Automatic orientation plugin

[nallath 1,117]

I've finally found some time to make a quick wrapper for the excellent algorithm created by Christoph Schranz. It calculates the optimal orientation based on overhangs of the object.

Note that it's a quick & dirty implementation on my end, but it should do the trick.

You can find it on; https://github.com/nallath/CuraOrientationPlugin

It's supposed to work with Cura 2.3

[IRobertI 516]

Very cool. Seems to be working fine on my end at least. Well, in so far as it re-orients parts to what looks like a good print direction at least. I took a couple of models that I had made, rotated them into an awkward orientation and let the plugin try and fix it. It rotated them back into the direction they were designed to be printed at, so it seems to be working

And for those wondering how to install. Click the green "Download or clone" button towards the top right, download as zip and drag the "CuraOrienationPlugin-master" folder into: "C:\Users\YourNameHere\AppData\Local\cura\plugins"

[drayson 74]

Thumbs up !!! Great, thank you

[nallath 1,117]

Most of the credit goes to Christoph. I just made sure it worked with Cura. It only took me about ~2 ish hours to build.

[ChrisSalzburg 12]

I'm glad you like it! I'm still about to improve the algorithm, so if you have troubles or have found insufficient results, please let me know!

[drayson 74]

 

@chrissalzburg, danke für deine initialarbeit!! Gruß aus Graz :-)

[peggyb 169]

does this still work with 2.4 and 2.5 Beta?

[nallath 1,117]

does this still work with 2.4 and 2.5 Beta?

 

Yep. Even works when running it from source. I use the plugin a lot myself, so it's almost guaranteed to work

[peggyb 169]

I asked, because with a lot of organic models I printed lately it doesn't do anything.

If I load a cube and rotate it on its point, it reacts as expected, but if I have an organic model and rotate it in a position where a lot of red shows it does nothing...

[bagel-orb 61]

The algorithm is not stable. Hitting calculate optimal angle will reposition the model in a different orientation.

Also the starting angle will affect the resulting orientation.

I'm not talking about angle around the Z axis; the model can actually get different orientations around the X and Y axis.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1906284/#files

[bagel-orb 61]

Please make a shortcut in the rotation tool menu, so that you automatically bump into it when you are busy rotating the part yourself.

Also: when is this going to be shipped with Cura?

[nallath 1,117]

I asked, because with a lot of organic models I printed lately it doesn't do anything.

If I load a cube and rotate it on its point, it reacts as expected, but if I have an organic model and rotate it in a position where a lot of red shows it does nothing...

 

Huh. Odd. Do you have an example of one of those models?

[peggyb 169]

I had an older version installed, the most recent one fixed the problem...

works great!

[Devang 0]

Hi @nallath, I am trying to use the auto-orient plugin in my CuraEngine source, executing from the command line. Not sure how could I integrate the plugin functionality in the engine.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Devang

[nallath 1,117]

It's not intended to be used without the front end. You could try and see if you can get the meshTweaker (my plugin wraps that) to work in command line.

[BobSisson 1]

I would like to try this with a non-cura slicer, so I would love a standalone app that I could call...