Syncing Cura Settings Across 2+ PCs

[JimmyTime 0]

Any easy way to ensure my Cura materials and settings are sync'd for two or more PC installations? I have Ultimakers (2+) used in 3 locations that I am trying to unify as best as possible. I want more than one PC to be able to quickly slice parts for print for them, but I have to manually keep all the settings sync'd.

--Jim--

[nallath 1,120]

We don't have a good way of doing that yet. It would theoretically be possible for Cura to also look at a remote location for profiles, but we haven't built such a feature yet.

With Unix systems you could fix this by making symbolic links. Not sure if Windows supports something like that.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Guest

[berndjm 16]

What's about syncing the setting-folders via a cloud service (e.g. Dropbox)?

[Zwakie 21]

Not sure if Windows supports something like that.

 

Yes, Windows support sym links. For more information see https://msdn.microsoft.com/nl-nl/library/windows/desktop/aa365680(v=vs.85).aspx

[gr5 2,172]

cura 15.X does this just fine. You can import a profile from a gcode file (cura 15.X stores a comment at the bottom of the file with all the settings).

[JimmyTime 0]

Thanks for the replies all, I didn't see them until I logged in this afternoon

Nallath, may I ask, is there a fairly short list of files that I could at least copy over to my home machine that would sync me up manually? I have already fiddled around with such an approach, but I saw I was a little inconsistent with what settings copied over with what files.

Also, I attempted at RIGHT on the day the new version was released to coincide with the UM3, so I would up with an older but 'synced' version of Cura on my machine alongside the new Cura by accident.

[nallath 1,120]

Nallath, may I ask, is there a fairly short list of files that I could at least copy over to my home machine that would sync me up manually?

 

Help-> show configuration folder

The files that are in there are the user generated profiles & machine instances. Copying those should do the trick.

[catohagen 41]

Using symlinks on Windows should work with ex.Dropbox, i tried

Computer 1 : (where the cura settings i want to share are)

mklink /J C:\Users\robotisering\Dropbox\cura C:\Users\robotisering\AppData\Local\cura

Junction created for C:\Users\robotisering\Dropbox\cura <<===>> C:\Users\robotis

ering\AppData\Local\cura

computer 1 :

1 : "C:\Users\robotisering\Dropbox\cura" is the new cura settings folder on dropbox

2: "C:\Users\robotisering\AppData\Local\cura" is the local cura settings

computer 2 :

delete AppData\Local\cura

mklink /J C:\Users\catoh_000\AppData\Local\cura C:\Users\catoh_000\DropboxEC\Dropbox\cura

Junction created for C:\Users\catoh_000\AppData\Local\cura <<===>> C:\Users\cato

h_000\DropboxEC\Dropbox\cura

on computer 2 we now recreate the AppData\Local\cura with a symlink to the dropbox location

making these symlinks on 2 computers should share the settings over Dropbox

Edited December 6, 2016 by Guest

[catohagen 41]

Forget it

I see settings are synced and the same on both computers, but Cura refuses to read them now, Cura loads up and asks to add a printer, ultimakers are not even listed, i get Custom and Other to choose from....

Anyone know whats happening ?

[ahoeben 1,948]

Not without logs

[thopiekar 46]

Like @ahoeben mentioned, we need the logs to see what is happening.

By the way, I see you've created links to the AppData directory, are these links hardlinks? It will need a additional library to be implemented to Cura to support Windows links (regular symbolic links). I already added this idea to our bug tracker, but the idea has been killed during the last CBE.

In my point of view, without the module "pylnk" it won't be possible to read these symbolic links, but if Windows supports hard links, it might work.

[ahoeben 1,948]

He's creating NTFS junctions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point) which - as far as I know - should be transparent to python.

[catohagen 41]

well, seems to work anyhow....after you sync the cura settings folder, you need to uinstall and reinstall cura....but i dont really know whats happening. Someone with knowhow of the cura inner workings should maybe try this.

BUT, both home office and work office computers are still symlinked with the common Dropbox settings folder for cura, and today at work, I printed with a 0.8mm nozzle and created a new profile (at work) and now when i'm home, i see that the 0,8mm profile is current in Cura after I started it.

Maybe it works, but maybe sync is slow and nothing is updated quick enough....because I now home, and I change settings in the 0.8mm profile.

Then i Remote Desktop into work computer but the change isnt there...yet.

Here at home in :

C:\Users\catoh_000\AppData\Local\cura\quality

the work created profile is synced.

ultimaker_original_normal+quality+0.8mm+nozzle.inst.cfg

but timestamp is 11:33 today (around lunch time)

if I go to same file at work(view with rdesktop), the same file timestamp is 23:14

and dropbox says its sync and up to date (but its not)

And if Cura is already loaded when I remote desktop and log in, I can use Cura, but if I start Cura on the remote machine, I get OpenGL error and Cura exits ?

[catohagen 41]

Dropbox gets permission errors on cura.log, stderr.log and stdout.log because Cura is holding these files open, and since there is 2 computers with synced settings folder and both running Cura is holding the same 3 files open to write to them.

Can a command line option disable creation of these .log files ?

Like a -quiet option ?

[catohagen 41]

well, http://superuser.com/questions/469776/how-to-exclude-files-not-folders-from-dropbox-sync

quit cura, deleted these .log files

made 3 new folders, cura.log, stderr.log and stdout.log

goto dropbox settings, edit selective sync,

uncheck cura.log, stderr.log and stdout.log

dropbox will now delete these folders and not sync them

the new .log files Cura will create when started will not sync either

[gr5 2,172]

I think it's best if only one cura is running at a time if they are both accessing the "same" profile folder. When I same I guess I mean "synchronized through dropbox".

Edited December 8, 2016 by Guest

[catohagen 41]

Yes, running two Curas with the same synchronized settings folder will not sync settings correctly (or other running Curas won't automaticly update), if you for example change the layer height on one computer, it will be updated when you start Cura on the other computer, or exit Cura and restart it.

But it works very well now...

Edited December 9, 2016 by Guest

[gr5 2,172]

Your posting is confusing. I think what you mean is:

Running two curas on 2 different computers WILL sync but only if they point to the same folder and only if you only run one Cura at a time.

[alexdresko 0]

I'm using git to synchronize my settings. It's a manual process, but I have fine grained control over what gets synchronized across my 

[tvthiel 3]

This is really, really bad!!! Syncing settings should be a standard feature. Have set up a new faster PC and now I'm struggeling with getting my print settings transferred or synced to my new PC. I'm really wondering where I do need an account for if this standard piece of functionality is not available. |I'm quitte upset about this.
Is there a way to copy the settings from my old PC to my new PC? I'm just about to quit using Cura and switch to Prusa Slicer or something equivalent.

[ahoeben 1,948]

10 hours ago, tvthiel said:

Is there a way to copy the settings from my old PC to my new PC?

Sure. You can do so through the cloud using the built-in ("standard feature") Cura Backups facility, which requires an Ultimaker account. Fortunately you already have one; the account you use for this forum will do. Backup your settings on one PC, restore them on the other.

 

Alternatively, you can go to Help -> Show configuration folder to and copy all the files you see there from one PC to another.

 

10 hours ago, tvthiel said:

This is really, really bad!!!

 

 

Sorry, what is really, really bad now?

 

[nallath 1,120]

3 hours ago, ahoeben said:

Sorry, what is really, really bad now?

 

I think that he might switch to PrusaSlicer? Not sure how that would be bad for us though. It's not like people pay to be able to use Cura.

[Cuq 198]

17 minutes ago, nallath said:

I think that he might switch to PrusaSlicer? Not sure how that would be bad for us though. It's not like people pay to be able to use Cura.

 

No, S3D would be a better solution. Like that, you can pay to have the pleasure to complain about the solution. It's always better to have the opportunity to say "For the amount of money i have spent in your solution you MUST include in the next release my request" 😁

[tvthiel 3]

I'm very sorry if my posting is upsetting or blunt. That was not the intention. But I have struggled several hours to get my settings from my old pc (using 4.11) to my new one (using 4.12) and that got me quit frustrated and triggered my somewhat frustrated reaction. Again sorry for that. And, to be honest I like Cura Slicer much more than the Prusa Slicer, so I really would go on using it.

 

But up til now I haven't been able to get my "old" 4.11 settings transferred to my new 4.12 installation in an easy way. I have about 70 profiles and I only "see" the manual path i.e. exporting them 1-by-1 on my old pc (with 4.11) and importing them 1-by-1 on my new pc running 4.12.

 

This will take several hours of work. Is there any way to do this faster/easier???? Maybe I'm missing something very obvious, but I really would appreciate some help.

[tvthiel 3]

On 3/23/2021 at 8:05 AM, ahoeben said:

Sure. You can do so through the cloud using the built-in ("standard feature") Cura Backups facility, which requires an Ultimaker account. Fortunately you already have one; the account you use for this forum will do. Backup your settings on one PC, restore them on the other.

 

Alternatively, you can go to Help -> Show configuration folder to and copy all the files you see there from one PC to another.

 

 

 

Sorry, what is really, really bad now?

 

Oookay, didn't find that feature, will try it. Does it also work when upgrading from 4.11 to 4.12 (and switching PC's at the same time)?