Z-zxis Print Problem

[Bobgn1 0]

I am trying to determine if Firmware version or Cura version could be the cause of a repeatable print problem. 

Background Information:

- using a public library Ultimaker 2+ printer.  The printer has F/W version 2.1.  All printing was done using an SD card inserted into the Ultimaker.

- The Gcode was developed using Cura 15.04.03 on my home computer (64 bit Win 7 machine)

- The .STL file was downloaded from Thingiverse (The Ultimate Spool Holder v2) as part of a zipped file and uncompressed.

- A picture of the object as it should look is shown below

- A picture of the object as it printed, up to the point where I aborted the print, is also shown.

- After the printer printed the floor, it then printed some wall (3 mm tall and only a single bead wide).

-  When the wall was 3 mm tall, the printer then attempted to print two circles on the inside surface of the floor, but it did not adhere to the surface of the floor and my impression was that it did not even adjust its Z-axis to try and print on the top of the floor.

- It also printed 3-4 strands at the near the bottom of the white picture, that were suspended in the air between the left and right sides about 2 mm from the flat edge.  There was NO support along its length

- The 3rd image is the Cura image in Layer view, and it tells me that the circles and the strands a couple of mm inside the flat bottom, should have started with the same z-axis values that the bottom of the print last used, NOT the height of the perimeter walls.

 

Question:

- what could cause this?

- is the libraries Ultimaker 2+ firmware up to date? 

- Are there cura settings that I did not use but should have? 

- There is also a file called Ultimate Spool Holder Cura Profile.curaprofile but it was named as a .ini file by Cura and I changed it to a .curaprofile file type in order to get it to upload.  It is a simple text file that list the Cura settings.

 

Any help that you can provide will be appreciated.  This is my first effort to make a 3D print.  Everything is new.

 

Bobgn1

 

 

Ultimate Spool Holder Cura Profile.curaprofile

[gr5 2,172]

You should never print something if it doesn't look right in layer view.  That would have saved you a lot of time and it will save you lots of time in the future.  ALWAYS look at the part in layer view before printing it.

 

The basic problem is that this part isn't manifold.  A manifold parts has a connected 3d surface and a clear "inside" and "outside" where the "inside" is where you print filament and the "outside" is where you don't.  This part is not manifold or possibly some of the wall normals are backwards which tell each triangle in the stl which side of the triangle is "air" and which side of the triangle is "solid".  Examples of non-manifold are confusing (to cura) extra walls/triangles *inside* the print or missing walls.

 

The simplest thing to do is to just run it through the free netfabb repair service here:

https://service.netfabb.com/login.php

 

To learn a little more about manifold you could try looking at the part in xray view.  Anything that appears in red needs to be fixed.

 

Another option is to go into cura expert options and look at the 4 "fix horrible" checkboxes and play with those.  There are 16 ways to check those and one of those 16 ways (or a few of them) are likely to fix this print.

 

If this is your own design (I'm pretty sure it isn't) and it was created in sketchup I can point you to a sketchup guide that has a few simple tricks to make sure your parts are manifold.

[Bobgn1 0]

Thank you.  I'll be testing the Netfabb repair this morning.