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My UM2 is one of the very first. I am using 17.10.1. The only issue I have is sometimes at the end of the print it will retract almost all the way back to the extruder motor. No other problems.

Is there a way to make the holes smaller where the extruder makes a turn to head the opposite direction? Something like wall overlap is what I have in mind as in the "infill overlap" setting. Put the bottom layer infill further into the already printed inner wall. Thanks

I'll try it. Thanks

I use Blender to design all of my 3D prints and Cura to slice them. It has never bothered me that the things I design don't come out to the precise measurements I see in Blender. Now I am working on a project where the parts need to fit precisely and I am doing many test prints to get the fit right. Is there something I might be doing incorrectly, or is this a common experience? Thanks

I want to print an RC car body I designed in Blender - see pic. What I want is to print 2 halves of the shell with whatever support Cura calculates is needed. Is there a way to do this?

Sorry . . .

There have been several projects where I have wanted to change Cura settings at a certain level. Like 100% fill for a strong part then change to 20% for more speed when strength doesn't matter. Right now I want to change layer height at certain levels for more detail in one section then change back for more speed. Thanks

Sorry, I've come in late to this topic. Just recently installed your firmware on my UM2 and I like it. My UM2 is one of the very first - approx 7 years old. I had to wait months for it to arrive. I've noticed 2 "quirks:" the screen does shift during a print. Looks like 1 pixel to the right at random intervals. On the print I am doing now, the screen has frozen. Not updating any info and I cannot select or change any settings. The control knob does glow red when I press it, but I still can't make changes. The print continues to go well. The only thing I did was change the print speed and flow rate at the very first, but then put those values back to normal for the "long haul." Don't know if this helps or not.

Yes, that is it. On the youmagine screen it is called "Alternative UM2 feeder - version two." I see now the author is iRoberti.

2 perfect prints now, and at a speed I am pleased with!! Here is a page that describes what to do with the Tinkergnome firmware once you have found it. (There is supposed to be a link here. Every time I paste it, it turns into a screen shot sort of thing. In the Ultimaker forum go to Ultimaker software/firmware and search "Tinker firmware - introduction") For those who have been keeping score, or care, I've added: - New high temp teflon thermal isolator - Printed ABS spacer that replaces the steel spring for the teflon part - Medusa feeder upgrade I am going to add the Alternative UM2 feeder - version two since the new firmware does not run the extruder motor at 2X speed when changing filament.

Interesting news. I started a new print. 25mm/sec, .4mm dia and .2mm height or 2mm3/sec. The planets have aligned, and I obviously prayed to the right gods. I was able to increase the speed to 600% with a feed rate of 190% and a temp of 210C. That's 12mm3/sec! No problems, perfect results, so far. The next thing I print will totally fail and I will have no idea what changed. The UM2 was going so fast that the small table it sits on was moving back and forth.

I recently downgraded myself from a B+ Ulitmaker/Cura student to a C. There is a lot I don't know. Oh well. I've been fighting under extrusion and the extruder motor skipping on my old UM2 for a long time and recently added the Medusa upgrade. I read that I need to change the extrusion multiplier to double the motor speed. 20 teeth on the drive gear and 40 on the driven. On the printer's control screen I set the flow rate to 200% which has worked so far, but loading filament is a pain. I downloaded Marlin v2.0.5.3 and uncompressed it but cannot find anything in the folder that seems like it will install the program on my PC. I have never modified the firmware on my UM2, so I will need baby steps please.

On a side note, I work in the maintenance dept for a major food manufacturer. They trust me with their multi-million dollar cereal packaging equipment, some of which is extremely technical. I am frustrated by the help features offered by the manufacturer. The description of the functions were written by the engineers who designed and programmed the machines - they totally understand how it works. I wish they hired a farmer to write the descriptions - dumb it down a little. I wish the folks who write the Cura help descriptions did the same thing. Maybe add a pic to describe what a feature does.

Thanks for the help. Right now I am printing the 3 parts for the extruder upgrade. I changed the setting "optimize walls," (or something like that,) to on. It eliminated a lingering question I have always had, "why does Cura jump to a circle and print one wall section, then retract and jump to another circle and print one wall section, then jump to the outside wall and print one section, etc, etc." After turning that on, it will print all sections of a wall, then go to another location and print those walls. This saves a lot of retraction/jump moves and seems to make it all run better. I also turned combing to "all" vs "none." With these changes I get awesome results and can print way faster. I still don't understand combing.

After changing the "retraction prime extra amount" to 0, the next print turned out perfect. I did have to set the flow to around 2.5mm3/sec and the temp to 240C, but it worked.

Why does everything have to be so hard . . . In the pic you see a recently failed print. The lower levels were nearly perfect. There is a section with a skip below the t on the build plate. When the print got to the upper layers, the ones with more retractions for nozzle jumps, there are way, way more extruder skips to the point where I terminated the print. When I discovered the skips I slowed the speed to 50%, so it was at 1.6 mm3/sec. I did have the "retraction prime extra amount" set at 3mm3 to compensate for the blob that oozes from the nozzle during a retraction move. If I can make the temp about 220C, that blob more or less goes away. I will retry with the value set to 0. I have not replaced the teflon part in a long time and have used a 1/8" dia drill bit to reshape the hole. I've been printing for 6 years now, m/l. At this point, it still feels like every print is an experiment. Here's hoping you have plenty of TP. If not, I can box up some corn cobs from Iowa to send your way.

I have one of the original UM2 printers - 6-7 years old. Several of these printers, like mine, had/have issues with the extruder skipping when the torque threshold is exceeded. I seem to remember there was a g code hack to set the torque limits higher. I think it's just cut and paste to modify the code, but I've never done it, so baby instructions please. Is there a "way too high" value? How about a plugin that will make this change so I don't have to remember. I typically print at .2mm height, .4mm dia, and 40mm/sec. I think that's 3.2 mm3/sec. For faberdashery PLA I set the temp at 240C. The extruder will skip some at lower temps - usually at the worst location. This leads to another question - how fast should I expect? I know the answer is "it depends," but this rate seems low for objects where the final quality isn't critical. Thanks

On my UM2 the fans require a set point of 25-30% just to begin rotating. Once they start to spin, they will stay spinning down to about 10%. I think it is a limitation of the physics of the motors, etc. I figured this value out by controlling the % on the printer during a print.

Watching the animation of the print, I see these dots are often the very last step before a new layer. In the attached g code at layer 48 you see the printer is adding tiny spots of infill - yellow. It happens a lot on this project due to the many spikes, but I see it on almost all of my prints. If needed, I can video a print in progress. If someone is feeling extra generous, I have included the Cura settings I use. I'd like to know if someone sees something way off from the norm. I am having a difficult time getting satisfactory results lately. The only thing that seems to work is to slow the print speed which makes me sad. If it makes a difference, I am using an Ultimaker 2. Thanks for the help. Happy Holidays. my settings.curaproject.3mf wade hedge hog.stl wade hedge hog.gcode

Great news!! Once the holiday season is over I will once again become dormant and will stop asking for impossible features and giving suggestions no one wants. Until then . . . I have been having a lot of problems getting good results recently which results in me trying to figure out what I have done wrong. With that in mind here are a few ideas for everyone to blow off. #1 I found what I think is an example of where Cura let me make a setting it really should not have. Using a .4mm nozzle why am I allowed to set the "Skin Overlap" at .4mm? If I understand this function correctly, Cura is going to place the last/outside ring exactly over the previous one. Yes, I see the fx in the circle. If this is as big of a problem as I think it is, I need a glaring "you are an idiot" alarm. Changing this value to the recommended one may have eliminated a problem I was frequently having, or it could have been something else entirely - excess lunar gravity. On the same subject, this setting is called "Skin Overlap." Further down in settings we have "Outer Wall Speed." Aren't outer wall and skin the same thing? #2 I have a history of asking for impossible features. When I first received my UM2 I asked for a rewind feature so that if a print fails at hour 15 due to a clogged nozzle, etc. you could rewind the program and save the print. At that time I was told no. Maybe the programming Gods can figure this one out today, possibly with a PC connected during the print. #3 How about pictures to accompany the pop up description of each setting. I heard once that one picture saves a lot of words. #4 I always change the default retract length from 4.5mm to 6.5mm using the printer's control screen. The description by the setting is very confusing about what I need to do to make that setting visible so I don't have to change it every time. Thanks for your patience.

On almost everything I print there are many many times when the printer will retract, z hop to a position, deretract, make an imperceptible x/y move placing just a dot, retract, then z hop to another position. What setting do I need experiment with to eliminate what seems to me like a wasted step? Thanks

Once again I have been proven wrong. The z hops are there, I thought I remember them being shown as vertical blue lines.

Ah yes. One problem solved

Usage info is reported to the folks at Ultimaker. I'm not sure what data is collected, but how about adding information giving what the typical user has for each setting and letting a user know if they have a value that is way off from the norm. Maybe that could be done for each printer supported by Cura. For example, my support density is 15% which I suspect is close to typical. If I enter 40% into that field, let me know I have entered a value that is outside the normal window for that setting. This exists for the print speed settings. I would like it applied to all settings, even those I do not have checked, and let me know if I am not using a setting most people are. I do not use the "Alternate Extra Wall" feature. If most users are using this feature, let me know.

There are 2 features I remember from older Cura versions that I have either turned off or do not exist. #1 - The vertical blue z hop lines that show every location of a z hop. The only way I can determine how z hop setting adjustments affect the print are to see how the print time changes as I change values. #2 - The ability to turn off layers that are below the one currently being viewed. I previously used this feature a lot to look for defects in individual layers.