I am trying to resolve a Z thickness of the finished part issue with Cura 2.1.2
I have created a part that is 3mm thick, and 5x10mm in size, just for demo purposes.
I am printing with a Raft, I want to keep the Raft, so don’t suggest printing on the glass plate because this issue also affects the support structure, however I will leave that issue out for now to keep this simple.
0.4mm nozzle, ABS, Normal Quality 0.1mm layers
Turning on Raft,
Raft Air-gap 0.3
Initial Layer Z Overlap 0.15 (box is coloured yellow for some reason?)
Raft Top Layers 2
Raft Top Line Width 0.3
Raft Top Spacing 0.3
The gcode is like this (I have summarised this)
;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 2.1.2
;LAYER_COUNT:30
;LAYER:-4, Z0.300, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:-3, Z0.570, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:-2, Z0.670, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:-1, Z0.770, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:0, Z1.340, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:1, Z1.290, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:2, Z1.390, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:3, Z1.490, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:29, Z4.090, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
From Layer -1 Z0.770 to Layer 29 Z4.090 the difference is 3.32mm , which happens to be the exact thickness of the part when measured with a vernier. However the model thickness is 3.00mm
Note also Layer 1 being lower than layer 0? - This is due to the Initial Layer Z offset which I guess is why it is yellow!
If I change ‘Initial Layer Z Overlap’ to 0
;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 2.1.2
;LAYER_COUNT:30
;LAYER:-4, Z0.300, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:-3, Z0.570, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:-2, Z0.670, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:-1, Z0.770, ;TYPE:SUPPORT
;LAYER:0, Z1.340, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:1, Z1.440, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:2, Z1.540, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:3, Z1.640, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
;LAYER:29, Z4.240, ;TYPE:WALL-INNER
Now the part is 0.15mm thicker (Layer 1 Z0.770 Layer 29 Z4.240 = 3.47mm), as expected. But it’s not 3.0mm as desired.
So to solve this I need to make the Z Overlap value 0.45mm, which really messes up Layer 0 (Z1.340) & Layer 1 (Z0.990).
Is there a way to solve this by removing the layers that are not required due to the Raft Air Gap rather than offsetting down the next layers?
Thanks
Nigel