gr5

I'm away from my computer right now - no access to cura - so it would be nice to post a screen shot as well. But basically after slicing your part, any walls need to be 0.8mm thick if line width is 0.4mm (double the line width). You can click "print thin walls" and in your case this is probably all you need to do. Note also that most nozzles print reasonably well at 75% nozzle width. So 0.3mm line widht for a 0.4mm nozzle will have decent quality. You can also buy smaller nozzles (I actually have a store that sells nozzles from 0.1mm to 2mm). But again "print thin walls" feature on cura is probably all you need.

I feel like I can see the embossed text at every angle. Know that in general it will come out better if the text sticks into the part versus if it sticks out form the part. If it sticks out then lines that are thinner than cura parameter "line width" times 2 won't print at all. So for example with 0.4mm nozzle you need the lines in your text at least 0.8mm thick. Normally. Alternatively you can click "print thin walls" option in cura which may fix your issue.

By the way, the default minimum wall thickness is double the "line width" parameter in cura which is typically equal to your nozzle width. So for a 0.4mm nozzle it typically needs to be 0.8mm thick when sliced (each horizontal cross section must be at least 0.8mm wide). But with "print thin walls" I think you can go down 1/2 again, in this example to 0.4mm. You can also set your "line width" down to about 75% of your nozzle width and still have reasonably good quality prints (but the more you reduce the worse it will get).

There are a few posibilities. I guess both are the same possibility: your part is too thin. Try making your part thicker in CAD. Or in cura try checking "print thin walls". Or set the "line width" to 0.1mm just to see if it will print at all. I can't tell by the pictures but it looks infinitely thin - if that's true then you need to go back to CAD and give it a thickness.

Yeah the "connect" is kind of bare bones. All the other Ultimaker printers let you feed them bare gcodes (UM2 series, UM2plus series, Um3, S3, S5), but not the UM2+ connect.

Maybe. But realize that a brand new machine is more likely to have a bit of PFA tubing in one of the bowdens - maybe the end was double sliced and a sliver got inside or something else that doesn't melt at 220C. If a bit of plastic or metal is anywhere along the path it will eventually find it's way to the nozzle and cause a clog. In the first few meters of printing. Once you get past the first 10 meters of filament through the nozzles the printer should be good for months if not years.

I was going to say the same thing. It looks like you have coasting enabled.

slicers take as an input an STL file and as an output a gcode file. The STL describes the model to print. The gcode are commands to the printer. So the problem you had was that you were giving cura a gcode file. Instead give it an STL file. I mean cura can read gcode files and display them but that's it. you can't slice something that is already sliced.

Sometimes they are saved and sometimes not. 3.2.1 is an excellent version of cura so you might want to just stick with that unless you need some new feature. I strongly advise going forward to save your projects. Whenever you save anything to a gcode file, also do "file" "save..." and that will create a project file. I have found these much more dependable than profiles. They save everything - the model (stl), the printer settings, the profile, and the settings (overrides to the profile). Also they save the rotation and position of all the parts that went into the gcode file. Anyway the point is, I don't save profiles - I save project files and when I print something similar I open a project file and it loads EVERYTHING. Even the printer settings. Perfectly. Even across versions.

Cura has a bit of trouble on thin walls like that that are slightly wider than line widthX2. I assume your line width is 0.7 and so if those internal duplo walls are 1.5mm then there is a .1mm gap. There is a new alpha version of Cura that supposedly does better with this sort of thing here - called arachne: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/tags It has lots of buts but might do better. But a better solution is to use this tried and tested version of Cura from one of our community members which does MUCH better on thin walls like this. I use his versions of cura much more often than the Ultimaker version. It's quite safe. I met the guy in person: https://github.com/smartavionics/Cura/releases

Please post the log file. On my computer it is here: C:\Users\gr5\AppData\Roaming\cura\4.8

yes, like you said, if initial is .4 and rest are 0.2 then if you ask for 1mm it will do 1/0.2 and decide "bottom layers" (again not the layer touching the glass) should be 5 passes (1/0.2=5). But the true bottom layer touching the glass will actually be 1.2mm thick. You asked for 1mm, it did 1/0.2=5 and so decided by default to do 5 layers and so you get 1.2mm. If you ask for 1.01mm it will still do 5 layers by the way and they will NOT be 1.01 but they will be 1.0 (and 1.2 for initial bottom). So the bottom thickness is a *request*. A suggested or nominal thickness. Sometimes you get a little thicker or thinner because this isn't considered critical to be absolutely perfect since then you hit the infill layers an no one can see it and the difference in strength is small (say 1.01 requested versus 1.2 actual).

It could be something got into the nozzle - especially with a brand new printer a tiny piece of metal or something may have clogged the nozzle - carried up into the nozzle by the PVA. Do some cold pulls - there is a menu option to do hot and cold pulls. This should get any debris out of the nozzle. Once you've printed a few meters through all possible tubing you should be done with cold pulls but a brand new printer (it seems to me) may have a little bit of dust or something.

I don't think there are any bugs. So you can see what *really* happens in preview. The GUI is written in one language (mostly python I think?) and the slicer is a separate command line program written in C++. They are completely independent executables that talk to each other. When you hit the "slice" button it passes some of the settings to the slicer. Clearly it is passing the "bottom layers, initial bottom layers, and top layers" and not the "thickness" values. Okay - to your example now. You enter layer height and layer thickness and "initial layer height" is ignored because it doesn't affect top layers. And it doesn't affect bottom layers (the underside of the table top in my example). So top layers and bottom layers is thickness divided by layer height. So far so good. The strange part is that "initial bottom layers" is just always set to the same value as "bottom layers". By default. So the initial layer thickness will indeed be thicker than the other top and bottom layers. Maybe they should have done a special calculation and noticed the "initial layer height" setting. Perhaps they decided to keep the functionality the same as the functionality was before this feature existed.

PLA is the best looking material out there as far as I've experienced. It's just such a beautiful printing material that we are so spoiled when we run into something else. 1) Are you sue you didn't see similar "waves" above your first layer of PLA prints? 2) Did you use glue stick on your regular PLA prints? If not but you did here then start over, remove all plastic from the glass, do much less glue stick. Then take a wet paper towel or tissue and smear the glue stick all around and thin it removing 95% of the glue and leaving a very thin, wet layer. Once it is dry you can print again and you might not get those waves. 3) Those waves won't be visible by the time you get to the 3rd layer. Is it really important that portions of the part you can't see look beautiful? I guess this is a stupid question. Are those waves visible from the bottom?

This looks like a head flood which is usually caused whent he part is wider than tall and comes loose from the print bead. Or sometimes if the door pops open (much less likely). In either case the door eventually comes open so if the door was still closed then this is probably a leaking core just as you suspect. The heat break may have cracked open. Anyway hopefully this is PLA which is so much easier to deal with. Ideally you want to use a heat gun. PLA softens around 52C so you only need to heat it up to 70C (anything between 70C and 100C aka tea temp will work). Combine the heat gun with patience and a tool such as a popsicle stick or needle nose pliers. Be extra careful around the wires - the heater and temp sensor connected to those wires are both quite delicate.

Well I don't have much to go on with this picture but you should know that PVA absorbs water in just a few days being left out in the air so you need to keep it in a sealed bag with fresh desiccant. You can restore PVA by heating it but this might not be your issue. If it gets wet it tends to sizzle and pop as you print it (the water is boiling). Can you show some screen shots from cura in prepare and also preview mode? And explain what happened? Did the printer stop suddenly? Was there a message? Did you stop it? Did it finish normally? Is that outer material PVA?

The problem with 2 in the same head is that the inactive one always drips a little but Ultimaker got this to work pretty well with really good temperature control where the inactive head cools. Combined with a tower to get rid of the tiny string/hair/hotdog before continuing the print. So the extra time to change the head is about 3 seconds. It's not major. It's usually significant but if you are doing a large print - say a sneaker - that is 5 minutes per layer then it's not significant. There is also the extra time to heat up the cold nozzle - UM printers have this down so that this time is typically less than 1 second as the nozzle is preheated at the right moment. The wear and tear is small as well. I've seen printers that have printed 10 kilometers of filament and still going strong. The extra bit to change nozzles seems to be the smallest issue on a UM3/S3/S5. With the e3d-online changer: https://e3d-online.com/blogs/news/toolchanger-the-update-youve-all-been-waiting-for you can have 4 filaments (e.g. support material, 2 colors and a flexible material). Or other tools (paste extruder, level sensor)?

Your original idea of a draft shield could really help as well. Did you end up trying that?

I should add that enclosing the printer will really help a lot! The Ultimaker S3 and S5 printers have a front door which is enough to make a big difference when printing ABS. Just raising the air from 20C to 35C is a big help. But really I don't like ABS. It doesn't have any properties that I can't get with other filaments.

Oh. You mean one crack starts in a layer but rips through to another? That sounds bad. Maybe. Although of course it started at a layer in the first place (almost surely). What is your nozzle temp - you might have to raise it by 5C. Regarding bed temp - ABS gets soft right about 99C (like hard clay at 99C). You have to be above this temp - safely above - so 110C is about perfect. This allows the stresses at the corners of the part to spread out more and not be concentrated in one spot - the part does indeed warp but too small to measure with a micrometer. Certainly too small to see. It warps just enough to ease the forces. You might have an ABS that has a higher softening temp so it's good to do a test - take a few cm of filament and put it on the bed and heat the bed to various temps (start with 95C) and put a towel over the part. AFter about 10 seconds on the bed reach under there (carefully - don't get burnt) and bend the filament. At room temp and at 95C it should act the same. Above 99C it should stay in it's new position. I think I mention this in the video but with hot water (for lower temp materials like PLA or nGen or CPE).

If you print an STL file that looks like a table and it's upright on 4 legs then the "initial bottom layers" are those at the bottom of the legs of the table that touch the bed. However, the "bottom layers" are those that are on the underside of the flat portion of the table. Normally these settings are set to the same value. If you go to PREVIEW mode and use the scroll bar on the right side of the display you can see what you will be getting. The "initial layer height" only affects the layer touching the print bed. No other layers. The purpose is that your print bed may be out of flat by 0.1mm or so (thickness of typical paper). So you want a thick bottom layer. This reasoning is probably bad for other reasons but that was the idea. So if initial layer height is 0.1 and layer height is 0.1 then all the layers you see in PREVIEW are 0.1mm. If "initial bottom layers" is 4 then you are getting a bottom skin thickness of 0.4mm. If initial layer height is 0.2 and layer height is 0.1 then 3 layers will give you a bottom skin thickness of 0.4mm. Does all that help?

I could talk about this for many hours but the head changer method is the best of all possible dual printing designs I think. The mark2 for example that works on UMO and UM2 printers here: https://magnetic-tool-changer.com/ Or the e3d-online version. If you have a bowden printer (you probably don't) then you really want to keep the print head as light as possible. Every gram you add to the print head degrades quality. The bowden design has plusses and minuses. The most important plus is that the print head is light. Adding a servo or solenoid would hurt. With a feeder right on the print head, now having a solenoid or servo is fine.

A part with good layer adhesion will not split along layer lines. You have lousy layer adhesion. You fix that by lowering the fan (and it helps to raise the air temp). You want the fan at the absolute minimum setting where it still rotates. Have you tried that? Have you experimented with what fan % results in what speed? It also helps to have thick layers like around 0.2mm or more as that will melt more of the solid layer below. Watch the video about adhesion to the bed. Your part should never ever come loose even if using a hammer and picking up the printer by a 1 inch cube the cube should not come loose. 100C bed is not hot enough you really want 110C. Watch my video please.

in cura it's called "enable draft shield" and you can set the distance from the part. It will improve layer adhesion quite a bit at a cost of surface quality. However, I don't recommend this feature as you don't need it. What kind of printer do you have? Are you having problems only with the first layer warping up? Are you having problems with the part splitting? Those are the 2 most common issues with ABS and both can be fixed without draft shield. For parts not sticking/warping off the bed, see this video. Yeah, I know, it's long at 20 minutes, but it's packed full of information that will make you an expert regardless of the material. If it's the other issue let us know: