Flying_Roger

Thank you very much for this solution. There is indeed a parameter "utilisation de tours", and unchecking it prevents CURA to add those strange external supports.

Thanks Greg, I will look with interest into your Toolbox. Concerning Blender, I had the idea to return to the basic and follow a text tutorial rather than a video. This allowed me to find out that the panning/rotating problems that I had (since the start) in Blender were due to sporadic problems with my middle mouse button. Simply ticking "emulate middle mouse button" to use Alt-LMB instead solved the problem. Strangely after I did that, my middle mouse button started to work as well. Cf. "VBA vs Python": although I have much more experience with VBA, I started using Python a couple of years ago. It has big advantages for some (non 3D) applications, like using an xml database. I need this to process aeronautic data (updated every 28 days) and the availability of libraries helps a lot to avoid constantly reinventing basic functions. But I notice that you also use .py elements in your toolbox... 😉

Thank you very much for your support. Using Excel macros to analyse the gcode is a good idea. I use Excel VBA for many applications, as well professional as private and this is a very powerful tool. Concerning the famous "gaps", it was indeed just a misunderstanding of mine: the white squares are just there as a "flag" to identify extruder position jumps and do not mean that there will be a tiny hole in the model. For sure I need to invest more time in one of these tools, probably blender. There are many tutorials, but not so easy to follow: either they rely on some previous knowledge that I have missed, or the screen resolution is too low to properly follow menu actions, or they use an old version of blender or another language. For me, the major element hampering my progress is the lack of a simple way to move the view using the mouse, like in Cura, rather than acting on the small XYZ handles. Of course I will eventually get used to it... Merry Christmas and happy new year ! Roger

Actually, I do not use the "Fusion" applications, I installed it initially, but found it too heavy for my usage. I simply use the "fusion" function in MS-3D builder. "Inventor" is a commercial app, not suitable for my small (personal) prints... I need indeed to improve the accuracy when joining simple geometric elements to build a model. The problem is when I have to rotate some elements to build a more complex shape. I know that I should rather use tools like blender in such case, but it takes ages before really mastering this complex and not so intuitive tool. I dream of a tool capable, in a few clicks, of solidifying a model and simplifying the mesh without altering the shape. Though, it is hard for me to understand why the model has small holdes after several elements have been fusionned. I had expected that a small step would not result in such gaps, but this could be a MS-3D builder issue. Note that when it is just a single "pixel" missing, it has no impact on the printing, but I fear that problems can arise when a series of small gaps are aligned, assuming that these gaps are really modelled by Cura in the gcode file. I will investigate my gcode files using other applications to make sure that the problem is not simply a "Cura preview" issue, with no impact on the gcode. I noted indeed that the Cura addon checking the mesh says "model is watertight" despite these gaps. UPDATE: I see in the gcode as well as by replaying slowly in the Cura preview that the white squares are a way for Cura to mark the point where the extruder jumps from one location to another. So there is probably no gap there. Could you please confirm that?

Thank you very much for your help and sorry for late reply. I missed your message. Indeed, when zooming very deeply in MS-3Dbuilder, I can see the tiny step. This anomaly probably appeared due to fusionning several objects with too approximate positioning. Usually, I get rid of such steps by slicing, but maybe I missed this one. I sliced very close to the top and bottom and the problem is indeed solved. Note that it had no impact at all on the printed object, probably because the step was smaller than the 0.2mm layer printing. Here is my new STL file. It still triggers an error message when loading in MS-3Dbuilder, but this happens very often, even if I let this program fix the problem and save again the model in STL format without doing anything else. Small holes are still visible in the CURA 5.2.1 preview. They seem to be spurious and not actually impacting the 3D printing. I tried different apps (meshmixer, meshlab,...) "fix small holes" actions, but to no avail. Zooming deeply, I can see that this is also linked so a tiny surface anomaly (fusion unaccuracy). I wonder how to fix that. Maybe using Blender? Boucle fermée v4 (recoupé pour lisser les faces).stl

After slicing a rather simple object, I am surprised to see a few discontinuities in the top layer (see snapshot 1). The last but one layer is normal (snapshot 2). Maybe the printing will be fine, but I am curious to know what causes this anomaly and possibily which Cura option (or other tool) I could use to solve this. Note: I also see a few small gaps in the internal face; seen the location they might be linked with inaccurate fusion of objects in MS-Windows 3D builder. (snapshot 3) Fortunately, these are probably too small to affect the printing. Thank you in advance for your advices. Roger Boucle fermée v1.stl

I have installed CURA 5.1.0 today and I experienced the same problem. It worked with a model, but I got a "slicing error" after loading another STL file and then the slice button no longer appeared, even if I cleared all and reloaded the STL model. Also solved by restarting CURA.

Hi DivingDuck. I presume that you refer to what is called "Support structure = Arborescende" in French. (I have the French version of Cura). Indeed, this setting produces very strange supports and I never use it. In the case that I reported, the only way to get rid of all the unwanted (an obviously unuseful) supports is to set the maximum angle to 75°. However, i am afraid that my printer will not be able to bridge correctly at 75°. I am now trying and old version of Cura (15.04.6): this version is a bit limited, but at least, it does not generate supports hanging in the void, even with angle=60°.

Thank you for your replies, but: - I need to support everywhere because there his a horizontal cylinder hole higher in the object and it needs internal support. - How can the "unwanted" support support something that it does not touch??? - I tried to use the support blocker, but it is very hard to use because it works indirectly instead of simply clicking on the support that you would like to delete. The only way I found was to set the angle to 75°, but I wonder whether the cylinder hole will be printed correctly, and it is only at the end of a long print that I will figure out...

In several models, I got spurious supports generated by CURA 4.8.0 By "spurious", I mean that these supports does not seem to support anything. I tried to get rid of them using the "support blocker" tool, but to no avail. As the support blocker acts on the model, not on the cura engine, you cannot select a support for deletion: instead, you need to mark the area that triggered the support. However, how can I do that for supports that do not support anything? It is hard to figure out which area of the model triggered them... Here attached an example, generated with the parameter "support angle = 55°". On the last picture, you see that a support is "hanging in the void" almost without any contact with the structure. I appreciate CURA, but I have only a few months 3D printing experience, so sorry in advance in case I missed some basic knowledge.