What happened to the old print from usb menu(Cura)

[MassDestruction 0]

Hey Guys

It seems like the old Print from usb menu has been changed! The bed and extruder controls have disappeared after I updated. Are they located in a different spot? I can't seem to find it.

[nallath 691]

We don't support printrun anymore. It was a pretty bad hack.

Most of the UM machines don't really need USB, so we don't put in a lot of effort to get that working right. We have bigger issues to tackle.

[rjwern2 1]

I thnk you are short-sighted to say you have bigger issues to tackle.  I am looking at your forums and many people seem to want to print directly from USB.  I just purchased an Ultimaker 2 Extended+ and think it is a rgeat machine, but your decision to ignore printing from USB doesn;t make sense.

I have been using a CNC machine for years and always send code from the computer direcrtly to my machine.  It is inefficient to have to remove the card from the Ultimaker, put it in my computer, save the file, eject the car, put it back in the Ultimaker, and find the file.  I recignize that this is histiorically common for 3D printers, but that doesn't mean it is a good protocol.  IMHO this should be a much higher priority because it is simply far more effieienct to print directly to the machine.

[neotko 1,402]

I don't know how others do it. But I always want to be near the printer to see the nozzle first extrusion, check the first lines of the first layer and then I can leave the printer unattended. So going upstairs to plug a sd card it's just something I do, good for my health also. My iphone says I walk up 11 floors of stairs every day <3

Edited February 5, 2016 by Guest

[neotko 1,402]

Also if it's a must for you. You could buy a wifi usb cable (used on paper printers) upload the file to the sd stored on the printer and then order the printer to print the file from the sd... Not that hard at all (but as slow as 250kbauds can be).

Edited February 5, 2016 by Guest

[xeno 107]

I still think after all these years that it was a shortsighted decision, but UM made it clear, especially Daid, that they just didn't care

I just use a mac mini with an older version of Cura, that still has the full and perfectly working print menu,

and just let it print the Gcode file I create on my downstairs iMac

the classic print menu gives a much better overview then the way too small screen of the Ulticontroller.

I just like to able to see and control my old and trusty UM original, from downstairs or from anywhere else

I know that having a free from cable printer is the future, but not until it has a better and larger screen to work with.

it now looks like a inkjet printer screen from the 90s

Edited February 5, 2016 by Guest

[nallath 691]

I am looking at your forums and many people seem to want to print directly from USB.

 

Manny? I dare to disagree. A few handfull people have recommended the feature, but that is very little compared to other features.

All that being said; it's possible to get the um2 working with USB. I've done it a few times. We just won't put time & effort in getting it right. Every extra means of communicating with the machine adds a whole lot of failure points. We try to stick to as few as possible and get them as good as possible.

The architecture of the new Cura actually supports printing over USB fairly well, so if you really feel it's that important a pull request is always welcome!