[Non-Random "random" start/endpoints]

I think that's perhaps a good strategy only for high-res printers. Even at .16mm layer height it looks pretty awful, particularly on metallic colors.

When printing one-at-a-time, it looks pretty random, except for streaks that appear in several locations per piece.

The other guys all offer random placement at least, and some degree of control over where the pockmarks appear. It's a tradeoff against print time, of course, but can deliver better print quality with fewer visible seam artifacts.

 

Agreed, I use a Fortus 250mc and the software is "Insight" and it has this feature. I know Cura is free, but there are some awesome features that would almost NEED to be added into it and this is for sure one of them.

 

[Material Cost per MM^3]

If you put your material cost into the preferences section of Cura, it does this for you for each print.

 

Cura's auto calculations haven't seemed to be that reliable. I've changed my density on some products and the material usage didn't change at all. I'm just trying to get the manual way down so it's actually rock solid info I'm relying on.

 

[Material Cost per MM^3]

I'm trying to double check my math here. So material from Ulitmaker is $31.50 EUR for 90 meters of 2.85mm thickness.

So does that mean the cost per mm^3 is $0.000054 EUR? Which would put a 10,000 mm^3 part at $0.54 EUR? Does that sound right?

I use mm^3 because you can check your g-code for how many mm^3 of material you are using to get an accurate cost/part.

 

[Reading G-Code - Material & Time]

Sounds like you managed to crash the slicer then. Maybe you have too many polygons? You might want to reduce the qty of polygons. Do you have like millions of polygons? Or more like thousands?

Sorry, I meant it takes time to think about it, not just rush across the screen. It still makes it, but you can tell it's figuring it out, not just rushing.

 

I don't really understand your question. gcode doesn't have any time in it as far as I know. It has feedrate (F command) which is the speed of the 4 steppers in mm/minute (not mm/sec). If you have a UM2 then it ouputs E values in mm^3 and if you have UM Original it outputs in mm of filament at the feeder.

When I save my g-code and then open it up, at the top it says

 

Time: 5455

Material: 10588

Material (2):

Etc....

I'm trying to figure out that units the time and material are in.

 

[Reading G-Code - Material & Time]

I've had problems in Cura 14.06 and 14.06.1 where it wouldn't actually do anything with the changes I made in the software. Only rebooting both Cura and the UM seemed to work.

14.07 seemed to have fixed that.

 

This problem is with my 14.07 Cura software.

 

[Reading G-Code - Material & Time]

That's very strange. Is it even slicing? Do you see the progress bar zip quickly to the right?

 

It doesn't "zip" to the right, it looks like it's trying to figure it out. But regardless, I do notice a difference in the g-code. Can someone please tell me what the g-code units of measurement are for time and material?

 

[Reading G-Code - Material & Time]

It seems that the material and time estimator is off. When I switch from 20% dense to 50% dense is doesn't show a change in material usage.

I figured I'd bypass the estimating and go straight to the G-Code. But I'm not sure what the units of measurement they are using.

example:

Time: 5455

Material: 10588

Pretty simple question, can anyone lend a hand?