GregValiant

Maybe you can scale the model in just the X? It shows as 135.6 in the X (the width?) so maybe at 135.0 the problem would go away. That would make each pocket a tad smaller though.

Cura is using it's own definition of an outer wall where it is any wall with air on one side and model on the other. If we are on the same page here, you want the insides of the pockets to print "Inside to Outside" but the exterior of the box to print "Outside to Inside". Is that right?

Choose the "Custom" settings. To the right of the settings search box is the Hamburger icon (three lines on it) and it is the setting visibility tool. Click on it and set the visibility to "All". In the wall section is "Wall Ordering" and set that to "Outside To Inside". There is an option in the Infill section for "Infill Before Walls".

"On the Cheap" is an issue and is subjective. There are small scanners that may be appropriate. Some of the cheap ones receive really horrible reviews. Looking around today I found these... Creality has a "CR Scan Lizard" on sale for $570.00. You'd only be paying about $8.75/figurine. There are several "Ciclop" scanners in different colors and by different names. They run around $150 but those are the ones with a lot of bad reviews. About $2.25/figurine. At the other end are handhelds like the Peel 3 that runs $8655.00 (Free shipping!). About $135/figurine. Whatever scanner you would decide on - even when it works as advertised it ends up being all about the translation software that takes the scanner point cloud and turns it into an STL/3mf/OBJ file. I'm thinking at least two more learning curves here.

@gr5 I agree. It's always better when the model itself is what you want rather than having to hack-and-whack in Cura in order to make it what you want. @lodebar I'm curious what scale you intend to print that at. At the size it comes into Cura - about the only thing that will fit are birthday candles.

I don't know if it's a bug or not. After I install a new version of Cura I have a second installer (of my own) that copies my custom definitions, scripts, extruders, and nozzles into the appropriate folders of the new version. When I uninstall, the uninstaller appears to leave those folders that have my custom files. I would assume that in my case it's because the files inside those folders aren't listed within the uninstaller and since they remain on the PC the folders they are in remain as well. I have to manually delete those folders. But the "Open With" menu is something different, but may be related. Maybe @nallath can cast some light on the subject.

I don't think it uninstalls previous versions by default. I need the older versions but most folks don't. If you click on the Start button and scroll down to the Ultimaker section you can right click on a version you no longer want and select "Uninstall". That should take you to the applications list where you can actually perform the uninstall.

If you want a round hole you will need to load the Cylindrical Support plugin from the MarketPlace. If you can live with a square hole then you can use a regular support blocker. Either way, select the block and in the Per Model settings on the left toolbar set it to Modify Settings for Overlaps, Cutting Mesh. Select the settings for Wall Count, Top Layers, Bottom Layers, and Infill and set them all to "0". Then size the block and put it in position over the holes I made. You can "multiply" the block and move the copies to the other holes.

I agree. Simple is best. It is rarely a word associated with 3D printing. The PC must be connected to the printer via USB. If you connect the USB cable to the printer it will see the 5volt connection and that will cause the printer to re-boot and the print will fail. That is true on any printer as the 5volt signal is used by the firmware of many printers to signal an external reset.

Yep. Flipped normal in 46. You want it like the bottom one here? I deleted 46 and copied 42 over to where 46 was. I had to add the holes as those base pieces looked like they had holes, but they didn't. I guessed at the hole size and made them .5mm at this scale. I assume you will print this at a larger scale. You can adjust the size of the holes in Cura with support blockers configured as Cutting Mesh or in Blender by subtracting larger cylinders than I used. At any rate it may not be what you're looking for but I'll attach the STL. GVbrazier with holes.stl

So you would start Cura and select a folder. Then your automation would: Load a model. Slice Save the gcode Clear the build plate Repeat The problem I see is a lack of quality control. If there were problems you wouldn't know about it until the print at least started. That could happen 152 times.

I've had mine for 3 years and that hasn't happened. You can try shimming the corners up with pieces of aluminum foil. It may take a bit longer to get an even temperature across the surface but other than that it should be fine. You didn't mention what build surface you have. I bought the Creality glass plate and it's been fine. A "four corner" leveling system can actually cause something like that. If two opposite corners are pulling the plate down then the other two corners can hold it up and the result is a bow running katty corner. Occasionally I will pull my glass plate off and level the metal by itself because I level by hand and over time I will get that bow. If the center is high and the four corners are drooping then that is different. Shimming is easy and can work so long as you don't need to stack 8 washers to eliminate the rocking. Two or 5 thicknesses of aluminum foil should work and aluminum has excellent heat transfer.

You want to select a folder and tell Cura to slice all the files in the folder but you want different settings profiles for some models? How would Cura know which profile goes with which model file? If they all used the same profile then maybe you could write a script that would work. My own experience is that each model needs it's own love and so canned profiles rarely work as well as custom settings tailored to each particular model.

The "FeedRate" as shown on the LCD is a global setting and affects every speed the printer receives. It's a modifier, not the actual Feed Rate. If you entered "60" as the print speed and the FeedRate is at 100% on the printer then the printer is printing at 60 (so long as things like Minimum Layer Time aren't involved). If you were to Tune the feedrate to 50% on the LCD then although the gcode says to print at 60 the printer/processor would drop that to 30mm/sec. If you were to print a smallish model in Spiralize then the layers go quickly. In that case the "Minimum Layer Time" comes into play and Cura adjusts the print speed within the gcode to insure that a layer takes 10 seconds (or whatever you have it set to) to complete. It's a cooling thing. You might have Print Speed set to 60 but Cura will alter that. Once again though, if Feed Rate on the printer is 100% then the print will go down at whatever speed is in the gcode. The only way to actually check the speed is to open a Gcode file in a text editor and search for F numbers. You have to do a conversion because gcode is in mm/minute and the Cura settings are in mm/second. Divide the Gcode F numbers by 60 to get mm/sec. G1 F3600 X123 Y123 E123.45678 is an extrusion at 60mm/sec.

I used MS 3D Builder to alter the model (it's included with Windows). It isn't intuitive, but it's pretty good at altering STL's and at repairing models with errors. I stuck a 41mm cylinder in the bottom and 1mm above the bottom and then merged the two pieces. I suggest a 0.6mm line width. Because spiralize often bounces off the Minimum Layer Time the print head will go slow enough that the high flow won't be a problem. GV3db_Tree.3mf

The toolpath goes from the exterior perimeter to the wall of the hole and is extruding as it makes that move. Once the inside wall completes then the nozzle "travels" back to the perimeter and starts the next layer. When the toolpath gets above the inside wall then it doesn't need to make the move anymore. Both the perimeter and the interior wall are extruded as a spiral but there will be a Z-seam on both features because the nozzle leaves and then returns. That's the way it works in 5.x versions. Some folks call it a regression, but my own feeling is that 4.x versions were ignoring model features. Your model has a 5mm deep pocket in the bottom and so it has a wall. In Cura 5.x you can get rid of those lines by making the pocket 5 layers deep (your "bottom layers" setting). So at 0.2 layer height if the pocket was 1mm deep you wouldn't notice the extrusions - but you won't get the inner wall either. Here I've altered the model so the pocket is 1mm deep and you can see that there are no cross-over extrusions. The wall of the hole is missing (as it would be in 4.x versions of Cura).

@mer10 can you post the STL or a project file? This really shouldn't be an issue. The settings "Minimum Support Area" and "Minimum Support Interface Area" are involved.

A save is a save and you can only do so much as homing is always an issue. Marlin actually has codes to make restarts very precise BUT things have to be planned ahead. My Ender 3 Pro has a maximum Stepper Disarm time of 14400 seconds (4 hours) that is much higher than the default 120 seconds. If I am doing a long print or an "iffy" print I add M84 S14400 near the beginning of the file. If I have to pause for some reason, or if something bad happens with the print, I have time to configure a script to restart from any location within the file. I actually automated this and included it in my printing app. Here ya go...Greg's Toolbox for Windows. There are instructions and a readme file. The program is unsigned and if you decide to try it you will probably have to fool your anti-virus to get it to install. There is also an uninstall. Below is a shot of the "Recovery" page. It requires some practice but for the most part you just need to make sure the initial prime of the extruder isn't going to leave a blob. In the textbox in the screenshot is a recovery script. The program will send the script and restart a gcode file from the byte location within the file. There is no need to create a special file for the restart. I don't know your printer but Gcodes are Gcodes and it should work provided your firmware supports M26 and some other commands.

That will work. I have my own system using Pause at Height. Instead of using the retraction options - when I insert the new filament I push by hand until the color changes and then do a retraction of 5 or 6mm (my retraction distance) and grab the hanging sausage with tweezers. When I click on the LCD button to resume the print I snap my wrist as the print head moves and break off the sausage. I get excellent restarts like that. If a restart happens to start in support, that's the best as it gets thrown out anyway.

That opened as a project for me. A 3mf file is actually an archive (like a zip file). In the screenshot below the top file is your 3mf file is opened with 7zip. The file below is an "export" of the model from your 3mf file. Note the size of the "Cura" folder in each. The 3mf MODEL file is missing the settings and printer configuration. That doesn't mean your install is working correctly. I open a lot of project files and haven't had any issues. Occasionally on Github someone will pass along a 3mf model file instead of a Project File with their bug report.

Being able to use water soluble PVA supports is a primary reason to go to a dual extruder machine. You have considered a split mold? You have to get the part out somehow.

Cura has things called Post Processors that can add things or replace things in the final gcode. Two of them are "Pause at Height" and "Filament Change". You can find them at "Extensions / Post Processing / Modify Gcode" and then "Add a Script". Both can be used to change colors during a print. You could have printed the base, paused at the completion of the last base layer, and then changed filament, and resumed the print with the new color. Supports work when you do it this way. It takes a bit of practice to get it just right but if I were you I'd scrap the base that is there and use Pause at Height. I could walk you through how to print that second model on the existing base but it's involved and requires very specific slicing of the top model and very specific "one-off" startup gcode. Much easier (and in the long run much better) to cut your losses now and use Pause at Height. You can do a lot of things with Pause at Height on a single extruder printer. The little camper/sleigh is an assembly with 4 pauses in the body. The coasters were printed with a single gcode file with 4 pauses in it for color changes.

Thank you sir. I hope all is well. @Armatron That's it then. If you want a nice print it will need high resolution on the printer settings and will take longer. The model file you have is excellent so drop the layer height, slow down, and start the print at 6AM and then close the door. A decent paraphrase would be this line from Jonathon Edwards song "Shanty"..."Fill it, light it, shut up and close the door."

@kmanstudios long time no hear from nonetheless. How about if you pretend time is not an issue and give it a slice? I'm good at printing "angle iron brackets" so this is a bit out of my comfort zone. Mr. Buonarroti would be horrified if he saw what I would do to it.

I used a laser scanner to shoot cars that had been in accidents. Big files. I had to snail-mail the scan data over to another guy who was in our Chicago office and I believe he used Rhino to post process them into something I could deal with in Inventor. Our system worked for what we were doing (recreating accident scenes for lawsuits). We weren't going to FDM print anything though and we didn't try to create model files. (I tried to open one of the point cloud files in Inventor. My computer thought it was a pretty good joke.)