GregValiant

3d printing can make anybody sick. If you'll post that newest Gcode file I'll take another look. Glad you're feeling better.

I'm still using the 4.7 beta and I won't be moving on until the furor over 4.7.1 settles down. I think you should leave an "issue" on the GitHub site regarding the new Pause at Height problem. Not altering the Gcode file means it isn't working at all. If you still have the 4.6.x version installed you could try copying PauseAtHeight.py from the scripts folder there, into the scripts folder in 4.7.1. If there is an issue with the new 4.7.1 PauseAtHeight (I should think it would be the same) it may resolve itself. Maybe one of the Cura team folks will drop by and address this. Without 4.7.1 I'm flying in the dark.

Did you switch plastic in the printer? Doing a hot pull may have pulled a partial blockage out and now it's running normal again.

I was at Fisher Body at the Tech Center in Warren, Michigan while I attended GMI (now Kettering U.). I learned a little bit of analog programming at GMI too. Now that took some thought!! I did some of work later on getting lab machines to write their data to MSExcel via serial ports. I've written an application in Visual Basic for Apps to talk to my printer. It works well but it requires Excel, so as a project I'm attempting to port it to VB using Visual Studio. What I'm learning now is to really hate Visual Studio.

I won't comment on any skill deficiencies you may or may not have. I have trouble enough with my own. I remember COBOL. I cut my teeth on an IBM360 and Fortran while at GM Fisher Body. The finer the model, the smoother the print. I think that's how some of the machine manufacturers spoil their new customers. They provide them some Gcode files that were sliced by extremely competent people using extremely fine models and the prints come out superb. Then the user can't duplicate the superb model because the files downloaded from a website aren't near the resolution of the canned files. No amount of fiddling with settings can get a rough model to look like a fine model.

I used LB_SPIRAL_BOT to check. Model rotated so the bottom is down Eraser size = 100,100,100 Eraser location = 0,0,3 Eraser cube settings - Wall Thickness = 0 and Top Bottom Thickness = 0, and Infill Density = 0. My settings were .2 layer and .2 initial layer. I got 7:46 print time and 23.85 meters. Without the eraser and at 10% infill it was 8:33 print time and 28.35 meters. If you "remove" the Wall and Top/Bottom settings from the eraser - it will go to the "Infill Mesh Only" default and add additional walls inside the regular walls. That might be where the confusion is because that does add material. That's an interesting box. I might print one up.

Yes, tree support. It would be broader based and that second one wouldn't grow on the part but come around from the side.

Holes like to come out undersized. The plastic is viscous enough that it gets dragged towards the center as it extrudes. @gr5 calls it the "Snot Factor" and the smaller the hole the worse it is. Under "Shell" you'll find "Hole Horizontal Expansion" and it will get you much closer. It is an offset setting and so it acts on the radius. Your diameters are off by about .8 so set the Hole Horizontal Expansion to .4mm. Another thing - is that image of the part accurate as to the resolution of the STL file? Check in TinkerCad and see if there is an option for a higher resolution when it generates the STL file. A part with so few facets around the diameter will have it's own issues as the plastic gets dragged across the facet angles effectively making the hole smaller.

Are you printing over the USB? If so then put the file on an SD card and print that way. Essentially, there is only 1 layer (a really long one) with Spiralize so it shouldn't retract once it's above the base. You could try setting your line width to .6 to make the walls a bit stronger.

I sliced your model (4.7beta) and it looked fine. Here's the project file. beeThing.3mf

I think Cura is laying in the base of the letters as they are a "top surface". Generally those would cover the area of all the lettering but there must be a couple points in the model where the letters are cut a bit deeper. The next layer up should show those smears around all of the lettering.

It looks like the cube is sitting on the build plate correctly. That other vertical shape is a definite oddity. In the second image it almost looks like a shadow of the cube and the Z axis. Does it slice OK? If worse comes to worst you could mount the printer on a wall to keep the Z axis aligned with the software. Drywall screws would probably be OK. They should be the store-bought kind though. Printed ones just don't last.

How did you define the Z seam? If it's Random then what you're describing can happen as Cura moves the layer starts here and there around the periphery. Combing can make the nozzle run around the circle as it avoids passing through the center to prevent stringing. Since it's a single wall model - did you consider Spiralize Outer Contour (or does the shape of the model prohibit it's use)? Spiralize doesn't work on horizontal surfaces except for floors so if the model needs a roof it wouldn't work.

OK. I guess it's fun when it's your own stuff. I like power buffing my own motorcycle parts even though it's a dirty filthy job. I had to polish an injection mold for a car dashboard once when I was a kid. It took a couple of weeks of knuckle busting labor. Not a lot of fun there. It was that job that convinced me I'd rather be a designer with a pencil in my hand (we were still using PencilCad then) than with a whetstone in each hand.

So many people believe that the printers should deliver a part that needs absolutely nothing for it to be perfect. We just don't live in that world. A micro-tool set, a micro-file set, an exacto knife set, and a selection of different grits of sandpaper are what makes for near perfect parts. It's called "Bench Work" and it has never gone out of fashion, nor has it become fun. The threaded inserts have their uses. Sometimes you need to have a pocket and drop a nut into it. It is pretty much design specific. These plastics move under pressure so the pocket way isn't the best as the plastic between the nut and the screw head is going to cold-flow away from the pressure. This causes a condition known as "loose nuts". Very serious.

You will (at the very least) have to calibrate the stepper motor steps/mm of the printer. You can find out how on numerous videos. Being off by over 50% is a lot though. All machines wear in but that seems excessive. Start with the calibration of all 4 axis. It can't hurt and you may get your accuracy back.

You could put a support blocker in the hole. They can be moved and scaled like any model/mesh. That would allow you to have supports everywhere except in the hole.

With "Support Top Distance" and "Support Bottom Distance" at zero, and "Support Distance Priority" set to "Z overrides X/Y" The first part layer above the top of the support should be held up by the support. A support isn't the bed and so the nozzle can't flatten the extrusion as well as on the bed or on a well supported layer. Looking at the supports in your image, I'd be nervous about them falling or being dragged over by the nozzle. As soon as the plastic leaves the nozzle it cools and becomes like taffy. It can have enough strength to pull over something tall and skinny.

It looks like it gets added to the Start-Up Gcode box in Cura as a default for your printer. You can either delete the line from your Start-Up Gcode, or put a semi-colon in front of the G92 so the printer will ignore it. Either way would allow you to get rid of the Search and Replace plugin.

Nice. I've found that the bonding between layers at the color change is pretty close to the regular bonding between layers. You can open the ...Plugins/PostProcessingPlugin/Scripts/PauseAtHeight.py file in a text editor and make changes so you don't have to enter your values every time. The section starts in about line 61 in the file. Save the file and then re-start Cura. Here is the relevant section that I altered (so I can go fishing for a couple of hours without being nervous about the print). Make a back-up before you start altering anything. "disarm_timeout": { "label": "Disarm timeout", "description": "After this time steppers are going to disarm (meaning that they can easily lose their positions). Set this to 0 if you don't want to set any duration.", "type": "int", "value": "14400", "minimum_value": "0", "minimum_value_warning": "0", "maximum_value_warning": "14400", "unit": "s", "default_value": "14400" }, I also made a change to the default value of "StandBy_Temperature". Leaving the steppers with current to them for hours without moving probably isn't the best thing, but generally they aren't on for hours. An M84 S120 in the "Ending Gcode" in the machine settings in Cura is a good idea.

I've double checked, and nowhere in SandervG's opening post is it mentioned that casual visitors to this thread should wear helmets and body armor. There really should have been some kind of warning.

Sometimes you have to read all the posts!

I'm big on work-arounds. Hopefully somebody will drop by and explain how to keep the G29 from being added. In the mean time... In Cura go to Extensions / Post-Processing / Modify Gcode and in the dialog box select "Add a Script". From the list select "Search and Replace". In the "Search" box put G29 and in the "Replace" box put ;G29 . All G29's in the file will be commented out.

It locks the steppers for the time you input (in seconds). The Gcode is M18 (or M84) and sets the "Inactivity Timeout" of the steppers so what that line of the Pause at Height does is set a timer. When the timer runs out the steppers disable and the axis lose their position. If no time is specified the steppers disable immediately. M17 disables the steppers as well. The default stepper timeout for my Ender is 120 seconds. The printer will go back to 120 seconds on any reset (power off or external reset via USB). It's hard coded in the firmware so we are unable to permanently set the timeout to say 3600 seconds.

The Disarm Timeout can be set to 1800 seconds max (30 min - that's hard coded in the Plugin). You could go into the Gcode and change it to 14400 (3hrs) which is the max that my printer will accept. It's a matter for the firmware to decide. On an Ender 3pro the disarm timeout cannot be shutoff. The Marlin firmware on my Ender 3pro will accept either the M0 line or an M25 line to pause. M25 requires that an M24 be sent to restart. The M0 requires a button click on the LCD. I usually don't use the "Extrusion after pause" but rather just hand force the filament through the hot end until the color changes, hang on to the end with tweezers, and click the button. The trailer is a coaster holder for the wife. 8 Pause at Heights. The transitions between layers were made in the inner infill so the transitions were dead nuts.