Ultimaker 3 First Impressions

[Ronan 58]

I Got A 43 hour and 31 hour long dual core prints done.

Flawless.

Word of advise, leave the brim on when printing pla/pva, it helps to stabilize edges quite a lot. I use 4mm brim.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

I assume you use pva for brim? I do.

[Ronan 58]

I assume you use pva for brim? I do.

 

The brim is actually printed out of PLA every time (aka core 1 material).

That's the default setting on my cura.

[Wisar 86]

 

I assume you use pva for brim? I do.

 

The brim is actually printed out of PLA every time (aka core 1 material).

That's the default setting on my cura.

 

I have never found the brim to be useful for anything other than ABS on a single material print. Is it when using PVA for support that you are finding it helpful? I have noticed that PVA adhesion can be subject to some challenges and I will use it there given that the nuisance of removing it is not a factor!

[ultiarjan 1,223]

 

I assume you use pva for brim? I do.

 

The brim is actually printed out of PLA every time (aka core 1 material).

That's the default setting on my cura.

 

you are allowed to change settings

Seriously I agree when choosing a pla pva profile the default brim and support should be on pva

[korneel 176]

I Got A 43 hour and 31 hour long dual core prints done.

Flawless.

Word of advise, leave the brim on when printing pla/pva, it helps to stabilize edges quite a lot. I use 4mm brim.

 

I haven't used Brim.. I just make sure the horizontal expansion for support is at least 3MM.. that should fix all possible issues..

[Wisar 86]

 

I Got A 43 hour and 31 hour long dual core prints done.

Flawless.

Word of advise, leave the brim on when printing pla/pva, it helps to stabilize edges quite a lot. I use 4mm brim.

 

I haven't used Brim.. I just make sure the horizontal expansion for support is at least 3MM.. that should fix all possible issues..

 

That is a good setting. Have done similar with S3D but had not seen that parameter in Cura...or not understood what it was. Thanks for that as I have abandoned S3D unless I absolutely need to place support manually.

[Ronan 58]

 

I Got A 43 hour and 31 hour long dual core prints done.

Flawless.

Word of advise, leave the brim on when printing pla/pva, it helps to stabilize edges quite a lot. I use 4mm brim.

 

I haven't used Brim.. I just make sure the horizontal expansion for support is at least 3MM.. that should fix all possible issues..

 

It doesn't. I had a print fail with those settings. A long print too..edges lifted where it was pva supports, it skewed the print and messed it up.

That's why i went back to the default brim settings.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Guest

[SandervG 1,521]

 

 

I assume you use pva for brim? I do.

 

The brim is actually printed out of PLA every time (aka core 1 material).

That's the default setting on my cura.

 

you are allowed to change settings

Seriously I agree when choosing a pla pva profile the default brim  and support should be on pva

 

True, but if it works.. it works

[randyinla 14]

Glad you touched on brim/no-brim for PVA.  I'm a fan of squirting out a few drops of acetone onto the glass and swirl it around with an ABS "puck" I made.  That creates a thin ABS layer all over the glass that my print sticks to rather well.  I don't have a similar method with PLA.  If I have dual print of ABS w/PVA, would the PVA stick to a thin layer of ABS or not?

Edited November 23, 2016 by Guest

[korneel 176]

Glad you touched on brim/no-brim for PVA.  I'm a fan of squirting out a few drops of acetone onto the glass and swirl it around with an ABS "puck" I made.  That creates a thin ABS layer all over the glass that my print sticks to rather well.  I don't have a similar method with PLA.  If I have dual print of ABS w/PVA, would the PVA stick to a thin layer of ABS or not?

 

i don't think so.. the glue stick should be sufficient.

[Zwakie 21]

i don't think so.. the glue stick should be sufficient.

 

apologies, I inadvertently flagged your reply as inappropriate. Tried to undo, but there does not seem to be an option to do so. Again, my bad for which I apologize.

[Wisar 86]

i don't think so.. the glue stick should be sufficient.

 

I have never liked glue sticks. My sticking agent of choice has been hair spray (Loreal Elnett Satin as they are not all created equally) or more recently 3DLAC which is basically the same thing but you know it will work. I have an extra glass that I keep ready as spraying inside the printer leads to a bit of a buildup (though it does cleanup well). It also works for most materials though not always with ABS where the only thing that works 100% for me is Klapton tape. But sticking is a whole 'nuther topic!

[ultiarjan 1,223]

 If I have dual print of ABS w/PVA, would the PVA stick to a thin layer of ABS or not?

 

I tested it and the ABS did not stick AT ALL to the PVA, bad combination.

Nylon however works great so that may be a good alternative if you can't use PLA.

[Wisar 86]

Some more impressions on the UM3. First, a negative. Not sure at all about the RFID stuff. It seems like it should be an add-on that folks that would need it could buy as opposed to a standard fitting. I know the logistics of this are impractical but it seems like something that would only apply to a large production environment...that only uses Ultimaker filament ... unless or until other suppliers adopt the idea? Second, a positive but about the new Cura. Really big improvements there. Still some rough edges but I have shelved my copy of S3D for now in favour of Cura. Finally, as time allows I have been doing some test prints with different materials on the UM3 and then also on one of my older UM2+ (UM2 with the upgrade).[print=7397][/print] This is a picture of a 20 quid per Kg PLA printed on the UM3. It is pretty close to perfect. I also have done Ultimaker PLA, CPE, and Colorfabb NGEN all with good results though not as perfect as either of the PLAs in the latter cases. All with the default profiles from Cura. I am not looking for the UM3 to be better than the UM2+ but it is brand new and the UM2+ can probably use a tuneup. The above picture is from the Image Gallery here but the bulk of the pictures are on my blog here.

[SandervG 1,521]

Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear the RFID chip is not yet doing it for you. Is it actually an inconvenience for you, or just a feature you don't use very often?

I don't think it is unlikely other manufacturers will adopt the idea, but that will probably take some time.

What do you consider the big improvements in Cura?

[Wisar 86]

Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear the RFID chip is not yet doing it for you. Is it actually an inconvenience for you, or just a feature you don't use very often?

I don't think it is unlikely other manufacturers will adopt the idea, but that will probably take some time.

What do you consider the big improvements in Cura?

 

I just wrote a reasonably long and at least somewhat coherent response to the above questions and then lost it when I tried to post with a dark and foreboding error message!  

In any case, here are the shorter answers.  RFID just doesn't buy me any advantage though it might for someone with a more production orientation, more than one printer, and a standard for use of Ultimaker Filament.  Adoption by other suppliers would help with the latter but my RFID reader is in the drawer for now.  I also like side feeding so there is a logistical reason as well.

On Cura...I bought S3D a couple of years ago and had not looked at Cura again until i got the UM3.   I am now using Cura and S3D is in the drawer.  I like access to all the setting, the profile manager, the ability to reload models on the build platform, and most of all the quality of the profiles that ship with Cura for the Ultimakers.  I am still hoping that evolution of the UM2 firmware will allow temperature setting like for the UM3 without needing to use the plugin to override the machine setting.  The only feature that I would go back to S3D for is the ability to manually place support.  The feature that could be killer with S3D is their factory concept if it were not brain dead when it comes to the ability to reload models.  I iterate designs a couple of times and having to reload everything is a real pain.

My pet peeve with Cura at the moment is the default setting of brim for platform adhesion. I assume the protected profiles are out there somewhere and could be modified? I guess I could clone each of the protect profiles turning that feature off ... then I would just have to remember to use the clone :-o

Edited November 24, 2016 by Guest

[ultibrain 5]

Have the same pet peeve. The default setting of brim for platform adhesion: is there a way to set it default to skirt.

[tomnagel 126]

Look for the file fdmprinter.def.json

In that file, the default adhesion type is set to 'brim'. Most of the quality profiles for the UM3 do not contain a value for adhesion type, meaning that the default value in fdmprinter definition is used. (I think that only one nylon profile is set to 'raft').

So if you change that value to 'skirt', in almost all profiles a skirt is applied.

For advanced users who do not mind spending some time in this:

What you have to know is that all settings that are used for slicing may come from multiple definition and profile files. There's definitions for machines, extruders, nozzles, materials, quality etcetera. Currently, there is no way to know where your current setting is defined. It can even be defined in multiple files, so you have to know the hierarchy to know where to change it.

I think there will be some documentation on this later on.

What I recommend: use the default profiles. A lot of testing has gone into these, and they shoulp perform well in most cases.

[Wisar 86]

What I recommend: use the default profiles. A lot of testing has gone into these, and they shoulp perform well in most cases.

 

I am very impressed with the default profiles. They really do seem to be well done. With the exception of brim of course!

[LePaul 321]

A PVA question....can you use PVA support with nGen filament?

[Wisar 86]

Look for the file fdmprinter.def.json

 

[CORRECTION] I thought that the appropriate line could be found by looking for the following:

"resolve": "'raft' if 'raft' in extruderValues('adhesion_type')

But when I updated this line to the following it made no difference:

"resolve": "'raft' if 'raft' in extruderValues('adhesion_type') else ('skirt' if ‘skirt’ in extruderValues('adhesion_type') else ‘brim’)”,

Thanks to @tomnagel for the file name pointer but has anyone made this stick?!

Edited December 3, 2016 by Guest

[Wisar 86]

What do you consider the big improvements in Cura?

 

I just posted some more thoughts on Cura 2.3.1 under the software topic.

[korneel 176]

A PVA question....can you use PVA support with nGen filament?

 

no, it just doesn't stick well.

[peggyb 170]

juhhmmm....like it....

couldn't do this without the pva