GregValiant

The step height is the duration (in mm) of the step in the infill counting down from the top layer of infill. This model is 100mm tall with no top or bottom surface and infill density at 20% and the Step Height at 10mm. I used Lines at 90° so the infill can be viewed. Each of the 3 steps lasts for 10mm (the step height). In this model (a calibration cube stretched in the Z) you can see that the first lines of increased density infill will print in the air. That is one reason to increase the step height - so the first couple of layers that are "bridging" have a chance to complete and allow the next layers a base to rest on). One thing I noticed is that the maximum number of steps appears to be 3 even though a warning doesn't come up until 6.

I don't have any problem slicing the thing so as AHoeben hinted, the problem is likely in your settings. When you have the part loaded in Cura and ready for slicing use "File | Save Project" and post the 3mf file here. It's really hard to troubleshoot without a project file that contains all your settings as well as the model.

Somewhere around here is a really excellent rant of mine regarding wall calibration cubes. It boils down to this: Once the E-steps are calibrated you are done. When any slicer calculates the amount of filament required for a particular extrusion it can only use a rectangle for the calculation. With a single or double wall calibration cube the filled area is unconstrained on at least one side and so there is no way the shape being filled can be a rectangle. That's why it is my considered opinion that calibrating mm³ by measuring the width of a wall is at least silly and at worst totally misleading. Calculate the E-steps correctly and then read the print. The first silent board I bought for my printer lasted 4 days and then the E driver died. My E-steps were all over the place and there was no way to calibrate them (I'm talking E-steps near 300!!). Creality finally fessed up after two months and sent me a new board which has been fine since.

E-steps are "mm's of filament" right? The E numbers in a gcode file are mm's of filament. I have the Creality glass plate and I print on the coated side. I clean it with dish soap, place it on the bed, and wipe it down with isopropyl alcohol in case of fingerprints. It is going on 2 years and it's fine.

My printer is an Ender 3 Pro. Close enough to yours for comparison. I keep it tuned both by force of habit, and because it's important for what I do around here to at least seem like I know what I'm doing. That being said, I sliced and printed the dog using your profile. It's bloody awful. Rather than forcing myself to watch as it butchered that poor dog, I've aborted it. Flow on the walls was almost non-existent. What I have is a swiss cheese dog. My suggestion is to go back and look at the printer one more time. Some of your settings (Wall Flow and Bed Temperature come to mind as do a initial layer line width of 130% and an initial layer speed of 5mm/sec) are far from mainstream. It has the look that you were trying to compensate for things via the gcode rather than dialing in the printer itself. In particular - an initial bed temperature of 78° is way too hot. I run the bed at 50° and looking at the requirements for PLA you will find that it does not require a heated bed at all. The hot bed could be the main reason your initial layers look squished. If you are having trouble with initial layer adhesion to the bed then hairspray or a glue stick are better choices. It is also a better choice to kick up the initial layer flow rather than the line width. You are also asking for 1mm of extra prime after each retraction. That is 75mm worth of extrusion at a .08 layer height and should not be necessary. I write a bit of code and I've attached a little Windows program I wrote for controlling the printer from the computer. It does require a USB data connection. Your installation of Cura should have loaded the Arduino driver for USB to Serial communication. It doesn't support sending a print over the USB but rather controls printing via the SD card by sending commands over the USB. Along with leveling commands there is an E-Step calculator included. With the USB plugged in - just enter the bed size in the MaxX and MaxY boxes, click the Open Port button, and the rest is pretty self-explanatory. Here is the download link to Google Drive. Greg's SD Print Tool This is the start of a swiss cheese dog. I think "Abort" is the correct word used correctly.

Curiously, 1mm of 2.85mm filament = 6.379mm³ and 1mm of 1.75mm filament = 2.405mm³. 2.405/6.379 = 37.6% which is real close to your 40% flow. So in Machine Settings check the filament diameter for your extruder. Also check the "Diameter" setting in "Printer Settings" which I think has to be loaded from the MarketPlace. When Volume of Filament = Volume of Extrusion then Flow is 100%. You can see that if your flow is set to 40% that something isn't right. Your E-Steps should have ended up somewhere between 93 and 100.

Another thing to check is for Z binding. It occurs on Creality printers for a couple of reasons... When the Z motor mount doesn't align the centerline of the motor shaft precisely with the brass drive nut on the extruder mount. The usual fix is to shim the motor mount (I ended up with 0.3mm of shim). This problem is usually characterized by layers in the first 5mm or so that look compressed. After Auto-Homing the printer, carefully measure the distance between the Z rod to the Z upright down as far as you can and again near the top of the Z rod. The distance should be the same. The Z rod and the Z upright should be parallel. A second reason can be that the Z wheels are too tight. You should just be able to turn any of the bogie wheels on the printer with two fingers. A third reason is that the X beam isn't tight on the left end. It rocks a bit as it goes up and this can lead to herky-jerky Z movement. This one is a pain because the two screws that hold the X beam to the left bracket can only be accessed when the X beam assembly is slid off the top of the machine. Here is the poor dog in pink. My exacto knife is out in the garage and I'm too lazy to go get it so Fidette isn't groomed.

What operating system are you running? What printer have you installed in Cura?

There are two things you can do... The easiest thing is: Within the Rotation Tool dialog you can turn off "Snap Rotation". Next is to open the model file in something like MS 3D Builder and rotate the model there (it's a more precise rotation useful for rotating a model something like 22.5°). A third option is to open the PY file C:\Program Files\Ultimaker Cura 4.11.0\plugins\Tools\RotateTool\RotateTool.py (in Notepad or the text editor of your choice) and alter this line: "self._snap_angle = math.radians(15)" into something like "self._snap_angle = math.radians(2)". Save the file and re-open Cura. If/when you update Cura you would have to do that again in the new version. The py files have been carefully written and checked so making any change can result in effects that aren't obvious at first. The angle number displays in a Toolhint box that appears to be configured to displaying integers. If you require an angle of 22.5° you can tell when the angle hits 22 and then again when it hits 23 but you won't know when it is at exactly 22.5°.

One thing about troubleshooting 3d prints is that there can be multiple problems that overlap each other. Each needs to be handled in turn. It sounds like you took care of the under-extrusion. I think the next thing is to revisit the belt tension. Those "steps" on the handle on the dogs back look like the belt skipped. The belts should "twang like a guitar string". You did a File | Export which creates a model file (as opposed to a File | Save Project which is also a 3mf file but includes you printer and all your settings). So the DogWbox.3mf is just the model and I don't know how you set up the slice. There is one thing that comes to mind though. Under "Travel" there is a setting for "Retraction Minimum Travel" which for that model should be set at 2 to 3mm. I'm attaching a gcode file that prints fine on my Ender 3 Pro. I am also attaching a 3mf file of the project. When you open a 3mf file that is a Project File you will be prompted about altering your printer, or adding a new printer. Always choose "Add New" or you can get unwanted changes in things like your start gcode (if you have customized it). You can always delete the new printer when you get done playing around. GVDogWbox.gcode GVDogWbox.3mf

The developers do spend time here. @nallath or @ahoeben may respond with a suggestion (and to let us know if I'm wrong about this). I've never tried to turn it off as it seems to help with bed adhesion of the support structure. What I think I'm seeing is that the Initial Layer Support Pattern (which is not a setting) is always a grid if you use the "Grid", "Lines" or "Zigzag" pattern for your support. If you use Triangles or Gyroid, etc, that first layer grid does not appear. If you set "Initial Layer Support Line Distance" to 0 then that grid will go away BUT the second layer would really need to be "2 x Layer Height" thick and so bed adhesion of the support structure on the second layer may be a problem. I generally set the "Support Infill Layer Thickness" to 2X layer height. That tells Cura to only put down the support infill every other layer and so the flow is calculated at double what a single layer would be.

The individual printer manufacturers write (or pay someone to write) the printer definition files. They are submitted to Ultimaker for inclusion in Cura. Ultimaker is gracious enough to include other manufacturers definitions with Cura but can hardly be expected to buy other printers for development work. "Open Source" does not equate to "Non-profit" so (as an outsider here) I think you need to ask Creatbot how they define "Compatible with" which appears in their ad regarding your printer.

You can create a printer in Cura by using the generic FFF printer definition (under non-networked printers / Custom) and going into the Machine Settings and changing things like: The name, the build plate size, the Firmware Flavor, StartUp Gcode, Filament diameter, etc. One issue that I recall has come up is the Maximum Temperature. It is defined as 365° in the fdmprinter.def.json file and imposes that limit on the temperature setting in Cura. You could alter that file or create a definition file of your own that overrides the Maximum setting to match your printers Max Temperature.

Move the Z seam to a corner of the transom ("left front" or "left rear" when I load a Benchy) and use "smart hiding". It should move to a corner at the back of the boat and be far less noticeable. The dark mark is where the deck is on the interior and it's been an issue on all Benchys. The more translucent the filament the more noticeable it is.

It might be the top support interface. You can turn that off and see how it looks. A support interface (top or bottom) is good for large flat areas and can help to make the support structure easier to remove.

Once you get things to stick to the bed, the number one problem becomes extrusion. If you haven't done it yet - calibrate your E-steps. When the printer is asked to extrude 100mm of filament it needs to move 100mm of filament. Most Enders need this done and there are a lot of videos out there. The second thing is the mechanicals. The 3 axes need to be perpindicular to each other (not just "close enough") and the belts and wheels need to be adjusted for easy movement with no wobbling of the print head or skipping of teeth on the belts. If you want to post a 3mf file of your project you can load a model and set up Cura for slicing and then use "File | Save Project" to create a 3mf file and post it here. Somebody will take a look.

They run just fine. I think I have 5 versions of Cura installed. You can probably get the older machine to work with a newer version of Cura. If there isn't a printer definition file available in the new version you can install a generic FDM printer and make changes to the setup to match that older printer. The definition files inform Cura of things like bed size, if there is a heated bed, max speeds, and most important the firmware flavor so the gcode is compatible. Those sort of things can all be set manually as well.

@nallath is there anything you can add here? I have seen this behavior myself but I've been able to get rid of the problem by playing with the settings. Yes, close inspection of the preview can take time but not near as long as re-doing a failed print.

Yes, Pause at Height is for manual filament changes. You could do that, but then I saw that last picture. I have no idea how black could have gotten into the green extrusion. What color was the infill in that area? Strike that. Infill runs up and down and that color intrusion looks to run with the layers. You have black a few mm's above where the black extruder stopped being called upon. I can't recall how many walls you had in that file. I generally consider 3 to be a minimum. And then I looked at the picture again and 6 may not have helped. The green looks to have intermittent under-extrusion. Are you confident in the Estep calibration of that extruder? I'll think on this some more, but right now I'm kind of baffled. The gcode I generated looks fine. The green extruder could not have put down black or been somehow contaminated. It must have picked up the black from somewhere so I guess the question should be how and where from? A likely suspect would be a blob of black it picked up on the purge tower and it took a while to ooze down the outside of the nozzle and make it into the print.

"...which leads to the base colour seeping in to the lettering." That's one I never heard of. It appears that the prime tower ends because there are no further color changes above layer 26. What you are doing is really no different than when using Pause at Height to change colors. I've never gotten "seepage" of one color into another with either PLA or PETG. One thing I have done is to allow the base color to continue to one layer of the lettering (in your model I would have layer 26 be black and change colors for layer 27). That insures that the second color will not be dragged across the top of the base resulting in (in your case) green scars across the black base. Nobody ever notices that the bottom .2mm of the letters is the base color. Using the "Per Model" settings for the lettering, and setting the Bottom Layers to "0" will result in layer 26 being just walls and infill instead of a full bottom surface on your base top surface. That will result in much less heat being applied on top of the base and may mitigate the "seeping" you have. Another thing you can try is to turn "Combing" off. That will keep the print head within the letters (except for the travel moves between the letters) as opposed to traveling over the base to avoid the letters.

Check the Z of the part in the Move tool. It should be "0". Sometimes the part is sitting at a slight angle and although it looks to be flush on the plate, it isn't. The Rotation tool has a "Lay Flat" option that can help. Sometimes the bottom of a model simply isn't flat. The low point holds the rest of the model in the air and Cura notices and only puts a raft/skirt/brim around that touching point. In that case lowering the model into the build plate by some small distance can eliminate the problem. On such a simple model this isn't usually a problem - but if the model has reversed surfaces or open seams (not Water-Tight) then things can get odd as Cura sees one thing, you see it another way, and you're both wrong because areas of the model are inside-out.

"3D print a nice bathroom if you have a LOT of patience." I think it would take less time to print than it does waiting for people and parts to show up. I had to go to 4 different stores just for a couple of 1/2" CVPC end caps. Stupid. A lot of shelves are empty at Home Depot and Lowes. It's good that the problem is figured out. I've seen a couple of problems with Monoprice printers but as I said, it's a problem in the definition file that they supplied to Ultimaker for inclusion in Cura. I'm more of an angle iron sort of printer (functional things like faucets and 2 x 4's) but there are some artists around here. Some of the character STL files are poor. The characters are created from a comic book or a scanned model and the translation/conversion is bad. That's where a lot of "not watertight" things come from. If you are using Windows MS 3D Builder isn't bad at repair. I use https://formware.co/OnlineStlRepair and they seem pretty good so long as the model isn't too bad (there is a time limit of 4 minutes once the repair starts). I like it because it gives a breakdown of what it found. Anyway - Good Luck.

It's either this or work on my bathroom remodel project. Here is a little light reading on Reddit. There are a couple of other posts regarding your printer. They will come up if you search for Monoprice Mini Delta. Maybe another owner can shed some light on this. The poster on Reddit mentions the SD card. The Creality printers ship with small volume SD cards (16gb) and won't read a card over 32gb. It's getting harder to find the small capacity cards that some of these machines seem to require.

There isn't a lot of difference. The canned file has a bitmap image. They always start with W221 and end with W222. There is also an M73 line that re-sets the print percentage. Your Cura StartUp Gcode doesn't have any of those (but I wouldn't think it would be a problem). The G29 Auto-Level command in your StartUp Gcode has a parameter Z0.4 and the CatRing file does not. I think a couple of adjustments to the StartUp Gcode might be something to try. Start Cura and go to Manage Printers. Add a new "Monoprice MP Mini Delta V2" printer. You can change the name on the right side of the dialog box. (The is so your original installed printer will be a backup to these changes.) Select the new printer in Cura. Go to Manage Printers and select Machine Settings. Delete the StartUp gcode text and then paste this into the box. ;(**** start.gcode for MP Mini Delta V2****) W221 ;Start of bitmap image W222 ;end of bitmap image M73 P0 ;reset the Print Progress percentage G21 ;Metric units G90 ;Absolute movement M82 ;Absolute extrusion M106 S0 ;Shut the fan off (M107 is becoming deprecated in some firmware) M140 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;Start heating the bed M109 S170 ;Start heating the hot end and wait till it hits 170 to prevent oozing during leveling. M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;Wait for the bed temp G28 X Y ;Home the X and Y G28 Z ;Home the Z G29 ;Auto-Level G1 Z15 F300 ;Move up 15 G1 F2400 X-50 Y0 ;Move to the side in case of oozing. M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} ;Heat to your print temperature and wait G92 E0 ;Reset the extruder G1 F200 E3 ;Extrude 3mm of filament G92 E0 ;reset the extruder G1 F2000 ;set the print speed for the initial moves ;End of StartUp Gcode A couple of the Monoprice printer definition files have been found to have "errors of omission" in them. Yours is pretty straight forward and I didn't notice anything that would keep your files from printing. Regarding your settings - if you are printing PLA then 230 is too hot. Make that 210 until you get a good feel for it and can dial it in. The bed temperature should be adjusted to 50 to 60 as well.

I don't have a dual head printer but I have configured one in Cura to play with. Each extruder has it's own settings and you must go through all the settings once for each extruder. Next to the settings search box is an icon with 3 lines. Click on that and set visibility to "All". Select the part you want to print with extruder 1, select extruder 1, go through all the settings. Select part 2 and extruder 2 and go through all the settings. Specifically I think your "infill extruder" settings needs attention but it's hard to tell from afar. If you use "File | Save Project" and post the resultant 3mf file here maybe it will show something.