dryphi

Why does Cura say this? If Z changes continuously, there should be no Z seam.

Yes. That would be acceptable for the other benefits. There's seams involved in any "regular" print so this would still be an improvement.

Good to know. Well, this would still be a nice feature to have. Could still spiralize both walls, just with half the Z height change with each horizontal step.

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Hi, long time Cura user, infrequent poster. I understand the point of vase mode (or Spiralize Outer Contour as it's called here) - to extrude one continuous stream of material all the way around and up the part. But it occurs to me that, since there's a seam anyway (for layer transitions), couldn't there be two walls as well? Have the extruder move around the inner wall, then go the outer wall (at the seam), and when progressing to the subsequent layer just move back to the inner wall (again at the seam) and repeat. Could theoretically make an entire vase-shaped part with two walls that would still be spiralized. It might even be more waterproof due to the wall transitions (as well as the added thickness). EDIT: This would provide improved cosmetic finish especially for vase or cup shaped objects, or for anything with relatively thin walls. And continuous extrusion has other benefits such as greatly reduced vibration. I'm also guessing it would not be very difficult to implement, just spiralizing two walls before advancing layer height. Could even add a separation gap (or wall thickness) that would be similar to zero percent infill prints but with the speed and cosmetic benefits of continuous extrusion.

Nevermind I found it. Tree Support Branch Diameter. Feel free to close this request.

I'd like to request a new feature to allow you to set the minimum tree trunk diameter / size. If the trunk width is small there may be problems with bed plate adhesion. To get around this you can use a brim, but the "Support Brim Width" option doesn't seem to do anything. You can enable brim for the whole part, which uses excess material, and it still might be better to have a larger trunk for stability reasons. Cura does a great job of combining trunks when they're close together. But often there will be a tree by itself that is at risk of coming off the print bed. Would be useful to set the minimum trunk X/Y width. Thanks

Nevermind found it as a script under edit G code.

This was a great plugin for Cura. It was moved to the Experimental section at one point. Now it seems to be gone completely and I can't find it as a plugin either. How do I add ChangeAtZ capability to Cura 4.8.0? Thanks

Wanted to post a quick follow-up for anyone with the same question. What's below was compiled from several sources. These instructions apply to Cura 15.04.6 slicer running a MP Select Mini v1 over USB cable, although I'm sure they would work for others as well and the G-code should be the same. Enable Pronterface UI: File - Preferences Under "Printing window type" make sure "Pronterface UI" is selected. Open Pronterface: Go to File - Print to open the serial port and pronterface UI (don't need to have an STL model opened). Report current settings: M503 Copy these down, in particular the values under "Steps per unit:" which will give your current extrusion multiplier (Exx) in steps per mm. Set to relative positioning: G91 Reset extruder: G92 E0 Sets the extrusion length to zero and stops any extruding or retraction. Not sure if this resets the heating elements or not... Set extruder temperature: At this point you want to set the extruder to a temperature that will melt your material. I just set the extruder temperature manually on the device although this could be set using G-code instead (e.g. M104 S195 to set it to 195 C). Mark positions on filament: While the extruder is warming up go ahead and mark two lines on your filament at distances from a known position such as the cold end (mine is a Bowden setup so I measured from where the filament enters the extruder). Mark lines at 100mm and 110mm. Extrude the material: G1 E100 F90 This command literally means "Go to position, Extrude 100mm of material, at 1.5mm/s" (for 1.75mm filament, use around F30 for 2.85mm filament). The filament should extrude slowly and the first line should move right to the known position. If not that means there's a discrepancy between the stored extruder multiplier and the distance the filament actually moves. Measure the distance from the known position (e.g. the cold end). If you've over extruding you'll have to measure to the 110 line. In either case some easy math will tell you how far the filament traveled. The new extruder constant will be: 100 * old steps per mm / actual length extruded. Enter new extruder constant: M92 Exxx The "xxx" in the above code should be the new number. For me the actual code was "M92 E103" Store settings: M500 It might be a good idea to perform this calibration several times in a row (starting with G92 E0) to hone in on the correct value. Don't need to be super precise just get it within a millimeter or two. There's lots of other resources on the web but I wanted to compile everything into one easy to reference page. Please respond if anything needs correction or clarification. These instructions worked great for me however. The best instructional video I've found is here: https://www.mpselectmini.com/extruder_calibration

It doesn't say specifically but the User's Manual indicates you have to add "Custom RepRap Information" to configure the printer so I'm pretty sure that's the correct firmware. https://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=15365

No problemo. How do you know if your 3D printer uses RepRap firmware? Or is that just the standard that everybody uses so it's a safe assumption?

I miss Windows 7. They broke everything with Win 8 and Win 10 isn't much better. I am familiar with Linux but this is for a work machine.

↑↑ YES I guess I wasn't using the correct terminology. Great thanks. So I guess there's no setting in Cura for these settings, hence I have to save them to the firmware, correct? Will G500 make the new settings permanent? I also heard on the video below to use M500, what's the difference? After searching for "M92 MP Select Mini" I did find this page which has a helpful video (applies to many printers): https://www.mpselectmini.com/extruder_calibration Also I understand Pronterface is a Linux-based program? We're using a Windows machine. There is an interface to send G-code though.

Okay... To clarify I'm not trying to set the Z-offset (anyway if this was off I would probably just move the bed up and down until the first layer printed correctly). What I'm trying to do is see if 100mm of material is actually extruded when Cura tells the printer to extrude that much material. Normally this is accomplished by measuring along the filament and putting marks at 100mm and 110mm, giving the command to extrude 100mm, then measuring how much the filament actually moved and entering the results of the calculation into the printer software as a correction value. With MatterControl for instance this is very easy and there's an "extrusion multiplier" field to enter the correction value if it's under/over extruding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jboqj0nkNFw I can't for the life of me figure out how to make Cura just extrude 100mm of material. Then, even if I accomplish that, I wouldn't know where to store an "extrusion multiplier" type value within Cura so that it is corrected forever. Cura seems to work better with my printer hence I prefer to use it but there are fewer "advanced" options for this type of adjustment, or at least I don't know where to find them. Thanks

Okay. But where do you enter the settings in Cura?

Thanks for the insight. Pronterface? Is that a software? I'm trying to do this in Cura and I don't see anywhere to enter the extrusion multiplier (if necessary).

How do I calibrate the extruder distance with Cura? I'm using 15.04.2 at the moment with a MP Select Mini. I'd like to simply extrude 100mm of material to determine if the software is properly calibrated to my 3D printer. Next, I'd like to save any results of the calculations to Cura somewhere as an extrusion multiplier (or similar). Again I'm unable to find any related settings in the Cura software for this. These settings seem like a necessity for any slicer software, yet I've been unable to find any instructions to accomplish this basic calibration step. Thanks!

Hi, I'm using Cura 15.04.6 because it works better with my printer. I have noticed that when using a raft the first layer generally looks much better. I don't know how Cura magically creates a space (or whatever) between the part and the raft but the part just snaps right off the raft and the first layer is always perfect. However, printing the raft takes time and wastes a lot of material, and if you're printing many of the same parts (or many parts of similar dimensions) it would be nice if you could just start the next print on top of the existing raft that was left on the table from the previous print. Is there a setting somewhere that will allow me to do this? What does Cura do to allow you to just snap the parts off of the raft? Thanks