Dantol

I totally follow you on your calculation . As for the calibration prints looking different, I had done something funky with my start code in the past, but when I cleaned that up, the comparison prints started to look alike. Thanks again.

thank you GregValiant! I was assuming relative mode for the extruder. Using the search code and Checking the previous E position proves out. Now I wonder why my test prints using Cura are not as definitive as the prints using relative mode are. I was using 6mm based on the Cura prints, but I could drop down to 4.5 - 5mm based on the relative mode prints.

Thank you for your quick replies. I have done all that you have suggested, followed the Filament Friday video as well and read the write-up by Cuq. I have retraction enabled and not using firmware retraction. I have switched to the retraction tower supplied by Teaching Tech Calculator in order to perform comparison prints. I have adjusted my layer parameters for the Retract tower post script to accommodate the differences in the tower that I am using. The print using the gcode generated by slicing with Cura is not producing great results. Gcode supplied by the Teaching tech calculator produces a rather dramatic print with horrendous stringing with low retraction distance with observable improvement reaching 5mm for retraction distance. I have compared the gcodes in a text editor. I can not find any command lines that would produce a retraction movement in the gcode produced with Cura (except at the beginning and end). The other gcode have instructions G1 E-d; where d = the retraction distance. Am I incorrect to assume that I would see some instructions in the gcode indicating a retraction move? I am using Ender 3 and Anycubic Mega S printers.

How does Cura retraction plug-in test function? Viewing the g-code shows M117 which only writes to the display. No other retraction instructions are found. How is the retraction change? No G1 E-d , where is retraction distance, G10, M207....