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Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!


SandervG

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Posted (edited) · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

[update: Cura 2.1.1 now available here]

Hi all,

Today we're proud to release the Cura 2.1 open beta :)

 

  • Download Cura 2.1 here.
  • Find the manual here.
  • Find the troubleshooting pages here.

 

 

Full release notes

Cura has been completely reengineered from the ground up for an even more seamless integration between hardware, software and materials. Together with its intuitive new user interface, it’s now also ready for any future developments. For the beginner Cura makes 3D printing incredibly easy, and for more advanced users, there are over 140 new customizable settings.

NEW FEATURES

Select Multiple Objects

You now have the freedom to select and manipulate multiple objects at the same time.

Grouping

You can now group objects together to make it easier to manipulate multiple objects.

Undo/Redo

You can now undo and redo your actions, like moving an object or scaling.

Setting Profiles

The new GUI allows custom profiles to load easily and intuitively, directly from Cura.

3MF File Loading Support

We’re happy to report we now support loading 3MF files. This is a new file format similar to AMF, but freely available.

Intuitive Cut-Off Object Bottom

We’ve added a feature than allows you to move objects below the build plate. You can either correct a model with a rough bottom, or print only a part of an object. Please note that the implementation greatly differs from the old one where it was a setting.

64-bit Windows Builds

An optimized 64-bit Windows Cura version is now available. This allows loading larger model files.

Automatic calculations

Cura allows to set a number of lines/layers instead of millimeters. The engine automatically calculates the right settings.

Per-Object Settings

You can now select different profiles for different objects and when in advance mode override individual settings.

CURA ENGINE FEATURES

Line width settings added per feature

 

  • Global, Walls, Top/Bottom, Infill, Skirt, Support.

 

Pattern settings improved per feature

 

  • Top/Bottom, Infill, Support.

 

Shell

 

  • Alternate Skin Rotation: helps to combat the pillowing problem on top layers.
  • Alternate Extra Wall: for better infill adhesion.
  • Horizontal Expansion: allows to compensate model x,y-size to get a 1:1 result.

 

Travel

 

  • (Combing) Avoid Printed Parts: while combing, the print head moves around printed parts, avoiding collisions with the nozzle and a part that’s already printed.
     

 

Support

 

  • ZigZag: a new, infill type that’s easily breakable, introduced specially for support.
  • Support Roofs: a new sub-feature to reduce scars the support leaves on overhangs.
  • Support Towers: specialized support for tiny overhang areas.

 

Special Modes

 

  • Surface Mode: this mode will print the surface of the mesh instead of the enclosed volume. This used to be called ‘Only follow mesh surface’. In addition to the ‘surface mode’ and ‘normal’, a ‘both’ mode has now been added. This ensures all closed volumes are printed as normal and all loose geometry as single walls.

 

Experimental

 

  • Conical Support: a filament cost-reduction feature for support.
  • Draft Shield: prints a 1-layer wall that prevents air from hitting the print, reducing warping.
  • Fuzzy Skin: prints the outer walls with a jittering motion to give your object a diffused finish.
  • Wire Printing: the object is printed with a mid-air / net-like structure, following the mesh surface. The build plate will move up and down during diagonal segments. Though not visible in layer view, you can view the result in other software, such as Repetier Host or http://chilipeppr.com/tinyg.

 

SUPPORTED OS

 

  • Mac OSX 10.7 or Higher
  • Windows Vista or Higher
  • Ubuntu 14.04 or Higher - Only 64-bit versions

 

Note that Cura requires a video card that supports OpenGL 2 or higher.

SUPPORTED 3D PRINTERS

 

  • By Ultimaker: Ultimaker Original (no dual extrusion support), Ultimaker Original+, Ultimaker 2 Family, Ultimaker 2+ Family.
  • By 3rd parties: BQ Prusa i3, BQ Witbox, 3D Maker Starter, RigidBot, Malyan M180, German RepRap Neo.
  • There is no dual extrusion support in Cura 2.1 yet. Users with an Ultimaker Original who installed the dual extrusion upgrade kit, can use Cura 15.04.

 

OTHER NEW CURA ENGINE SETTINGS

Shell

 

  • Top/Bottom Thickness: can now be changed separately!
  • Extra Skin Wall Count: add extra walls to the top and bottom layers to improve roofs that start on infill material.
  • Remove Overlapping Inner Wall Parts: remove narrow pieces that cause over extrusion on prints.
  • Compensate Wall Overlaps: compensate narrow pieces causing over extrusion on prints.
  • Fill Gaps Between Walls: fills the tiny gaps on narrow prints pieces.
  • Z Seam Alignment: allows you to choose the z-seam location.
  • Ignore Small Z gaps: if unchecked, fixes small Z gaps.

 

Infill

 

  • Infill Wipe Distance: allows you to increase infill overlap without over extrusion on the shell.
  • Infill Layer Thickness: choose a separate layer thickness for the infill to save time on prints.

 

Material

 

  • Retraction Extra Prima Amount: allows you to compensate for oozed material after a travel move.

 

Speed

 

  • Number of Slower Layers: sets the first layer(s) speeds to increase build plate adhesion.

 

Travel

 

  • Coasting: prevents oozing by replacing the end of print paths with a short travel move.

 

Cooling

 

  • Regular/Maximum Fan Speed Threshold: Allows you to set the time a layer must take to linearly go from Regular fan speed to Maximum fan speed.

 

Support

 

  • Stair Step Height: allows the support to lie tightly on top of objects, increasing support stability.
  • Join Distance: allows supports to become one, increasing support stability.
  • Horizontal Expansion: adds extra support to the x,y-directions, increasing support stability.
  • Area Smoothing: smooths the outside contour of support structures to minimize resonation of the print head.

 

QUICK LINKS

 

  • Download Cura 2.1 here.
  • Find the manual here.
  • Find the troubleshooting pages here.

 

Edited by TheDeugd
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Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

Great news!

For having tested many versions of the closed beta, i can say that this one is clearly a good one! It's still a beta of course but it's a good one, and some of the new features are really awesome!

Congrats to the team that worked hard on it!

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Posted (edited) · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

I'm very proud having worked on this as part of the Cura team, and am looking forward to make it even better with community feedback.

Edited by Guest
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Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

Ah, I just asked in the wrong place.... can you provide instructions on how to unistall the old beta's completely? I tried ccleaner but was never able to get a clean install, always kept the old test profiles....

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    Posted (edited) · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    Depends on your platform. On Windows, the installer should uninstall the program files for you, but it will leave your profile (settings, machine configuration, custom profiles, etc) intact. If you want to remove all your settings, remove the cura folder at the following location:

    * C:\Users\[yourname]\AppData\Local\cura (windows)

    * ~/.cura (OSX)

    * ~/.local/share/cura (Linux)

    Edited by Guest
    Oopsied on the paths, thanks @berndjm
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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!
    * ~\.cura (OSX)

     

    So you didn't move this back to the proper location for Mac software in time for the open beta? The current stable version of Cura uses the proper location.

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    @nilrog: No, sorry, we did not get round to changing that. Ironically, on windows we went from a .cura folder in the user's home folder to the proper location in AppData. One advantage of this "bug" is that it is possible to have both 15.04.x and 2.1 on the same machine without the two versions affecting eachother.

    I'll check if there is an issue on our internal bugtracker to make sure the change is on our radar, but chances are very slim that it will be fixed in 2.1(.x). It should not be too long before 2.2 comes around though!

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    Posted (edited) · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    :-) Great!!!

    Time goes by but finally it was worth it.

    Nevertheless, one thing makes me sad... [..] Ultimaker Original (no dual extrusion support) [...]

    I hope that somebody will take care of it as UM sell dual extrusion upgrades or even provides a (detailed) tutorial (also for non-SW guys) how to get it configured in the .json files....

    Edited by Guest
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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    Dual extrusion has never been really well supported in Cura. There's quite a lot of functionality already in the new Cura for dual extrusion but it is not disclosed to the user in a very accesible way for now. Our focus for the 2.1 release was on stable support for single extrusion.

    I'm not sure I am allowed to speak about features in future versions of Cura, but feel free to jump to conclusions because I just said that I am not sure I am allowed to speak about features in future versions of Cura. You ain't seen nothing yet.

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    You could hack it together by adding the setting "machine_extruder_count": { "default": 2 }" to the .json

    Then use per object settings to set second to be printed with extruder 1 and then merge those objects.

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!
    nilrog: No, sorry, we did not get round to changing that.

    No worries. Although it would be sad if you didn't fix this for the final v2.1. It will only confuse your users. But then, I don't work for Ultimaker Support ;)

     

    One advantage of this "bug" is that it is possible to have both 15.04.x and 2.1 on the same machine without the two versions affecting eachother.

    That seems to be the way the stable version already works. It puts a "15.X.Y" folder in the "Cura" settings folder. So it is not a new "feature" :)

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    * ~\.local\shared\cura (Linux)

     

    Should be

    ~/.local/share/cura

    ?!?

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!
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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    You could hack it together by adding the setting "machine_extruder_count": { "default": 2 }"  to the .json

    Then use per object settings to set second to be printed with extruder 1 and then merge those objects.

     

    Sure, I could, but as it is in life, I´m a pro in many things but not SW design/programming/hacking :-)

    I guess the extruder is not the only thing to modify - the head dimensions and extruder offset also have to be considered...

    Currently the missing dual extrusion support is the main reason I´m staying on 15.04.

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    So custom firmware upgrade is definitely buried now?

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    So custom firmware upgrade is definitely buried now?

     

    For this version, yes. Permanently? No. To be honest, I kinda forgot about that feature. If people really want / need this feature, I'll make sure it gets added back into 2.x

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

     

    @nallath: CURA-955

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

     

    So custom firmware upgrade is definitely buried now?

     

    For this version, yes. Permanently? No. To be honest, I kinda forgot about that feature. If people really want / need this feature, I'll make sure it gets added back into 2.x

     

    I assume especially on UMO users it is relevant!

    Honestly, I get the impression that the support for UMO users is gradually decreasing.... :-(

    Not everybody has the budget to switch over to UMO+ or UM2 so PLEASE keep this in mind screwing on CURA...

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

     

    So custom firmware upgrade is definitely buried now?

     

    For this version, yes. Permanently? No. To be honest, I kinda forgot about that feature. If people really want / need this feature, I'll make sure it gets added back into 2.x

     

    Hopefully it will. Tinkergnome for um2 and Amedee for umo/umo+ firmware builder are a must if you want to do 'extrude' a bit more from the standard firmware.

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

     

     

    So custom firmware upgrade is definitely buried now?

     

    For this version, yes. Permanently? No. To be honest, I kinda forgot about that feature. If people really want / need this feature, I'll make sure it gets added back into 2.x

     

    I assume especially on UMO users it is relevant!

    Honestly, I get the impression that the support for UMO users is gradually decreasing.... :-(

    Not everybody has the budget to switch over to UMO+ or UM2 so PLEASE keep this in mind screwing on CURA...

     

    I bet that they where doing so much last minute adjustments that they just forgot about it.

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    I bet that they where doing so much last minute adjustments that they just forgot about it.

     

    Pretty much yeah.

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    You can still use any other version of Cura to upload the firmware, it's not a big deal, you wil probably continue to have at least one version installed until the new Cura is not in Beta anymore (and at that moment it will probably be fixed)

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    Posted · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    The 2.1 release won't have extra features that the beta doesn't have. It will probably have some bug fixes & profile changes.

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    Posted (edited) · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    Well I can confirm dual extrusion slicing basically works :)

    But I had to write a quick and dirty plugin to change the code sequence on a tool change. Cura generates something like

     

    ...G92 E0T1M109 S210.000G10...G11G1 ...

     

    and I want this plain and simple like

     

    G92 E0G10T1G11G1 ...

     

    It's very likely that I'm missing some settings to make Cura do it more like I want (e.g. issue a retract before a tool change)

    Edited by Guest
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    Posted (edited) · Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    If it's a post processing script (or any kind of plugin really), feel free to make a pull request for that (or tell us where it's hosted). Other people might want it as well :)

    Edited by Guest
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