GregValiant

I usually open the gcode file and add fan lines manually. You can try the ChangeAtZ post processor. It had a couple of glitches if you were using "By Height" and there were Z-hops in a file, but without Z-hops and using "By Layer" it should be OK. You would need one instance to turn the fan on and another to turn it off again.

Post one of the gcode files that came with the printer, and post a gcode file that you created yourself (one that doesn't work). Maybe something will stick out. It has a 3-in-1-out hot end - is that correct? Have you loaded the "Printer Settings" plugin from the MarketPlace? It has two setting you need to enable if it is a 3-in-1-out printer. The settings are "Extruders Share Heater" and "Extruders Share Nozzle".

Cura's Pause at Height plugin makes the hobby much more interesting. I don't bother with the retraction settings in it. I just tell it what layer to pause at (layer numbers in gcode are base 0 and in Cura they are base 1) and where to park the head. After I have hand pushed some filament through to flush the first color I "hand retract" about 3mm and then click the LCD button to resume the print. I've gotten pretty good at faultless restarts. You can insert nuts, bolts, whatever using Pause at Height. You can change colors at a layer. By designing parts with "steps" in a top surface you can change filament and make some sophisticated prints. This was for a friend. This sort of thing is all about practice and thinking about possibilities. Getting good at a CAD program that you can export STL/OBJ/3mf etc. model files from is a good idea or you just get stuck printing stuff from Thingiverse. Speaking of inserting nuts - if you design your own parts you can get threaded inserts that you heat with a soldering iron and push into a hole in a print. When the plastic hardens back up it grips the insert. McMaster Carr here in the States sells these. I used my electronics soldering iron as a push tool. The narrow tip slipped right into the nut and the inserts went in perfectly straight. The shark fins have four 10-24 nuts in them along with the steel backbone. All those were inserted into hex shaped holes during a pause. For being a good student and not disrupting the class, here is a printing utility I wrote. It is for Windows only (Visual Basic doesn't port to other operating systems) and it isn't signed so you would have to fool your anti-virus into allowing you to install it. There is a readme file in the zip folder. It allows you to control printing from the SD card from a connected computer and moves a lot of regular things from the LCD to the computer. It does not print over the USB, just sends commands to the printer telling it what to do and where to go. Gregs SD Print Tool.zip

This is an odd thing. Creality keeps playing with the firmware. They run out of boards for the CR10 and so they stick an Ender5 board in. They never explain any of that nor have they ever explained why M0, M1, M117 et.al. no longer function. In the Pause at Height dialog there is a line for "Gcode after pause". If you put G4 S300 in that box then it will do a timed pause of 5 minutes (S is in seconds). You need to be there because after the "pause time" expires the printer will start on it's own. There is no way to shorten the pause either. When I experimented with the M0 S300 my printer paused and I could shorten the pause time by hitting the LCD button. With G4 - shortening the pause is not an option. G4 S14400 would pause for 4 hours and you are going to wait the entire 4 hours.

When I play around with my "Virtual" multi-extruder I just place 2 or 3 calibration cubes on the build plate and assign each to a different extruder. You can scale them separately, place them on top of one another or touching side-by-side like kids building blocks. All of this takes some experimentation on your part in order to get things to work smoothly. Here are some things to consider: In the Cura MarketPlace is a plugin called "Printer Settings". You need to load that plugin and re-start Cura. Within Printer Settings are two settings you need to enable. You might want to create Custom Materials and make the standby temperature the same as the printing temperature. In the Dual Extruder settings you will want to enable the Prime Tower so the nozzle has somewhere to dump material when it changes extruders. You can find multi-color models (including 3D Benchy boats) on Thingiverse and practice with them. Changing colors when one of them is White requires more purging than going from say black to dark blue. HERE on the Marlin site are a couple of cool commands (scroll down to M163, 4, 5, 6) you may have enabled in your firmware. USB printing from Cura hasn't been updated in years, and because no Ultimaker printers use it, there are no plans to upgrade it. Printing from the SD card is much more reliable. If you insist on having a remote print server then Octoprint/RaspberryPI is probably the best option.

From what I've read around here, altering the motions of Cura (and that includes in the Z) can cause breakage in the code. Sometimes a lot of breakage. Right now it seems that much Cura Team energy is being put into the Arachne project that is doing this sort of thing in the XY axes with it's variable line widths. I think it will be a while before the Z is included. You can search on the Github site. This Feature Request came right up. It was one of many. My work-around is to use Pause at Height to break up the code sections. When you use Pause at Height it inserts some code around the Pause command. That code includes the re-start positions of the X Y Z and E. If you slice a model with 0.3 Layer height and put Pauses in at appropriate layers, and then you slice the same model at .2 layer height with Pauses at layers where you can get the .3 and .2 to match Z heights - then you can cut, and copy, and paste a custom Gcode file together. You just eliminate the actual "M0" (or whatever command was going to pause the print) and the line that moved the print head to the Park location. It can be a bit tedious, but the transitions are usually flawless. This same sort of thing can be done with a solid base with a spiralized model on top, or, if you leave the Pause command in, the section consisting of a different layer height could be in another color.

"I can't wait until these thing just plug in and work!" There is no "Easy" button. That test is much better. I use very little fan with PETG because certain shapes will warp/pull from the bed but that print looks like you can do with some cooling. ABS gives off noxious fumes, and is a lot fussier to print. An enclosure is pretty much a must-have. PLA might not be what you want to make some models out of (It isn't good at in-car phone holders for sure) but it is easy to print and you will learn a lot from it. Printing knowledge will transfer over to PETG. I was having trouble finding my silver SUV among the other thousands of silver SUV's in parking lots. This is a shark fin for the roof in silver PETG. I made other ones in PLA and yes, they were a problem. So I developed the steel backbone. It slides down into a hole and then the print finishes. You can see that in spite of the robust elephant ears it was pulling up hard.

Z-hops. That print appears to be a "U" shape. A combing mode that stays over the part is a good idea but if Z-hops are enabled then the nozzle lifts and so does a string. The nozzle may travel over the part, but the string stays pretty much in a straight line from the nozzle lift point to the nozzle drop point. That will leave more cleanup. Better to leave Z-hops off and allow the nozzle to wipe itself as it travels over the part. Large horseshoe shapes present problems because of the long combing moves. The pressure in the nozzle falls off and the next extrusion can take a few mm's to get going while the pressure builds again. There is a post-processor called "Retract Continue" that spreads the retraction across the combing move rather than all at once. It takes some tweaking to get it right but it's handy. It doesn't work with Z-hops enabled.

Thank You. I'm in there somewhere amongst the masses.

PETG is just gooey. There is usually a little more cleanup on a print than with PLA. My numbers are the same as yours at 240/80 with 6.5 retraction at 35. I think I get better layer adhesion at 240 so I leave it there. My print speed is 35 with 30 for the outer walls.

It's in the Marketplace. You can uninstall / de-activate it there.

Close enough. Print stuff. If you get a model that is the size of the build surface there may be a problem, but with most models it should be fine.

It still has model errors. In this image of Layer 1 you can see that some of the outside shapes (in the black circles) are not properly attached to the main body. The ones in the blue circles look OK. Here at the top layer it has come apart again. If this was your design intent, then it's fine.

I cut it out of my blow-up, but check out the poster's first image and the skirt above the model and then compare it to the way the skirt looks below the model. Machines need to be exercised and it sounds like that one sat for a bit.

I don't know @Smithy. In the first image the bottom layer is poor but you can see enough of layer 2 and layer 3 that they aren't so good either? Here it is blown up a bit.

It occurs to me that within your definition file you directly inherit "fdmprinter" and bypass the "Creality_Base" definition. Maybe there are some over-rides within the Creality_base file that you needed? When I set up my Ender 3 Pro for multi-extruder - I made the changes to the Extruder Trains within the Creality_Base definition file rather than creating an entirely new definition. That may give you something else to look at when you get tired of staring at Gcode.

Did you figure this out? Not many folks who come in here have IDEX printers and my only experience with them is with "virtual" printers I've added to Cura just to play with. One problem is that Cura does not directly support IDEX printers but they can be made to work. You are going to have to experiment. The JGMaker site does have some Cura profiles you can download. Have you tried adding some "ending gcode" to the extruders? A line like "G1 X{machine_width}" would send the print head to the max width of the bed while "G1 X0" would send it to the "0" side of the bed. The suggested slicer is Ideamaker. In Ideamaker - The Raise3D IDEX printers get "M605 S1" for Mirror, "M605 S2" for Duplicate, and no M605 line for normal, added to a gcode file. Cura doesn't do that and so 3 separate instances of your printer would need to be installed each with slightly different StartUp Gcode (the proper M605 lines). Maybe there is a JGMaker support group or a group on Reddit you can ask advice from. This must have come up before.

Actually, I just showed up over here to show off my Custom Infill designed prevent post-print warping do to the sun. But after seeing the dress...I would be (at best) a very distant second place.

That was ... ambitious?

Sorry for my English... This is from fdmprinter.def.json "layer_height": { "label": "Layer Height", ........ "settable_per_mesh": false, "settable_per_extruder": false Some of the other settings you have highlighted (like Wall Line Width) can be set "per extruder". "wall_line_count": { "label": "Wall Line Count", ....... "limit_to_extruder": "wall_x_extruder_nr", "settable_per_mesh": true If you have different size nozzles on the extruders you are really limited to the Layer Height of the smallest nozzle. When you switch extruders in Cura you should be able to set some of the other things "Per Extruder".

I installed the printer. I think the problem is in that "ASA_Dual E..." profile. This is from the gcode using your ASA profile. It is the nozzle moving from the prime tower to the model and there is no retraction. Moving to the prime tower there wasn't a retraction either. G1 X0.853 Y21.184 E15.41702 G0 F7200 X20.2 Y20.2 G0 X126.25 Y99.299 ;TYPE:SUPPORT-INTERFACE G1 F2400 X125.948 Y99.501 E15.42886 This is with the Fine profile (I picked "fine" at random) with Extruder#2 doing the Support Interface: G1 X169.691 Y207.691 E18.56354 Last extrusion at prime tower G0 F7200 X195.2 Y213.2 G1 F1500 E12.06354 Retract G0 F7200 X53.39 Y99.839 G0 X7.576 Y99.839 G0 X4.033 Y103.5 ;TYPE:SUPPORT-INTERFACE G1 F1500 E18.56354 Prime G1 F2400 X2.733 Y103.5 E18.58516 There doesn't seem to be a problem moving to the prime tower either. My suggestion would be to start from scratch using a generic profile, customizing it to your needs, and see how it goes.

I received an "Unknown Printer" warning and I could only open your 3mf as a model file. Your settings didn't come across. This is the travel to the first layer prime tower in your gcode file. There is no retraction. G1 X93.578 Y93.426 E49.76969 G0 F3600 X37.862 Y24.192 ;TYPE:PRIME-TOWER G1 F1800 X37.037 Y24.634 E49.81451 ............Then leaving the prime tower G1 X35.403 Y20.521 E59.10517 G0 F3600 X102.462 Y108.599 ;TYPE:SUPPORT G1 F1800 X104.96 Y108.601 E59.22481 This from a gcode file I produced from your model: G1 X147.409 Y142.321 E69.7767 G1 F2100 E64.7767 Retract ;MESH:E3PROC_Cable_Strain_Relief_Cover_v19gcodetest.3mf G0 F9000 X197.225 Y194.381 G0 X201.07 Y199.07 ;TYPE:PRIME-TOWER G1 F2100 E69.7767 Prime G1 F4500 X202.559 Y197.85 E69.8463 ........Leaving the prime tower G1 X207.891 Y205.891 E97.98674 G1 F2100 E92.98674 Retract G0 F9000 X197.959 Y193.779 G0 X135.434 Y111.483 G0 X134.728 Y110.662 G0 X134.692 Y110.453 ;TYPE:WALL-INNER G1 F2100 E97.98674 Prime G1 F4500 X134.513 Y110.525 E97.99372 There were 152 retractions in your gcode file and 354 in the file I generated. But without knowing the differences in the settings, we can't really tell what's going on. Here is a 3mf file using your model. I used an Ender 3 Pro configured as a 2-in-one-out dual extruder. Extruder2 is used for the support and prime tower is enabled. Basic default settings everywhere else. GV PrimeTowerTest.3mf

Do you have Z-hops enabled? The nozzle may be over the print but the rubberband is in the air too and it stays straight.

If Cura knows the Line Width, the Layer Height, and the Filament Diameter (an accurate measurement), then that's all it needs. No matter what the nozzle size is, it is the volume required by an extrusion and the volume of a length of filament that drives the E numbers in a gcode file. You will want to make sure your E-Steps are close to perfect. The small nozzle is less tolerant of minor differences. I haven't printed a lot with a 0.2 but I noticed the retraction settings needed to change. The smaller hole doesn't allow for quick response backward and so I needed to lower the retraction speed in addition to the retraction distance. I would start with a lower print speed as well. It's all a balancing act and your printer is different than mine. Once you scrap a couple of pieces you should have a good idea of what works well.

Yours is the first Ender I've heard of that Auto-Homes to the middle of the build surface. The typical situation is to hit the End Stop Switches in the X, Y, and Z. All three switches are mounted so they are hit when the print head is at the left front corner. So where are the X and Y switches mounted? On my printer - the X switch is mounted on the X motor housing and is tripped by the print head bracket. The Y switch is at the back of the Y beam and is tripped by the right rear wheel on the Y carriage. After Auot-Homing, my print carriage stays right there in the left front corner.