Project Mode Ended With a Crash!

[calinb 11]

It was ugly to watch the head plow through a dozen new parts, stuck well to the heated bed on rafts even (ABS)

;TYPE:CUSTOM

G1 Z0.000000 F180.000000

;End GCode

Takes the head to the bed before homing! Ouch!

Normal Cura gcode:

 

G1 X103.398 Y101.324 E0.0093G92 E0M107;TYPE:CUSTOM;End GCodeM104 S0                     ;extruder heater offM140 S0                     ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)G91                                    ;relative positioningG1 F300 E-1G1 X-20.0 Y-20.0 Z0.5 F6000 E-5G28 X0 Y0                              ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the wayM84                         ;steppers offG90                         ;absolute positioning

 

Project gcode with the extra destructive line:

 

G1 X159.514 Y158.219 E2.4386G92 E0M107;TYPE:CUSTOMG1 Z0.000000 F180.000000;End GCodeM104 S0                     ;extruder heater offM140 S0                     ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)G91                                    ;relative positioningG1 E-1 F300                            ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressureG1 Z+0.5 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F6000 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even moreG28 X0 Y0                              ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the wayM84                         ;steppers offG90                         ;absolute positioning

 

Joergen helped me find the culprit!

UPDATE:

i just generated a new project sheet. It's pretty much the same thing but I moved the parts slightly. Now the crash-creating G1 Z value is non-zero.

 

G92 E0M107;TYPE:CUSTOMG1 Z12.978001 F180.000000;End GCodeM104 S0                     ;extruder heater offM140 S0                     ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)G91                                    ;relative positioningG1 E-1 F300                            ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressureG1 Z+0.5 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F6000 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even moreG28 X0 Y0                              ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the wayM84                         ;steppers offG90                         ;absolute positioning

 

Strange! I used auto-placement the first time so I can probably re-create the crash code.

[calinb 11]

My first project gcode was compiled in "Print all the objects at once" mode. The second project was "Print one object at a time" mode.

The problem correlates to the former mode.

[Daid 306]

Which version? Because this was fixed in the 12.10 version.

[calinb 11]

Wow--has it been that long already? I downloaded 12.08 for Linux on Sept. 28th and 12.08 for Windoze on Oct. 3rd.

Thanks, Daid! Time for an upgrade, I guess.

-Cal

[calinb 11]

I assume that you prefer to get bug reports on github, Daid. I posted my bug report for 12.12 there ("Cura 12.12 for Windows doesn't do retraction (at least not in project "all at once" mode).

Oops--I meant Cura 12.11. Sorry

[Daid 306]

Did you enable the checkbox for retraction? The new checkbox?

[calinb 11]

Did you enable the checkbox for retraction? The new checkbox?

No--I missed the new box. :oops: :( Does setting "Retraction-distance" to zero under the "Advanced" tab still disable it? Personally, I think that redundant controls in a user interface are not usually a good thing; it's sometimes hard for one hand to know what the other hand is doing!

Another problem I'd planned to post to github is I have a small part that I'm producing using "Project" mode ("Print all the objects at once" selected). I used "Automatically organize" to place three parts. It took Cura a little more than 10 mins. to obtain gcode. When I place twenty-one parts in the same manner, it takes over six hours to obtain gcode!

Task Manager says there's plenty of physical memory available (2GB / 3 GB used) and I see no signs of page swap to disk thrashing.

Thanks,

-Cal

[calinb 11]

Oh..and as long as you're still here in the forum, Daid, may I make a contructively-intended suggestion for the Cura user interface?

Given that Cura has "Quickprint" mode for true non-experts, I think "Normal Mode" should have "Print," Advanced," and "Expert" config tabs, instead of its current two config tabs plus one pull down menu (for "Expert"). I think this user interface design change would result in improved consistency.

Expert stuff is frequently needed--even by non-experts like me! I'd rather just click away on the tabs, instead of needing to open a pulldown menu and then close a window.

Thanks!

-Cal

[Daid 306]

Expert stuff is frequently needed--even by non-experts like me! I'd rather just click away on the tabs, instead of needing to open a pulldown menu and then close a window.

That's where we disagree. The expert stuff is stuff that almost never needs to be adjusted. And certainly NOT by non-experts. What settings are you adjusting in the expert menu? And why?

[calinb 11]

I don't have time to explain all the details that motivate my frequent use of the Expert pull-down menu right now, but here is a snapshot.

I'm printing a variety of production parts for our product (

http://www.smartfirearms.us

) Some parts need to be strong. Some parts need to be very straight (minimum ABS warping). Some parts need to look pretty. All parts need to be ABS! I also frequently use the Cura Project feature to print to layout up to 40 parts per sheet.

I use the Fan on Layer Number,Fan Speed (min/max),Infill Pattern, and Retract on Jumps Only adjustments. These settings have proven to be valuable and improve my prints. Other settings may also prove to further my goal to produce the best parts for their application and I am experimenting with a couple of other settings. Maybe a DOE (Design of Experiments) analysis is in order!

You have admitted that you don't use ABS and have no interest in it. I think ABS requires more massaging of settings to achieve optimal results than PLA. I've been tweaking settings much more aggressively since I switched from PLA to ABS and the quality of the parts has benefited from it much more so than PLA parts. The parts I'm printing today are far superior to the ones I printed only three days ago, using mostly standard, non-"expert" settings for this reason. ABS is much more picky about temperature than PLA. Too little nozzle heat, you get a weak part. Too much heat and it warps. Controlling the fan at different layers is often beneficial. I started on PLA and I think ABS is more sensitive to a variety of parameters than PLA--for better and worse, obviously..

I change the fill pattern for strength vs. appearance. (I've done the destructive testing of the parts.) One part prints better with retraction on every move.

I can save configurations in .ini files. of course, but I've made great improvements in the 40 hours I've spent tweaking and printing using the expert screen. I think continuous improvement will motivate me to continue to use it heavily. I grow tired of the extra menu (instead of a tab) and I find it to be logically inconsistent with the tab settings user interface. If you wish to discourage users from entering the Expert menu, I don't think your strategy to put it in a pull-down is effective to realize that goal regardless. I believe that it's not elegant too,! Also, I think you should put the new retraction checkbox in the same tab as the other retraction stuff (Advanced tab). Anyone who is using retraction will be modifying those settings too!

If retraction worked on netfabb, I'd probably use it instead of Cura, because of the incredible power of the Build Style settings (and the NF speed is nice too.) I prefer Cura's skirt and brim feature to NF's nearly useless "primer lines", however, and the Cura Project mode saves time, though I've imported Project mode .stl "temp" files into NF too. A 40 part sheet takes about 10 hours to generate gcode using Cura (Skeinforge). It's takes something like 20 minutes in NF!

Thanks,

-Cal

[Daid 306]

And you're not calling yourself an expert user? I think that's the problem. What you are doing and how you are doing it is clearly expert usage.

[calinb 11]

And you're not calling yourself an expert user? I think that's the problem. What you are doing and how you are doing it is clearly expert usage.

:geek: And experts must pay their penance with extra clicking during process development!

[Daid 306]

And you're not calling yourself an expert user? I think that's the problem. What you are doing and how you are doing it is clearly expert usage.

:geek: And experts must pay their penance with extra clicking during process development!

Yes :-) but if those extra mouse clicks cause you to wear out your mouse, then drop by and I'll give you a new mouse