Jpileggi

Here's the pic of the new part sliced with a different profile. Beautiful first layer. Something was ailing with that other profile.

So it's not the bed. I reprinted the same gcode file that produced the good resulting part in the pic above, and it printed fine. When I reslice that part file with my current profile, I get the mess shown above. I may have modified the profile from good part to bad part, but I don't know what changes may have been made. Am I correct in assuming there is no way to identify all the parameters of the profile simply from the gcode file?

Thanks Greg. I wonder if the nozzle needs replacing.

What would cause the first layer to look like this? I am printing on clear glass. The lines should be straight horizontally, yet portions of the lines are offset. This profile printed perfectly previously as can be seen in the right hand piece in the second picture. Just prior to printing, I washed the glass, wiped down with isopropyl alcohol, and then sprayed lightly with hair spray. The piece feels smooth; just looks horrible. Thanks.

Bingo, that's it!. If I turn adaptive layers off in the dynamic profile, it shows 24 layers (3.88 mm). If I turn it back, I'm back to 19 layers. So why is adaptive layers on as a default for the dynamic profile, but not for the others? That is really annoying - I had no idea. Also, my part is actually coming out small on the .150" portion (.139" actual), but the overall height of the part is correct. Hey, thanks for the ton of work that you put into this! Great detective work!

Here's the STL. I work in inches so the height in the model is .150" (3.81 mm). Depth Gauge Rail Ht Attachment.stl

Here you go. FYI, standard quality 0.20 and dynamic quality 0.16 profiles both give me 19 layers for the 3.81 mm dimension. Depth Gauge Rail Ht Attachment.3mf

I am running Cura version 5.1.0. When I slice a Fusion 360 model with the dynamic quality (0.2 initial layer height, 0.16 layer height) profile selected, I get 19 layers for a model thickness of 3.81 mm. So 0.2 + 18 layers x 0.16 = 3.08 mm, or 0.73 mm short. I should be getting at least 22 layers. But if I slice with super, standard, or low quality profiles, I get the correct number of layers. Any thoughts? Is this a bug that has been fixed in subsequent releases? Thanks.

When I use glue stick for improved bed adhesion, I see the evidence of the glue embedded in the printed part, like lines, dull finish, etc. Is there any way to use glue stick without this detracting appearance?

Thanks for your willingness to help me here. Yes, I have calibrated E-steps. So this print has 26 layers. Layer 8 is the top layer of the flat surface that I want to optimize. Are you saying that I would need to set the number of top layers and skin layers to 19 in order to optimize layer 8?

I'm using a 0.4 mm nozzle with the same line width. I was able to improve by reducing the flow rate. But this is exactly my question. Changing the top layer infill would not affect the flat surface since it's not the top layer, correct? Is there a way to change parameters on that layer since it is not the top layer?

I'm printing 100% infill.

In the attached pic, the layer that I want to look great is not the top layer. It is the large flat layer. Is there a way to maximize the quality of that layer in Cura? Am I correct in assuming that a skin layer would be added to the very top (in this case non-critical) layer? Thank you.

I had to increase Bridge Skin Support Threshold to 90%, but now it works! Thank you so much! Now I have to work on reducing the print time. Do you recommend enabling "Bridge Has Multiple Layers"?

Sure. Can I see from a preview in Cura if it is working?