GregValiant

Thank You. I understand I'm working with a Cura beta version but I've gotten used to the interface with the plugin active and I miss it when it's gone.

You can try kicking up the "support flow" in the Material section. I find that because the support goes down first on a layer that a long combing move or a lot of retractions in the infill can cause under-extrusion at the start of the support structure. Under-extrusion all through the support may mean you have under-extrusion in the part as well.

The issues are discussed HERE and a lot of other places on this forum and there are a number of complaints on Github.

Add a support blocker on each side. Size and arrange them to cover just the pillars. Select the Per Model Settings tool and then Modify Settings for Overlaps. Using Select Settings choose Print Speed and set it to what you think will work. If will affect everything within the overlapped volume so watch the size and placement. Two small blocks is probably better than than a large one that goes all the way across and picks up both pillars. Varying speeds mean varying nozzle pressure and extrusions. It's generally not a great idea as it can have adverse effects on some models.

55 pages of light reading. @WartyNZ I hope you threw a couple of jokes in there. If I had written that it would be 550 pages.

Hello @ahoeben, Regarding the Sidebar GUI - I'm having the same problem with 4.12 beta that I had with 4.11. The plugin is loaded according to the Marketplace but it isn't apparent in the Cura GUI. I've uninstalled and re-installed it but it doesn't appear to be present. cura.log

My pleasure. And I learned that scanning better be done square to the world. That little .1° angle was a tough nut.

That's the Ultimaker Format Package file. When loaded into Cura it looks correct with the top surface being 12 layers thick. Without a project file there is no way to tell if there might be something else going on.

There is a setting for "brim distance" from the part. I set it to .1mm and it makes for easier removal and it seems to work just as well. I just thought I'd throw that up here in case you started running out of things to think about.

The gears I've printed have been larger and I didn't have any issues. I think this whole problem is a question of the small size of the parts. Trial and error is necessary as few people print functional detailed pieces like those.

You will need to supply something for the folks here to analyze. Use "File | Save Project" and post the 3mf file here. Without something to look at any advice would be guesswork.

They are so small that trimming is an issue. I've lost my .2 nozzle so I can't do a fine print. The print I did with the .4 stuck well but I also got the bevel/angle effect (it's also how I know that trimming is an issue). Maybe there is some shrinkage going on as well but I would think that would be uniform all the way up. A lot of science goes on in that .2 wide by .1 tall rectangle under the nozzle. Maybe slowing down further for the first 8 or 10 layers (up into the gear teeth) would help. It's a tiny and fairly complex model.

Here is a Gcode file of the model and a 3mf project file for Cura. Once I turned off "Remove all Holes" the model came to life. My printer is an Ender 3 Pro and the Gcode file is for that printer. So long as your printer is running Marlin it should print. That being said, one of my rules is "Never run a gcode file created by someone else". So look at the beginning of the file at the M104 and M109 and M140 and make sure you like the temperatures. It was sliced at a print speed of 50 with outer walls at 35, and .2 layer height and .4 line width with a .4 nozzle. Accel and Jerk are 500 and 8 respectively. It's a fairly conservative setup. If you open the 3mf file you will get my printer so if you have an Ender 3 or 3 Pro - when asked about updating the printer select "Install New". That will keep Cura from over-writing your printer (if that would apply). You will also get my settings so try slicing without changing anything and see how the preview looks. When you switch to your printer in Cura, if the settings profile turns to "none" or "not supported" then you would need to do a full comparison to see what is going on. I think the model was created from a scan of a real medallion. That's fine except that any imperfections (like it not being flat) are picked up. That seems to be the case with this model. Grenadier_fixed.3mf Grenadier_fixed.gcode

Progress. Sometimes it's baby steps but it always feels good when you are moving forward (as opposed to spinning your wheels or moving backward). I have exactly one settings profile for PLA, one for PETG, and one for TPU. I found that trying to keep different profiles for this and that just got confusing. I keep all settings visible and go through every one for every model. Then, after carefully making sure that all are right I start a print and immediately notice that I forgot to move the Z seam. Oh well. The extra prime is in mm³ so at .35 line width by .2 layer height you are at about 35mm of extrusion per 1mm³ of filament. If your under-extrusion is about 12mm long then that would be .33 extra prime amount.

I walked back into the room and played with this again. It's rotated about the X by 0.1° and it would print poorly as the left side starts to print ahead of the right. I rotated the model so the front face is flat. It will still need to be sunk into the build plate in Cura by 0.6mm. Do you happen to know if that model was created by a scan? Grenadier_fixed.stl

The print finished and it looks bad. The inside wall is under-extruded where it starts at the Z seam as you described. I think it can be attributed to all the retractions going on as it keeps switching between "Inner Wall" and "Skin". Those are in the preview as the short green lines and short yellow lines that are inter-mingled between the outer walls. There is also a longish travel move right before the inside wall starts, and likely "Retract before Outer Wall" is having an effect. Here is the preview with your settings. Each short yellow and green line ends with a retraction and Z-hop. Not good. This is with my settings. Notice how the .35 line width has smoothed out the fill between the walls. The "inner wall" now fits all the way around and there is no need for any of the yellow filling moves. Also notice how the facet resolution of the STL file causes the varying thickness of the radiused wall. This is sliced with Arachne. Notice how the green lines vary in width indicating how Arachne handles the varying distance between the outer walls. The motion is continuous with no retractions. The print with my settings is in the front. (The white mark is a slip with the exacto knife.)

There are a couple of things. #1. The bottom of the model isn't flat. Select the model and then set the Z to -0.6. That will give you a flat base. If you don't do that it will be near impossible to print as succeeding layers will be printing over air. #2. Turn off "Mesh Fixes | Remove all holes" and also "Remove Empty First Layers". They are specialty settings that you certainly don't want on all the time. I think making the changes noted above will get you a good slice. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the model.

My printer started this pretty much all of a sudden. I never did really figure it out. I used the thermal grease, trimmed the bowden a million times, went with the fancy "real" pneumatic tubing connectors from McMaster Carr, altered my hot end cover and installed a 4015 fan, drilled holes in the back plate to let the air out, and printed a deflector to make sure the air was aimed at the heat exchanger. Finally I went with a clone of the original hot end. Same problem. That did allow me to come up with a new saying though.."Never be surprised when you clone a piece of crap and come up with another piece of crap." The all-metal hot end I went with is a clone of a good one. It isn't perfect, but the maintenance is way less and it makes it through 24 hour prints just fine. Using "Connect Infill Lines" limits the number of retractions in the infill. When skins are narrow - Z-hops leave little tits sticking up so I generally turn off "Z-Hop on retraction". You have "Retract before outer wall" ticked. Turn that off. Remember that you inside wall is also facing air and so it is an "outside" will to Cura. At 0.4 line width - that model has a lot of starts and stops when filling in the "blade" portion. At .35 line width I thought the motion was much smoother. That 3mf file I attached earlier has my preferred settings. If you slice it and print the resulting gcode you'll see what I mean. There is way less motion with my settings and as @geert_2 noted - keeping the pressure consistent in the nozzle really helps. The boatload of retractions required by your current settings can be an issue. On the surface the filament management is such a simple arrangement - push, heat, extrude. It's hard to believe it can be so hard to troubleshoot when it gets out of tune. I do have some more wet PLA so I sliced the model with your settings and it's printing now. We'll see. This is how I learn this as well. That STL file was created at a very low resolution. At the big end of the megaphone the inner and outer radii ended up as a bunch of fairly long line segments that aren't "concentric". That means that the distance between any point on the inner radius to an adjacent point on the outer radius is constantly changing. I'm thinking that the Cura Arachne version might be a better choice for this model.

Nice job on the bevel gears. Their tough to do. I'll switch nozzles in a while and print one of those gears. Maybe something will jump out at me. I use up my wet PLA on these test prints and it may have an effect on small parts like that. We'll see. Maybe my mind is just stuck on the "support" thing, but it seemed to be the problem until I saw the "bevel" gears.

Use "File | Save Project" and post the resulting 3mf file. There are enough fine features that did slice that it appears the lettering should show up. If that is with a .4 nozzle - change to a .2 (in Cura) and slice again to see if it's just a matter of "too fine" for a .4. The center ring not making it around has me leaning towards the model being a problem. Post the 3mf file though.

It always dazzles me the way the Cura Team can juggle 3 operating systems and over 300 printers and pretty much get things to work.

Here is the result from my Ender 3 Pro. I would call it acceptable. There was a very , very light under-extrusion when the nozzle moved away from the letters and continued the wall. The Z seam is in the corner closest to the "M". I'm attaching the 3mf file. When was the last time you cleaned your hot end and trimmed the bowden tube? A partial clog at the bottom of the bowden where it is supposed to seal against the nozzle can cause the same sort of problem as you are experiencing. I finally gave up on the stock hot end and went with an all-metal. REtractions over 6mm can cause problems as well. The 3mf file you posted was an "export" and only contained the model. You need to use Save Project to have a 3mf that contains your settings and your printer. GVcookiecutter.3mf

Just for a test to isolate the problem - sink the gear into the build plate 0.5mm to bypass the bottom facing hub. I'm too lazy to change nozzles so you will have to do all the heavy lifting.

@Kadensm10 I don't see a definition file for a dual extruder SC-10. The SC-60 (LotMaxx Shark) is a dual extruder though. In Cura - install a Lotmaxx SC-60. On the right side of that dialog is a box where you can select a name for the printer. You can change the name if you want ("SC-10 Dual" or something). After it's installed go to Manage Printers and then Machine Settings. It looks like the bed size XY is the same as your printer but the SC-60 is shorter. Go ahead and change the Z height from 265 to 320mm. There some numbers on the right that only come into play when you have multiple objects on the Cura build plate and elect to print them one-at-a-time. Don't worry about them for now. Exit from the dialogs and go back to Cura. If you haven't done so already, go to the MarketPlace (button is upper right on the screen). It takes a while to load. After it comes up scroll down through the available plugins and make sure "Printer Settings" is installed and if it isn't, then install it. You may have to quit Cura and restart to load the plugin. Scroll down through the settings and in Printer Settings check "Extruders share heater" and "extruders share nozzle". I think you should be good to start experimenting. The retraction and prime distances will need to be dialed in for when a tool change is called for in the gcode. Speaking of gcode - your "Extruder 1" will be "T0" and your "Extruder 2" will be "T1". Expect to have to make some adjustments to the StartUp G-Code to get the machine dialed in as well.

@geert_2 I'm guessing it's a silky gold. All the silkies have trouble with layer adhesion but for a model like that it isn't a problem. The silkies seem to dislike moisture more as well so I have to dry them more often than regular filament. That leads to other problems so I use it up as quick as I can for the more artsy stuff (rather than mechanical things). @Smggems remember to turn "remove all holes" off. That one causes confusion as does "make overhangs printable".