GregValiant

About 3 years ago there was a poster here who built a big pellet machine and he was using Cura. I tried to message him a while ago and didn't get a response. This is the post.

With the Custom setting button turned on and the Setting Visibility turned to All then in the Travel Section you will find "Layer Start X" and "Layer Start Y". There is no such setting for the infill. It will often be as you want it (start near the z seam or layer start point) but for different types of infill patterns it may be different and if you change the Infill Line Directions it may be different.

This is just an FYI... Depending on the "repeatability" of the end stop switches - it is generally not a good idea to home any axis during a print. The switches are going to vary at least a little bit every time you ask for homing. The "0" position this time will likely not be exactly the same as the "0" position last time. When the X and/or Y are involved during a print you can get a minor but noticeable layer shift. When it happens with the Z you can get an over-extruded layer (the new Z0 is a bit too low), or an under-extruded layer (the new Z0 is a bit too high).

There are a couple of bug reports about this on GitHub. Whether "Union Over-Lapping volumes" is turned on or off - they don't union but simply stay separate resulting in what you have there.. Union Over-Lapping Volumes = Off Union Over-Lapping Volumes = ON with Remove Mesh Intersection off Union Over-Lapping Volumes = ON with Remove Mesh Intersection on. This looks like one block is acting as a cutting mesh. There are still interior walls where I would have expected none.

"Incompatible Version" so I can't open the DWG file. I'm working with AutoCad 2000 and Mechanical Desktop 4.0 so you would need to do a Save-As in one of those formats, or put a DXF together.

After adding the shell and the first 2 excluded faces you can spin the model, then edit the shell and add the third face. You need to turn on supports in Cura or the horizontal parts will fail.

I'm an AutoCad guy. Pass me the .dwg file as an ACAD 2000 file (parametric if you can) and I'll take a look (you might have to zip it to post it here). Sometimes when you get too fussy with the "fits" there will be openings that the slicer will notice even though the gap might be on the order of .000001mm. You have those gussets on the two end pieces and they look to have flats where they hit the radii of the tubes. That's the sort of spot that can cause trouble. If the tube is only touching tangentially to the flat then there will be a tiny gap on either side. The gusset should be buried by a mm or so to insure the union works correctly. You can check by putting a fillet there. If it's successful then the union is fine. Computers may be stoopid, then they are accurate.

It's always safe. It's a question of whether it will be acceptable. There are these spots on opposite sides of the print. (You can see it on the right of my previous screenshot.) I have no idea why the flow narrows down so much there. Is it a model feature? There are these divots on the outside of the model. They are going to show up in the print. So would it be safe? Yes. Would it be acceptable? You'll have to decide. For a first effort I would say yes. Those divots have resulted in a few bug reports on Github regarding 5.3.1. Cura 5.2.2 didn't have the problem. It's possible that some of what we see is being caused by the model. BTW does your layer cooling fan work OK? I see in the gcode that it is listed on circuit "1". Typically a single extruder printer will have the fan on circuit "0".

That's a poorly sliced model.

I use the Raise3D slicer occasionally for comparisons with Cura. With an N2 installed in IdeaMaker there are T0 commands in the startup so they are probably alright. My guess would be that the firmware is similar across their product line. That G92 E0 E1 command looks to be contradictory and so it's probably illegal. It's trying to set the extruder location to 0 and to 1 at the same time. Not good. This is the N2 StartUp Gcode from Ideamaker: M221 T0 S94.00 ;set the flow to 94% G21 ;metric M140 S60.00 ;Bed temperature M104 T0 S215.00 ;hot end temperature M109 T0 S215.00 ;wait for hot end T0 ;set the tool M190 S60.00 ;wait for the bed temp G21 ;metric units G90 ;absolute movement M82 ;absolute extrusion M107 ;fan off G28 X0 Y0 ;Home the X and Y if they need it G28 Z0 ;Home the Z if it needs it G1 Z15.0 F300 ;move the nozzle up G92 E0 ;reset the extruder G1 F140 E29 ;purge G1 X20 Y0 F140 E30 ;move while purging some more G92 E0 ;reset the extruder G1 F9000.0 ;set the feedrate M117 Printing... M1001 ;enables the power resume function. There should me an M1002 in the Ending Gcode. I made up the one below. First use the "File | Save Project" command to save your current StartUp Gcode. (If you were to open that new 3mf file in Cura it would bring in your original StartUp Gcode.) After backing up your current startup gcode in the 3mf project file, you can try this by copying and over-writing the current StartUp in the StartUp Gcode box in the Cura Machine Settings dialog. ; <<< StartUp >>> M221 S100 ;reset the flowrate M220 S100 ;reset the feedrate G21 ;metric units G90 ;absolute movement M82 ;absolute extrusion M140 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;start the bed M104 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} ;start the hot end G28 X Y ;home the XY G28 Z ;home the Z G1 X0 Y0 Z15.0 F600 ;move the nozzle up so the purge has somewhere to go. M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} ;wait for hot end M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;wait for the bed temp M107 ;fan off G92 E0 ;reset the extruder G1 F140 E29 ;purge G1 X20 Y0 F140 E30 ;move while purging 1mm more G92 E0 ;reset the extruder G1 F9000.0 ;set the feedrate M1001 ;enable power resume function M117 Printing... ; <<< End of StartUp >>>

On the menu bar select "Settings/Printers/Manage Printers" and then "Machine Settings". There is a box for "Origin at Center" and unless you have a delta printer or one or two other printers that setting should be turned off. Most rectangular (cartesian) printers have the origin at the left front corner.

(I set the screenshots up so the first skin is going down on just the top infill layer.) The top layer sags because there is insufficient support below. The speed is off because you are Ironing at 50mm/sec and everything else is at 75mm/sec. Here is the slice with your settings. Notice that the extrusions are going down into a gap in the Lightning infill. The ends of the Lightning infill are very thin. So the first layer of skin is going into a gap and it's also at Printing Temp so it's softening the skinny ends of the lightning bolts. The end result is sagging because there is either zero support, or the infill upper layers are softening and sagging along with the skin. This is with the Infill Density at 20% and all of the Lightning angles at 50° and I've changed the Top/Bottom Line Directions to [0,90] so the first skin doesn't fall into the gaps as much. This allows for better support for ALL the skins. The heat problem is still there but probably not as troublesome. This is good ole' Grid infill at 15% density. You can see that the first layer of skin is well supported. If you set the Infill Layer Thickness to 2X Layer Height then the infill only goes down every other layer. That decreases the time penalty (vs Lightning) to about 7 minutes. It also results in a much more robust part. You could try turning off the infill and enabling the Bridge settings. The part is only 2" diameter and bridging should work but it might be necessary to add another top layer.

"...the left was printed just before..." Yep, it ran when I parked it.

@RonS the 3mf file opened as a model file. Use the "File | Save Project" command to create a 3mf project file that will contain your settings and printer as well as the model. (When you "Export" from Cura an option is for a 3mf model only file ... no printer or settings.) With just the model to work with and using my settings I get this. Everything is at 75mm/sec except for the outer-wall because I have it set to 50 and that's what all the speeds in the gcode show.

"...but many-many times." I think it will be all about the material. If you pick the wrong one then "many-many" will become "just a few". Good Luck!!

Have you considered printing it with all Walls (set the Wall Count to 5 or 6)? That would avoid all those little back and forth movements that the skin causes. It gets the print time down to about 1:45 as well.

It looks like the print on the right developed a problem in the hot end. Those upper layers appear to be severely under-extruded. The left "wing" on the right model didn't really print at all. It can never hurt to do some PM on the printer. Once a month I pull my hot end apart and clean it out, trim the bowden back, check and clean all the trolley wheels and check the X-beam alignment. The machines run for hour upon hour and do need some attention now and then. BTW...what material is that?

That's nice. The last I heard they had vacated their offices and were out of business. As a hobbyist I have no reason to shell out $200 when Cura, PrusaSlicer and IdeaMaker are free.

Most direct drives I've seen have retraction distances in the range of 0.8 to 2.0. Are you sure you are retracting 8mm? I can't retract that much on my bowden setup or I have problems with clogging. I think the Noctua's are 12volt fans and require a buck converter to work with the 24v circuit. They are about 20% less CFM so yes, that could be a problem.

The hot end fan is there to remove the heat from the finned aluminum heat sink. If there was no fan then eventually the heat sink would get hot enough to severely impact printing. In that case it would cause more oozing as retractions wouldn't be as "crisp" because the filament up above is too soft and is stretching rather than pulling the melted material back from the nozzle. I went to a 4015 hot end fan on my Ender 3 Pro. That required a 3mm shim to move the hot end housing outboard. I printed a little baffle that fits into the housing. It aims the airflow at the heat sink.

Please understand that I don't work for Ultimaker nor do I own an Ultimaker printer. I do use Cura. It seems to me that the 4.x versions accomplished spiralize on certain models by ignoring some of the geometry. The 5.x versions do not. Consider this model. In 4.13.1 it spiralizes like this and has a hole in the bottom, but where is the tube that should come up the center? The same model sliced in 5.3.1 doesn't have the hole because by default when you turn on Spiralize you automatically enable "Remove all Holes". But if you turn off Remove all Holes you get the mess BUT the inside tube that is part of the model geometry prints. So if I want this model to be like 4.x would print it (with the hole in the bottom) then I have to make an adjustment. There are things you can do but certain models just aren't suitable for spiralize. In my estimation the best spiralize is the Smart Avionics fork of Cura. It's based on the 4.x versions of UM Cura and along with some other fixes it adjusts the flow of the first spiral layer to get rid of the hump that UM Cura puts into the print. I own about 10 hammers. They are all different and I use the one suited to the job. If you print a lot of models using spiralize then you need to pick the best tool. If you don't feel you are getting what you want from the UM 5.x versions then yes...use another. At some point the Cura team will slow down from putting out the fires and have time to assess things like the spiralize behavior. They may not change it, but I'm confident they will look at it.

@Nawar welcome to the forum. "What else I need to do that I might missed during the process?" I'm going to stay away from that one. The printer definition files for non-Ultimaker printers come from the open-source community or from the manufacturer of the printer. You can check with the manufacturer (Monoprice??) and see if they have some files to download. In the Cura Marketplace (button in the top right corner of the Cura workspace) there is a plugin for "Monoprice Select Mini V2" that may help with WiFi connectivity. If you are trying to communicate via the USB then things get iffy. The "USB Printing" function is not maintained by anyone so it either works for you or it doesn't. It does depend on the "USB to SERIAL" drivers having been installed. If you are on Windows you can connect the printer to the computer and go to the "Device Manager" and the "Ports (Com and LPT)" section. You may see a line like "USB-SERIAL (CH340) COM3". That would indicate that the computer sees the printer and that it happens to be connected on "COM3". If it isn't there then you have a port driver problem. I don't have any problems either sending to or receiving from my printer but I always print via the SD card.

You are going to need one of the professional people for this. They will be back on Monday Maybe @Dustin can help?

@shiftylilbastrd FYI...The fix for the Raise3D IDEX printers is similar. They have to install three printers, one each for Normal, Duplicate, and Mirror. They pick the printer they need for the function they want to use. Each printer has a different M602 command in it's startup gcode and it is that command that tells the printer what mode to switch to.

It has to be something in your settings. I sliced this with the outer wall speed at 100 and I'm not getting any variations. Use the "File | Save Project" command and post the 3mf file here.