GregValiant

I think there are a couple of things going on. Using Sharpest Corner results in the Z seam moving from the corner (where you see the under-extrusion) to the Y and then back to the edge. Just putting it somewhere specific helps to keep it in a row. That means all the combing moves will be closer to being the same length so the amount of ooze will be nearer the same. It will make it easier to troubleshoot. The profile shows the nozzle size is 0.4. "Retract Before Outer Wall" may be having an effect. The "Combing Mode" certainly does. You said you were using a .6 nozzle but the line width is at .4. You can do that but it can be a built in under-extrusion as it has an effect on the nozzle pressure. I played with the profile. Take a close look at all my settings but particularly the wall, infill, and travel settings. You may end up having to use "Retraction Extra Prime Amount" at .15 or so in order to get the pressure up in the nozzle. GVCopperFill.curaprofile

That isn't right. The direct drive has nothing to do with the StartUp Gcode, you have the Ending Gcode grafted onto that StartUp Gcode and you aren't homing the Z (which is probably your problem). Once you run the M206 followed by the M500 you can take it out of the start gcode since you have saved the new setting to memory. You should have a menu in the LCD to enter the Home Offsets directly if you need to do it again. The M117 lines just send a message to the LCD screen (if supported by the firmware) so you can leave those out as well. I think the second G28 is the problem. It should be G28 Z rather than homing the X again. This is my Ender 3 Pro StartUp Gcode and Ending Gcode. It will work for your printer. ; Ender 3 Custom StartUp G-code M140 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;Start to heat the bed M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} ;heat the hot end and wait M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;wait for the bed just in case G92 E0 ; Reset extruder M220 S100 ;reset Feed Rate M221 S100 ;reset Flow Rate G28 ;Home all G1 Z12.0 F3000 ; Move Z G1 X1.0 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move G1 X1.0 Y200.0 Z0.3 F1500.0 E15 ; Draw the first purge line G1 X3.0 Y200.0 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move G1 X3.0 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 ; Draw the second purge line G1 E28 F1800 ;Retract 2mm G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder G1 Z12.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up G1 X5 Y20 Z10.3 F5000.0 ; Move over to prevent blob squish ;End of StartUp Gcode ;Ender 3 Pro Ending Gcode G91 ;Relative positioning G1 E-2 F2700 ;Retract a bit G1 E-2 Z0.2 F2400 ;Retract and raise Z G1 X5 Y5 F3000 ;Wipe out G1 Z10 ;Raise Z more G90 ;Absolute positioning G1 X0 Y{machine_depth} ;Present print M106 S0 ;Turn-off fan M104 S0 ;Turn-off hotend M140 S0 ;Turn-off bed M220 S100 ;reset Feed M221 S100 ;reset Flow M84 X Y E ;Disable all steppers but Z ;End of Ending Gcode

CLICK HERE for a little light reading on Thingiverse. There is a link there to GitHub for Qidi files for Cura.

Post the Gcode file and a project file. To make a project file - load your model into Cura, set it up to slice, and then select "File | Save Project". The will create a 3mf file that includes your model, your printer, and your settings.

I hadn't heard about those. Assuming that the frame is accurate (and robust) it will boil down to the capabilities of the mainboard and firmware because it always does. The claim that they can print ABS is a stretch to say the least. There is this version of the Creality CR-10 V3. It's a big machine with direct drive.

I guess it could be called an artifact or maybe a pre-ifact? @nallath do you have any thoughts on this?

When I change the Support Placement from Everywhere to Touching Buildplate that piece of support goes away and the spot between the right ear and the head is not supported any longer. So it looks to be that Cura is building the support from the build plate up to the root of the right ear and the body is in the way so it starts from the build plate, pauses when it gets to the stomach/chest and continues from the back up to the root of the right ear. That ear area needs support so I think in this case you will have to live with the piece on the build plate. It isn't there for the body but rather for the ear where it connects to the head. Placing a support blocker at the root of the right ear will also cause the questionable support on the build plate to go away. In this image I've set placement to Everywhere but added a support blocker at the ear. Remember when you wrote "Normally the program only does this if the support is required above."?

If you can share the model you can post the file here. Somebody will take a look and see if something can be found. You may end up going back to the designer and asking them to make another attempt at exporting the file from whatever software they used to create it.

Load the model in Cura and set up the way you think it should slice. Then select "File | Save Project" and post the 3mf file here. A project file is worth a thousand pictures.

"Never upgrade an operating system" "K.I.S.S." "When yer dumb - ya suffer" It doesn't matter what printer you buy - it must be assembled correctly and tuned mechanically. Just because some things come pre-assembled in the box doesn't mean they were assembled right. Assume nothing. Cura (and Prusaslicer, IdeaMaker, et al) are complicated, full featured pieces of software. It takes time to learn them as it would take time to learn to use any tool. The printer has its own computer and operating system. The only thing that goes between the slicer and the printer is a gcode text file. Taking time to learn at least the most common gcode commands is necessary so you know what's going on and how your printer will act (or not act) when it sees certain commands. When the printer is assembled correctly with each axis at exactly 90° to the others and has all the bogie wheels adjusted properly, all the screws and nuts are tightened, the bowden tube (or DD) are adjusted correctly, the Esteps/mm are calibrated, and the slicer knows your printer dimensions and limits - only then is it ready to deliver good prints. A Direct Drive printer takes the bowden tube out of the retraction/prime equation. For most materials that doesn't matter a whole lot. For soft materials like TPU it can matter a great deal. When I print TPU (excellent choice for custom gaskets for old motorcycles) I have the printer crawl along with no retractions and the TPU must be dried before I start printing with it. The prints are sloppy because of no retraction but it's a gasket and as long as it doesn't leak I don't care if it never wins a beauty contest. Direct Drives add weight to the print head which moves back and forth in the X. That added weight means you can easily lose quality if things aren't adjusted just right. Limiting the X acceleration is usually necessary in order to get smooth starts and stops of the print head. If you are printing mainly "harder" filaments then I don't think there is much (if any) advantage to a Direct Drive system (but that's just one man's opinion). And then there is ABL.

There are a few threads here on the Xvico printers if you search for them. THIS ONE might be worth a look.

Now @reneroth it's the holidays so let's be charitable...Ender's have more than one way to burn a house down. "High Resistance Connection" at the power supply screw-connection to the mainboard comes right to mind. Here's mine.

Whether it's Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Joyous Eid Al-Fitr, or the Shinto, Buddhist, Hindu, and everyone else's equivalent of the season...Happy Holidays to all. A special thanks to @gr5 and @Smithy for the help when I was starting out. To @ahoeben and @ghostkeeper and @tinkergnome for sharing their depth of knowledge. To @nallath and @SandervG for putting up with me. To @geert_2 for his great and well documented experiments and to @cloakfiend for making really cool stuff. And last but not least to @Torgeir and @kmanstudios for laughing at my jokes, and because us old guys need to stick together.

There are usually two main reasons this happens. One is that there are errors in the model file but that doesn't happen often. The biggest reason is that the location data in the model is putting the part way off the build plate. Consider an STL of the rear tail light of a car with location data in the file - it could be at X=4500, Y=900, Z=1000. Right click and "Select All Models". Choose the Move tool on the left. Look at the location XYZ and then change them to 0,0,0. That will pull the model back onto the build plate. If it doesn't, then there may be errors in the model.

@tinkergnome is correct (as usual). Within the menus of your printer will be "Control | Motion | Steps/mm" and you can enter new values there. They will be temporary until you use "Save Settings". You could also send (or put into a gcode file) "M92 X?? Y?? Z?? E??" to change one or more of the axes. Use M500 to save settings. An error of .1mm across a model indicates .05mm / side. That is about 1/2 of a human hair. The Steps/mm on the XYZ are very accurate and you shouldn't need to change them (the E is a different story). To handle your dimensional problem you can adjust the Horizontal Expansion in Cura or increase the flow by a couple of percent. If you cool the part the dimensions will get smaller and if you heat the part the dimensions will get bigger. It's plastic.

Sorry @ronniecruisin but I don't think that at your price point "Quality" comes into it. They are what they are. I was making custom hats for a while and decided it would be a good idea to put an MP3 player and speakers into some of them. I could get the circuit boards from China for like $1.00 each. I quickly learned that I had to buy 3 so that I would get at least one that worked. It isn't that bad with the printers, but it isn't great either. I've been looking (still) for a printer for my son and it will probably end up being a Creality CR-10. It's the "devil I know" so (if) when there are issues I'll at least be familiar with them. It will get an aluminum extruder, Micro-Swiss hot end, and replacement fans right from the get go. The TronXY's aren't a bad choice. The AnyCubic printers have a following. The Creality printers are an option as well. The Geeetech printers are interesting but there are really a lot of complaints about them over on Reddit (but like I say, it's the complainers that put up posts). I'm most familiar with the Creality machines so I'll use them as examples: For ease-of-use get a single extruder printer. If you are daring and want to try multi-extruder then something like a Geeetech A30T is interesting with it's 3 in 1 out hot end. I'd expect high-maintenance though. Build volume is up to you as going bigger only means a larger footprint and is no more complicated than a smaller printer. A fixed bed printer (Ender 5 or Ender 6) is better at tall things as the Y isn't slamming back and forth. When I need to split a part in order to print it (or to eliminate a lot of support structure) I put matching 2.2mm holes 6mm deep into the mating surfaces. At assembly, I super-glue pieces of filament into the holes and use them as locating pins so the other part goes where I want it to. I've used lap joints, mortises, tongue and groove, but the filament trick is the simplest and dependent on the surface area of the mate surfaces, can be very strong. No matter how big a printer you end up with, some things won't fit, or would be much easier to print in sections.

In your price range what you have seen is what you can get. Most of the frames and stepper motors are pretty good. After that things start to go downhill. There is a reason they are cheap. Just look at the fans on some of the bottom end machines...they are junk. A bed slinger model isn't good with tall parts. I get by with dropping the Y acceleration to 150 at around layer 450 and that keeps the print from tearing itself off. The Creality CR-10 has a large bed but the same type of hot end as the one you are already having trouble with. Creality is not good at firmware either. The folks who come in here are having trouble. It's rare for a poster to come in talking about how wonderful their printer is. Mostly it's horror stories but that's why they show up. For $500 you can get a printer. Will it be a good reliable printer? That depends in a large part on how good of a technical person you are and what "upgrades" you decide to go with. I have an Ender 3 Pro. It's acceptable. I have it dialed in and it produces very good parts with very good finishes. It took a year to get there. It's on it's 3rd mother board, second set of fans (all 4) and third hot end (when you clone a POS you should not be surprised to get another POS.) Now with the ball bearing fans, Micro-Swiss hot end, it hums merrily along. Not maintenance free mind you, but it's acceptable.

Printer definition files tell Cura how to set up for the particular machine. If a printer has multiple extruders it must say so in the definition file and then in the Extruders folder there must be an extruder definition file for each possible extruder. If you have copied your Flashforge definition file into Cura's "resources\definitions" folder then go into the 4.11\resources\extruders" folder and copy the FlashForge extruder files into the correct folder in the new version of Cura. One file might be "flashforge_dreamernx_extruder_0.def.json" and the second might be "flashforge_dreamernx_extruder_1.def.json". This has come up before around here. If you search for FlashForge on this forum you will find what other people have done.

Well @lancebaa I'm a VB guy so what I'm seeing there is Greek to me. It sounds like you got it sorted out though. From what I've read about the engine, altering movement is tough because so many other things can break. There are a lot of hours being put into the Arachne version of Cura to get it ready for release. I don't care for the movements I see in Arachne (because of the variable line width) but I'm not well practiced with Arachne. Maybe it will come along for me, or maybe not. Time will tell.

"Would you consider the combing/Z issue a bug?" I don't think so. It's doing what it's programmed to do. I think if you were to change the program so that the Z move was after all the combing moves then someone else would complain about marring a surface because the nozzle is dragging across the skin or because it's banging into the infill or something. "Horsehoe" shaped sections are tough. Every time I have to slice one it takes me a while to fiddle with Cura to get the slice where I want it. I'm rarely 100% happy with it. I was curious how much travel there was in that original 3mf file so I did a study. There were 606 meters spent extruding and 500 meters spent traveling so it was traveling about 45% of the total distance. When I checked that last slice (with 2 walls instead of infill) only about 3.3% of the total distance was travel. The print took longer because the extrusion moves are a lot slower than travel moves but at least the printer would be working instead of just wandering around smoking cigarettes for 9 hours.

I think both of you need two models. One would be the base and the other would be what goes on top. You can do this in Cura. Bring the base in on the build plate and bring the upper portion in at a Z to sit on the base. Using the Per Model settings you could have the base piece ironed and the upper part what ever you want. I've printed a lot of these drink coasters using two models. I've adjusted the Z here so you can see that the top layer of the base on the left is ironed, and the first layer of the words and rim on the right have no bottom layers (in this case, it just doesn't need them). I usually use Pause At Height and change the color for the upper part.

I did a test print of just the letters. I wasn't happy with how they came out. I opened the STL in MS 3D Builder, wiped out the text, and embossed new text. In the image below I've left the original and added the embossed "BRT". You can see that it would print much better as each letter has two walls. The word "OFF" doesn't want to fit and when it's too small it still doesn't want to slice.

"When it combs the print right before starting a new layer, it increases Z *before* the comb" Yes it does. That is the Z adjustment to the next layer but Cura always puts it before the last combing move. In your case that's a long ways from where the next extrusion will be. For example: ;MESH:NONMESH G0 F600 X120.836 Y78.54 Z25.3 followed by 23 lines of combing moves before extrusion starts again. This is the best I've been able to do. I threw out the infill and went with 2 walls. There is one crossing travel move up high. Unfortunately, Travel moves can not be assigned per mesh and so the combing mode cannot be changed with a support blocker. The print time went up by a couple of hours though as the walls require a lot of laps around. GV_NEW4.3mf

A lot of travel moves can be generated with certain combinations of settings. Where the Z seam is in relation to the layer start X Y location, the combing mode, monotonic lines, etc. Do you have "Fill Gaps Between Walls" turned to "Everywhere"? On a "U" shaped section the combing moves will want to stay over the part rather than jump the short gap. The nozzle may run around the back of the horseshoe a couple of times to do it's job. It can be really annoying. For larger models and if Z hops are NOT being used then the post-processor Retract Continue can help the nozzle from oozing on long combing moves. That helps extrusion starts after combing. "U" shaped sections do generate a lot of movement. On the other hand, on that model, pretty much however I set Cura up the print time was 1hr 10min. You don't have a real need for the infill to provide strength. You can try setting the "Infill Layer Height" to 2X Layer Height. The infill will go down every other layer but at 2X flow so you might have to slow the infill down. There are a lot less retractions though. You can play with "Gradual Infill Steps" too. I use that when all my infill has to do is hold up a roof so it can print.

Regarding the Outer Wall Inset - are you having dimensional problems? If you aren't then just leave it at "0". Gaps in the preview can be caused by Coasting as the preview only shows moves with extrusion and the coast distance doesn't have any extrusion. What looks like gaps but is actually white is probably the Z seam. My old laptop doesn't support the high end graphics and so mine never shows that. Round features can't hide the Z seam.