GregValiant

This is a common problem and has a variety of reasons. What printer do you have? What type of filament are you using? What is the top surface of the build plate made of? What is the approximate age of the build surface? How may prints have you done on it? Are you using any adhesion promoter (glue stick, hair spray, etc.)? If you post an image of the problem it would be really helpful. Without a photo I can keep asking questions but I'm old and my fingers get tired.

"No nicked fingers, either!" Now that is a beautiful thing! I'm a little disappointed though. You seem to be going for this... While I was hoping for this... To each their own I suppose.

"I'm almost sure that it is implemented." I hope you didn't bet too much money on that. So far as I know - all the post-processors that push print info to the LCD use "Time Remaining" in the overall print. There is a line at every layer change in a Cura gcode ";TIME_ELAPSED:166.581220" which is in seconds. A post processor would need to go down to the pause layer, get the Time_Elapsed at the start of that layer, and then start at the beginning of the file and insert M117 lines at each layer. Some simple math would give the time to the pause layer. I have done prints with up to 9 Pause At Heights in them. Each succeeding pause would overwrite all the previous ones and what I would see on the LCD would be the time to the LAST pause as opposed to the time to the NEXT pause. A clever coder (there are at least a couple around here) could get it to work. But right now it does not appear that any post-processor does what you want. An alternative is to open the Gcode file, search for "PauseAtHeight" and check the "TIME_ELAPSED". Knowing the time you started the print, and the time elapsed at the pause layer, will give you a fair idea of when the pause will occur. If I was to create something that would perform that function it could conceivably look like this. Pick what layers you want to know about (or have it search the file for the pause layers) get the times, do some math, and prepare a table that can be dumped to a text file and printed (or this dialog could stay on-screen). The piece of paper could be neatly taped next to the printer. LCD's...Hah!! We don't need no stinkin' LCD's!

"...gives a whole new possibility for future makes..." No doubt about that. Designing your own models is another thing that is cool. It's much more...satisfying?...when something comes out right when all the work is your own (except for actually making the thing which was, ya know, the printers job). Here is a project file for one of those coasters. When you open the project file make sure you choose "Create New" instead of "Updating" your printer. I used your Longer as the printer but tweaked the startup gcode. You don't have to print it but looking at the setup and previewing the model may give you some clues. GV Coasters.3mf

If you put a Pause at Height in at the end of LAYER:0, you could slice one time with the wall order set to "Inside to Outside" and save the gcode, and then slice again with the wall order at "Outside to Inside" and save the gcode. Copy LAYER:0 from the 2nd file and overwrite LAYER:0 of the first file. Adjust the transition gcode so any retractions and location settings are synced (and get rid of the pause line) and you should be good. It's possible that a G92 E line is all you would need to sync. I can't help from thinking that re-ordering the line printing order is a band-aid and doesn't address the problem which would seem to be first layer adhesion to the bed. @gr5 is a moderator here and put together THIS_VIDEO that could be titled "Everything you need to know about Bed Adhesion". I've printed a lot of models with a lot of smaller (2mm) holes on the bed and haven't had a problem. I typically print PLA with no Adhesion Aid but I prep the glass with hairspray for those types of models as there isn't much contact patch between all the little circles and the bed. Increasing your "Initial Layer Flow" to 105% or even 110% might help as well.

HERE IS A PAGE with some information. It looks like calls are made to the firmware rather than having a lot of lines in the startup gcode or ending gcode. A phone call to 3D Platforms would seem to be in order. A $30,000 printer should come with Some Support. Here is what I found regarding StartUp and Ending gcodes. Calling the "purge.g" routine is optional. ;StartUp Gcode G28 ; Home all axes M98 P"0:/sys/purge.g" ; run default purge command (use only at start) ;Ending Gcode M98 P"0:/sys/end.g" ; homes the extruder, turns off all tools, heaters, and fans. According to a photo on that page it appears you have a Duet mainboard running RepRap firmware(?)

I have a different take. This part is not good. "somehow failed so badly that the clips from the print bed were found 1/2 way across the room". And that happened with the print head at 254? The print head whacked the print for some reason. You need to know what happened so you can keep it from happening again. If the print moved on the build plate you can forget about it. There just isn't any way to align the failed print so it is right where it was. The second problem is that very few printers have end stop switches that are repeatable. The ones on my Ender can be off +-0.25mm. Then there is the possible rotation about the Z. Nope. If it moved on the build plate there is no way. If the print somehow styed in place and you allowed the build plate to get cold you are in trouble as the print may be ready to pop loose. If it didn't move then you have a slim chance. The first problem is that you must auto-home in order to tell the printer where the nozzle is. Do you have room? You can use G28 X Y to home those axes and that can happen with the print head up high, but is there room to bring the print head and gantry down to the build plate without mashing the part when you home the Z? The Z normally Auto-Homes in the left front corner but that doesn't need to be so. You could home the X Y up high, move the nozzle to the right rear corner, and then use G28 Z to home over there. You need transition gcode to go from nothing, to continuing a print at (we'll call it) 254mm. The first thing is to manually move the print head above the print. You do not want to start by smashing the print. You would do a SaveAs of the gcode file and delete just about everything up to the layer where Z=254. Note the last X Y position that would be the start point of the new layer. Also note the last E number of the last layer. If there was a retraction it will be on it's own line like G1 F2100 E2345.65432 M109 S for the hot end temp M190 S for the bed temp G28 X Y G1 X?? Y?? F3000 ;Move to a place where the Z can drop to the bed. G28 Z ;home the Z in a clear place G1 Z265 F2100 ;Get the Z up above the print G92 E0 ;reset the extruder G1 E15 F300 ;Purge the nozzle G92 E???? ;Set the E location so it is correct for the start of the print. M221 S110 ;Kick the flow up for the restart and hope it gets good adhesion to the top existing layer. G1 X??? Y??? F6000 ;Move to the start point of the first extrusion. The number will be from the gcode. G1 Z??? F300 ;Drop the Z down to the working height. G1 Fxxxx ;set the print speed in mm/min Close your eyes and hit the print button with your fingers crossed. At the next layer put in M221 S100 to drop the flow back down. I've done this several times. There is almost always a layer-shift-looking-line as the X and Y rarely home to the exact same position.

As I said it's something I do a lot and so I wrote my own post-processor. It isn't perfect and the code still needs to be checked, but it's pretty good and creates a single file from two (or more) separate files. This one is .2 on the right, .1 in the middle and .3 on the left . I don't know if this could be done as a post-processor in Cura or not. Cura only does one slice at a time and this requires gcode from multiple slices. I do it by manipulating the gcode files and creating a new file out of two. The model above was a test. I sliced the model 3 times, combined 1 and 2 into C1 and then combined C1 with 3 to make the final file used for that print. (As an aside, the post-processor was perfect on that attempt and I didn't need to do any manual adjustments). @ahoeben and @Cuq write post-processors and are both a lot better versed in things Cura than I am. Maybe they will chime in.

No. The layer height is a fixed thing. It isn't bad to do manually. Slice once at .2 layer height, save the file, slice again at .28 layer height, save the file, and then cut and paste the gcode files together. Using Pause at Height in both files makes it much easier as the transition gcode is mostly written for you. Get the transition layers correct and make a couple of adjustments for a smooth changeover. One thing to watch out for is if the base file has a retraction at the end of it's last layer and the top file did not have a retraction there (or vice versa). The transition might also require a Z location change using G92. I do this a lot. Printing right now is a model with male threads on top. The body is printing at .2 layer height and the threads are at .1 layer height. The X Y location must be at the start of the first extrusion of the top file. That's it. Sync the XYZ and E taking care to note where the end of the filament is in relation to the nozzle so you don't leave a blob at the beginning of the top file. Like a lot of things in 3D printing, it just requires practice.

It's an "either or" deal. Pause at Height allows you to change the pause command (M0, M25, etc). Your other settings in the dialog box (park head, retraction, etc.) are calculated by the plugin script and inserted into the Gcode file as individual command lines. Filament Change uses M600 and puts everything onto the firmware. There is an option to just use the stock firmware settings, or you can fill in the blanks and those numbers get passed to the printer as parameters as: M600 E30.00 U300.00 X0.00 Y0.00 Z5.00 ; Generated by Filament Change plugin When you said "...the screen asks if I want to change filament..." that would not come up with Pause at Height. Using M0 to pause the LCD would normally say "click to resume...". I use Pause at Height. A couple of oddities are that IF you use Z-hops or adaptive layers, "By Height" gets confused by the constantly changing "Z" height. I always use "By Layer" just in case I do turn on Z-hops or adaptive layers. By Layer can be slightly confusing as a gcode file layer numbering system is Base0 and the Cura preview numbering system is Base1. With your 3mf file, you look at the Cura preview and see that the first layer for the new color is layer 8. You enter 7 into the Pause at Height box. The pause will occur at the END of the layer you enter into the Pause at Height box. In this example: Layer 7 goes down, the pause occurs, you change filament, and the new filament goes down as Layer 8. When using Pause at Height the printer will move to the park position you want and then stop. If you leave "disarm timeout" at zero then you have to be quick or the steppers will disable after the default 120 seconds and lose position. Always enter 1800 in that box. That gives you 30 minutes to complete the change. Cura will always put in an M104 line that will adjust the hot end temperature to the standby temperature entered into the dialog box. Always put your "Print Temperature" in that box or the hot end will cool down during the pause. I don't use the "retraction" settings. After changing filament, I hand-push the new filament in to purge the color in the nozzle, then do a 3mm retraction, grab the booger with my long nose tweezers, and hit the button on the LCD to resume. Since my button is on the right side of my Ender I always park the head on the left side. When inserting nuts without a filament change the build plate needs to be forward and accessible so the park position (my printer) would be X0 Y230. When just changing filament I like it in the back so the ooze of the color change doesn't land on the bed. In that case I would park at X0 Y0. I think my personal record for pauses in a single print is 9. There were 7 color changes, three #10 nuts added at a layer, and a 9" support rod slid in. These prints are my favorite though. It took a bit of thought to come up with it. These were for a Mexican buddy. There were 4 Pause at Heights in the trailer/sleigh and 4 in the coasters. The windows, curtains, and runners are glued on. Using Pause at Height or Filament Change requires practice. If the first thing to be printed after the pause is either Support or Infill that's a beautiful thing. If the first thing to be printed is a top skin or outer wall then the retraction is important because starting with a blob, or starting out dry, will leave a mark on a show surface of the print.

A lot goes on in that little space below the nozzle. If you had set up to print a 0.4 layer height at 0.8 line width then that tells Cura how much filament to push. The nozzle size doesn't come into that. I think the nozzle size is used to set up the default line widths (and in 5.0 maybe the minimum line width, etc.) but the volume of any extrusion is calculated from the Line Width x Layer Height x Length of Extrusion. In that formula there is no mention of nozzle size. Theoretically you could print that same gcode file with a 0.2 nozzle provided your print speed was slow enough to allow time for the required volume of filament to extrude through a really little hole. Speed plays a big part. The faster the material moves through the nozzle the more turbulence is created within the nozzle. The material next to the walls of the orifice moves slower than the material going down the center. I ran a test on my printer and using a .4 nozzle at .4 line width and .2 layer height. The extruder/hot end couldn't keep up at a print speed above 175mm/sec. With those numbers that comes out to 14mm³/sec. That is the number that is truly important because above that, my printer can't keep up with the demand for more plastic. Given that ceiling of 14mm³/sec I could only print your gcode file at 45mm/sec because that's where my extruder/hot end combination can't keep up anymore. Even at 45mm/sec, my extruder/hot end would be on the ragged edge. Then there is also the question of the cooling effect of the plastic moving through the hot end. The higher the volume of flow, the greater the cooling effect, and now you are making temperature adjustments. So to answer your question "Will it work?" the answer is yes, but with caveats. "Everything affects Everything". When you said "...you can over extrude to achieve a better bed Adhesion. Like .6mm layer height..." that is in error. Simply increasing the layer height causes Cura to calculate a higher "volume" for the extrusion, but doesn't effect the flow ratio. I routinely run "Initial Layer Flow" at 105% because it gives me some leeway for my manual bed leveling. That builds in a 5% over-extrusion for the initial layer. Over-extruding has nothing to do with the layer height but rather the ratio of "Volume of filament in" to "Volume of extrusion out". When that ratio is 1:1 you are at 100% flow. That is why on many printers calibrating the E-steps is important, and though often over-looked but just as important, is measuring the actual diameter of the filament and entering that into Cura. Both of those effect the "Volume of filament in". Of course all of that could just be a bunch of BS that I just made up. It's been known to happen.

Poka Yoke

Hello @Garythebloke. With your model loaded and Cura set up and ready to slice, you can use "File | Save Project" and post the 3mf project file here. There are two pause functions. One is "Filament Change" and the other is "Pause at Height". They are treated differently by the firmware and so a project file will help.

The author of the plugin is the Original Poster of this thread @thopiekar. If he doesn't respond here he has a page HERE that you might be able to contact him from. His GitHub page shows his last commit was 2 years ago. His last visit to this site was January 28, 2021.

I don't see it in my 5.0 Marketplace. It's possible it wasn't updated to work with Qt6. The author of that plugin has a page HERE that you might be able to contact him from. His GitHub page shows his last commit was 2 years ago.

@dsp you aren't alone but it appears you are part of a very small group. I seem to recall seeing a post (either here or on Github) where someone else had the problem but I don't recall if it was resolved or not. Since so few people have reported an issue with slow loading, it might be computer system / operating system dependent. I'm not familiar with "IPT" files. Is there a translator utility involved when opening them in Cura?

Here is a little light reading. It's for a different model but has some general information about FlashForge printers as well. M108 is indeed a tool change so adding that space fixed it. M6 is wait for hot end and M7 is wait for bed. They sound similar to M109 and M190.

If you don't post a project file it will remain a mystery. It could be settings, material, the printer...

OK. I understand. I don't know what criteria Cura uses when you choose the "Lay Flat" option. It will rotate the model about the Z axis when I use Lay Flat. As far as I've been able to tell it is not possible to align a model in the X or Y so once Cura has decided to rotate the model during the Lay Flat command I don't know of a way to get the model back exactly square to the world. Cura is not an assembly modeler and has only basic tools when it comes to "transforming" models whether it is scaling, moving them around on the build plate or rotating the model. I have always found the rotation tool to be clumsy and the coordinate system that is attached to the part is mirrored about the X in relationship to the main coordinate. That is clumsy as well I always make sure my models are oriented in CAD the way I want them in Cura, or at least at a precise 15° increment from the exact angle I want them at. That sort of manipulation is much easier in CAD than in Cura. Maybe one of the developers can comment on this. The manipulation of the models in Cura seems to be an ongoing project.

Install one of the X5SA models and on the right side of the first dialog is a box where you can change the name of the printer. The second dialog that comes up should be the Machine Settings. Make sure that the X(width), Y(depth) and Z(height) match your printer. Your actual "printable area" needs to be entered there and not just the physical size of the printer build surface. On the right are the print head settings. They describe the "crash" size of the print head when using the One at a Time option in Cura. The "gcode flavor" is the most important setting and it looks as if the TronXY printers use Marlin.

Top surfaces (the skins) are the best visual indicators of flow accuracy. I happen to have a microscope I picked up at a garage sale and it was really helpful when I was starting out. A decent magnifying glass is an acceptable alternative. When you can actually see gaps or ridges between the lines of extrusion then you know for sure if you are over or under extruding, and when it's just right. That "G5" command that your printer definition file adds to the end of your startup gcode is very odd. There have been a lot of posts here by AnyCubic users and I don't recall it being mentioned before. It's hard to believe that the layer cooling fan has that much effect on the hot end. Maybe you need to do a PID Auto-Tune on the hot end. You would need something like Pronterface/Printrun to send the command and view the results. The command is M303. Something like M303 C8 S250 would work.

Post your gcode print file that is stopping. (Did you notice if the hot end shut off?) The start and end gcodes for the Anycubic printers are a bit odd. I would change the startup gcode to this: ; StartUp Gcode G21 ;metric values G90 ;absolute positioning M82 ;absolute extrusion M106 S0 ;cooling fan off M140 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;Start to heat the bed M104 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} ;Start to heat the hot end M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;Wait for the bed M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} ;Wait for the hot end G28 ;Auto-Home X Y Z ;G29 ;No ABL G1 Z15.0 F600 ;move the platform down 15mm G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length G1 F200 E5 ;extrude 3mm of feed stock G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again M117 Printing... ; End of StartUp Gcode I would change the Ending Gcode to this: ; Ending Gcode G91 ;relative positioning M83 ;relative extrusion G1 E-1 F600 ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure G1 Z0.5 E-5 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more G1 X5 Y5 F3000 ;Wipeout move G1 Z5 F600 ;move the nozzle up from the print G1 X0 Y{machine_depth} F6000 ;Move the nozzle to the left rear M106 S0 ;Turn off the layer cooling fan M104 S0 ; turn off extruder M140 S0 ; turn off bed M84 X Y E ;steppers off except Z G90 ;absolute positioning M82 ;absolute extrusion M300 P300 S4000 ;Beep ; End of Ending Gcode I see in the definition file for you printer that the last line of the StartUp Gcode is indeed "G5". MarlinFW lists that command as "Bezier Curve". Since your printer has Marlin firmware I'm thinking that command doesn't belong in there. You can always add it again if there is a problem with the above StartUp code.

You have discovered the realm of "No Holes". It's a strange place where doors and windows and roofs are not allowed. The only way you can escape is to go to the land of Mesh Tools and kill the "Remove all Holes" wizard. It's possible that his apprentice the dastardly "Make Overhangs Printable" witch is involved. You may have to kill her as well. And now you know that 3D printing is not the safe hobby you had envisioned.

Conflict between your two post-processors. Go into the post-processors you have active and move Pause At Height above Insert at Layer Change. There is a conflict there and putting Pause at Height first resolves it. This looks like a bug to me. The post-processors had some re-work done for the switch from 4.13 to 5.0 and maybe something got missed or was broken in the changeover.

Well this made my head hurt (I was pretty sure it would). There are a few commands in your startup gcode that I can't find on the RepRap Wiki (which is pretty complete for all flavors of firmware) nor on the Marlin site. In particular is this section (I added the comments): M7 T0 ;fan off?? M6 T0 ;Tool Change?? M6 T1 ;Tool Change?? M651 ;is execute a peel move??? But now I think this relates to the Heated Build Volume fan. G92 E0 ; zero the active extruder M108T1 ; Typo. Should be M108 T1. I would add the space in that M108 line and run a test print and see if things change. The other commands that I don't recognize (and couldn't find) are likely FlashForge specific. You'll need to get with them to find out what they are. That list includes: M118, M6, M7, M651, and M108. M651 appears to be a command to turn on the fan for the build volume and maybe M652 turns if off. Sorry I couldn't be more help. There is a FlashForge group on Reddit and I did find mention of the StartUp Gcode.