Quality of life improvements for power users

[valcrow 144]

Hi Folks,

So I print a lot on these great machines, and UM/CURA does a great job of balancing the ease of use for beginners and allowing the control and efficiency for power users. BUT! There is always room for more efficiency! Here are some quality of life suggestions I have that would save me and I'm sure many of the power users precious few seconds and minutes.

1. Release the steppers after a material change, and buildplate leveling. This one is at the top of my list because 90% of the time after changing materials, I tend to clean the gunk off the tip of the nozzle, or do a mini atomic pull to clear out the previous colour. Locking the steppers after a material change means I need to turn the machine off and on again in order to work on the head where I need it (usually at the front center)

2. one click Preheat Bed option in the maintenance->advance menu please! I often pre-heat my bed when I know I'm going to print something soon since that takes the longest, and then I go slice my file and by the time I get back to the printer, the bed is ready to go. Streamlining this process with a single menu item like on the UMO+'s would be great.

3. Expert Bed level option Currently, the bed leveling wizard will go to each of the leveling screws twice. I would like an option to do the bed leveling so it hits the 3 points only once and it's done. I often level the bed the first go, and then just skip through the wizard when it asks for the sheet of paper. I'm sure many of you do the same. Perhaps there is a toggle in the maintenance menu that allows you to switch from expert and beginner bed leveling.

4. Retract Primed nozzle button With the addition of a manual latch on the 2+ and Olsson blocks, I find myself in more situations where I have a fully primed nozzle (filament is all the way to the tip) If you start a print at this point, it has a high chance of grinding the filament down, especially more fragile filaments like Flex or Fills because the printer anticipates that there is a 6mm or so retraction at the end of a print. If this 'space' isn't there it double primes and either a ton of material gets ejected too quickly, or you get grinding. A button that retracts the exact amount as when a print finishes would be a great way to make sure the filament is at the right position at the start of the next print for normalized pressure in the nozzle.

5. Cura presets for UM2+ "maximum width" needs to be 225 and not 230. On occasion, the fan shroud will touch the right side of the printer at it's maximum build volume making scary noises, scratches and an offset print.

That's all for now!

Let me know if anyone else feels the need for these additions/changes

[Nicolinux 288]

Agree with most of these things. I think it always depends on the personal workflow each user has. For example, I hate the char. limit on the UM2 display because I tend to slice several version of the same model in advance and name them like:

 

• object1_no_infill
  
• object1_fast_retractions
  
• object1_low_speed_three_shells
  

 

If I forget to keep the file names short, they get truncated and later I can't distinguish them. Of course for this scenario having the most important print settings scroll by at the bottom when selected, would be priceless. But for other it might be meaningless.

You could take a look at the Tinkgergnome firmware. It has lots of advanced and useful settings.