported one — it helps register the upper arch to the lower.
Clinical photos (optional) — frontal, lateral, intra-oral.

Files upload as you drop them. The right side of each row shows progress; once it flips to a green checkmark, that file is in storage and attached to the draft case.

Step 5 — Fill the AlignerBot treatment parameters

The Treatment Parameters section appears once you've picked AlignerBot. It has two columns — Upper and Lower — with the same fields per jaw:

Plan range — all, 3-3 (canine to canine), 4-4 (premolar to premolar), or 5-5 (second premolar to second premolar).
Automatic extraction — let the AI propose extractions if it thinks they're needed.
Extractions — explicit FDI tooth numbers you want extracted (comma-separated, e.g. 14, 24).
Missing teeth — FDI numbers of teeth that are already absent (so the planner doesn't try to move ghosts).
Allowed IPR, Protraction/retraction, Expansion, Extrusion/intrusion — directional permissions for the AI.
Align middle lines — pin midline alignment in the final position.
Spee curve, Sagittal/coronal inclination — finer biomechanical preferences.

Don't agonise. Defaults are sensible; over-constraining the AI is the most common rookie mistake. Set the hard don'ts (e.g. no extractions, no IPR) and let the planner explore the rest.

Step 6 — Privacy consent and submit

Tick I consent to the processing of patient data in accordance with the privacy policy and GDPR regulations. at the bottom. If you picked a custom lab with explicit pricing, you'll also see a pricing-consent checkbox above it.

Click Submit Case in the sticky footer. The page shows "Uploading files… please wait." while any in-flight uploads finish, then routes you to the case detail page at /cases/<id>.

A toast appears reading "Case submitted. Install GuideMia OrthoPlus to review and adjust the plan when AlignerBot finishes." with a Get planner button. If you don't have OrthoPlus installed, click through — you'll need it for Phase-2 revisions.

What happens next

Status flow you'll see on the case detail page:

Submitted — every submitted case starts here, held by the lab manager. The case appears in their inbox the moment you hit submit, and they triage it from there.
Designing — the AlignerBot is running (or a human designer has been assigned). For AlignerBot specifically, this is when the central OrthoPlus workstation produces a Phase-1 treatment plan.
Awaiting Approval — you get an email saying the plan is ready. The case link takes you to /cases/<id>/approve where you'll see the lab slip, the files, and three buttons: Approve Plan, Request changes, Escalate to lab manager.

After plan approval, AlignerBot generates the per-step aligner design (Phase-2) and the cycle repeats with Appliance Approval.

Troubleshooting

The Files section shows "Workspace is still being prepared — try again in a moment." The draft case is still being reserved on the backend. Wait two seconds and try again. If it persists past ten seconds, refresh the page — that re-fires the draft reservation.

I clicked Submit and nothing happened. Look at the consent checkboxes. The submit button is disabled until I consent to the processing of patient data is ticked. The button shows "Submit Case" normally and "Creating…" while in flight — if it's stuck on neither, something at the platform level is wrong; check the browser console for an error.

My lab manager isn't found in the search. Two common reasons: (1) they used a different email when signing up — ask them which one; (2) their lab's onboarding wizard isn't complete, so they're not surfaced to customers yet. Either fix is on their side.

The plan range I want isn't in the dropdown. The four options (all, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5) are the only ranges offered on the form. If you need something else, pick all and use the Extractions / Missing teeth fields to constrain the working set.

Related how-to: see Approve or request changes on a lab's design for what happens when the case lands in Awaiting Approval, and Install and pair Cympha Agent Manager if you want one-click file uploads from OrthoPlus.