Post processing plugin

[kupfeli 9]

14 minutes ago, GregValiant said:

"Also, I would recommend people NOT to use post-processing scripts at all, or only use it when you know what you are doing. Maybe make it an Expert only section for instance, that you can only access when you start Cura in Expert mode?"

 

Ouch!  Probably 90% of what I've learned about Cura has come from experimenting with things.  It's how I went from not knowing anything to knowing just enough to be dangerous.

There are visibility settings that limit a users view, but not their access, to commands.  A user can select from 4 levels of settings visibility.

I have two post-processors that I almost never shut-off.  By experimenting with the ".py" files I was able to alter them just a bit to make them more in tune with what I need.  My personal PauseAtHeight is configured to fill in all the boxes with MY defaults rather than Cura's generic defaults.

I don't know much about Ultimaker printers but I'm fairly familiar with the Chinese crap (excuse me) printers.  Some don't support G2/G3 and some do.  Some don't support M0, or M1 but some do.  As far as I know most printers do not support a command that would query the printer and inform a user regarding exactly which G and M commands are actually enabled in the firmware.  

I agree with you there and I also learn by experimenting and I like that. But, for a project I am doing now, I needed some functionality where I just wanted to deliver quickly and then I found out that most of the post-processing scripts don't work on the Ultimaker 2+ Connect and then I found out that the Ultimaker has its own startup and finish scripts to deliver consistent behaviour, but it can also collide with own written gcode (which I experienced in the form of stalls where the logging did not give any clue), so for that specific printer, it is better NOT to use the post-processing at all.

I write my own gcode snippets after Cura did its thing, but make sure I write this code somewhere in the middle, so I don't interfere with startup and finalizing gcode embedded in the machine.

As Cura is basically an Ultimaker specific slicer, it would be wise to warn people when they are trying to do things that can also damage there precious and rather expensive machine, but that is just my opinion.

The Ultimaker is not a "nerd" machine, so the software should also reflect that imho.