[SOme parts of model disapear after slicing]

1 hour ago, flight-commander said:

You're amazing!

I know, but people don't believe it as much when I say it 😄 

[Missing supports]

Works fine for me:

 

What version of Cura are you using?

[Could someone give me gcode/setting to help my prints to print fast with decent quality.]

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion. I do not and have never worked for UltiMaker and do not represent them in any way.

 

3 hours ago, anadskman said:

Have you ever calibrated the E-steps of the printer? 

No i haven't i don't believe that is possible on the voxelab aquila pro. after cleaning out the nozzel i tried the same print again and it was slight better but very similar

I always wondered what sort of quality Voxelab printers were like, given the company as a whole is on my "do not buy" list because some of their filament killed one of my printers.

No, it wasn't the clog in the Bowden tube itself that killed the printer. Although I tried printing with it a couple of times after I'd cut that bit off and it immediately clogged both times (except I was watching it, so I was able to pull the clog out with tweezers before it got too big or hardened).

 

The problem was that because it did that severe clog about an hour into a three hour print (just after I'd stopped watching it) no filament was feeding so the hot end was basically roasting the rubber boot that goes around it. This disintegrated the boot enough that next time I printed with some filament that actually worked, as well as printing my model, it had covered the hot end in filament. I tried cleaning it off but once it started solidifying it broke the wires to the thermistor and the printer now refused to do anything because it couldn't detect the hot end's temperature.

 

So maybe I have my answer about what their printers are like 🙂 

[I want to print a hollow object on a 3D printer, but it produces a full inside]

@Rakeem that might not work if the model file has errors, as @gr5 pointed out it might. If the normals are wrong that won't fix it.

[Extruder Moving Up and Down at certain points of the bed.]

I'm moving this to the "third party products and modifications" board since this really isn't about improving print quality, just help with your printer.

 

But seriously, manually level your bed: Yes, I know it's a #$&!ing pain. Especially getting the Z offset right.

Check tightness on relevant parts: I have no idea what a Neptune 3 Pro is like. But in the case of my Ender-3 V3 SE it would be checking the tightness of the wheels which hold the X axis gantry onto the frame.

If you have ABL, run it on a regular basis: Things like the heat of the room can have an effect on the bed. I actually have my printer set to do an ABL run as part of the startup gcode (just put a line that says G29 immediately after the G28). Minute or two before printing to ensure I'm going to get the best result? Totally worth it.

[How do I make top layers independent of embossing?]

11 hours ago, Deses said:

I don't want to print 4 top layers just to have 1 real complete layer under the logo and waste time doing 4 layers on the rest of the plaque.

Really bad idea.

• Unless maybe you're printing black, a single skin layer isn't going to be opaque enough and you're going to be able to see through to the infill, which will be exacerbated if you're using the Grid or Lines infill pattern, because that just has complete hollow spaces vertically so any source of light will just go straight through. Even black would show light through, it just might be enough to hide the individual lines.
  • At that thickness and infill density, even the patterns which create filled volumes (Cubic, Cubic Subdivision, Octet and Quarter Cubic) aren't going to have enough infill to actually complete whole pockets so there'd still be some see through.
  • Given that, Gyroid would be the best for blocking light transmission but it's still not going to be anywhere near enough to actually block the light and you'd be able to see squiggly lines through it.
• The surface pattern is also going to be a lot more visible with just a single layer, and not just because you'll be able to see the light. This is why the Lines and Zig Zag patterns alternate their direction every layer by default.
• If air pockets are created during printing, a single layer of skin isn't going to be enough to flatten them out so your result might have bulges in it.
• With your current infill settings, the lines are 4mm apart. That means for the first skin layer it's bridging 4mm gaps constantly. If any of them sag a bit, they're not going to have any more skin on top to hide that.
• If you're printing PLA, remember that that is fairly brittle. If these plaques are awards and you want them to last, you need more strength than just a single layer. I could push through it enough to break it open using just my pinkie finger with just a single layer. Also, I don't know how hot it gets where you are, but PLA has a glass transition temperature of about 52°C I think so it'll start melting as soon as it gets that hot, and unsupported roof is going to be one of the first things to go.
  • If you're printing PETG, it's almost certainly going to sag enough in those gaps that you'd notice it.
  • If you're printing ABS, I'm not sure it would have the adhesion to keep straight lines going bridging the distance over the infill.
• For basically all of these reasons except bridging, you're going to want more than two bottom layers.

Still, if you insist... just don't say I didn't warn you.

test single top.3mf

[Unwanted and inconsistent support structure]

If the bottom edge of the model is slightly curved (hard to tell from the screenshots but it sorta looks like it), the support would most likely want to support that.

 

Staying outside the model is likely because of the Support > Support X/Y Distance setting. By default it's 0.8mm, meaning support will always stay at least 0.8mm away from a wall. In your case it looks like that might be set pretty high.

 

If you could post your Cura project file (.3mf, get it set up, then go to File > Save Project) we can have a look at the model and your settings and be able to figure out what's to blame.

 

Meanwhile, let me introduce you to a new friend: the support blocker. With your model selected, it's this button on the toolbar on the left:

Now let me introduce you to one of my friends:

He doesn't say much. He's really only useful for testing things. But you see the bit on the left where it goes over itself and produces support that sits on top of the lower part of the model? That support is really annoying to try and get rid of. And I have faith that my printer can bridge that gap without it. So:

1. Select your model by clicking on it
2. Click the support blocker button in the toolbar 
3. Click on your model (not on the support) in roughly the area you want it to be (you'll have to move and resize it anyway). I'm going back to "prepare" mode for this because it's much easier to see the blockers:
   
4. It's not in quite the right place and it's too big. It always just generates a 10x10x10mm cube. So click on the move tool  on the left toolbar then click on your support blocker and move it into roughly the right place:
   
5. Still not the right size. Click on the scale tool  turn on Snap Scaling and turn off Uniform Scaling  and then drag the handles until it's the right size. It usually doesn't matter if it overlaps the model a bit. You can turn off snap scaling to fine tune it if you want, but personally I just change the numbers if I have to. Anyway, let's scale it:
   
6. Now it's not in the right place. Repeat steps 4-5 until it's the right size in the right spot:
   
   Much better.
7. Switch back to Preview mode and admire your lack of supports:
   
8. Hang on, there's a naughty bit snuck in there. In my case that's because Support > Support Horizontal Expansion is set to 0.8mm (and I have no idea why because I usually have it set to 0 in my profile). So I'll just set that to 0mm:
   
   Much better.

You can bridge that gap, little... thing! I have faith in you.

(Yes it can bridge that gap, but only when using PLA, not PETG or TPU - they're too soft and stringy and fall down the gap.)

[Could someone give me gcode/setting to help my prints to print fast with decent quality.]

Just now, anadskman said:

also i can send you the video i recorded of this problem via email

Just upload it to YouTube as unlisted and post a link to it here.

[Sonic pad issue]

It might be a cow-human difference, but I really can't understand... what is it with people and seeing thumbnails of something on their printer's screen before they print it? I can't even get Creality Print to produce files which show thumbnails on my Ender-3 V3 SE, let alone Cura, but it doesn't bother me, it's easy just to go by filenames. And the only time I make it difficult for myself (multiple versions of the same thing having very similar filenames) the thumbnails would be the same anyway.

[How do I make top layers independent of embossing?]

Top layer settings aren't just the very top of the print - it's any part of the print exposed to air above it.

 

So you have 4 top layers set - here's layer 23 at the top. I'm assuming we're focusing on the circle bit:

Four layers going up to layer 23 starts at 20 (remember folks, we're counting inclusively here), so here's 20:

Most of the plaque finishes at layer 20, so it starts at layer 17:

 

The main part of the plaque becomes exposed to air above layer 20, so the last four layers (17-20) are printed as top layers. But the circle doesn't get exposed to air until you go above layer 23, so its last four layers are 20-23. So they only share one layer which gets completely filled in (20).

 

And if you're wondering about the text and picture not being cut out of 17-19, they're only a couple of lines wide so they're not big enough to be part of the enclosed area (something has to be big enough to have infill to count).

 

It's not going to be noticeable in the final print, nor does it affect the strength (unless you're deliberately trying to break it).

[Support material shifting while the print is OK]

23 minutes ago, Timini said:

Where do you live ? Technically, here in France, it is legal up to 25 km/h, but it is kinda dangerous to drive that slow in the traffic, so people do what they have to do...

I'm in the down underverse. Not sure about other states but here, on an e-bike, it's only allowed to go up to 6km/h if you're not pedalling. If you are pedalling, above 6km/h the power output has to gradually go down (so you do more of the work) until you reach 25km/h, at which point the motor has to cut out entirely.

 

Pedal assist bikes don't have a speed limit where the motor cuts out but they can't move without you pedalling, and aren't allowed to have very powerful motors. Also legally they have to have a height adjustable seat 🤔

 

34 minutes ago, Timini said:

Riding an EUC is really not a big deal, you'll swear a lot the first 2 hours, but once you taste it, there's nothing like it...

I'm pretty sure if I tried it I'd be tasting the ground for well over two hours 🤕 but given the opportunity and a well padded room it's something I'd definitely be curious enough to try.

(Story time: I learned to ride an bike without training wheels, but it involved things like going slowly while my dad ran beside me holding me up. One time doing that he'd let go and I didn't realise, and as soon as he shouted with encouragement that I was doing it, I promptly fell over.)

[ayuda con agujeros en las piezas]

The problem is visible in the gcode so it's not the printer:

 

If you could post the Cura project file (get it set up and then go to File > Save Project)

Then we can see if the problem is in the model or in the slicing settings and what settings you might need to change.

[Could someone give me gcode/setting to help my prints to print fast with decent quality.]

If you post a sample gcode file we could have a look and see if anything's amiss. If the problem is only with Cura, then if you could slice the same model with as close to the same settings as possible in another slicer (and it would print fine) we can try and play spot the difference while we're at it.

[Support material shifting while the print is OK]

1 hour ago, Timini said:

I don't print any support, including skirt, so that's why 🙂

There's a skirt in the gcode file though 😕 

*/me thinks for a minute*

*/me looks at coordinates in gcode file and thinks for another minute*

Ah, it's the support brim. Never mind.

 

Interesting... if you rotate it so that it's facing along the X axis (either way), it does the jutting out bits on both sides:

But on the Y axis it's only on the right. And whatever way around it's rotated, the gcode still looks like it should print fine.

 

So my first suggestion (and yes it is a serious suggestion) is to try using trees. If it's a completely different support type maybe it'll act completely differently... which in this case sounds like it would be "acting normal".

Trees just have the problem of wanting to fill these holes despite the fact that they don't have LoS to the build plate:

Nothing a couple of support blockers can't fix though:

Here's that one where I set up the trees and support blockers if you want to try: AU20_begode_master_handle_trees_blockers.3mf

 

Other than that I would suggest rotating it 90° so it faces along the X axis and you'll see the little bits which I still can't explain on both sides:

And after you rotate it, open the move tool with the model selected and make sure it's at 0, 0, 0.

 

2 hours ago, Timini said:

a handle for a very heavy electric unicycle

I would say that I'm jealous you have an electric unicycle, but... I'm jealous you can ride a unicycle at all 😮

Might be the awesome technicality one would need to get around with electric power around here though. In this state you have to ride bikes on the road but e-bikes are limited to a maximum speed that the motor can get you up to (you can pedal faster if you want... and if you can) which is lower than the speed limit on almost all roads so wouldn't exactly make me feel warm and cosy and safe, and e-scooters are banned in public areas because they're too much of a vehicle for the footpath but not enough of a vehicle for the road.

[Support material shifting while the print is OK]

If you could share the Cura project file (.3mf, in Cura get it set up then go to File > Save Project) that might help us figure out the problem.

 

Looking at the gcode preview in Cura the first thing I notice is that I can't see any skirt, even though it's supposed to be printing one. I can see the nose wipe but not the skirt:

And the second thing I notice is that while the two sides seem symmetrical, on one side the support has a bit jutting out:

 

If I load the STL and slice it for my printer then load the gcode preview, things look pretty normal:

The first thing I noticed is that holey shirt that thing is big and yes I realise an E3V3SE is not a huge printer.

The second thing I noticed is that I can see the skirt fine.

The third thing I noticed is that the support still has a bit jutting out on the same side:

 

Looking at the STL file itself it seems both symmetrical and to have far too many tris in some areas, but that's symmetrical too so it shouldn't be making a difference.

 

Suggestion (other than sharing your project file so that we can play with settings): try tree supports. I ❤️ tree supports even if they're not really designed for this sort of thing... but hey, if they work, that bit doesn't really matter.

[dual colour printing]

Note: the following answers apply to my way of doing it, not Greg's.

1 hour ago, bovvalot said:

If you multiplied the model by 25 would it still be one colour change and would you need to monitor the print whilst the layer was being done or could i just leave the room and do something else?

Only one colour change, assuming you're printing in "all at once" mode (one at a time would require 49 changes total).

You can leave the room after you change the colour, although I'd probably watch it do at least one to make sure it's not going to have any problems. Although I stuffed up my first attempt and it printed where it wasn't supposed to (where the background was full height) and it didn't cause me any problems.

 

1 hour ago, bovvalot said:

I could probably handle this, I'm not afraid of Gcode, but if i have 25 (identical) models on the bed, how painful is it going to be?

Potentially I could create two models. one for white and one for red - would there be a some way to use the individual model overlap settings and exclude the need for a script altogether?

No more painful than doing a single model. No need for any scripts. You do need them to be two separate model files. The main one has to have a cutout of where the other colour is going to be, as deep as you're going to have it. In my case I printed 3 layers of green at a 0.2mm layer height so the model for the blue bit has a cow cutout 0.6mm deep. And then I had the model of the cow at 0.6mm high.

[ayuda con agujeros en las piezas]

(Traducido por Google; lo siento, pero es lo mejor que puedo hacer)
La política normal es mover los hilos en idiomas extranjeros a su foro apropiado; como lo intentaste, no lo moveré, pero no puedo hacer ninguna promesa sobre otros moderadores (no somos una mente colmena).

 

Esto es casi imposible de diagnosticar sin ningún detalle. Incluirlos en su hilo en el foro en español también puede ayudar a sus resultados allí, por lo que es posible que desee publicarlos en una respuesta allí.

 

¿Qué impresora tienes?
¿Qué tipo de material estás usando?
¿Tu primera impresión tuvo algún problema? Y ya sea que lo haya hecho o no, podría ser útil compartir una foto para que podamos ver en qué se diferencia de su Gengar.

 

Si pudiera compartir el archivo de su proyecto Cura (.3mf, prepárelo para imprimir y luego vaya a Archivo > Guardar proyecto), eso también podría ayudar mucho a determinar su problema.

[SOme parts of model disapear after slicing]

What do you mean, like it had supports everywhere? The exact same parts of the model are considered to need support whether it's regular support or trees, the main difference is that trees don't just go straight up to do it.

Here's the trees we get using the default settings on the standard quality Creality profile preset:

Firstly, one tree setting which is really important but only a fraction of a percent of people ever change and yes I have seen the numbers: change Rest Preference from On model when required to On buildplate when possible:

Okay, this model isn't the best example. But it means fewer points where the trees will contact your model (and therefore need cleaning up) because it will use more trees rather than have trees climb up your model. It will also mean that it will try and avoid planting trees on your model. In this spaceman yes there is one growing from the middle of the base but that's only because any tree from the build plate couldn't get in that far at the angle they're allowed to go.

 

Here's a better demonstration of that using one of my test models. We're interested in the bit on the left where the bit sticks out from the middle and goes towards the back. On model if required:

On buildplate when possible:

As you can see it's making trees grow in from the side rather than plating them on the model. More tree yes, not having to clean up bottom interface, 😆

 

Anyway, back to the spaceman. The main setting to change if you want more parts supported is the same as regular support, Support Overhang Angle. The lower it is, the more support you get. The default is 45°. Here's 35°:

 

Some other settings worth considering are:

Minimum Height To Model: This prevents branches going into places where they'll end as tiny blobs. If you lower it, more finer details will be supported at the expensive of the tree being a bit hard to remove from within that small area.

Branch Density: You probably shouldn't have to increase this. But if you do, it's exactly what it says on the box: more, stronger branches.

 

["Line Spacing" in Cura]

18 hours ago, Lennard said:

If I reduce the track width or increase the extrusion multiplier, the result is that I produce a wider track, which leads to reduced dimensional accuracy.

Isn't it just a volumetric calculation anyway? i.e. half width + 200% flow = same flow as full width? Unless a paste extruder doesn't have a circular nozzle like your average 3D printer it should just be a matter of how much material you're pumping out. Or is this one of those situations where I don't get the maths and realise I should have stayed in school?

[Array of Poor Corners]

7 hours ago, charlesrkiss said:

I'm a bit confused between the UltiMaker and Klipper interactions/interference.

I'm not sure I quite follow. Cura will only ever treat UltiMaker printers with any UltiMaker specific options (and its gcode flavour). You mean between Klipper and Marlin (the gcode flavour a lot of printers use)?

 

AFAIK (or in English, what I say until @ahoeben comes in and corrects me and we all learn something so I don't mind) Klipper supports a subset of Marlin commands, enough that it should print an average Marlin file, but for several advanced things (like jerk) with Marlin it's up to the slicer to do things (program moves at the right feed rate and/or set the acceleration values, Cura does the former), whereas with Klipper you can set the corner velocity and include fairly simple move commands and it will automatically adjust the acceleration and such.

 

Cura doesn't have proper Klipper support, so it just slices files in Marlin and relies on Klipper to print based on that. I'm guessing the Klipper Settings plugin available from the marketplace overrides it so Cura doesn't do it and includes the Klipper commands to set those options in the gcode file (haven't tried it, for obvious reasons).

 

7 hours ago, charlesrkiss said:

If that is not bad enough, is it possible for a slicer or software to treat all the corners the same, eg., starting and stopping there (at each corner, and not round them)?

That situation is exactly what jerk exists to avoid: you're never going to have precise enough control over the extrusion to avoid either blobs or underextrusion if you come to a complete stop before moving in the next direction. It'd be fairly easy to hand code a Marlin gcode file to test that but I don't know if Klipper would mess with it in the printing process to automatically apply adjustments.

[What setting to change for extremely short outer perimeter extrude moves?]

7 hours ago, sciencecandi said:

I will suggest to the designer that holes are at least one wall width away from the edge in future iterations.

I have no idea what the holes are for, but if there's going to be any stress whatsoever put on them, you'll need more than one wall. Depends on your line width but I try to make sure all my holes are at least 1mm away from the outer wall.

[Legacy Cura version 15.04.06]

41 minutes ago, Dustin said:

you will have VERY mixed results trying to run on a chromebook.

I respectfully disagree. You will have VERY many failures. Especially on a version that old, if you could find it, things like graphics drivers and the display server have probably changed enough that it won't work.

 

44 minutes ago, Dustin said:

and then other times the hardware specs of the chromebook still does not meet requirements.

If I can get it working on my Chromebook Duet with a MediaTek Helio P60T ARM chipset and 4GB of RAM, do you think you can get me a job at UltiMaker?

 

(Yes, the hardware is old and not exactly high specs when it was new. But it still runs ChromeOS snappily because I'm not asking more of it than it was designed for. I do have the built in Linux install set up (which only exists so you can run Android Studio, because Google) but that's only because it's the only way to sideload Android apps without completely knocking down all the barriers and forcing you to go through a warning before you can start using it every time you unlock it.)

["Line Spacing" in Cura]

The fact that you managed to get a vaguely complete script out of ChatGPT is impressive. I've had to tell it multiple times it's still making the same mistake when I'm just trying to create a loop. Gemini is better, in that when I tell it it did something wrong, it changes it... usually to something else wrong.

 

Although someone needs to teach it about Script.getValue() and Script.putValue()

Also Python's string.splitlines()

Also that script doesn't scale positions on travel moves so you're gonna get some nice long lines you don't want as it gets further from 0, 0.

 

I will give it some style points for putting the number formatting in the f-strings though.

 

Anyway, if I may say something useful:

Can it be done in a script? Theoretically, but it'd be a major hassle. Especially if you're not just printing lines that go straight along the X/Y axis.

Is ChatGPT's concept wrong? Entirely.

How would I go about it?

• The script would need to get the total area for a section, because it's going to have to add new lines.
  • Figuring out the sections if it's not a contiguous body isn't necessarily easy, I'd probably try judging it by long travel moves within the same feature type, but that's still a crapshoot.
• Instead of just putting a multiplier on the values, I'd use a variable to keep track of the position of the previous line and then go <intended print separation here> past it until it filled the total area, which would involve it creating new lines.
  • This means that for any diagonal line you'd need to use Pythagorean calculations.
  • Curves would be either extremely difficult, or just very, very difficult if you use @ahoeben's Arc Welder plugin, which would rely on your printer supporting G2 and G3 moves.

1 hour ago, Lennard said:

My goal is to avoid using width and flow rate settings because they don't fully meet my validation needs.

I'm not sure what you mean by "validation needs" but adjusting the line width and material flow will give you exactly the same extrusions as making an overcomplicated script to do the same thing - assuming your script was perfect.

 

In summary, chatbots still don't know how to write code and you should just adjust the settings like @ahoeben suggests because trying to write a script that can do this is a fool's errand that even I'm not crazy enough to try and take on (and I've taken on some pretty crazy scripts... sometimes they're not even for me, they're for other people on the forum - I've long since learned that asking "why" doesn't really give you any more knowledge than you started with).

[SOme parts of model disapear after slicing]

1 hour ago, flight-commander said:

The fact that that looks like a butter sculpture of New York City which is melting is what makes me happy I use trees almost all of the time.

[Legacy Cura version 15.04.06]

8 hours ago, gr5 said:

I think I have the windows installer but not the unix version.

/me wonders if a version that old is basic enough that WINE would manage it without issue