unable to slice?

[Bossler 8]

So in preparing for the arrival of my UM3e I played around a bit with Cura (3.1/3.2).

And I was surprised that I could not slice this model:

 

 

This thing is 199.3x192.2x300 mm. So should fit a UM3e, right?

 

Can somebody explain the greyed out areas to me?

Why are they there and how can I use the full advertised build room?

 

[kmanstudios 841]

The grey areas are places that the model cannot fit for a variety of reasons.

1. There are things like brim, skirt and rafts that take up part of the border
2. If you are using more than one material, both nozzles come into play and they both cannot reach all parts of the buildplate.
3. The corners at the front are where the priming blob will go.
4. And if you are using a priming tower, it will be represented by a separate grey area that represents the size and placement of the priming tower.

Taking a look at the image at the size I can see it, it would appear that your model is just a touch to the left (looking at it) and touching the grey bar. But, moving it to the right may make it intrude on that area. You may be able to get away with a 1% reduction to make it fit if the actual size is not critical.

[Bossler 8]

Hi kman,

 

despite the possible misplacing - which I would expect to be done by Cura anyway;-) -

this thing would be printed with just one nozzle anyway.

But I seem to be not able to tell Cura that it should "ignore" the second nozzle?

Can you give me a hint how to set Cura so it will use the build plate as much as possible with a "1 nozzle print"?

[kmanstudios 841]

First thing I would do is to make sure that you have buildplate adhesion off. No brim skirt or raft. Cura will default to the extruder 1 for all imported models.

 

Also, when you are viewing in solid mode, you will see stripes over it until it fits on the buildplate and can be sliced. When it can be sliced, it will be a solid color of your chosen PLA.

 

You may want to click on the preferences settings or the arrow to the right of the words "Buildplate Adhesion" and unhide the buildplate settings that are hidden by default. Also, if you do not need support, make sure it is off. That is the only way to get the most printable area available.

 

Looking at your screenshot, it looks as though you have brim on. Skirt is just a good way to make sure the nozzle is primed and printing a decent line. It takes the least amount of printable area, but it will not help hold a model down.

[cjs 31]

5 hours ago, Bossler said:

Can you give me a hint how to set Cura so it will use the build plate as much as possible with a "1 nozzle print"?

I remember reading that this currently isn't possible, but is planned for a future version of cura.Maybe it's alreay implemented? 

 

Hopefully your model was just big enough to be printable with brim or skirt disabled!

[kmanstudios 841]

19 minutes ago, cjs said:

I remember reading that this currently isn't possible, but is planned for a future version of cura.Maybe it's alreay implemented? 

 

Hopefully your model was just big enough to be printable with brim or skirt disabled!

There will never be a way to use all the buildplate as it would require the head to run outside of the rails. It is a physical limitation. But, it has been improved and I think about at the point where it cannot be pushed much more if any at all.

[Bossler 8]

Hm, a bit irritating, at least.

In the specifications document for the UM3 it is clearly stated:

 

Build volume

Left nozzle: 215x215x300mm
Right nozzle: 215x215x300mm
Dual material: 197x215x300mm

 

[nallath 589]

Build volume implies the area where the nozzle is able to go. There is a big list of settings that you need to change to actually reach it due to all kinds of travel avoidance, bed adhesion, etc.

[Bossler 8]

Thanks, nallath.

Can you list those settings that one would need to change therefore? 

[cjs 31]

@kmanstudios I was talking about Cura recognizing that it only uses one nozzle and therefore allowing to print 215x215x230mm instead of the smaller volume of 197x215x300mm. Has this been implemented yet @nallath ? 

 

@Bossler have you tried @kmanstudios advice regarding turning of the build adhesion options (skirt,brim)? Based on your given object size ( 199.3x192.2x300 mm) you should be able to print it even with only the smaller volume available. Maybe rotating it around the z axis by 90 degrees will help as your x-dimension is over the limit. 

[Bossler 8]

Just did so. Yes, turning off build plate adhesion frees up quite a bid of the buildplate.

[nallath 589]

 

37 minutes ago, cjs said:

@kmanstudios I was talking about Cura recognizing that it only uses one nozzle and therefore allowing to print 215x215x230mm instead of the smaller volume of 197x215x300mm. Has this been implemented yet @nallath ?

Yep. Cura recognises if you use one nozzle. Has done so for quite some time.

[Bossler 8]

But the UM3 will still not work with just one print core installed - even if the print does require only one print core...

 

So it certainly does not help that cura is so intelligent to recognize that you only use one nozzle...