PCLoadPLA

My cura 5.6 doesn't let me do that. It always springs the meshes apart automatically. Drop down model doesn't make a difference.

Speaking of that, how do I actually connect two meshes in Cura? If I try to drop a cube on top of a cube, Cura instead automatically moves it to the side. How do I get Cura to let me overlap meshes before slicing?

Suppose I want to print a simple cube. Cura will slice it to have specified bottom, top, and walls, and infill. Now suppose I want to stack two cubes on top of each other...but I still want to print a "top" layer in between the cubes. The reason is that maybe I want to cut the two cubes apart later, so having that partition wall in between them is desired. Sometimes I want to be able to cut parts apart, or sometimes I want to insert such a partition wall for strength, etc. is there a way? I have considered slicing the two parts and literally copy-pasting the gcode together, but I'm thinking there is a better way than that.

This is interesting and I shall check out this plugin. But it doesn't answer the question of what nozzle diameter actually does in the slicer. As far as I can tell, with the same line width and height, the same gcode will be generated even if you change nozzle size. It does make sense that the nozzle size could be used to generate warnings. That seems reasonable enough. But if that's all it does, I think I'm not going to bother changing it. I've been more or less changing it out of superstition.

I've been wondering this for years now. When I switch between 0.4 and 0.6 nozzles, I always change the nozzle diameter in Cura. Doing this the first time, was actually not easy to learn how to do...there's no nozzle diameter setting in the normal print settings; the nozzle diameter is actually defined in the printer profile. For some printer profiles, you can choose "alternates" to change between nozzle sizes. For my original printer profiles, there wasn't even a way to change it and I had to figure out how to add "alternates" to my printer config to even enable the 0.6 option. And never is there a way to choose an arbitrary nozzle size like 0.45; usually there are only a couple standard sizes like 0.4 and 0.6, and if you need something weird like 1mm you might not have that option. So I don't know why nozzle size isn't just a print setting right there with the other settings like line width and flow etc. in the first place, but besides that, I don't know what changing the nozzle size in Cura actually does. People have told me they ignore nozzle size completely. They just leave it at 0.4 or whatever, and set line width to whatever is appropriate for their nozzle. For example, when they install a 1mm nozzle, they just set line width to 1.2 and layer height to 0.5 or whatever and leave the nozzle diameter at 0.4 in Cura and ignore it. So if nozzle diameter doesn't impact anything, why does it exist in Cura? And if it does impact things, what things?

I'm not really splitting parts in half, but I will keep in mind it's possible. When you split a part like that, do you have any special method to match up the layers exactly? Or do you just use the same mm values for Z-offset of the bottom part, and z-height of the bottom of the support blocker cube?

I don't use windows....do you know how to do something similar in FreeCAD?

Say I have a part that is too tall, and I want to print a portion of it. I don't want the printer to "pause at height", because I want to finish the top layers correctly and not leave exposed infill. I don't want to "scale Z height" because I don't want to compress or squish the model. I want Cura to basically cut the STL at a certain Z height, then slice the rest normally. Is there a way? Sometimes when I want to cut the BOTTOM part of the model off, I do this all the time in Cura by entering a negative Z offset. The portion of the model that extends below the bed height is simply removed by Cura, and Cura slices the rest normally including adding bottom layers etc. I want to do the same thing, but cutting off the TOP of the model. And yes, I considered flipping the model and doing the negative Z-offset thing, but some things won't print in that orientation.

I bought a new computer. Both old and new are Linux. How can I migrate my existing Cura from the old computer to the new one? I already tried copying the Appimage to the new computer. I also copied ~/.config/cura, and ~/.local/share/cura from my old computer to the new one. However, when I start the Appimage on the new computer, it takes me to the "getting started" screen, and doesn't seem to find my configuration files, detect my printer config, or anything like that. Are there some other configuration files that Cura uses besides these two? or a better way to do a migration?

Infill support is already enabled, but it doesn't help the problem. There is a "top" over the whole model, so with Infill support enabled, it simply generates infill everywhere, because everywhere has a top. In other words, the bottom of the holes and the top of the block are both "top" as far as Cura is concerned. But unless the infill lines are less than 4mm apart, there will still be print failure on the smaller holes. If the holes were outside the model then support would be generated in the normal way and it would work fine. What is needed is a way to generate support for them inside the model. I can also build in a solution into my model, but I'm actually not sure how to modify my model to fix this problem either.

I will upload a wireframe and STL later. When sliced like the picture, yes it will be full of infill, but I don't want infill in this case. It's not needed for strength and it adds print cost. Also, unless I use like 60% infill or more, I still can't print the smaller holes because they will end up between the infill lines, where is still no support underneath them, and you can't extrude plastic into thin air. The holder is closed at the bottom. It's a big block with blind holes punched in the top for the drill bits to sit in. The problem is that the drill bits don't go all the way through the block. So no matter what orientation you put the block in, the holes are impossible to print because it's basically a cylinder sticking into space. And there's no way to put support underneath the holes because Cura won't put support inside the model, only outside of it.

I'm making a drill-bit holder with deep, blind holes as shown in the picture. The problem is that the bore and the bottom of the holes are treated as "walls" by the slicer; this means there's no way to print them regardless of the orientation of the model while printing, because the "hole" is sort of sticking into space. I need support under the "holes" in order to print them, but if I turn on support, Cura will not add internal support to support internal structures like this. In the picture of the slice preview you can see the bottom of the smaller holes starts to print in mid-air, which will never work. One option would be to increase infill to perhaps 5mm between lines, but then print time goes to 24 hours vs. 4, and cost of course goes up by 10x or something too. Is there any Cura option to support these internal, deep holes, or other workaround I can try in modeling it?

I found the solution...set "fill gaps between walls" to "nowhere" or else use the Filter Out Tiny Gaps option to remove the little tiny extrusions. My print time decreased by nearly 20%, with almost no change in plastic used.

This is something I have been wondering about for a while but I haven't found which setting controls it. Often when Cura slices a layer, the movement is as expected, but after the layer is completed, the extruder moves all over the layer making very short movements with practically no extrusion. My guess is that it's trying to fill in some tiny small gaps somewhere. But in many cases I would like to avoid these small extrusions happening because it costs a lot of time, and I don't really see what is the benefit. I attached an image showing the very end of a layer. The head moves around to each corner of the triangle, even after the layer is already printed. There is hardly any amount of extrusion going on during these moves. How can I remove these extra moves--I tried reducing print resolution but that applies to the mesh. Is there a way to "reduce extrusion resolution" to remove very small moves? Or a better way to stop this behavior?