GregValiant

"... the nozzle hit the object while passing from ..." I am not a fan of using "Z-Hops" but for some models it is unavoidable. There are several causes of the nozzle hitting a print. The two most popular are: Depending on the Infill Pattern, the infill can develop high points that are above the layer height. Enabling "Connect Infill Lines" can help with this. Feather edges develop and warp upwards (like when closing large horizontal holes). Enabling "Z-hop on Retraction" can help a lot. I usually set it to 0.50mm.

I'm not afraid of the cow. (I'm far enough away!!)

Starting with Cura 5.0 the "QT Controls" dialog boxes, settings boxes, buttons, etc. that Cura uses went to a different QT version. That Qidiprint plugin looks like it hasn't been updated in 4 years so the settings it tries to add aren't working and that causes an error. If you want to print via a network you would probably need to research whether OctoPrint is an option. There is a Cura plugin but it also requires it's own hardware (usually a Raspberry PI board).

The seam is a function of FDM printing. There will be a point on the outer wall where the nozzle starts to extrude it. The Nozzle travels around extruding the outer wall, and then ends right where it started. Those starts and ends are what makes the seam visible. There is an Inner-Wall seam, a Support seam, an Infill Seam, a Prime Tower seam, and a Support Interface seam. Even an "Ooze Shield" would have a seam. Only the Outer Wall seam is displayed because it's the only one visible on a finished print. The preview would get kind of cluttered if they were all shown.

I've had occasions when I've exported an STL from Cura, opened it in MS3D Builder to make some adjustments, and then saved it (inadvertently) as a 3mf model. When I open that 3mf in Cura the model comes in converted to centimeters instead of millimeters so it's 10 times bigger than expected. It's annoying, but only takes a second to fix. Wherever the problem is, whether it's something that Cura should know, or a consistency in translating/exporting utility's of other apps, if two programs are talking apples and oranges there is going to be a scale issue. I don't know that it's fixable. That being said, when I export a model from AutoCad and it was drawn in Inches, it comes into Cura needing to be scaled to 2540%. That's expected behavior. When I export a Benchy and it comes back the size of the Queen Elizabeth II it is unexpected behavior. In the case of Blender, it isn't really a CAD program but was intended for video game object design where models would not be required to be "watertight". You can use it, but you need to be careful that when you output the model it is watertight and all the surfaces are facing the right direction.

That's a pretty good rant. No CAD programs know anything about "units" in the sense of millimeters, inches, whatever. A number is simply a number. When you draw a single line and then "offset" or "copy" it over to the side "1.00" away, the CAD app doesn't care if it's 1 nanometer or 1 lightyear. It just knows that the distance between the two lines is 1.00. A program like Blender may have a standard unit which might be centimeters or feet or millimeters or inches. Ya just don't know what it does internally or what effect the export utility might have. When you bring a model into Cura and have to scale it to get it to the correct size, then the "scale" that the model was exported at wasn't likely millimeters but something else. If you happen to end up at standard scales like "2540%" or "3.94% give clues as to what the "units" of the imported model might be. One of the features of the Cura Mesh Tools plugin is an option for the default scale that models are imported at. After installing Mesh Tools you can find it under "Extensions / Mesh Tools" and then "Mesh Tools Settings". As for notifications, I agree there are too many mundane notices but I think there aren't enough informative ones as well. Some sort of clue as to why my settings won't allow a slice would be good.

The tooltips should explain things. There is an option to "Remove M106 lines..." so if you have cooling enabled in Cura it will pull out all the Cura entered fan lines. Then it adds what you enter. The entries for "By Layer" are "LAYER # / Fan %". The fore-slash is required. If you enter 1/100 you will get 100% fan at at the 1st layer. If your next entry is 10/0 then the fan will shut off at layer 10. If you remove the Cura fan commands and your first entry is 15/100 then the fan will remain off until layer 15 where it will go to 100%. If you were to need more on/offs then you could add another instance of "Advanced Cooling" but you would turn off "Remove M106 Lines..." because it would wipe out the entries from the first instance. There is a reason I called it "Advanced". (Some of this stuff you gotta think about.)

With those two settings checked you should be good. This is from line #239929 in that gcode file. That makes it at about the 85% mark. T0 G92 E0 M104 T1 S0 >>> This is the hot end shutoff command. As far as the "Shared Nozzle Initial Retraction" setting - if you are happy with the way the printer is changing material then leave it alone. If you hover the mouse over the setting the tooltip will come up explaining what the setting is for.

That is the M104 in the Ending Gcode. The next one upward will look something like this: T1 >>> This is the last tool change in the gcode G92 E0 M105 M109 S195 >>> printing temperature for T1 (extruder 2) M104 T0 S0 >>> Oops - the hot end gets shut off The MarketPlace link is a button at the top right of the Cura Workspace. Click on it. This dialog will come up. You want "Printer Settings". Install it and then quit Cura. When you restart Cura there will be a new setting section added to the bottom of the list. You must be in "Custom" to unhide it. I have marked the Custom button in red. The settings you must enable are marked with yellow. There is another retraction setting there as well "Shared Nozzle Initial Retraction".

Back to basics then. Start out with the bed at 50° and no fan and see how it goes. There is a new post-processor called Advanced Cooling Control that you can set "by layer". It will erase the fan settings that Cura may have put in the gcode and then enter whatever you set the fan to. Start out with 10/50 and at layer 10 the fan will go to 50%. You've paid for the filament. There should be someway to get it to stay down.

When a material is warping that much the advice is usually to bring the bed temperature up to just below the glass temperature of the material, and to use as little fan as possible. Next step would be to heat the build volume. Colorfab recommends a cold bed (0°) and 100% fan so as Slashee says you really need to go back to them and find out what the deal is.

Have you loaded the "Printer Settings" plugin from the MarketPlace? If you have a "mixing" hot end (multiple-in-1-out) you need to enable "Extruders Share Heater" and "Extruders Share Nozzle". My guess is that when one is extruder is finished for the print that Cura is turning it off. That would be fine for a dual hot end machine but your printer needs to stay hot until the print finishes. Open a gcode file in a text editor and search upward from the end of the file for M104 S0. I'm guessing that a few lines above that will be the last tool change of the print.

Click on the setting profile, then Manage Profiles Extruder Settings and check to see if the Material fan speed is being overridden by a custom fan speed. The custom profile will take precedence. There should be a circle-arrow icon or a function icon next to the setting to tell you there is an override. I don't see one there. There is a new post-processor "Advanced Cooling Fan Control". It can be set to "By Layer" or to "By Feature" (better for long or slow prints).

I suppose I'm not surprised, but that's pretty weird. Oddly enough, it's only about the 3rd weirdest thing I've read this week regarding 3D printing. Number one on the list was regarding a system that wouldn't allow Cura to slice anything. It turned out that the problem was related to the system font on the Windows computer. Software is great isn't it?

I doubt very much that it is a firmware issue. I also doubt that Cura is to blame for the problems. I look at almost all the bug reports on GitHub and this is the first time I have heard of this problem. There are enough people using the same printer that if it was a problem with Cura, there would be numerous bug reports. That hasn't happened. PLA will usually stick. One of the main "won't stick" problems is a contaminated build surface. Dust, oil from fingers, chocolate smears, and other stuff on the build plate can keep the first layer from adhering. If the "Initial Z gap" is too tall then the layer is effectively under-extruded and there just isn't enough squish. Start by giving the build surface a good bath with dish detergent, but it back in place on the printer, and then wipe it down with 90% IsoPropyl Alcohol. If it still doesn't want to stick I'd double check the Z Offset, then the E-step calibration, and if necessary start increasing the "Initial Layer Flow". Cura itself doesn't put any firmware altering commands into the gcode. Some StartUp Gcodes might contain those types of commands (usually M201 and M203 for Accel and Jerk). In addition the "Z-offset" plugin can have an effect if you happen to have it enabled. I have never seen an M500 command in any gcode file. Without it, any firmware altering commands that might be there will revert to the firmware defaults when the printer is turned off.

Ah, but the "Startup G-Code" isn't Cura output but rather someone's hand coded lines. Cura always puts Z-hops in as G1 lines even though there is no E parameter. Maybe because they are part of the Retraction settings. Still, without an E parameter it seems that they should be G0 lines. Off the top of my head that's the only instance I can think of where the "guideline" isn't followed. "The code is more what you'd call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules." - Capt. Barbossa, Pirates of the Carribean

@Slashee_the_Cow you go through more printers than anyone else. I can't keep up. With the Machine Depth and Width at 220 it might be able to get to a negative "X" location. I can see someone trying to move the purge lines further to the left. The 5.6 definition has the purge lines at X10 and that could interfere with large prints. People submit pull requests to change printer definitions all the time. UltiMaker can check some things regarding other manufacturers hardware but not all things (unless they bought one of every printer on the planet like Slashee does). A definition change that includes someone's "personal preferences" is never a good idea because they are forcing that on the rest of the users. Definitions should be generic and simply work. If a user wants to customize it then that's their decision. My own Startup Gcode is...complicated. I doubt it's something that anyone else would want, but it works for me.

You are way beyond me but it is a new setting in 5.7.0. It can be "normal" or "interleaved" so it is a string.

It shall be as you command sire. You must enable the Support Interfaces or the settings will be hidden.

Nothing really changed between 5.6 and 5.7 as far as what's happening on the first couple of layers. Use 5.6 and load something small (calibration cube or a benchy) and set Cura up like you always do. Use the "File | Save Project" command to create a special 3mf file. Start 5.7 and open that 3mf file. The settings from 5.6 will show up in 5.7. There are a couple of plugins that can affect the first layer. One is "Z Offset Plugin". If a Creality owner submitted a change to the printer definition file and the ABL settings changed then your first layer height might be too tall and the extrusions aren't getting pressed down like they should. I think @Slashee_the_Cow has a printer like that. She may know what the possible problems are. There are a lot of causes for what you have happening. It's very unlikely that it's a problem in the Cura code. You should probably create a second project file but from 5.7.0 and post that one here so there is something to work with.

There is (what I think) is a bug in Cura. If you disable an extruder it does not automatically switch something like "Skirt extruder" over to the other extruder. You must do that manually prior to disabling the extruder (because the settings are hidden when an extruder is disabled). So if you have a "single extruder print" you must insure that both the "Support Extruders" and the "Skirt/brim Extruder" are set to the proper extruder. If you remove the temperature lines from the startup gcode and allow Cura to handle it you get this. The material standby temperatures are 175 so the secondary extruder doesn't heat all the way. ;TARGET_MACHINE.NAME:Snapmaker J1 ;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 5.7.0 T0 M140 S60 M105 M190 S60 M104 S200 M104 T1 S175 M105 M109 S200 M105 M109 T1 S175 M82 ;absolute extrusion mode ;--- Start G-code Begin --- G28 ;Home With T0 disabled, the part set to T1 and the support and skirt extruders manually set to T1 (before disabling T0). ;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 5.7.0 T1 M140 S60 M105 M190 S60 M104 S200 M105 M109 S200 M82 ;absolute extrusion mode ;--- Start G-code Begin --- In both cases the code is correct. Since your printer doesn't appear to have auto-leveling (no G29 or M420 in the startup) that would work. In regards to the "always heat up T0" bug, you could fix that with a dedicated post processor that could add a "M104 S0 T0" line before all the other temperature lines. The extruder might turn on at power up, but it would turn off when the gcode file starts and then the proper heating would occur.

It's an interesting topic. That silly workaround (using another setting to enable your z-hops) will suffice for testing. Because plugins and post-processors always run after the Gcode is built up, trying to alter the M207 lines on a tool-by-tool basis is tough. It will require you to learn some coding and (horror of horrors) some RegEx replacement patterns to use with Search and Replace. You can start with this override for your printer definition file. Once it's custom you will need to put it into your Configuration Folder. Be careful because you can make a mess. "machine_endstop_positive_direction_z": { "default_value": false, "label": "Configure Firmware Z-Hop", "description": "This requires a very specific M207 line in the StartUp Gcode" }, Good Luck.

You have made a lot of changes to the "extra fast" profile and you have never reset it back to defaults. All your changes are still there. There is no need for "one at a time", you have "spiralize" turned on which means "remove all holes" is turned on. Lots of stuff that will cause problems with this model. Click on "extra fast" and re-select it. When asked, click on "discard all changes". I would suggest staying in the "custom" settings view rather than that basic one. You have to give very model it's own love. I switched to "fine" since a small model like this can benefit from the lower layer height.

Models can have errors that seriously affect the slice. With the model loaded into Cura and Cura ready to slice, use the "File | Save Project" command and post the resulting 3mf file here. Someone will take a look.

Ok. Watch closely. I have nothing up my sleeves. In the StartUp gcode... M207 F{retraction_retract_speed*60} S{retraction_amount} Z{retraction_hop if machine_endstop_positive_direction_z else 0.0} M208 F{retraction_prime_speed*60} If you haven't done so, go to the MarketPlace and load the "Printer Settings" plugin. A couple of the settings don't do anything - except for now. The above line will allow you to use "Z Endstop in Positive Direction" to turn G10 Z-hops on and off. It's located 4th from the bottom in the Printer Settings. When it is checked the "z-hop height" will be in the line and if it unchecked then the z hop height will be 0.0.