gr5

View the car in "xray mode" in the older cura (from more than 2 days ago) and anything shown in the color red will have trouble print as it is an error in the sketchup model. You have to fix all of those. Alternatively you can sometimes overcome sketchup errors by checking some of the boxes in "fix horrible". ALWAYS view the model in slice view before printing to make sure that Cura understands what you want.

@daid - can you answer this? He has written plugins for the older cura but having trouble with the latest. @gearsawe - it might be simply that you need to wait another month or two before you can write fancy plugins like this. You should know that there are ".json" files that you can mess with to partly customize to another printer design but that might not be enough - you might indeed have to write a plugin: C:\Program Files (x86)\Cura_15.05.95\resources\settings

When you click "PRINT" the UM2 heats up the bed first. Only when the bed starts to get close does it turn on the nozzle heater. This is because it's bad for plastic to stay hot in the nozzle for a long time - it very slowly turns into a gunk that can clog the nozzle - this happens especially fast for ABS. So next time click "PRINT" and don't worry about it. If you don't like the defaults for your material go to the materials menu, then CUSTOMIZE then change the temps and other possible settings then "SAVE CONFIG" (or something like that) and finally select where to save it - I recommend saving it back into PLA. After this the default settings for PLA will be changed. Another workflow I do a lot is when I go to get the SD card I turn on the bed and set the nozzle to around 180C (a safe temp to leave it for 10 minutes). Then I copy my cura settings to the SD card, come back to the printer and put it in and usually the bed is warmed up. Now if I do "PRINT" I only have to wait 30 seconds or so for the nozzle to heat up the last bit.

"3d printing" makes people think it's as simple as hitting the "print" button for a 2d printer but it's not. It's more like owning a CNC milling machine. There's a lot to learn. So you might want to just order stuff on 3dhubs.com at first. I recommend you use 3dhubs.com also to compare models of printers as they have rated hundreds of printers using thousands of reviewers. The one feature I recommend is "open source". I didn't realize how important that is until after I got my printer. Having a printer where you violate the warranty if you modify it or having a printer where you are forced to buy the manufacturers filament is very bad thing.

The settings are compressed and not human readable at the last 2 lines of the gcode file (at least in the older cura from a few weeks ago - this latest Cura I'm not sure). In Cura you can then do "file" "load profile from gcode..." and it loads all the settings into cura and then you can look through them all in the gui or you can do "save profile.." to put them in a human readable ini file. The Cura that came out 2 days ago is missing tons of features like this. I decided not to use it for another month or so. Hopefully by then it will be able to do profile loading/saving.

200C at 100mm/sec is fine as long as the layers are then enough: 0.04mm thick. Here are top recommended speeds for .2mm layers (twice as fast for .1mm layers): 20mm/sec at 200C 30mm/sec at 210C 40mm/sec at 225C 50mm/sec at 240C The printer can do double these speeds but with huge difficulty and usually with a loss in part quality due to underextrusion. Different colors print best at quite different temperatures and due to imperfect temp sensors, some printers print 10C cool so use these values as an initial starting guideline and if you are still underextruding try raising the temp. But don't go over 240C with PLA.

Wow - over 1000 settings in there.

I've seen the same thing. It might be caused by the PLA slowly expanding as it heats up. Or it could be trapped air that heats up and pushes out a small amount. I found that these strings that are created from "cool head lift" are easier to remove than most. But having a second tower is my preferred method of dealing with this kind of thing.

That feature should be available in all recent versions of Cura.

I don't think you can but usually when it does this for me it means I have to rotate it or something similar. Once I've rotated it such that it can fit I can them set the scale back to 1.

Send a message to swordriff here on the forums - he'll straighten it out: https://ultimaker.com/user/inbox/compose?user=swordriff

PLA isn't a problem but with ABS it's very common for your printed object to fall apart very easily along layer lines because layers are barely bonding with the layer below. Even with parts that seem okay at first when you stress them they tend to break along printed layers. With PLA this doesn't happen - parts break where the stress is highest. This is because the glass temp for PLA is much lower than ABS so you don't have to heat it as much to get a good connection.

@Urbach - You have to click once on the object and then click on one of the icons in the lower left corner to rotate/scale.

This latest cura has some bugs. You know you can get the more stable version here right? https://ultimaker.com/en/cura-software/list I recommend 15.04.

Your motors are probably fine. I think they can be up to 80C which is very hot. It's normal for them to be too hot to touch. You can reduce the current with a simple gcode but if you do you will need to also lower the acceleration and jerk settings. I don't recomment you mess with it.

Okay - well maybe we just stumbled onto UM's next product. The UM Lite? Or could that be the um2go? I hope their next product doesn't still use an arduino! It's time to move on! Anyway those branches are tough to search through and the feature may have been put in there much earlier than that date and may have made it to the UM2 branches. Ah! This must be it then! https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker2Marlin/commit/d85409f22204c606a331f49a83d31745b3d961ba

Please post more information. I didn't know it was out for mac also! That was fast. For example what exactly does the error say? Does the screen show up at all? Is the error on top? did you look in the log file? Can you post that also?

Here is the firmware change: wait that's not it... Ah - here it is: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker2Marlin/commit/ce7320c8804c76e34662bb5f97635c91ededff23 Note he means "hysteresis" not "hyristics". I don't know why it is in the "lite" branch. I don't know what the various branches mean. What is the difference between "lite" and "master"?

As usual it's complicated. EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_TEMPERATURE I think that's the feature. Well the feature was added by a non ultimaker person "Scott Lahteine" in june of 2013 (almost exactly 2 years ago) and pulled into Daid's branch at some point. Then recently Daid changed the temperature from 50C to 40C and other changes this past december 18 to get the feature to work with UM2. and possibly other edits that I missed.

I was pretty sure I saw that commit recently. It turns the fan off when temp is below 40C. There's no way to do that in the hardware. I'll go search...

I see that both benchy's have lines in exactly the same spots. backlash explains that also. You may alternatively have missed steps on some sharp corners. It could be that your jerk and/or acceleration settings are too high for your printer. Does your printer use Marlin? Tell me more.

Well if you have inconsistent resistance in one or both axis or if you have loose belts that could explain why it's better on the chimney. for example if you have quite a bit of backlash then I would expect the patterns I see in your 3rd (last) photo because cylinders don't care if the head moves clockwise or counter clockwise but when you get to a corner like the larger piece above it makes a huge difference and cura is seemingly random on which way it will go (clockwise versus counter). So with power off hold a stepper still and move the head around to see how much play you have. The play can be in belts being loose or any part of the printer being loose enough to allow the nozzle to wiggle around without the stepper moving. The second common cause of backlash would be very high mechanical resistance. This is just one theory but the one that fits all your pictures the best: backlash. Other theories would have to do with temperature stability - you could monitor the temperature with some kind of controller on the front maybe or through USB with pronterface (don't know what kind of printer you have). But I don't know why that would be different for bency's chimney. also the Z stepper could be bad where it isn't moving the same distance very time - this is extremely common problem and can be anywhere in the Z stage but again I don't see how that would explain benchy's chimney. also extruder inconsistencies or even filament diameter inconsistent but only my backlash theory explains everything as far as I can tell.

You should always print the bottom layer at .3mm. You need to level the bed with an accuracy about 1/3 of the bottom thickness. So if you print bottom layer at .3mm then you only need accuracy of about +/- 0.1mm but if you print bottom layer at .1mm then you need accuracy of .03mm which is extremely difficult as the glass isn't really quite that flat. Cura has a special setting for the bottom layer height different from the normal layer height. What you are showing is underextrusion and underextrusion on the bottom layer is usually caused by this. however if you are getting underextrusion on the 2nd and 3rd layer then you have a different problem - simply printing too fast or maybe your printer needs some minor work. There are about 50 causes of underextrusion but the 3 most common are "printing too cold/fast", teflon coupler is deformed, and "partial nozzle clog". Here are my recommended top speeds for .2mm layers (twice as fast for .1mm layers): 20mm/sec at 200C 30mm/sec at 210C 40mm/sec at 225C 50mm/sec at 240C The printer can do double these speeds but with huge difficulty and usually with a loss in part quality due to underextrusion. Different colors print best at quite different temperatures and due to imperfect temp sensors, some printers print 10C cool so use these values as an initial starting guideline and if you are still underextruding try raising the temp. But don't go over 240C with PLA.

Is it possible that the "plasticy sound" is caused by the very light weight? You could add some sand or something part way through the print to fix the sound maybe?

ABS is definitely hard!! But if you are an expert at ABS and switch to PLA then you will think *that* is hard. First of all try to keep all dust off the filament - make sure the room is somewhat clean that you print in. Also if you print at 250C it's easy to get a clog even with no dust - ABS cooks/bakes somewhat quickly around 250 or 255C (your temp sensor can be off by 5 degrees either way also). So you need to print fast (e.g. .2mm layers will help you keep the volume up). Your issue with sticking to the bed is confusing - if you mean while it's putting down the very first layer it is not sticking? In that case your glass is too far from the nozzle. Just rotate the 3 leveling screws about 1/2 turn the first time. 1/4 turn each time after that until the bottom layer is squished. If you mean after about 10 layers it starts to peel off the bed then you should make your glue much thinner (water it down and let it dry) and make sure you use the brim feature and also make sure the bottom layer is squished into the glass nicely like in my previous paragraph. Regarding bed temp for ABS - hotter is better. 110C is ideal if you can get it that hot. I have to cover the front and put a box on top to get up to 110C. This also helps with warping issues. 100C is hot enough but 70c is definitely not!