GregValiant

With the models loaded in Cura and ready to slice, use the "File | Save Project" command and then post the 3mf file here. It almost looks like the mating surfaces of the models aren't flat. That would have been hard to do in Fusion, but something is going on. I would suggest that you get rid of the locating pins as they are too easy to break off. Instead, put mating holes in that piece and glue in short pieces of wood dowels as the pins.

Check the setting for "Wall Order". If it is "Outside to Inside" then change it to "Inside to Outside". There is nowhere to hide the Z seam on a cylindrical or spherical object. If you use the "File | Save Project" command and post the 3mf file here someone will take a look. Remember though, Z seams are like belly buttons, everybody has one. Some (like mine) are just cuter than others.

When you select the "Cubic Subdivision" infill pattern the setting "Gradual Infill Steps" gets hidden but it's value remains the same. In your case it is set to "5". I'm wondering if Cura is using the value even though it appears it should not. I noticed that the setting "Cubic Subdivision Shell" that becomes available appears to have little to no effect. Slicing the model as received (no changes) resulted in a file 854,528 lines for the print and 50021 seconds print time. Slicing the model with Gradual Infill Steps at 0 resulted in a file 574,721 lines for the print and 36131 seconds print time. That's 300,000 more moves (and ~3:45 longer to print) in a file that I would have thought would be simpler with less moves. I also checked the 2nd file I sliced by reading it into AutoCad. There are very few double/triple/quadruple lines. It would appear that is where a large part of the difference between those two files is. So one thing you can do to make a difference is to enable "Grid" as the infill pattern and then set "Gradual Infill Steps" to "0" and then switch back to Cubic Subdivision. That's how I got the file size down.

Cura 5.0 is considerably different than the 4.X versions. The "Tree Support Branch Diameter Angle" is too large for that model. Where the support comes out of the trigger hole to support the trigger guard there isn't enough room with the setting at 5.0. Try it at 3.0. You might also want to change the "Tree Support Collision Resolution to 0.2. The image below is layer 132 with those changes. You can see that the supports growing out of the trigger hole are much more robust and are now connected to the lower portion. When I import only the model I get the "Not watertight" warning. The model needs repairs. For myself, I would prefer to use "Normal" supports "Everywhere" on this particular model. I think they would do a better job.

I'm decent with gcode and OK with the slicing side of Cura. When it comes to issues that might involve operating systems and video subsystems I would be way out of my depth. The same goes for deciphering Cura.log files. There are people here who know that side in and out. They will get to this when they have a chance. They work on the software as well so you have to wait for them to come up for air.

A fella named "Chuck Hellebuyck" (CHEP) has a YouTube channel he calls Filament Fridays. He is very Creality specific and has this video on proper assembly of the Ender 3 Pro. A carpenters tri-square, a steel straightedge, and a good caliper are the necessary tools. Setting things up to take measurements can be a bit tricky. I sat my printer on a granite countertop and was able to shim the rubber feet with pieces of paper until the two base extrusions were parallel then I went to work making sure that everything was square and plumb.

My hot end and bed can't agree on what room temperature is. When you get the new printer set up we can go over the calibration steps for the various motors and hot end. The bed is what it is. If your are reading that much below the set point then you can make adjustments by setting a higher temperature in Cura. Because of it's mass and the fact that the build surface doesn't contact the metal plate perfectly, there are going to be variations. It's one of the reasons I prefer the glass build surface. The number one most important calibration step is putting the printer together so all three axes are exactly square to each other. Do not assume that since it comes partially assembled that those "partial assemblies" were in fact assembled correctly. It is safer to assume that they were not. My Y axis was off from the X by 3° and off from the Z by 2°. It only takes a few minutes to loosen some screws and square things up.

"USB is pretty robust, unlike things like RS-232" But in the case of 3D printers (most anyway) what we deal with is a USB port configured as an RS-232 emulator. It's acting as a serial port. Over-runs and under-runs remain a possibility. I mentioned the "M1" issue. Cura and Pronterface both sent M105 at timed intervals and would check the printer response to insure that the port was open and active. If the receive buffer on the printer was almost, but not quite full, the M105 gets truncated to M1 which is "Emergency Stop". You look at your printer and it has halted with "Click to resume..." on the LCD. Octoprint/RaspberryPI work well for remote printing. The SD card is simple and is what the printer was really designed to read from. When the printer needs another line of code it grabs it. There is no need to sync the speed of transmission through the USB to the printers appetite for lines of gcode.

I can tell you what's going on, but not why. This is an image of your layer at Z=12.0. The circles are drawn around what appear to be simply the ends of extrusion lines. (I know my red text sucks but I'm too lazy for a re-do.) The text indicates how many ENTIRE lines are within each circle. It does not count the full lines that extend outside of the circle. In a normal situation the count should have been either ZERO or ONE complete line within the circles. You can see that in the top right circle there are 27 line segments piled on top of each other all at the same Z. You may have found something here. @nallath could you take a look?. It appears that there is a lot of wasted motion going on and I don't see anything in the Cura Preview because all the lines are colinear. It sure looks like this is what's happening in the OP's GIF video. Cubic Subdivision Infill. ("Gradual Infill Steps" = 5 but is not visible with Cubic Subdivision.)

Load the model in Cura. Set the "Infill Density" to 100% and slice. You could also set the "Wall Count" to a very high number (50?) You could set the "Top/Bottom Layers" to a high number (500?). Any of those would achieve the same result. The difference would be in the extrusion pattern used on the inside. The best file to troubleshoot with is a project file. It will contain: your printer, the model, and your current settings. You can produce one by using the "File | Save Project" command in Cura. Then post that 3mf file here.

Indeed. It was either a hair raising experience, or you've printed a world class spaghetti wig.

Maybe you don't need an engineer. Maybe you need a voodoo witch doctor or an exorcist. With the memory card out it can't print anything. If it's stuck-on-stoopid (technical term) then I guess it could be running around trying to Auto-Level. Try sprinkling some chicken bones on the build plate and then jump around while playing Black Sabbath "Paranoia" as loud as you can get it. It can't hurt. You can also make up a text file with two lines: M502 ;factory reset M500 ;save settings Save it as a gcode file and print it. It might work and it would be easier on the ears.

Yeah, you can't print over air. The gray print needed supports in a few places, notably the underside of the left forearm. You can see that the sword could have used support as well. The gold print has a lot more vertical portions and the plastic tended to stay where it was put. I tell ya what, post that STL of the gray print and I'll take a shot at slicing it. I can pass back a project file and you can open it in Cura to see what I came up with.

That emoticon will work. My app isn't a slicer. It just sends Gcode commands (basically macros) to the printer over the USB. You can adjust the bed and hot end temperatures, flow rate, feed rate, and cooling fan speed during a print. In addition it has homing commands and "leveling" commands that move the print head. All printing is done from the files on the SD card in the printer. If you have a USB data cable, plug the printer into your computer, and start my app. It should find the Com Port and open it. After that, hit the "Home All" button and just play around. It's not like you can break anything. With the SD card in the computer, select "Get Long Names from Removeable Drive". That will populate the drop down list. Then stick the SD card into the printer and select "1. Initialize SD", then "2. Get File Names", then "3. Import File Names". Then in the dropdown box "4." select a file you want to print. My older printer gets populated with the DOS 8.3 file names. You'll see that the box below has the full file name, you could select the name there and it will adjust the "Print" box.

Here is a snippet from the gcode file: M190 S55 ; Set bed temperature and wait G28 ; Home all axis ; Uncomment the line below to enable ABL Mesh probing ;G29 ; Probe bed mesh for ABL ; For best results do not run nozzle heater while performing ABL G1 Z5.0 ; Raise nozzle to prevent scratching of heat bed G1 X0 Y0 ; Move nozzle to Home before heating M109 S200 T0 ; Set nozzle temp and wait Those lines are part of your startup gcode. The temperature lines "M109" and M190" are there. It looks like it should work to me. I ran it through my Ender in debug mode and it worked. In Cura if you go to Manage Printers and then Machine Settings you should see lines like this in your StartUp Gcode: M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} and M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} Because they call out the temperatures in StartUp then Cura doesn't add the M104 and M140 lines prior to the startup as they aren't needed.

Post one of the 5.0 gcodes that isn't working. The temperatures might be called out in your StartUp Gcode. If they aren't then Cura should add them before the StartUp Gcode runs. If you open a 3mf project file it's possible to over-write the StartUp Gcode of your printer definition.

The top layer (without ironing) is pretty good for checking. Use a magnifying glass and look at it. If you can see a checkerboard and the layer below the top layer is visible through gaps (in the top layer) then it's under-extruding. Each extrusion should be nicely welded to the adjacent extrusion. If the extrusions show ridges between them then it is likely over-extruding. A lot of printers need the E-Steps calibrated. It isn't a difficult process and I'm sure CHEP has a video on YouTube on his Filament Fridays channel. When the gcode asks for "X" amount of filament then exactly X amount needs to be delivered. If it is more than X then there is over-extrusion and when there is less than X then it is under-extrusion.

After slicing, when you "Save to Removeable Drive" or "Save to Disk" the file should have a ".gcode" extension. If it doesn't, then the printer won't display the name as an option for printing. Gcode files are simple text files and can be opened (and edited) in any text editor. Create a folder on your hard drive and copy all the stock Creality files from the SD to the new folder. Then you can delete all the files from the SD card. That way you will know that the only files on the SD are gcodes that you created and put there.

In the "rough" part I'm seeing some checkerboard pattern. You didn't mention the printer but if it's a non-Ultimaker printer did you happen to calibrate the E-steps? If the top layer is under-extruded you could try turning UP the "Ironing Flow" to compensate at least a little. I'm guessing that this is the problem so try turning the Ironing Flow up to 13%. If the top layer is over-extruding, you could try turning DOWN the "Ironing Flow" to compensate. For a reference I run "Ironing Flow" at 7%. When the combination is an over-extruded top layer coupled with too much extrusion during ironing ridges develop as the nozzle starts to bulldoze material and make a mess.

It is a function of the ZigZag pattern. Changing to "Lines" will eliminate the shuffle movement. The end extrusions of ZigZag will maintain a tangency to the hole feature. There are no circles in FDM and so you have a number of short line segments (the number of which is likely dependent on your "Maximum Resolution" setting) and those short line segments approximate a circle. In addition, those short line segments pass back over the last long extrusion before the inner walls of the hole. The setting "Compensate Wall Overlaps" might be involved. I don't have 4.11 installed but in 4.12 the "Monotonic Top/Bottom" setting would be involved as well as Cura tries to keep everything moving in the same direction. At any rate, the nozzle is going back and forth putting in those short line segments. The alternating magenta and white colors are the segments of the tangent end extrusion. In this particular slice the length of each segment is about 1.06mm. If your travel settings are set for retractions at 1.00mm of travel then there will/might/possibly be retractions between line segments when the nozzle changes directions. It appears that you have "Extra Skin Wall Count" set to 0. The effect of that will be that the end of the zigzags along the straight edges of the area will be over voids in the infill and will sag into the voids because they aren't supported and there is no "Extra Skin Wall" to bond to. Eventually that would fix itself as some support is gained when the sagging previous layers firm up and provide some support for the latter layers. At a micro-level that could effect the strength of the feature that will be built above that flat area. That's what it looks like to me. I've been known to be wrong.

Try saving the file to the hard drive then manually copy and paste the file to the SD card.

Hello @john3m. It's about time somebody older than me showed up here. I also have an Ender 3 Pro that is now about 2 1/2 years old. It has the 8 bit 1.1.5 mainboard. Not a bad machine at all. There are a couple of things that can keep the printer from reading the file. You can try re-formatting the SD card (FAT32). That typically needs to be done every so often. If Cura/Windows writes the gcode file to a bad memory sector on the card the printer is too dumb to know there is something wrong and will try to read it although chunks of the code might be missing. Trying another SD card is also an option. The second thing is that long file names can keep the printer from displaying the names on the LCD so keep the file names shorter that "16 characters.gcode". The printer itself uses DOS 8.3 filename structure and I think that is still true of the 4.2.X mainboards. Since we should never trust anyone under 70 I took it upon myself to write a little app for 3D printing. It communicates with the printer over the USB (it does not print over the USB). You can query the printer and see what files are on the SD card, then select one, and tell the printer to print it. There is a basic installation readme file but the app is pretty simple. If you decide to install it I'm sure you'll figure it out. It is also an unsigned app so you would need to fool your anti-virus into allowing it to install. This is the "Cliff's Notes" version. I have a full featured version but I'm re-doing a bit of it right now. Greg's SD Print Tool

Under the "Help" menu you will see "Show Configuration Folder". The "Cura.log" file is in there. Post the log file here and one of the developers will take a look. ( @rburema ?).

Another workaround is to "Share" the folder with yourself. (This is for Windows 10.) Right click on the main Cura folder in Windows Explorer. Select "Give Access To" and then "Specific People". Another dialog will come up. You don't have to select any names, just select "Share" in the bottom right corner. It usually takes a few seconds to run but you will have access to make adjustments to the files in the Cura folder. I keep a folder with Cura files I've customized for my own use. When installing a new version of Cura I de-select the "Run Cura" option, change the sharing, then copy my files into the new Cura install. If you don't copy your files in first then you might get the dreaded "Cura has to remove all your printers" warning.

If you move your Home Offset (M206) you can move the gcode on the build plate. The Cura preview will not understand M206 so the preview will still look like your images. That looks like you need to move the gcode about (-15)mm in the X. Auto-Home your printer. The LCD will display the X Y Z and those are your Home Offset numbers. For an example lets say the LCD displays X-3 Y-4 Z0. Note your X value. Add 15 to the X value. For this example it would be: -3 + 15 = 12 Open the Gcode file in a text editor. Go to the line ";LAYER:0" Right above that line add M206 X12 Then go all the way to the very end of the gcode and the line that says ";TIME ELAPSED:xxxx.yyyy" Right below that line add: M206 X-3 That will reset your Home Offset the way it was. (Use your numbers and not the example numbers.) You need to make the first change after your startup gcode, but before the print actually starts. You need to do the reset after the print ends but before your End gcode runs. The Home Offset numbers look like they work backwards because they do. The Home Offset location actually becomes 0,0,0 on the build plate and the Auto-Home position is measured from the Home Offset position. If you wanted to move the gcode to the center of your build plate in the Y you would subtract the amount you want to move it from the Y home offset. So if you want to move a gcode in a negative direction you add the distance you want to move. If you want to move a gcode in a positive direction you subtract the amount. Just more fun with 3D printing.