Jump to content

Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)


DaHai8

Recommended Posts

Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

Cura knows, without having to click on 'X-Ray' mode, that the model has issues.

Cura also know that less than X% of the model actually touches the build plate - or that a majority of the model's 'base' is actually a fraction of a millimeter above the build plate. Because the skirt or brim actually passes under most of the model.

I think Cura can also tell of a model contains many connected surfaces that can adversely effect the print.

Give all this, and the regular flow of questions on this board relating to Odd Brim Placement, Supports for the Entire First Layer, Closing Holes, Infill Where There is Nothing, etc., would it be possible to pre-detect these issue and pop up a windows that says something like "Model is Possibly Crap, please check it for errors before slicing/printing" - Ok, maybe not exactly those words :p

But it would sure help preemptively catch a lot of repeating posts here where the STL file is, well, shall we say "Not valid".

Just a thought...

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    Actually. all of this is surprisingly hard to detect.

    I often explain how "stupid" a 3d printer is. It just does what it is being told, without knowing what the result should be. If something goes wrong, causing spaghetti, the printer just happily plods along because it does not know something is going wrong. Well, software is pretty much the same. It does what it is instructed to do, and does not know what the output should be. If the input is shit, the output is going to be shit, but knowing if the input is shit is hard.

    Can checks be created, inspecting the quality of meshes? Sure, but it is not easy. Even something as evident as X-Ray, showing red areas where there is an issue, is hard to do somewhat reliably for a computer (we would quite literally have to check if any pixels end up being red by looking at each resulting pixel one at a time). The X-Ray view is purely a visualisation "trick" that is much easier to inspect for users than for computers.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    Well, a 3D printer could be made more intelligent, maybe just not for the same price.

    I assume the x-ray view has some kind of drawing routine in which is decided to draw certain parts in red, right? This would have to be used as an output somehow to trigger a message as suggested by the OP.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    Well, a 3D printer could be made more intelligent, maybe just not for the same price.

    Same with software.

    I assume the x-ray view has some kind of drawing routine in which is decided to draw certain parts in red, right?

    If you are asking if Cura has a list of faces to draw in red when in X-ray mode, then the answer is no. What happens is that Cura just tells the GPU to draw the scene according to a couple of specific rules, and at the end if drawing Cura literally does not know if has drawn any red pixels.

    The rules for the GPU are a bit like this. Draw the scene how you normally would; for each pixel in the viewport shoot a ray into the scene, and see what object you hit. Except if you hit an object, just continue, untill you are all the way in the back. Once you are all the way in the back, if you have hit an uneven number of faces, make the pixel red, otherwise make it "purple-ish with a white sort-of X-ray vibe".

    The GPU processes these pixels massively parallel (eg 256 pixels at the same time). The CPU cannot ask after each pixel "so, was it red?". All it could do is after all the pixels are drawn, download all the pixels from the GPU and then one by one check if they are red. This is "computationally expensive". And not all red shows up in all perspectives, so Cura would need to render a couple of perspectives until it can be sure there is no red. And at what resolution should this be done?

    I am not trying to say "this is not possible, what a stupid idea, your suggestions are bad and you should feel bad" (far from it!), but I am trying to explain why things may not be as simple as they seem.

    X-Ray is a neat visualisation trick. Displaying something is simply something entirely different than understanding its structure.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    Ah - what a pity. So I guess there is no reasonable possibility to get a feedback from the GPU if it has drawn "purple-ish with a white sort-of X-ray vibe" or not. So one would have to implement a control algorithm for the model then.

    On the other hand one can just make oneself used to check the x-ray vision before print.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    Something Cura could also do is making "X-ray" more discoverable, or at least more self-explanatory why you would want to look at an "X-ray".

    Thinking out loud, objects could display in X-ray mode for the first 10 seconds of being loaded. Or selected objects could be rendered in X-ray mode. But I think both of these solutions are too obtrusive. I have also thought about unifying "solid" and x-ray mode into a single view, and giving that view a panel with options like layerview has a panel. This panel could have an option to highlight (either) overhangs or internal mesh errors.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    Perhaps there is an open source STL validator that could be integrated into Cura?

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted (edited) · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    The best bet for your crap alert popup is detecting if the STL was created using Sketchup.

    (edit: I was only half kidding).

    Edited by Guest
    • Like 2
    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Cura needs a "Crap Alert" pop-up window :)

    Perhaps there is an open source STL validator that could be integrated into Cura?

    If there is an open source STL validation program/utility, does it really need to be inside Cura? Seems better as a standalone and not clutter up Cura. Folding something like that in could be an issue.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    • Our picks

      • Introducing Universal Cura Projects in the UltiMaker Cura 5.7 beta
        Strap in for the first Cura release of 2024! This 5.7 beta release brings new material profiles as well as cloud printing for Method series printers, and introduces a powerful new way of sharing print settings using printer-agnostic project files! Also, if you want to download the cute dinosaur card holder featured below, it was specially designed for this release and can be found on Thingiverse! 
          • Like
        • 10 replies
      • S-Line Firmware 8.3.0 was released Nov. 20th on the "Latest" firmware branch.
        (Sorry, was out of office when this released)

        This update is for...
        All UltiMaker S series  
        New features
         
        Temperature status. During print preparation, the temperatures of the print cores and build plate will be shown on the display. This gives a better indication of the progress and remaining wait time. Save log files in paused state. It is now possible to save the printer's log files to USB if the currently active print job is paused. Previously, the Dump logs to USB option was only enabled if the printer was in idle state. Confirm print removal via Digital Factory. If the printer is connected to the Digital Factory, it is now possible to confirm the removal of a previous print job via the Digital Factory interface. This is useful in situations where the build plate is clear, but the operator forgot to select Confirm removal on the printer’s display. Visit this page for more information about this feature.
          • Like
        • 0 replies
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...