GregValiant

With a model loaded and set up to slice use the Cura "File | Save Project" command to create a 3mf project file and post the file here. I was thinking that somehow the standby temperature was sneaking in but I checked the generic ABS and the standby temperature is 200 so maybe not.

Set Cura up with a model and your settings and use the "File | Save Project" command. Post the 3mf file here. Flashforge printers are a bit different and I don't know that anyone around here knows them well but maybe something will stick out. There have been posts here by Flashforge owners. You can search around this site and possibly find someone who had the same problem. I don't know if Reddit has a Flashforge owners group but searching there might be an option as well.

As a quick fix you can change that M109 line (after the M0) to M109 S205 or whatever your print temperature is. In Cura, use the "File | Save Project" command and post the 3mf file here. I use Pause at Height a lot and I've never seen that problem before.

In that first image you posted there is a big message box that says "Model errors"...fix your model and open it again in Cura". You can also see the multi-color areas that indicate where Cura has found errors in the model. Those bad areas are confusing the slicing engine. If you are on Windows then MS 3D Builder is pretty good at repairing models. Mesh Mixer and Blender are also options. Cura has "Mesh Tools" available as a plugin in the MarketPlace and it works for fixing simple errors but your model I think would need more extensive repair. The skirt is formed incorrectly also. I think the bottom of the model isn't flat, or the model isn't flush on the build plate.

"...would like to get the physical characterization of the extrusion correct first instead of just adding band aids on top." Do you really want to start fooling around with the flow at this point? I agree Z-hopping is a band-aid but sometimes all you need is a band-aid rather than major surgery. Since a printer is a simple serial device and since I know a bit of gcode and a bit of programming I've written an application to control my printer from the computer rather than having to use the LCD knob (for movement, printing, whatever). As the app evolved I added post-processing scripts to alter gcode files. One of those post-processors alters the Z-hops in a file. If I have a model that has a large horizontal hole, I know that when the hole starts to close up at the top "feather" edges will be created. Those feather edges always curl and so Z-hopping is in order to prevent the nozzle from hitting the edges and knocking the print over. I don't need them in the rest of the file, just for the twenty or so layers around the feather edge. So post-process the original gcode file and remove all the Z-hops from this layer to that layer. Then I run it again and leave the Z-hops in for 15 or 20 layers and remove them from the rest of the file. (Since I am working independent of Cura I actually read a gcode file, alter some lines, and write everything into a new gcode file.) An alternative is to create a gcode file with Z-hops and one without and then cut and paste them together (and to toot my own horn, I have a post-processer for that as well.) When your small islands are laid down on top of the supports they may be like my feather edges, curling up as they cool. I have my doubts that flow adjustments to fix that would have a positive effect. For much of your project I think you are in uncharted territory but you see the whole project whereas from afar, I see snapshots once in a while and so my opinions may well be skewed. One thing is for sure though...that's an impressive pile of spaghetti.

What size nozzle are you printing that with? Is there a feature of the model that is not allowing it to be printed flat? What is your "Max Comb Distance with No Retract" and "Retraction Minimum Travel"? If you slice the model and use "Relative Extrusion" the gcode is very easy to read. You could alter the retractions by hand although it would take a while since every involved layer would need to be changed. The gcode in Relative Extrusion would look like this (my retraction distance is obvious) and searching through the file for "00 E" will find them all: G1 X69.988 Y108.831 E0.04676 G1 F2100 E-5.5 G0 F9000 X106.767 Y121.431 G1 F2100 E5.5 G1 F3000 X107.318 Y121.73 E0.01983 G1 X108.818 Y122.455 E0.051231

Those are very consistent 125% numbers. There are some new settings in Cura 5.0 in the Material section. Use the Setting Visibility tool and set visibility to "All" and then make sure your "Scaling Factor Shrinkage Compensation Factors" are all set to 100%.

Load the model into Cura and set up to slice it. Then use the "File | Save Project" command and post the 3mf file here.

Ender 3, CR-10, Ender 5, all use the same one and they all break. Around $10 US for an aluminum replacement.

Ah. Better photos. It's intermittent under-extrusion. Do you have an aluminum extruder? It's the thing that sits on top of the E-motor. The stock Ender's have plastic extruders with plastic pressure arms. The plastic ones ALL develop cracks at the pressure wheel and don't put enough pressure on the filament to push the filament into the bowden tube. Ender's have been known to be delivered with broken extruder arms. If it is plastic then take off the pressure arm and look at the underside. If you have a metal extruder then check the spring tension. If the brass extruder gear is pressed onto the E-motor shaft they are usually OK but if the gear is held on to the shaft with set screws then make sure the screws are tight.

If you click on the Settings Profile Name and then go down and re-select the same profile, a dialog should come up asking if you want to Discard changes or Keep the changes. When you "Discard" then the settings will go back to however they were defined for that particular profile.

That looks mechanical. Loose belts, trolley wheels out of adjustment...that sort of thing. What printer do you have? Is that a raft? I think they print with gaps but I'm not sure as I never use them. The gaps should all be the same though.

What I tried to say is that in many model file formats (like STL) the models are glued together and effectively there is only a single model in the file even though there may be space between the pieces. They don't come in as separate models because they aren't separate models. That isn't a Cura thing, but a "translator / exporter" thing.

It depends on the model file. If the models don't line up in the Z in the file, then they won't line up when you open the file in Cura. There is a plugin in the MarketPlace called Mesh Tools. One of the tools is "Split Model into Parts". If I "union" multiple parts in the CAD software and then export the model as an STL I can use the Split Model tool in Cura to convert them back into separate pieces. Then if they were misaligned in the Z (I've done that) or I simply don't like the way they are arranged - I can move the individual parts so they are each on the build surface and rotated into position the way I want. 3MF and other model file types?...I don't know. After re-aligning the parts, they can be grouped together again and moved as an assemblage. When you select a model in Cura, sometimes the "ungroup" and "unmerge" tools will be available in the right click menu. If they are then they might be able to split the agglomeration of pieces into single models. If a model is part of a group then in Windows "CTRL+LeftClick" will pick a single model from within the group. So all of that sort of depends on the file format you are bringing in to Cura and how the export utility created that file in the first place.

I just went through the PR's for the Creality machines. It made for some interesting reading.

When you have features on a part that require an out-and-back movement (your gear teeth, tines on a comb or rake) then that setting comes into play. At 50% the nozzle extrudes while outbound and while inbound then moves to the next tooth. At 75% (or whatever it was) Cura decides on a single out extrusion, jumps to the next tooth, and then a single extrusion coming back towards the hub. Not at all what you want on that model. On a small detailed model like that I would think a .4 or even a .3 nozzle would be a better choice. The line width can be smaller than the nozzle size but there is a point where things start to break down and a smaller nozzle is in order. With the .5 nozzle the teeth don't really have the correct profile. With a .3 nozzle they look like gear teeth.

Hello @krona. With the model loaded in Cura use the "File | Save Project" command and post the 3mf file here. With the changes in 5.0 you will need to revisit your settings. Off the top of my head I'd say it looks like your line width is too much for the teeth. If you are at .5 line width try dropping it to .45 and see if the preview gets better. Enabling "Print thin walls" may help as well. Two other settings that didn't exist in 4.x are "Split middle line threshold" and "Add Middle Line Threshold". Try setting them to 50%. They can effect long thin features and how may passes the nozzle makes to print them.

All the Ender 3's are very similar. The differences between say a regular Ender 3 and a 3 Max is just the build volume size. You have two choices for stock definitions. The Ender 3 definition has reserved areas for the glass clips. They make the build surface smaller. The Ender 3 Pro definition is identical to the regular Ender 3 but does not have the reserved areas. The Ender 3 Pro is the usual choice because without the "reserved" / "disallowed" areas you get a bigger Printable Area. Either way when you install a printer - on the right side of the window you get to pick a name. After it's installed you should go to the Manage Printers and then Machine Settings and double check the build volume numbers (Width, Depth, and Height) to make sure they are correct for your printer. Creality usually puts a 7.5mm safety margin around the build surface so don't be surprised if your build area is 220 x 220 instead of the advertised 235 x 235. The definition files come from either someone in the community, or from the manufacturer. There might be an S1 definition waiting to be included with Cura 5.1 but if the S1 is similar enough to the 3 or 3Pro then maybe Creality didn't bother to submit one.

To the right of the Settings Search box is a button with 3 lines. It is the Settings Visibility tool. Click on it and set the visibility to "All" and see if your settings show up.

Use the Ender 3 Pro or the Ender 3. They are the same as the V2 but the 3 Pro doesn't have the reserved areas for the glass bed clips.

"just now i have some little white holes, but i guess this is filament problem? (marked blue)" That could be filament or maybe something clogged the nozzle for just a moment. If you haven't cleaned your nozzle or trimmed your bowden tube for a while then maybe now is a good time. After printing for hours the bottom of the bowden tube can breakdown (even Capricorn tubing will breakdown) and small pieces of carbonized tubing will break free. Trimming the bowden back 5 or 6mm may make a difference. An inspection can't hurt. If you have not run a PID auto-tune on the Hot End maybe that is something you will want to do. I'm sure there are youtube videos that explain it. A sort of interesting phenomenon is that the bed heater on Enders is controlled by a thermostat whereas the Hot End is controlled by PWM. All the current for both of them goes through the mainboard. The hot end is a pretty consistent load. The bed is not. When the bed cools then the thermostat turns it on and when it reaches the set temp, it turns off. It's "bang-bang" and the current through the mainboard jumps up and down. That can effect the hot end and so the print temperature can vary. I added one of these Power Expansion Boards to my printer to move the bed current off the mainboard. At lower bed temperatures I don't know that it makes much of a difference. When printing PETG with the bed at 80° it does make a difference. It requires some re-wiring, but was really pretty simple. It uses the bed power line from the mainboard as a signal and passes the current directly from the power supply to the bed heater. That takes the mainboard out of the loop except as the control source. I'm also hoping to avoid this happening again.

The M413 S0 turns off your power loss recovery. I don't think that makes a difference. In the cura Mesh Fixes - what was your Maximum Resolution. The Enders default is 0.4. If it gets set below about .3 then there can be stuttering around curves as the printer-planner can't keep up with the amount of gcode it has to process.

I get that same effect on every vase that I've passed light through. The light/dark striations are probably the filament. Slight variations in diameter, how homogeneous the colorant is mixed, that sort of thing. Slight changes in the temperature of the hot end as it prints might be involved. In vase mode the print speed can change as the print gets wider and then narrows again as the layer times change. If you look at your gcode maybe the "F" numbers will tell you something. The blobs seem to appear pretty regularly and show up in the same area of each round feature. They could be a resolution / print speed problem or they could be mechanical and occurring at a point where the nozzle is changing directions and hesitating for a moment. It doesn't take much of a stutter to leave a mark. How were you printing (SD card, USB, Octoprint, etc.)? This is from my Ender 3 Pro. You can see striations in the blue. The top (it's shoved up into that light) is silky white and doesn't show that problem. It had ringing instead. There aren't any blobs on this print.

I installed an X5sa 400 in Cura. It is NOT an "Origin at Center" printer. Looking at the StartUp and End G-Code in Cura 5, I don't see any problems (EDIT: I found a problem) Your End G-Code does contain this line: G1 X{machine_width} Y{machine_depth} ; Park print head Those keywords get replaced (with the settings in the Machine Settings dialog) when the actual gcode file is created. For the 400 I installed, that line would be replaced as: G1 X400 Y400 ; Park print head That should send the nozzle to the back right corner. If your build plate isn't that big (in the firmware) then there will be a crash into the end stops. TronXY (or a Cura Community member) provides the definition files for TronXY printers. The author of the older definitions was "AdderMk2" and the author of the 5.0 definition was "KV/AdderMk2". So yes, there were changes made. It looks like in previous Cura versions that line was G1 X0 Y0 and would have sent the print head to the left front corner (instead of right rear). That's probably what you were used to. Either way should work. If you open an actual Gcode file in a text editor and go to the end - what does that line read? EDIT: There is a problem in the 5.0 Ending Gcode in this line: G91 ; Set Positioning to RelativeG1 Z10 ; Raise nozzle 10 It should read: G91 ; Set Positioning to Relative G1 Z10 ; Raise nozzle 10 This gcode file is just your start and end. In between the StartUp and Ending gcode I've put these lines. G1 Z10 F600 ; Move up at 10mm/sec G1 X200 Y200 F6000 ;Go to midpoint of the build surface at 100mm/sec M300 ;Beep G4 S5 ;Pause for 5 seconds You can "print" that file and see what it does. You can open it in a text editor and make changes. When you get it the way you want, copy the relevant parts into your Machine Settings. You will need to uncomment the "retraction" line in the ending gcode and alter the "heating" lines in the startup gcode. X5sa400 Start and End.gcode

I thought that was fixed in the stable version of 5.0. If not then it will be fixed for the next release. If you go to the Marketplace there is a "Settings Guide" plugin. After installing and re-starting Cura - when you right click on a setting the explanation comes up.