GregValiant

OK - no pressure! A couple of questions first. Just to be clear - when it "stops" extruding do you mean no more filament out of the hot end but the extruder wants to push the filament? What do you have to do in order to get it running again? Clean out the hot end? Just pull out the filament, trim it, push it in and keep going? When the extruder is running well and has been running for an hour - can you keep your fingers on the motor housing comfortably(?) or is it too hot to handle? When you do pull the filament out after it stops extruding - does the filament that was in the bowden tube look like an accordian? You have changed out all the usual suspects. If the extruder motor runs too hot, the heat runs up the motor shaft and softens the filament and it doesn't want to push. This is usually caused by the Vref being set too high. That isn't something that just starts up randomly though. The Vref (Reference Voltage) is often adjustable on the mainboard via a small philips head screw next to each stepper driver chip. It is usually about 1volt and measured between the screw head and ground. If it is set too low the motor will run cool but not develop enough torque to work. If the bowden tube isn't trimmed at exactly 90° then there is a gap between the tube and the back of the nozzle that gets filled with molten plastic which hardens and creates a blockage. If your retractions are long (over about 6.5mm) then molten plastic gets pulled up towards the heat exchanger and cools into a blockage. You replaced the hot end fan and it is definitely pushing air at the heat exchanger(?) and then that air can readily escape from the area? You are having the same problem as I did with my Ender 3 Pro. My second replacement Hot End was an all metal model and finally fixed my problem. The first replacement I tried was a cheap clone of the original cheap Creality hot end (I was pretty sure it would fit). That lead to my development of a new saying "Never be surprised when you clone a piece of crap and end up with another piece of crap." The "Tune" on these cheap printers is on a knife edge and when they inevitably fall off the edge they can be tough to troubleshoot.

Halloween is coming up and I've been working on my costume. This is a really difficult clue as to who (actually "what") I've decided to be. Not fancy like some of the work here but I thought it came out well. It's called the "Double Cross" and was awarded for saving the planet from Scammers.

In Mesh Fixes - is "Remove all Holes" checked?

What's the difference between the base CR10 and the Smart model? Creality is responsible for submitting definition files for inclusion in Cura and they've actually been pretty good about it. If the only real difference is the WIFI capability then I would think that the CR10 base definition file would be fine. After installing the printer in Cura go to Manage Printers and Machine Settings and check the build volume sizes for Width, Depth, Height, and the Firmware Flavor to make sure they match your printer and you should be good. How the gcode gets to the printer isn't part of a gcode file.

Cura has definition files for the Raise 3D N2 single and dual extruder printers. What is wrong or what isn't working?

No, Fusion is really good about exporting clean models. There can be user errors in creating the CAD model (unions of pieces that aren't quite attached is the main one) but all-in-all the AutoDesk programs work well. If your version of Fusion has NetFabb included I think you can use it for STL repair. AutoDesk used to have a free site using NetFabb but it's gone. I've been using another site and it gives reports on the model repairs. The first here is for the Body2 part (which Cura declared to be non-watertight). --> 0 Naked edges (?) --> 0 Planar holes (?) --> 0 Non-planar holes (?) --> 2 Non-manifold edges (?) --> 4 Inverted faces (?) --> 8 Degenerate faces (?) --> 0 Duplicate faces (?) --> 0 Disjoint shells (?) -> Repairing: 100.00% ----- Repair completed in 415ms ------ -> Vertex count changed from 467 to 477 (+10) -> Triangle count changed from 950 to 962 (+12) This one is for the Track Pad model (Cura declared it to be watertight) that had the problem. -> Reading file and indexing vertices -> Analysed your file: --> 0 Naked edges (?) --> 0 Planar holes (?) --> 0 Non-planar holes (?) --> 0 Non-manifold edges (?) --> 0 Inverted faces (?) --> 0 Degenerate faces (?) --> 0 Duplicate faces (?) --> 0 Disjoint shells (?) -> Repairing: 100.00% ----- Repair completed in 1200ms ------ -> Vertex count changed from 1102 to 1708 (+606) -> Triangle count changed from 2212 to 3424 (+1212) The vertex and triangle counts went way up (and it took 3 times as long to repair) but I have no idea what that really means. So it appears that there really wasn't much wrong with the models you uploaded and they sliced fine for me. That print you did sure looks like a bad model though. Below is a screenshot of my slice read into AutoCad (I turned off the travel moves to unclutter). It also looks fine. If you will post the gcode file that you printed I can look at it. Since you used ArcWelder it can't be read back into Cura (yet). @ahoeben did much work on ArcWelder and maybe he has a take on this. That definitely isn't stringing we see in those photos. They look a lot like triangles (when viewed in the plan) right down to the short legs that are within the gear teeth. I was surprised there wasn't more wrong with the models.

In Cura there should be two extruders on tabs above the settings. Click on the extruder you don't want to use and de-select the "enabled" box. It's really hard to tell what's going on without a project file. Here is the settings dialog with the extruder tabs.

The file will open and can be edited in any text editor (but not a word processor). Those posts were 4 years ago. It looks like it would still be possible. "magic_spiralize" and the current setting is "settable_per_mesh": false. I have printed models with solid base and spiralized upper portions. My system was to slice the model twice and cut and paste a gcode file together. The XYZE locations need to be synced at the transition between the base file and the spiralize portion. It prints fine.

So I win a virtual 2 cents??? Cool. I'm saving up my virtual bonuses and virtual winnings for a new virtual Bugatti Veyron.

@BrunoFranco I'm curious if you were able to figure this out.

"English.pdf" is the Ultimaker Rohs statement dated October 19, 2018 and includes this statement: "Our materials comply with Directive 2011/65/EU as amended up to and including the Delegated Directive (EU) 2015/863." "SDS CPE v3.004-EN.pdf" is the Ultimaker MSDS for CPE+ Here is the LINK to the Rohs information page. English.pdf SDS CPE v3.004-EN.pdf

"It could be the model. It could be your settings." @gr5 - I'm going to go out on a limb and wager my 2 cents on the model being the problem. Zooming in on the second image it sure looks like bad surfaces on the "gear teeth". @bryce_jensen The Project File will tell.

When I add a Lotmaxx SC10 to Cura it comes up as a single extruder printer and there is no option for a second extruder. Load a calibration cube or a benchy in Cura and make your settings. Then under "File" use the "Save Project" command and save the project as a 3mf file. Post that 3mf file here and someone will take a look. After you do that, open the 3mf file I attached below. It uses your printer and the model is a calibration cube. You can slice it and generate a gcode file. The speeds and acceleration numbers are conservative. I'm also attaching a gcode file that I created from that project file. Copy it to your SD card and it should print. edit: Make sure the cord for the "filament runout sensor" is plugged in at both ends. If you are confident that the filament is in contact with the sensor, and that it's wired correctly, then maybe it's a bad sensor. A LotMaxx support group may be able to help. LotMaxxCalibration Cube.3mf LMCalibration Cube.gcode

I think you've discovered one of the reasons why Cura "USB printing" has not been updated in years. It's flaky at best and prone to random stoppages to boot. The Octoprint/RaspPI combination is a better solution. Your specific problem may have to do with your USB cable, the printer USB port, your computer USB port, or the USB to Serial port driver. Herky jerky movement like that is a hallmark of buffer under-runs as the printer has to wait for the next line of gcode to come in. Every time it hesitates - the nozzle leaves a blob.

"Why isn't this line concentric instead of zig-zag?" The remaining center portion is not an exact "line width" wide and so a full line won't fit. Cura fills it instead with a zig-zag pattern. Remember that there are no circles, only shapes defined by a lot of chords. The cross section therefore isn't 5.00000mm but varies according to how the chords are laid out which is a function of the triangles in the STL file. The higher the resolution of the STL file means more triangles and the closer a model is to a circle, until you bump into Cura's Maximum Resolution setting in Mesh Fixes. The first image is "Bottom Pattern Initial Layer = Concentric" and "Line Width = .4" with "Fill Gaps Between Walls = Everywhere". This one is with "Fill Gaps Between Walls = Nowhere" This one is with the Line Width = .37 (picked by experimenting). That bottom image can also be achieved by changing the Wall Thickness to 2.8. With the current version of Cura it's always a matter of "how much room is left to fill?". The Cura Arachne version will vary the line width automatically to get rid of problems like that. If you search around here there is a link to the Beta version of Arachne. With the Line Width in Arachne at .4 you get the same pattern as that last image. Are you using Z-Hops? If the retractions are set to occur over short moves then the nozzle should move up and not scuff the print. Z-Hopping has it's own drawbacks but generally will eliminate scuffing.

Some model files have pieces "grouped" in them. Most STL files are single models. Just keep opening them and bringing them in until you are comfortable with the possibility of one breaking loose from the bed and smashing the others. Octoprint has a way to cancel a single part that fails so it gets excluded for the duration of a print. When the parts come into Cura the program sticks them here and there and even off the build surface. I position them myself but I think now there is an automatic positioning option in Cura. Another option is to print them "all at once" or "one at a time". There are more restrictions with one-at-a-time because of the possibility of crashes with the print head into a finished piece.

Thank you @woodworker2001. This is hot off the printer. It still needs the windows and curtains and so forth. All in all I'm pleased but I wish I would have dried the silver first (it's a little blobby in person). Now there isn't enough left for another Airstream. We belong to the Tin Can Tourists and I sell these with a set of drink coasters (for a pittance) at our vintage trailer rallies. Ours is a 1972 Shasta Compact. But my hands are tired of pulling, pushing, and trimming. There were 66 color changes in the silver trailer and only 8 in the rainbow one (my previous record holder). The process worked though and there was no hand coding. I think I'll put this process in the toolbox and bring it out for special occasions. The constant filament changing got real old real fast. The trailers are shells with no infill and no internal support so the layer time is short. Filament changes were every 30 seconds or so. BTW I checked in fdmprinter.def.json and the max number of extruders is 16. I think trying something with 16 extruders would define "tedium ad nauseum"

PrusaSlicer, Ideamaker, MatterControl, Chitubox64, Mingda Printer, QidiPrint, Repetier, PrintRun, and Lotmaxx are all the same as Cura. Input is in mm/sec and gcode output is mm/min. It would be kind of interesting to know how that got started as it seems to have become a defacto standard. I did some work cutting toolpaths for CNC mills but it was a long time ago and I can't remember what units were involved. (I just want to be clear on this - I am NOT so old that it would have been "cubits/week".) I had wanted to change my speed settings for my purge lines to give them some flexibility (for when I print TPU) but as you noticed there is no keyword for {speed_print_mm_per_min}. I think it could be done in PrusaSlicer because it appears that math is allowed in StartUp Gcode so {speed_print}*60 may be viable over there.

Some more information and a picture of your setup would be good. What material are you printing? What is the print temperature? What printer? Are you sure the bed is heating uniformly? Is the enclosure equipped with an exhaust fan?

@tacotijsma The workaround is to set your Layer Height to something NOT equal to the thickness of the model then it will slice. Example: If the model is 0.2mm thick then Layer Height = .199 it will allow it to slice.

Are the E-steps calibrated on both printers? It's something that could be different between them. Maybe some under-extrusion on the V2 is causing that.

@pmp and @woodworker2001 I spent some time playing with this concept of "mid layer pausing" to change colors. What I came up with is a method to manually emulate a dual extruder printer. I think it shows promise for prints with limited tool changes. I sliced a dual color 3d Benchy and there were 177 tool changes that become manual filament changes. That would be no fun. In Cura I have a "Virtual Ender 3 Pro" configured for up to 4 extruders as a "multi-in and 1 out" machine. Shared Nozzle, Shared Heater, no retraction at tool change, all standby temperatures are set to printing temperature. By playing with the settings (retraction at tool change is an example) I'm able to get it to change tools with no waiting for heating, or cool down - it switches tools and goes right to work (virtually of course). I configured it with three extruders for testing and the model is kind of like the one in PMP's pictures. The key is that "Search and Replace" allows for multi-line replacement strings using the "\n" newline characters. I brought 3 models into Cura and assigned extruder 1 to model A and extruder 2 to model B and extruder 3 to model C. I add (1) instance of the Cura "Search And Replace" post-processor for each extruder. In one "Search box" was T0 and in the Replace box was this: ;\n;Color Change\nT0\nM84 S1000\nG91\nM83\n;G1 E-5\nG1 Z10\nG90\nG1 X0 Y0 F7200\nM118 COLOR\nM300\nM0\n;G1 XY ;Return to XY\n;G1 Z ;Return to Z\nM82\n;End of Color Change\n; In the second search box was T1 and in the third search box was T2. The replacement strings were the same as for T0. So Search and Replace inserts this snippet into the Gcode whenever there is a tool change. You may notice that it is much like the Pause at Height code inserted by that plugin. There are only so many ways to do this: ; ;Color Change T0 ;All the tool changes are now T0 as a single extruder machine will pick up other tool numbers as errors. M84 S1000 ;Stepper timeout set to 1000 seconds G91 ;Relative positioning M83 ;Relative extrusion ;G1 E-5 ;Retract 5mm - some prints need this additional extrusion and some don't G1 Z10 ;Move up 10mm G90 ;Absolute positioning G1 X0 Y0 F7200 ;Move to the left front corner M118 BLACK ;M118 sends a response from the printer back to Pronterface or other control software set up to receive. M300 ;Beep M0 ;Pause ;G1 XY ;"Return to" XY location (if required) is manually pasted in. It's the last XY location before the pause. - some prints need this and some don't ;G1 Z ;"Return to" Z location also might need to be pasted in. It is the last Z location before the pause. - some prints need this and some don't M82 ;Absolute extrusion ;End of Color Change ; The very first occurrence of the "T" command occurs before the startup gcode and will need to have the pause lines removed as it doesn't need them. I did use the prime tower and it needs to be located near the "park" position to keep stringing off the print. All-in-all I was pleased with how the print came out. I really expected clumsier transitions but they come out well with little to no blobbing. The bottom line is that this shows promise at least for those projects that don't require a boat load of tool changes. I know some printers don't support the M0 command, but there are other commands that could work. It's just a glorified copy-and-paste routine but it takes nearly all of the tedium out of doing something like this (although you do have to sit there and wait for filament changes). There were "extra" filament changes to color 1. It would do the prime tower and then there would be an immediate color change to the next color. Things rapidly got confusing as to which color to change to and so I added the M118 line as I use my own bit of software to monitor the printer at all times. I tried M117 to send the color to the LCD but it was immediately over-written by "Click to resume" from the M0 command so M117 didn't work for me. I would highly recommend having Pronterface running so the M118 will send the message back to the computer. There is no doubt that this will take practice. I was able to print the files with no hand coding beyond removing that very first Pause code from the front of the file. I am now fully proficient at trimming and loading filament.

What you have there is a bad model. There are 30 different parts combined and a lot of incomplete areas. When the "model is not watertight" warning comes up it indicates problems with the model. Each slicer handles the models a bit differently. MS 3D builder noticed the problems right away and was able to repair the model. It then sliced correctly in Cura. This is Cura in X-Ray view. The bad areas are highlighted. This is from IdeaMaker and you'll notice in the right lower corner "model invalid". Here it is sliced in IdeaMaker This is PrusaSlicer and it also looks a lot like Cura sliced it. The other 15 slicers I have installed came out pretty much the same. That's a bad model.

Cura doesn't do math or logic when going through the StartUp G-Code. It looks like PrusaSlicer may do both. It's good that you sorted that out. Cura always puts the M82 in at the beginning to set the printer to absolute extrusion mode. I notice that you have an M83 in the start gcode and the extrusions in your purge lines are "relative" so that is fine. G1 X240.0 E25.0 F2200.0 G1 Y-2.0 F1000.0 G1 X55.0 E25 F1400.0 G1 Z0.20 F1000.0 G1 X5.0 E4.0 F1000.0 But the rest of the file was sliced in "absolute" extrusion mode and when your start up gcode ends it is leaving the printer in "relative" mode so I don't think that file would print correctly. You either need to enable "Special Modes / Relative Extrusion" in Cura, or add an M82 at the very end of your start up g-code. The printer needs to know how to interpret the E numbers it sees. That would be true for the Ender as well.

Load a model and your Prusa printer in Cura and then setup Cura for a slice. Then use the "File | Save Project" command to save the whole mess as a 3mf project file and post that here. Maybe something will jump out. I added the definition for the "Prusa i3 mk3/mk3s" and it has the keywords in the StartUp G-Code. Everything worked fine and the temperatures are in the gcode file so the keyword replacement worked for me.