GregValiant

Burtoogle - I read your comments in the PR regarding the missing 1st and last layers. I've been cogitating... We have a cylinder of 25mm diameter and 11mm tall. It has 55 .2mm deep cuts arrayed around the circumference such that each cut exists on 1 layer only. When sliced with Middle it looks like this. The Gcode shows 0-54 layers @ .2mm each and the final Z = 11.00. This is how it was designed and what I expected to see. When sliced with Exclusive it looks like this. The first layer has a single feature that is .2mm tall. Succeeding layers each have 2 features that are .4mm tall (.2 up and .2 down). The top layer (54 in Gcode) disappears. The numbering in the Gcode file goes from 0 to 53 so yes, there are two layers missing and the top layer is at 10.6mm. A model with a single .2mm deep feature on the top of the model, when sliced with Exclusive, shows that the top layer (and consequently the feature) disappears. Once again, the top layer Z is 10.6. In either case, the diameter was 24.6mm. Using a square model, the side dimensions were 24.6mm. Line width was .4mm. Good Luck with this one.

"However, it bugs me that the z-direction is off by two layers on 0.2mm layerheight. I designed something with a z-height of 11mm and it turned out 10.6mm..." My point was that if I design something at 11mm tall and slice at .2 layer height/.2 initial layer height there should be 55 layers and the last layer should be at 11.00mm. I am trying to understand how .4mm could be missing from the top of the part by changing from "Middle" to "Exclusive". Given the above (11mm tall, .2 layer, .2 initial layer) the Gcode file should should have layers 0-54 and end up at 11.00mm. A final Z height of 10.6 instead of 11.00 is a definite aberration and it flies past troublesome directly to WTF. I want to understand how and why there is a nearly 4% error in the height. That's why I asked what the final height in that Gcode file was.

Here are the first few lines from the PIMOUNT.gcode file: ;FLAVOR:Repetier ;TIME:5329 ;MINX:-47.039 ;MINY:-50.663 A printer with 0,0 in the left front corner cannot have negative X or Y values. Those locations would be off the print surface. A printer with 0,0 in the center (see gr5 note about Delta printers) can move to a negative X or negative Y location. Rule #5: Never blindly trust a gcode file that somebody else sliced.

When generating Gcode for my Creality machine (Marlin), Cura will keep building up the E value until it gets north of 4000, and then it resets it to zero and starts up again. I have suspicions as to why that is but I don't really know the reason, I just know it's true. In a large file that will happen multiple times. In your code snippet - the first Q1 after the reset is in line with the extruder having been reset to zero. It will print fine.

I think "it looks like there isn't enough plastic" might be a bit of an understatement. I agree with Mari that you need to calibrate all four axis. I like Chep's videos too. Also regarding calibration - remember that the machine axis must be square and the uprights must be parallel. It's hard to get good parts if the machine is skewed. When I received my 3 Pro the beam that the Y table rides on was crooked and the left and right uprights weren't parallel. When you get caught up in learning the software and firmware it's easy to forget that there is real actual hardware to keep in tune as well.

Me too. Lately I believe we have fallen into the minority. I've been thinking about this topic as I watch my machine go back and forth and I've deleted a lot thoughts I had on this because it finally occurred to me that the whole thing boils down to one question... Within the Cura generated gcode file what is the Z height of the last layer?

I can do that. In this case my problem was with invisible characters. That would have been a tough one to "see".

Sorry for the confusion Gr5, it is the PauseAtHeight.PY that I've been customizing. Tinkergnome - There it was in the log - "Invalid use of tabs and spaces line 328". An easy fix. Now if I fall asleep in my chair the machine will wake me up. Edit: OK. I figured out the loading problem as well. Renamed the attribute and it's all good. Back in the day I wrote an alpine ski race scoring program in the Excel 4.0 macro language. When that became defunct I had to port 30,000 lines of code (actually cells of code) over to VBA. So necessarily I learned VBA. I think in 2001 I had code for 15 different timer models to dump their data directly into Excel. There was no common firmware even within a manufacturer. It was all text based but the syntax was different model-to-model. TagHuer went one way, Alge went another, Brower a third way, etc. Learning Python is going to be difficult as I have more unlearning to do. Where I would like to end up is writing a standalone program for a front end for my printer (the design is done and written in VBA so I would port it over to VB or Python). I'd consider that a good ending for a guy that started with analog computers.

In Cura - Have you checked the machine settings for the printer? Maybe they didn't carry over correctly during the update.

A couple more things... The changes to the plug-in work fine. The default is now "Layers" and a couple of other minor changes. 1. I rename the file and the "key" and "name" as described but as I noted above, the new GregPauseAtHeight.py doesn't show up in the dropdown list. My workaround was to make the changes in the original file. That's what worked. 2. When I ADD lines to the original file, it disappears from the drop down in Cura. I wanted to add a beep so I would be alerted to the pause. The lines I added are just above the the code adding the M0 line # Add Buzzer prepend_gcode += "M300\n" If I comment the "prepend..." line - the file shows up. Without the # sign in front, Pause at Height disappears from the dropdown list in Cura Thoughts please. I'm experienced at VBA (and Fortran IV!!) and I'm trying to muddle my way in to Visual Studio and Python.

And under "Color Scheme" "Line Type" if you turn on Travels you should notice the seam. If you turn off Helpers, Shell, and Infill the seam and (if it's different) the layer start point should be fairly easy to pick out.

The formulas aren't complicated for a basic computation. I suppose a plugin could be written with a dialog box to fill in the flow parameters and do the math in the background. I use a simple spreadsheet and enter the parameters in a few cells and the answer shows up at the end (mm^3/sec or even E-steps/sec). I suppose it could be considered doing it by hand because I'm using a keyboard. That would be true of a dialog box as well.

The one I altered didn't show up in the drop down list, so I changed the existing file and now it's all good. Thanks again.

Thanks tinkergnome. I had found the name and key settings and made the other changes I wanted. I am unable to copy the new file into the scripts folder. A pop-up appears with "Destination folder access denied" and "You need permission to perform this action.". I tried to remove the Read Only attribute but it self-resets. I am the administrator of the computer and I gave myself verbal permission but the computer doesn't seem to care (Windows 10 Home edition). Do you have any ideas regarding the permission thing? EDIT: It was a "Sharing" thing. I had to share the entire folder tree with myself.

I would like to change a couple of the defaults within the PauseAtHeight.py file to numbers and/or text that I always use (Ex: default to "Layer" instead of "height", default idle temp to 205 instead of 0 - that sort of thing). (If I'm adding stripes to a print and pausing 5 or 6 times to change colors it would be nice if I didn't have to change the same lines over and over.) I can copy the file, rename it, and make my changes but it isn't part of the Cura install. Is there a relatively painless way for me to add it?

That looks like 7 seriously under-extruded walls and a seriously under-extruded infill. You said there were no outer skins...was there a gap between the brim and the parts? If the answer is "no" then there is the answer. The walls are there, they just under-extruded so badly that the gaps make then look like infill. You have printed the set of parts before and Smithy mentioned warping. Those curved tuning fork looking parts are prime candidates for warping so I will assume you have an enclosure. I will also assume that the extruder is within the enclosure. The high heat environment may be having a bad effect on the extruder causing missed steps without making the normal clicking sound. If the reference voltage is off the extruder can run hot all by itself and that coupled with the heat of the enclosure the filament may not be getting pushed by the extruder. I exported the STL model out of Cura and sliced it with the Creality slicer - yes, there were some odd things going on with the infill. I have an Ender 3 Pro and much prefer the Cura slicer to the Creality slicer. (Actually, it isn't even close as Cura is far superior). I suggest you slice the file with Cura changing only the hot end and bed temps to PLA and then start a print with PLA. At layer 3 you can abort the print as you should have an idea of what is really going on. The walls/skins can be searched for in the gcode as ";TYPE:WALL-OUTER" and ";TYPE:WALL-INNER". I believe you will find them in there.

Some thoughts... The standard Creality board uses an 8 bit Arduino clone processor with the stk500v2 bootloader. The SKR Mini E3 uses a 32bit ARM Cortex-M3 processor with (it appears) a proprietary bootloader. The BigTreeTech site and the SKR Mini E3 documentation state that the SKR Mini E3 is compatible with Cura. I have not come across anything that purports the reverse - that Cura is compatible with SKR Mini E3. There appears to be evidence (from this forum and from other forums) that the BigTreeTech compatibility statement is not true. I don't understand how or why Ultimaker should be responsible for, or try to support, a third party statement, hardware, firmware, or software. It seems to me that the problem rests with BigTreeTech.

So the Xvico is spare parts now (or did you shot-put out into the yard)? I haven't seen that thingy but it looks interesting. I had a similar idea but decided to work through the USB. GENEO - what is the Thingiverse number on that part? I'm curious because there must be a PCB under there that is translating the button clicks into Gcode to send to the printer.

I have had this same problem occasionally. Unfortunately, it comes and goes and I haven't really figured out why. I tend to have a single profile that I use for everything. I change it as I go from PETG to PLA and from model to model. Every once in a while I hit a combination that causes this problem. Then I slice a different model with some different settings and magically the problem goes away.

There are numerous flow settings for the various areas of a print under "Material". Nobody has mentioned Line Width. Generally it is the nozzle width, but it can be set otherwise. Smaller (Ex .35mm) would move the lines closer together. I believe it has an effect on flow. If the firmware is Marlin then under Tune there should be a global setting for Flow % (scroll down to the bottom). That can be adjusted on the fly. You could also put an M221 S110 at the start of the Gcode to set the global flow to 110%. That is more of a one-shot deal if you can't adjust on-the-fly while printing.

In Cura under "Preferences / Configure Cura / General / Viewport Behavior" de-select "Automatically drop models to the build plate". You will be able to drag the model with the grips or enter numbers in the Move box on the left. Before you print, go into the Gcode file and make sure that there is a Z move that will take the nozzle above the print before any moves in the XY. I have a question though. How are you getting the part lined up in the XY when you put it back on the plate? I've thought about printing on the backside. My thought was to print a low locating jig when I print the first side of the model. Then remove just the model and drop it back into the locator upside down. non-symmetrical models would require some thought to make the locator ambidextrous (I know..it means it won't work either way) and there couldn't be a second skirt or brim, but the part would be in the correct position.

In a gcode file, just above or below the line that says ";layer:0" will be a line with a Z value in it. The last Z value that you see before extrusions start is the height that the slicer software assigned to the first layer. Compare that number from one of the files you sliced with Cura, to one of the stock gcode files that worked. In Cura under Quality is "Initial Layer Height". As it implies, it's the height of the first layer. Set it the same as Layer Height. Under Build Plate Adhesion is "Z offset" and set that to "0".

Snekmeseht - Was there an on-screen message when the print stopped? If you open the SD card gcode file in Notepad what does the end of the file look like? It should end with the M107, M104 S0, and other shut down gcodes as well as several lines of comments starting with ";End of Gcode". Creality machines can be touchy about the SD card itself. It seems they don't like high capacity cards and even a 8gb card has to be formatted once in a while. There can be problems with the card that cause the gcode file to get truncated and the end of the file gets cut off. That causes the machine to just stop as it runs out of gcode to act on. When that is the case the only message would be the "Ready" message.

The SD card only needs the Gcode files. Limit the number of Gcode files on the SD card or the printer processor will slow down quite a bit when accessing the card. The printer uses DOS 8.3 file names internally. Really long file names can cause problems and the files may not show up on the LCD display. Print using the LCD "Print from TF" command.

I saw your post when you first put it up but I didn't have a clue (that's actually my normal state) about what's going on. If you post the Gcode file here I'll take a look and see if there is a pattern. The retractions and primes should all be 6mm if that is what you had it set for. Are you using "Retraction extra prime amount"?