mechamecha

An excellent alternative to FreeCAD is Onshape, which is a really powerful, web-based 3D CAD system. They offer free and paid accounts, but I've found their free account to be pretty amazing.

Impressive! To be fair, though, the metal fan mount that comes with the UM2 isn't very efficient. It has large pockets where air gets trapped and gaps where air escapes...

You shouldn't do that. When the heater isn't in the block with the sensor, there's no way to monitor the temperature of the heater, so it will keep heating up until it burns.

Amazing! Do you do much post-processing to your prints?

That bear is beautiful! How big is it?

Ah, I get it now. Thanks!

I've noticed that if I try to ramp up my fan speed very gradually over several millimeters (using "Fan full on at height" in Cura), the fans never actually turn on, even though the display shows the fan speed percentage increasing by a small percentage on each layer in the Tune menu. I have to manually play with the setting to get the fans jump started. Is this a firmware bug?

I'm not sure if this will solve your problem, but I've managed to get much more even layers by tightening up all the screws on my printer (set screws on the pulleys and motors as well as all of the screws holding the frame together), tightening the springs on the bed to reduce bouncing, and keeping the rods oiled/greased.

Yeah, the only time I tried out the spiralize feature, nearly a year ago, I got the same type of scarring. It was especially noticeable because I was using blue t-glase.

Is there any plan for Cura to provide an option for this in the future? With certain types of prints, it would be extremely useful to be able to limit the z-seam to a single location up the side of the model instead of marring the entire perimeter. For me, this is the major thing that's missing in Cura. I can't possibly be the only one who feels this way...

I've asked this before, but I don't think I received an answer. Is there an option in Cura that I'm overlooking allowing for the layer changes to occur along a single seam at the same location all the way up the side of the model? If not, are there any plans to implement this option? Last time I checked (it's been a while, though), the way Cura handles layer change locations is to search for corners in the model where seams may be hidden. However, in very smooth models that don't feature suitable locations for Cura to hide the seam (cylinders, for example), especially when printing with layer heights of .2 mm or larger, this has left noticeable scars all around the perimeter of my prints. It would be really nice to have the option to place the scar in a single line up the side of the print instead of scattered all around. Actually, I consider this a must-have feature, and it's really the only reason I use Kisslicer instead of Cura at times.

shurik - I did change my Teflon insulator recently, but it was when I still had the stock heater block/nozzle installed, and it didn't make an appreciable difference. So now I have the new Teflon insulator, Olsson block and RSB nozzle installed, and my UM2 is working great!

Just wanted to thank anders-olsson, swordriff and gr5 once again! I installed my new heater block + RSB 0.4 nozzle and it's working great. I was previously experiencing constant under-extrusion problems and had to increase material flow to about 135% as a workaround. With the new heater block and nozzle, it's working like new... maybe even better! I also love the ability to easily maintain and change nozzles. I'd definitely recommend this mod to anyone with an Ultimaker 2!

Thanks, swordriff! I just placed an order with gr5 and can't wait to get my new heater block and nozzles! And thank you for providing the UM community with this really great option!

Sorry if this has been asked before, but what's the difference between the JET nozzles and the JET RSB nozzles? I tried searching for the answer, but couldn't find an explanation. (I know there's a very brief description on the 3dSolex site, but nothing that explains why someone would choose one over the other.)

Slic3r seems like a good candidate for what you're trying to do. You can uncheck "Extra perimeters if needed" so it won't print the "shelves" to help support the upper layers that gr5 mentioned. Here's the start and end g-code that I've been using for slic3r, which seems to work OK: Start: G21 ;Metric Values G90 ;Absolute Positioning M82 ;Extruder to Absolute M106 S0 ;Fans Off G28 ;Home All Axes G1 X5 Y10 F9000 ;Move Head to ~Origin G1 Z20 F9000 ;Raise Bed to Head M140 S<BED> ;Set Bed Temp M190 S<BED> ;Wait For Bed to Reach Temp M109 T0 S<TEMP> ;Set & Wait Head Temp T0 ;Select Extruder 1 G92 E0 ;Zero Extrude L End: T0 ;Select Extruder 1 M104 S0 ;Head Temp Off M140 S0 ;Bed Temp Off G91 ;Relative Position G1 E-1 F300 ;Retract 1mm G1 Z+0.5 X-20 Y-20 F9000 ;Drop, Move Head G90 ;Absolute Position The initial priming that Cura does seems to cause problems with slic3r, so I removed it. Instead, I make sure I print a skirt of 3-4 loops. Also, for some reason, I have to manually set the temperature of the hot end and bed on the U2 front panel before it will start printing.

It seems that in Cura 14.09 the layer change locations are spread out around the object's perimeter to prevent a z-scar. In some situations that's desirable, but often I would prefer a z-scar in one location so the rest of the object's surface is smooth. With the scar being spread out, I now see tiny scars all around the surface. Is there any way to enable the old layer change behavior?

Yes, I think this is a much needed feature. Also, I apologize if I'm overlooking something obvious, but is there any way to delete a material profile?

I think this a an excellent and thoughtful post by korneel, and I agree with just about everything he said. I've been working with a few different 3D printers over the past several years (mostly a Makergear M2 and my Ultimaker 2, which I received this past summer), and I can certainly appreciate how much easier it has been to operate and troubleshoot my Ultimaker 2 than it was with the M2, which I had been using for two years and experienced SO many problems with. It was so nice to see that the U2 actually comes with its own software, a manual, and a well established online forum with a large user base who are always so helpful (none of which the M2 had). I enjoy troubleshooting computer/electronic stuff, so I've been able to find most of the information I need here on the Ultimaker forum, and I haven't had to contact Ultimaker support directly yet (not counting a few replies I've received from illuminarti here on this forum!). That said, anyone who hasn't had experience using another machine and support options won't necessarily be able to appreciate those differences. Even after several years of working with FDM printers, troubleshooting my printing problems can still be a daunting task because of all the different variables that can affect print quality. This forum can be a mixed blessing, because although I've gleaned quite a bit of helpful information here, I've also read about some things that worry me about my U2 (possibly unnecessarily) like this whole teflon insulator thing, which puts another wrinkle into my troubleshooting efforts that I had never considered before, because this information isn't readily available (as far as I know). I just happened to stumble upon this concern while reading various posts on this forum. I've gradually started to experience some under-extrusion problems with my U2 which I think I've solved by increasing my flow rate to 120%, but I'm not sure if that's an indicator that something in the printer needs to be replaced, like the teflon insulator, perhaps? Or, even though I regularly perform the "cold pull" trick with my filament (which I would have never known about if I hadn't visited this forum often), maybe my hot end is still partially clogged? So, I'm basically agreeing with korneel that, compared to most other FDM 3D printer manufacturers, Ultimaker's product and support is top notch, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. The manual that's included with the printer is a really nice touch, but the maintenance section is severely lacking. My recommendation is to either make the manual more comprehensive in this regard, or to include a URL which is constantly updated with comprehensive information (without users having to continuously search and wade through this forum). I'm still very confused about this whole teflon insulator issue. When should I be concerned that it needs to be replaced? As part of my regular maintenance, should I be taking apart the hot end assembly from time to time to check for specific problems with the teflon insulator, the hot end, the spring, the fans, etc.? If so, what should I be looking for? If the teflon part is as much a "consumable" as some of the people on this forum are claiming, shouldn't the U2 ship with at least one or two spares? (After all, the manual itself suggests printing at 260C for at least 10 minutes to fix a clogged nozzle which, according to this thread, will damage the teflon insulator if done repeatedly.)

That's very cool! What treatments have you done to the surface of these models after printing?

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:43591/#files I downloaded the skull_Fill_Build_Space.stl file which is the entire skull as a single piece. The model had some visible faceting on its surface (especially the top of the skull) due to the relatively low polygon count for such a detailed model, so I brought it into Blender and applied a subdivision surface modifier set to 1 subdivision level before I exported it and brought it into MeshMixer to generate supports.

Oops… Forgot to add: Nozzle temp: 220 Bed temp: 60 Retract length: 5.5mm Retract speed: 35mm/s I also find that enabling combing gives me fewer surface blemishes.

Hmm. I've used a few different 3D printers over the past couple of years. This skull ranks up there with one of the best prints I've gotten from an FDM printer, and I'm quite picky (I'm a professional illustrator/graphic artist, planning to use my Ultimaker 2 for sculpture work, among other things). The skull is only about 2.5 inches in height. I had to use a macro lens to take the photo on my DSLR, then I reduced the image in Photoshop which sharpened it. The coin in the background is a US quarter. Here are the settings I used (if you click on the photo I posted, you'll see more info): 0.1 layer height 0.8 shell thickness Retraction enabled 0.8 Bottom/Top thickness 20% Fill Density 30 mm/s Print speed Colorfabb Standard White filament Print time: 10 hours

I couldn't be more pleased with my new Ultimaker 2! Here's a screenshot of the supports generated in MeshMixer:

Thanks for this info, Dim3nsioneer. I've been trying to print a skull for the past few days using support material generated in MeshMixer. There are a LOT of support posts, and the print kept failing. I finally realized that, because of the excessive number of retractions being used to print the support posts, the extruder was crushing the filament down to the point that it was physically unable to exit the top of the extruder and enter the Bowden tube. Using your suggested settings for minimum travel and minimum extrusion seems to be doing the trick! (I'll find out in four hours, if this thing actually prints completely…)