SkyKorp

Nallath, I appreciate you adding (or someone) the convert to inch macro extension in latest version.

No not really what I am talking about. You post process the Cura generated GCode file. Run it through a parser that can read ahead, this breaks the motion up with slower feedrate around a corner. You can set the incremental space to insert a slower speedrate. Instead of letting the machine spend time reading ahead with buffers, this is cheap but very good solution to older cheaper printers.

@Titus raises a good point. Is there a software model you are following and is there a part library? Many moons ago I ran a QA division at a major CAD company and we created a room of computers that represented every OS and computer our software would run on. We developed our own non graphical interface and a part library of customer models and automated 24x7 running loading models and use-cases and trails. We developed tolerances for execution and wait time, and we sent alarms and text messages when code failed or crashed on of these computers. It meant we could stay ahead of quality and never have to step backward. It meant I could sleep at night. That was the old days and today we have continuous integration and unit testing.

I work with very complex models. I use STL files and I push the limits and use millions of facets. My parts come out great this way, but it comes at a cost using auto-slice because cura is getting choked with numbers. This is why I feel that there can be other symptoms overlooked. I am on the side of Nallath in wanting the elegant solution. I think we will all suffer a terrible user experience outcome, when maybe we are around the corner in the best possible elegant solution. For example, I also use Simplify3d and they do not have auto slice. I surprised myself how irritated I got having to click the generate code button. It's like those automatic sinks, once you experience auto, you want them all to be that way.

Back in my days of CNC milling all the rave was about High Speed Machining (HSM). It meant that a typical machine tool could now go twice as fast with the same part quality. It was huge for large scale manufacturing. It worked like a sausage grinder for GCODE and transformed them using new acceleration and deceleration and feed rates where needed. It was huge for small business owners and it took the industry by storm. It's old tech today, and standard practice now. What if a UM2 could go 3X faster? I watch my UM2 and wonder as I play with the speed. I can see that there is a limit, and you can't push it too far without consequences like overruns, jerks, or processing and hiccups. This is what HSM solves. There are many ways to do this, and I could not find anyone playing in this technology for 3d printing. I feel that it would dramatically increase the speed and smoothness of the print and machine operation. A game changer. I have some ignorance as I have yet to study the controls for accell/decell and other limitations. I am looking to learn and have good discussion.

Being nice to the user is the best feature of all. Being observant is even better. It's very simple to think ahead for the user and predict and give what I call digital empathy. For example, people loved the smartphone because of the silly features like rubber band scrolling.

Sometimes you can solve things in ways the user would never think about... Just like the nest thermostat you can log the user's interactions and make good guesses on how to leverage the computer resources based on facet count, model size, toolpath settings. If my model is large and complex, and I type an extra zero for layer height, I will wait and crash no doubt. You could keep auto slicing on as you wish, but change the hooks to the UI so cura never disrupts the user's visual focus. Keep it a background process. Then , when a click the button, it is so fast because it is already queued and ready. It reminds me of a time I optimized a startup routine such that the the company brand and logo flashed so instantly, that marketing had a fit saying I killed the built in commercial at bootup time. I fought it and lost, and it kills me to this day to see this device slow bootup when I know just a counter inside I replaced it with. Haha. A feature isn't a feature unless there is value. Otherwise it is technical debt. The same is also said of audio design in games. If someone finds it good they don't notice it, but if they find it bad, all hell breaks loose. I've used cura back in the day where the auto slicing wasn't an option yet (you had to press the slice button every time), which was fairly annoying. I think the current problem with the auto slicing is that the message pops up and pops down again, which is quite distracting. For all the developers shouting that they want this feature, I've yet to see a pull request. We're considering adding an energy saving mode which disables auto slicing, but due to the feature freeze we're in at the moment, it won't be added until the 16.01 release. I don't think this has anything to do with bravery so i don't quite understand what that has anything to do with this discussion.

As I peruse these forums I had high hopes when I found others that asked for this same feature that would make my life easier, yet only to find pages and pages of banter on why cura users need to learn metric and get over it. This is not why I joined this club and I hope that someone is the dev team can make our lives a little easier. Look how nice this other software is...

Don't forget where we came from. Ask any developer, how they got into this, and they tell a story of having hardly nothing for a computer, power, or money. That is what maker is all about, being thrifty and never throwing things away. This new version is not what I expected and I am sorry but your hype is not as strong as your bite. I know a thing or two and I would like to help you, but this forum is pathetic and I am starting to look for a new club than to be listening to what you ignore as your biggest fans are saying. Terms from the software business.... "Fail often and fast, release and react and embrace change. Let the product speak for itself. Simpler is better. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS). Eat your own dogfood." That last one is my favorite example because unless you use the product just as your customers do, then you will really never know the problem. If you make dog food, do you know the flavor? How would you know? You can never eat enough dogfood, so listen to the customers that speak to you. Never bite the hand the feeds you,

I have been in the CAD/CAM software development business for over 25 years. Before that I wrote slicers and post processors and wrote code at MIT. I am an older guy now and have enjoyed making things again with CAD. I found UM and Cura and love the openness of the code and the community. However this topic of auto slice or not has me discouraged. Cura developers, please understand you cannot build the perfect product. Customers will use your products and each person has their own quirks and bugs that are called preferences. The customers are telling you that too many of us have the same preference. Please reconsider your responses and be brave and imagine how many will applaud the option to choose auto slice or no slice at all. Remember that feedback is like an iceberg,... what you see here on the forums is only the tip.

It is distracting visually for the user and there are other things I am doing with the computer resources like the CAD system and other tools. It should be a checkbox option for automatic or with button push.

It looks better visually,... but it has regressed in a few places that stop me from adopting so fast... There is no lay flat option. I used this a lot when loading models with strange angled faces. Now I cannot find this feature. I can no longer simply scale the model with a factor from 1. In the old release, I could convert to 1 to 25.4 for inch parts. In this release it's a percentage and hassle to type 2540%. The slicer regenerates GCODE with each parameter setting change. This is a waste of resources and bogs down the computer. Crashes a lot

I have etched one side of my glass and have very good success with a special form of hair spray and the rough surface of my etched plate. Let the hairspray buildup as it gets better. When print finishes, put the plate and print into your freezer. Wait 10 minutes and it falls off. I'm telling you it's like magic and I have tried all the ideas here. http://amzn.com/B0001DTWYG http://amzn.com/B00KIH314C

I have etched one side of my glass and have very good success with a special form of hair spray and the rough surface of my etched plate. Let the hairspray buildup as it gets better. When print finishes, put the plate and print into your freezer. Wait 10 minutes and it falls off. I'm telling you it's like magic and I have tried all the ideas here. http://amzn.com/B0001DTWYG http://amzn.com/B00KIH314C