GregValiant

https://www.reddit.com/r/ender3v2/comments/l4vbuj/the_new_and_improved_v2_menu/ He also provides a link to his GitHub site where you can check out his firmware build.

Here is a little light reading on the subject on GitHub. I think the setting you're looking for is under Dual Extrusion | Nozzle Switch retraction distances.

The hot end fan is hard wired in the "On" position. When the printer is on, the fan is on. There are no controls for it, there are no Gcode commands you can send that will effect the RPM, or turn it off or on. If it's turning off by itself I think you may have a problem at the mainboard and it might be as simple as tightening the screws that bind the wires for the hot end fan. Check for any chafing along the length of the hot end fan wires as well. I was never able to overcome the heat creep with the stock hot end. Eventually I stripped the threads for the nozzle on about the 500th time I pulled it out to clean it. Although a heli-coil insert worked as a repair, I bought another stock hot end. Same problems. Now it's a Micro Swiss. Not perfect, but a lot better. One of the problems I had with my Ender (same print carriage and hot end assembly) was the mainboard fan. It IS wired to turn on and off with the layer cooling blower (not variable speed, just on-off). I printed a lot of PETG with the cooling blower turned off to avoid warpage, the mainboard fan didn't turn on, and eventually the mainboard components would overheat. The fix for that was to wire the mainboard fan to the terminals of the hot end fan - because it's always on. Eventually I designed a deflector that fits inside the hot end housing and directs the flow from the hot end fan at the heat exchanger. That wasn't enough. With a 3mm shim behind the hot end housing mounting surface, a 4015 ball bearing fan will fit into the housing.

There are too many errors in the model for it to ever slice correctly. There are a lot of holes, surfaces facing the wrong way, gaps between surfaces. Netfabb repair worked on it for 20 minutes and the repair failed.

If the card is inserted after the printer has been turned on, then it may have to be "Initialized". There should be an option for that in the LCD menu. You may want to try inserting the card and then turning the printer on. Another thing to try is to reformat the memory card to FAT32. Some 3d printers do not read cards over 32mb. Some machines do not read file names over 16 characters so keep file names on the memory card short.

If you would attach a 3mf file (File | Save Project) it would be helpful. There are other things that can cause it (Z-binding is one) but a 3mf file is the best starting point for detective work. What printer and what firmware would be good to know as well.

Do you have a color TFT display on the printer? There have been issues with Enders with 4.4.x boards and TFT displays ignoring gcode commands that send messages to the display. M0, M1, and M117 are the problems. M0 is the pause code that Cura uses for Marlin firmware and it sends "Click to Resume..." to the display, There was a poster here who claimed that a firmware switch fixed the problem but then that poster disappeared without explaining what firmware version fixed the issue. I tried to find out more on the Marlin Github site. It was apparent that they aren't happy with Creality altering the firmware to suit themselves and then refusing to make it open source. There are a couple of versions of firmware available on the Creality site and I think there is a TFT display version for your 4.2.2 board. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

If I do that how can I make a buck? Being retired means no more pay checks ya know. Besides, dumping it onto GitHub is another learning curve, the program is Windows only (VB.Net is what I know) so no direct porting to Mac or Linux, and I don't have to support it. If you'll recall gr5, we had this talk last spring. It's the same piece of software although it has grown a little bit. The latest addition is automating the combining of multiple gcode files into a single file. Think solid base with a spiralized upper portion. Up next is calling a file from within a first file and jumping to a specific location within the second file. It's possible I'll be the only person on the planet using M32 (because it's really pretty useless).

I'll stick my nose in here for a minute... I play around writing software and I've written a little Windows App for controlling my Ender over the USB. As I scribbled the code I did give some thought to running multiple printers simultaneously. The app doesn't print via the USB, but rather from the SD card. The file selection from the SD card, print start, pausing, and print tuning, as well as adjusting printer settings and leveling, is all from the Windows application. It's just sending specific GCode commands and/or scripts over the USB (and getting the responses from the printer which Cura does not do). My object was to avoid having to use the LCD button for anything, and in that I succeeded. Everything that might be displayed on the LCD as well as all the LCD menu items, can be queried and the printer responses are displayed in a textbox in the application. The application can have multiple instances running and each could control a different printer over a different port. In the case of two printers, it's likely OK. In the case of 10 printers, with each instance of the app looking exactly like every other instance, it would rapidly get confusing - even if you had 10 USB ports available for the printers. On the other hand, simply opening and closing a port does not cause an external reset of the printer (connecting a USB does cause an external reset and that reset is hardwired into the mainboard) so it may be possible to control all the printers from a single instance of the app. You would open the correct port for a particular printer, then select the file from the SD card and print the file. You could then select the next printer, the previous port would close, the new one would open, and you start a print on a different printer. If all of this was actually difficult, a hack of an amateur coder couldn't have done it. I'm sure you can find someone to write an application for you. It's possible that the physical length of the USB cables and the number of available USB ports would be your limiting factors. Or you can get used to Octoprint which I believe does the same thing and has the added bonus that it already exists. You're going to have to make an investment in this. The investment will likely include software, hardware, and support. When you get all that up and running, we can discuss a pick-and-place system to remove a build plate that has a finished print, and replace it with an empty build plate, and then restart printing. A seventh axis robot could slide back and forth and service multiple printers. Add an indexing conveyor to move the finished plates/parts to a removal station and you're in serious business.

Every month or so, I give my printer a good cleaning and check the wheel pressure in the guide slots, Z coupler screws, trim the bowden tube, calibrate the E stepper, etc. It helps keep the machine running in good order, and it keeps me up-to-date with any problems that might be developing. It's kind of like kicking the car tires and cleaning the windshield. In regards to the marks on that wheel, I don't see them extending to the wear area on the angled sides so they aren't a problem. Next is the jerkiness of the Z movement, I see you have the lead screws out, so that jerkiness isn't good. If you loosen the right and left adjustable eccentric wheels to allow sloppy movement, I would expect the jerkiness to go away. When the wheels are adjusted correctly, you can just turn them with your fingers. If you can't rotate them at all they are too tight. If they spin freely they are too loose. I'm sure you can find good videos on adjusting the wheels. Adjust the pressure of the Z wheels when the X beam is all the way to the bottom, then loosen the top cross bar on one side, and move the X beam to the top, then re-tighten the top cross beam, that's about as good as you can do. It insures that the two upright aluminum pieces are parallel. If you still have herky-jerky movement after that, it may indeed be the wheels. I took mine off and sprayed them all down with silicone lube after a year of running hard. I don't know that it made a difference, but it made me felt better.

It's definitely the model. The walls show all the deformations for me that they did for you. I uploaded it to NetFabb in case it just needed repair, but it came back the same. As it happens, I'm a Tin Can Tourist myself. We have a 1972 Shasta Compact that I re-did. I made a bunch of these trailers (and the drink coasters that go inside) to sell at the spring TCT rally that has now been cancelled. I think it has the kind of finish you are shooting for so I've attached it. Happy Camper Trailer.3mf

A 3D philosophy question. "Ambidextrous means it won't work either way and Universal means you'll need a Harley tool and a torch." - Me It is rare for anything to be excellent at everything. It would seem that Cura, Prusaslicer, and Simplify3d occupy the top of the heap of slicers. Is it a coincidence that it's all they do? Or is their excellence a product of their focus. Give me a tool that is excellent at it's job. I don't want a hammer that has a screwdriver for a peen.

When trimming an ellipse the remaining shape is still an ellipse, but when I offset one in my older version of Mechanical Desktop it turns into a spline. Splines are certainly different to deal with. That is especially true if they become part of a loft. The smoothness between the control points comes into play. If it's legal, post that here as a 3mf file (File | Save Project). Who knows. Maybe somebody will see something. All those facets are an issue though and they might still be in the model.

If there was a prize here for the ugliest slicing you'd be the front runner. Another thing that can have an effect is the Mesh Fixes | Maximum Resolution. As @gr5 mentioned, turning down the resolution can help make the "average" more of a circle. Setting the Maximum Resolution for my Ender from 0.05 (a lot of stuttering) to 0.5 made a huge difference.

I got that to work. I don't know about the Gcode or how/if it would print. Here is a 3mf with the dual extruder printer and a couple of calibration cubes. 25x25Cube.3mf

OK @Ray722 it's right from the Ghost's mouth. I believe you have a little light reading ahead of you. I'll look at it too and if I see anything I'll chip in.

1000/25.4 = 39.37 So sometimes it's probably meters, and sometimes it's something other. At any rate as ahoeben says it's likely in Solid Edge either in the drawing units, or it's an STL export utility setting.

The angled part of the wheel is in shadow so I can't see it. The working part of the wheel is the angled area (as it moves in the track). If those slice marks do not extend onto the angled portion then it is not an issue. The print looks good. Overshoot can be caused by loose belts or other forms of backlash as well has high print speeds. Enabling Accel and Jerk control with low values (like 500 Accel and 8 Jerk) can help by slowing the print head before a turn, but with short runs like on that part it doesn't come into play very much (unless you have Accel and Jerk control turned off which makes Accel and Jerk essentially infinite). Ultimaker printers can handle high Accel and Jerk settings but the rest of us need to slow down. There is still a bit of elephant foot there (wide at the build plate). You can use Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion to mitigate that. On my printer a setting of -0.25 works well for most prints. That makes the first layer .25 smaller all the way around.

If you add a custom FFF printer you can pretty much configure it however you want. The two options under "Custom" are Custom FFF and Custom Smoothie. A custom FFF can have any of the available Gcode Flavors. I've played with configuring a CustomFFF as a dual extruder and as a 4 into 1 extruder. I'm hampered since I don't actually own one of them. I do slice and study the gcode files to see how Cura handles them in case questions come up here. That Gcode file you included would run on my Ender. If you absolutely need the x3g format for the printer you may be stuck. I'm not bad at gcode but you'll need someone who knows the x3g translator. Right now Ghostkeeper and the other Cura team members are busy writing code for the new version as well as the normal addressing the posts on GitHub. We have kind of run out of my knowledge of the situation and I hate guessing as it just leads to confusion and 3d printing is confusing enough already.

The underside of the ring is an overhang that would want support. I think the reason you are getting the stringing is that there is some air printing going on. In the model file - put a 45° x {width of overhang} chamfer between the ring and the pot body and set your "Support Overhang Angle" setting to 50°. It won't require support and it won't air print. Thanks for clearing up the confusion. I was wondering what the heck we were looking at.

The handle ring will be printed inside the pot(?), and then as the pot builds up it will enclose the ring? That confuses me too. If you have the "Support Placement" setting on "Everywhere" it should be supported. A problem I see is that the overhang of the pot itself will need support and with the ring inside it will be in the way. The ring would have to be placed in the pot just right so the top edge of the pot gets supported and that support will necessarily be printed on the ring. I hope you can get your hands inside. Getting the supports out will be tough. How about printing the ring as two pieces with lap joints? Then you could print the pot, remove the internal supports, and put the ring in, and then glue the ring together. If the ring was a ship and the pot was a bottle, you'd do something like that.

Among the menu options on your printer there may be one for steps/mm for the steppers. Unfortunately I don't know that it will be there and I'm not sure what it would be called. Each stepper would have it's own steps/mm and it is usually shown as X=80 Y=80 Z=400 E=93 (those are the original numbers for my Ender). A fellow named Chep makes U-Tube videos that he calls Filament Fridays. He is pretty Creality centric, but you may find something there to help. There is another guy that makes Teaching Tech videos as well. Since your printer appears to be a Prusa clone, maybe Prusa forums could offer more help. You can understand that if the printer is told to move 100 in the X and 100 in the Y, but the Y is calibrated wrong and only moves 80, that any hole will be a horizontal oval 80% as tall as it is wide. It would end up looking like the one you printed. If you rotate that model 90° in Cura and print it in that orientation and the hole is still wider than it is tall, then it's a calibration issue. I made some adjustments to the Cura settings in the 3mf file and then sliced it. Here are my versions of the 3mf and gcode. Your "Initial Layer Height" was .16 and is now 0.2. I lowered the bed temp from 80 to 60 and there were a few other changes (.slower print speed, lower Accel and Jerk settings, etc.). GV_Filament_guide.gcode GV_Filament_guide.3mf

THE_VIDEO

You know your machine, but at 195 you're 15° cooler than I would have printed it. I'll assume PLA which isn't known for warping. It can warp if bed adhesion is weak, or if there is a draft from a heat register (or somewhere) blowing at the printer. I see the bed is at 60 and that's OK, are you using anything as an adhesion promoter (hairspray or glue stick)? Are you using a glass bed? But yes, it could just be a fingerprint or something on the bed.

Sorry, I don't know the x3g routine. It would seem reasonable that Cura would simply convert the gcode from text to binary (or hex or Latin) rather than adding or removing commands. The fact that the hot end temp falls off is odd. When I pre-heat the bed and hot end together, as the gcode runs (like the previous post) the printer knows to wait for the bed to heat up but nothing tells it to turn the hot end off so it just keeps heating, or floats at print temp, until it's own heating instructions show up. At that point it swings into the print. In the Cura Marketplace there is a plugin for additional printer settings. You might want to load that and see if anything jumps out. @ghostkeeper wrote the x3g writer for Cura. Maybe he can take a look at this and make a suggestion.