Ultimaker 3 Material Profiles

[sihawken 0]

Good morning,

 

I work for a local Makerspace where we do a lot of prototyping for new product ideas, and so far I have enjoyed the Ultimaker 3. Were looking to use some of our non-ultimaker material in some prototyping projects, and as capable as this >$4000 printer is, it seems top lack a basic feature? I can't seem to find anywhere how or where to input custom materials, like our Ultimaker 2+s can. 

 

The default profiles aren't always optimal (or sometimes just don't work) with different variations of a material. Our Nylon (PA 12) does not work very well with the Nylon profile, and requires tweaking every time we print with it. 

 

There has to be a better way? 

[pbackx 8]

As far as I know, you can't add a new material to the Ultimaker 3 itself.

However, you can add a material in Cura:

https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/52035-manage-materials

 

Here is some more discussion on the subject:

 

[sihawken 0]

That discussion doesn't offer any real solutions, unfortunately. I have my custom materials already in Cura, the issue is with the UM3.

Edited April 27, 2018 by sihawken

[kmanstudios 994]

Another method is to save project files. This say you can have a set of files with all the setting for a variety of things and not clutter up the interface.

 

I do this to keep the listings clean. And, I save a basic project file (Make sure it is a '.curaproject.3mf. to hold everything) with just minimal geometry for quick loading.

[robinmdh 35]

on ancient firmware this was an option, but too often people edited the existing materials in cura which was then synced to the printer and consequently ruined printing for everyone else on that printer. We realized we'd need a better way to deal with this, that and the tiny screen where it is difficult to show an endless list of materials makes this tricky.

 

In practice just make your material a copy of an existing generic material in Cura, select the material you've copied from on the printer and you'll be fine!