GregValiant
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Posts posted by GregValiant
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I understand regarding the copyright.
It sounds like they did their homework on how to set up Cura. Adaptive layers is good at horizontal surfaces that aren't quite flat. It's also good for domed features. For those types of geometries it can do a good job softening the "step height". On that piece since it's printed vertically I don't think you'd need it. I'm more of a mechanical guy though. @kmanstudios may chip in. He does a lot of artwork and may be able to advise better.
Just to be clear, I see the patterns in the preview and I'd guess that is the adaptive layers doing that. In the printed part, are you talking about the seam looking things - kind of like tree branches or the veins of a leaf or the fainter more numerous markings? I wouldn't expect to see those heavier ones on an airfoil. This is where it would be really handy to be able to play with the model in Cura.
Just so you know, you're asking questions about an RC plane from a guy who has planted a couple in trees. I wasn't very good at U-control either. After an afternoon of flying, all 4 planes would fit in a 5 gallon bucket.
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I wrote a piece of software to run my Ender 3 Pro from the laptop. Everything is done by sending commands to the printer. I don't have to use the knob for days at a time. It also prints by sending commands to the printer which sends back the SD card file list to the laptop so I can pick which file to print. I send the command and it prints from the SD card.
No Ultimaker printers use USB printing anymore and as a consequence the USB Printing plugin hasn't been updated in a long time. There are also problems because it sends M115 to check the temperature every 3 seconds. Sometimes that can get truncated to M1 which is a stop command. The LCD button has to be clicked to resume. Throw that in with Microsoft pushing middle-of-the-night reboots and I absolutely agree with gr5...I can't think of any pros either.
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When I export an STL file the only requirement is that it is in the positive octant. Exactly where in the octant doesn't matter. I don't know whether or not there is any location information in the file. Mostly I don't pay attention to where the part is in space so long as it is legal for the STL translator.
If I need to make an assembly in Cura then Cura has to be fooled. I create a model build plate 1mm thick and larger than the assembly (up to 230 x 230 for my Ender 3 pro) in the CAD software so that my assembled parts are on the top surface and within the periphery of the plate. I union a part to the build plate, and export the STL, and then undo the union. I move to the next part and repeat. All my STL files then have the build plate in them and since Cura always brings parts in by Center of Geometry the 0,0 for each of my stl's is identical and it doesn't matter where the real part is in any axis. Once my parts are all in Cura I can move them all to 0,0,0 and then sink them 1mm into the Cura build plate so the CAD build plates disappear. Taa-Daaa. Slice and dice baby, Cura has been fooled into becoming an assembly modeler. Any holes or angled parts are correct in space without having to fudge them around in Cura. Then it's time to figure out the overlaps and/or per part settings and it's all good.
Until I notice I forget to move the Z-seam and I have to start all over.
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I bring in a support blocker and it is 10x10x10. I select the "Movement" tool and either drag it around, or set explicit values in the dialog, to get it near where I want it. Then I select the "Scale" tool and usually turn off "Uniform Scaling". Then I can grab the grips and pull it to size, or explicitly enter the sizes in the dialog box. After that it's just fine tuning the location by going back to the movement tool and dragging it around.
There are some instances when using the "Settings for Overlaps" tool that placement and size can be very important. That can take a while to get just right. For a feature like that overhang (your green arrow is pointing to) it should just take a minute to set up since in that instance, close is good enough.
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Yeah, it's hard to tell what's going on without seeing your settings.
After posting your profile, on the right end of the "settings search" box is a drop-down for settings visibility. One of the options is "All". When they all show up go down to "Cooling" at look at all the settings.
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You know you have this VB guy trying to pound his way through Python. I got it to work but my head hurts.
There are 2 extruder files and one def file in the zipped files. The Extruder files go into Cura ...\resources\extruders and the other goes into Cura..resources\definitions. I was able to add the printer and set the second extruder up. Whether I did it correctly, I have no idea, but it looks good to me.
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I use a very old version of Inventor. I have to "explode" a parametric model down to a 3d solid in order to use the "STLout" command. When I explode a model, it loses everything but it's final shape. There are no more extrusions, combines, intersections or cuts. A very basic 3d solid gets translated to an STL and exported. Is that what you do in Fusion? I ask because your images of the model make it appear that there are some left over characteristics of a previous version of itself. That might be what Cura is seeing when you slice it BUT neither I nor Kmanstudios had problems slicing so my theory could be totally wrong. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
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What exactly is happening that's troublesome? Is the printer processor locking up? Wrong temps? Although the order of the commands is different they appear to be workable. Cura explicitly calls out T0 at the start and the other file does not. The other file has M107 P1 (turning off the layer cooling fan of the second extruder) and the Cura file turns off the fan of the active extruder which appears to be T0.
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@kmanstudios look at the near face in both of @rodcoronadoh's photos. It looks like there is a slot at the bottom of the sliced image. Also look at the near top right edge. In the Preview image the entire top is planar but in the sliced image it looks like there is a step and the outside half sticks up a couple of mm...non-planar. And the area above the hole in the far wall looks like it has a shelf right at the top of the hole. It looks like two different parts to me. I also sliced the downloaded model and it was fine and it looks like the preview image above (posts on the bottom, planar top surface, and no slot or shelf).
RodCoronadoh, did you happen to make extensive alterations to the model in Fusion?
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If you will post the stl file and do a Save Project and post the 3mf file somebody can take a look. Did you happen to have Adaptive Layers turned on? It might be a feature of the "Dynamic Quality" .16 layer height profile.
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When you open a model in Cura and the popup says "The model is not watertight" it means the model itself has errors. In your case, a lot of errors. When a surface is red in X-ray view it is facing the wrong way and Cura can't figure it out.
Here are two models. On the right is the one you uploaded and on the left is the same model repaired at NetFabb (where you have to create a free account). Just upload a model and download it when it's been processed.
Here they are sliced. Missing pieces in the right model. The repaired model looks pretty good. Notice how the missing pieces in the right model coincide nicely with the red areas in the Xray view.
BTW I think this needs to be printed on a fair sized raft. Its so tall and has very little contact with the build plate. Trying to print this fast could cause the model to fall over of it's own accord. I'd have accel control enabled at about 250 as well. Nice soft starts and stops are the way to go.
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Yes, but you are an honest man who has been known to laugh at my jokes. I did notice that you jumped right in to defend Make Overhang Printable. It wasn't perchance added at your request was it? You can admit it if it's true. Your among random people you met on the internet here.
Enough stealing the thread. I'd like to thank @humaneel for the nice PM he sent.
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OK I'll give you that. But I see more OP's with buttresses filling their horizontal counterbored screw holes and it's a head scratcher until "Oh Yea, turn off Make Overhangs Printable". I'm staying with my tooltip idea.
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If possible post the STL and also use "File | Save Project" and post the 3mf file as well. It will contain your settings.
Some models just don't scale well and you are pushing it down a long ways. Features can disappear because Cura knows the printer can't print them with the current settings. Why it says it can print at 100mm but not at 210 is odd though.
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If you have Special Modes | Print Sequence | "One at a time" enabled then it's the area your print head takes up. You can't put another part in the gray or the print head will hit it when it lowers to print the next part. That's actually true for people who bother to keep the Print Head size and Gantry Height up to date in the settings. Disallowed areas for brim/skirt are around the periphery and if you have them shut off then the gray doesn't show.
With that piece you're printing another model would have to be the shape of a piece of linguini. (I was going to say spaghetti but that's a bad word in 3d printing.)
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Thin walled models present unique problems. Not being watertight on such thin walls...I don't know. You can try uploading to service.netfabb.com. It's free and pretty good. Making it watertight gets rid of one issue.
If you were to remove the side mirrors (make them glue-ons - you're going to knock them off all the time anyway) you can eliminate one problem area. If you can alter one half of the body so it has a centerline flange that fits under the other half, it will make assembly much easier. Even with tabs glued here and there, it won't fit well unless it has the support of the other half.
As far as print supports go, you'll need to play around. It's so thin that the roof is going to be a problem. Remember that the supports will need to come out. If you sweep a shape across the top of the front window to the top of the rear window it would add layers to the roof. I think that would print better and hold up better during support removal as well. I would suggest a dense support interface of 50 to 60%. I've had better luck removing supports with dense interfaces without hurting the print. When you slice it, make sure to look very closely at the preview so you can pick out problem areas before you print. You'll have a lot of time invested in this.
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3 blades .8 wide by however long and tall Top, bottom, and middle. Much easier to print. If you still get movement of the filter then increase the blade count.
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Larger features and less density. You are going to take a hit on flow. Minimizing the size of the hit is the trick.
If I may ask, what direction is flow?
BTW the first experiment on vertical extrusion failed.
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Wow. Nice job getting that tall. You might have invented a new calibration print!
It looks like they did well to about 7-8mm and then they pretty much all failed one way or another.
Time for an experiment.
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I have a Creality Ender 3 Pro and I'm up to 17 different slicers now. A couple are really useless, most are fair, several are Cura knock-offs. I much prefer Cura as developed by the Cura team at Ultimaker (although I have the SmartAvionics branch as well). The one thing all those slicers have in common is they were free.
The Creality slicer is an old version of Cura. Within the newer versions of Cura there is a drop down menu next to the "Search Settings" box and one of the setting visibility options is "All".
Something like 300 different printer definition files are included with Cura. I don't think that Supports are mentioned in any of the Creality definition files (as opposed to Max speed, Jerk, Accel, etc.). The Creality definition files were written by "Trouch.com" and submitted to Ultimaker for inclusion in Cura. Trouch got some things wrong (like totally overstating the resolution that the printers are capable of).
In regards to the Supports - as @gr5 says, you need to experiment and look closely at the preview. One of the nice things about Cura is the huge number of options. That huge number also makes for a steep learning curve. I'm not criticizing you because how would you know, but if you had posted the model and what you were trying to do, there are people here who are quite good at coming up with a plan. Right now looking at your print, I'd say that a little pair of nippers (like the ones that Creality supplies with their printers) would be a good place to start. I'd start by nibbling away at the mid portion of the cab supports but you are right - it ain't gonna be easy and it's gonna take a while. Whenever I visit my dentist I bother him about tools with a broken end. Dental picks are good at support removal. I've even used the little mirror.
There is a setting in Cura that I could almost term idiotic..."Make Overhang Printable". Somebody must have asked for it or it wouldn't be there. The tooltip should be "Do Not Touch".
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@fvrmr is looking at it on Github. That particular file shows the movement of the mesh modifier on any printer. When I put together a similar project file (2 models and a mesh modifier on the bed) I can't duplicate the movement. So at this point the problem appears to be just with that specific file. Could you go HERE and post what operating system and version of Cura are you using? Thanks.
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I'm a self-taught Visual Basic coder. Unfortunately for me, knowing VB in the Cura world is like knowing Latin. It's not real helpful. Moving from my very dated knowledge of "Visual Basic for Applications" to "VB.Net" and Visual Studio was enough of a problem. I have created a modest little Windows app (Greg's Toolbox) that among other things will switch between, and control, up to 10 printers.
Reviewing some post-processing plugins (PauseAtHeight.py and SearchAndReplace.py in particular) helped me to understand a bit about how they work to find something in the gcode stream, and then to insert new code. It gave me just enough of an understanding of Python for me to customize them to suit my needs. For myself and what I do, writing post-processors in VB.Net didn't require any knowledge of Python or Cura as I just deal with gcode files after they are generated. Splicing two files together and creating the transition code, altering retraction distance in a file, removing Z-hops, changing a file created for 2.85mm filament to 1.75mm filament (or vice versa) are some of the utilities in the app. Not stuff that would be terribly useful to anyone else, but I've been stuck in the house a lot.
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Done.
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When it's part of a group it's OK. When it's a separate mesh it jumps by exactly -25 in the Y every time it's saved and re-opened. Save and open it 4 times and it's moved -100mm. Good luck Nallath!
Fans don’t start
in UltiMaker Cura
Posted · Edited by GregValiant
Another thought
With the Initial Fan Speed set to 100% and Regular Fan Speed Height at 0 (Cura layer 1) you should see this in the Gcode as the fan should be at 100% right from the start.
;LAYER:0
M106 S255 ;Layer cooling fan at 100%
;TYPE:SKIRT
Using the settings you show you will see something like this.
;LAYER:0
M107 ;Layer cooling fan off
;TYPE:SKIRT
then later...
;LAYER:1
M106 S255 ;Layer cooling fan 100%
;TYPE:SUPPORT
Open the Gcode file and search for M106. The units are PWM so they can be from 0 (0%) to 255 (100%). If they are there, and if you can turn the fan on using the LCD control, then it's a firmware problem. If there aren't any M106 lines then it's a Cura problem because they are supposed to be there.
EDIT: The original 4010 layer cooling blower on my Ender 3 Pro would not start to spin until the M106 setting was 30% (PWM 77). It had sleeve bearings. The current ball bearing 5015 will start to spin at 12% (PWM 31) and will continue to spin as low as 8% (PWM 20). So it's possible that the start-up speed of your layer cooling blower is high and the initial M106 settings are just to low to get it to spin. With my original 4010 - if I asked Cura to increase fan speed to 28% over 5 layers the fan would get the signal, but it wouldn't start to spin.