Cura Project Planner

[magicxman 0]

I have a job which need to print many small parts, up to 20 parts per print. I tried to use project planner printing of one object at a time, print head will return to origin and ooze out much plastics.

Is there anyway to use retraction and move the bed up again with minimum head movement?

 

[gr5 2,178]

I have had the same problem. I implemented a fix but haven't tried it yet as I haven't had a need to print multiple parts in a while.

Cura has start.gcode, end.gcode and nextobject.gcode. The 3rd of these I assume runs between parts for the project planner.

I changed the second to last line to reduce the extrusion. As you can see it retracts 5mm (E-5) and then later extrudes 6mm (E6). I changed the E6 to E5 (no "priming of the pump").

I also changed the 3rd to last line to "X5" so that it if it *does* extrude it will be over near the left edge instead of over the center of the object. Hopefully this doesn't result in any kind of collision when it goes to start the skirt.

Again - I haven't tested this change. You would definitely want to check the result for collisions when it goes to X5.

 

Move to next object on the platform. clear_z is the minimal z height we need to make sure we do not hit any objects.
G92 E0
G91                                    ;relative positioning
G1 E-1 F300                            ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+0.5 E-5 F{travel_speed}           ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
G90                                    ;absolute positioning
G1 Z{clear_z} F{max_z_speed}
G92 E0
G1 X5 Y{object_center_x} F{travel_speed} ;changed to x5 for left edge
G1 F200 E5 ;changed e6 to e5
G92 E0

 

[Daid 306]

I would go for:

 

 Move to next object on the platform. clear_z is the minimal z height we need to make sure we do not hit any objects.
G92 E0
G91 ;relative positioning
G1 E-1 F300 ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+0.5 E-5 F{travel_speed} ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
G90 ;absolute positioning
G1 Z{clear_z} F{max_z_speed}
G92 E0
G1 X5 Y{object_center_x} F{travel_speed} ;changed to x5 for left edge
G1 F200 E5 ;changed e6 to e5
G92 E0
G1 X{object_center_y} Y{object_center_x} F{travel_speed} ;changed to x5 for left edge

 

This will ensure you won't hit anything. Else it ill go diagonal from X5 to the start of the print, which might or might not hit other prints.

 

[gr5 2,178]

Thanks, daid. I made that change. So next time I use project planner I will be trying it.

Ooh - should the last line go to Z1 while it's at it to raise the bed?

 

[Daid 306]

You don't want to raise the bed until you are sure you have cleaned the rest of the objects. So you could put a Z1 after the last move, but you better do not, else you will be at Z1 at the center of the object, making a blob at the center of the object. The first point after the end of the nextObject.gcode will be the first point on the skirt line, so it will leave the blob at the skirt then.

 

[gr5 2,178]

Okay. I won't add the Z1. But the last time I used project planner it created a blob at the very center of the print and it fell onto the bed when it went down to make the skirt and ended up getting onto the print. I just cut and sanded it off but it was annoying. I think this was because the extrusion was 6mm but the retraction was 5mm so the extra 1mm created a small squiggly mess right over the center of the print (but didn't touch down until it got ready for the skirt).

 

[magicxman 0]

Thanks gr5 and Daid. Here is my results based on gcode given by Daid. I noticed that there are some residue before start of each object. Could it be that the retraction is not enough?

 

[gr5 2,178]

It seems that darn extruder never quite stops leaking.

Maybe if you try a lower temp. I get less leakage at lower temps:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/

[albert 2]

I wonder if its not easier to make a full plate of pieces with the CAD program before you go to CURA. i have successfully made runs with up to 25 identical parts this way. There seems to be a limitation where CURA/Skeinforge cannot handle all the data, but generally this seems to work well. I only had a problem when one of the parts was not starting at exactly the same height as the others and came off during printing, ruining the batch.

I have found it easy to put parts as close to each other as possible with this method. This avoids blobs and strings, or you can rotate parts to get a minimum of travel moves.

Its a different ballgame if you need parts printed with different slicing profiles in one batch. Will this work with the project planner?

[magicxman 0]

Albert,

I tried this method earlier and the reason why I am going for printing one object at a time is to prevent ruining the whole batch if one object failed. By printing one at a time, I can still salvage the rest by discarding only the spoilt one.

Regarding slicing different profiles in one batch, project planner is able to slice them and print them either by together.