Adding printing fillament into firmware

[a3lab 0]

Hi, we would like to use ultimaker pp and TPU 95A filaments with our ultimaker 2+, however this products don't appear in the printer firmware. How can we add them? regards, Asty

[DidierKlein 729]

Hi you can find the explanation here:

https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/20982-custom-materials-ultimaker2-plus

[Dana 2]

err so after a year of owning my Ultimaker I did not realise this, I thought the material settings were in the Gcode, I do not normally have problems printing but this would explain some issues I had when changing to exotic materials....

I think that this highlights that this "hobby" will remain exactly that until it becomes more consumer friendly (and by consumer I mean non tech-savvy). I do not have the time or inclination to sit on forums in order to know everything about Gcode and manual settings etc, I just want to design something and print it for functional items. I would say more than half the items I design end up printing well and being used, 25% are concepts and there are always a couple of failures, the latest being Brassfill and I am thinking that may be because of the material settings now

I honestly didn't know that after you put the material settings into Cura you need to export/import it to the printer, even if that is the case I would expect that to happen when you plug the computer into the printer for an update??

Edited October 15, 2017 by Guest

[Dana 2]

and I just tried to follow the instructions from the link above, this kind of thing frustrates the hell out of me, I have say 8 custom materials in Cura, it has an export option, it exports in xml not text, so I cannot even copy-cut&paste into the Material.txt file....

what is the point of the export function in cura?

Edited October 15, 2017 by Guest

[Dana 2]

I am really having problems with this part of the set up still, please can someone respond with line by line instructions, there is no point in directing me to an old link that is only slightly related

 

when I buy a new material I need to create a "material" with the costs and print settings right?

 

I have just loaded PET ICE Cunning Clear and it says check compatibility and will not load any profile....(in Cura)

 

so each print needs the material setting and profile setting, I assume when the object is sliced the Gcode states the print profile only?

 

the material needs to be exported from Cura and imported on the printer so the printer knows the temperature and heated bed settings? well I can export the materials one-by-one to the SD card but the printer will not import them, it cannot find any files on the card

 

can someone please help me out here, I am sure its very simple but I just cannot find any resource that lays this out in simple terms

 

regards

 

Dan

[Dana 2]

so I found a relatively new post that defines two import/export options, looks like I need to modify the text file to import new materials, so why is there an import/export option in Cura for materials?

 

also this means you could set up your print in Cura with one material and a profile but on the printer the material can be different, I don't get why you would do this or what the result will be as surely the print profile is somewhat related to the material...

 

should the printer material exactly reflect the materials in Cura? it is quite labour intensive to create a new material and then export/modify and import the txt file back into the printer every time you buy a new type of filament...

 

[tinkergnome 927]

3 hours ago, Dana said:

why is there an import/export option in Cura for materials?

 

some possibilities:

- share it with other Cura users around the world

- take it as a backup

- upload it to a version control repository

- and so on...

 

It's definitely not intended for the UM2, that's a complete independent thing.

 

3 hours ago, Dana said:

it is quite labour intensive to create a new material and then export/modify and import the txt file back into the printer every time you buy a new type of filament...

IMHO the "UltiGCode" approach (with the material settings on the printer) had it's benefits in former days but is obsolete nowadays.

I think, you should consider to change the Gcode flavor for your UM2 to "Marlin" (it's in the "Machine Settings" of Cura).
Afterwards only the material settings from Cura will be used and the settings on the printer do not matter anymore.

 

[Dana 2]

ahha! thanks for the information and advice, I will look into the Marlin setting, that would be absolutely great if I can do all the setup in Cura, I just don't have as much time as I would like to tinker with the other option

 

I must say that regardless of my limited knowledge in this area I have a low failure rate and some really cracking functional results, almost all of my prints are functional prototypes 

 

thanks a lot for your help

 

Dan

[Dana 2]

On 28/01/2018 at 8:15 PM, tinkergnome said:

 

I think, you should consider to change the Gcode flavor for your UM2 to "Marlin" (it's in the "Machine Settings" of Cura).
Afterwards only the material settings from Cura will be used and the settings on the printer do not matter anymore.

 

 

this is excellent, thanks for letting me know, its really changed my printing although I have to do some serious tweaks to my print profiles. also I cannot seem to save a customer profile from current settings, it goes through the motions just doesn't save it...