Paper copy of CURA profile

[dchurch 2]

Q. Is there a way to print a paper copy of profile settings?

 

I have a number of custom CURA profiles that I have developed over time. I would like to file a paper copy with my 3D prints in my shop and use them to highlight changes and make notes...  I don't see a print out option in Cura, or a way to copy/paste a profile into a document. I have been making screen captures to stitch together and print, but that's a PITA.

 

Thank you,

dc

[ahoeben 1,948]

A. There is not

 

It is not requested often enough, and then it falls in the category of "so much to do, so little time".

[drayson 75]

Would be very helpfull...

Maybe using the GodMode plugin could provide a workaround?

Edited May 28, 2018 by drayson

[ahoeben 1,948]

Good one. The god-mode plugin can be downloaded here:

https://github.com/sedwards2009/cura-god-mode-plugin

[dchurch 2]

Thank you,

I installed the plugin and have briefly explored the list of view options. The View All Quality Changes looks promising . The html is copy/past friendly so maybe I can create a form...

 

Still, it would be nice if Cura's profile window could be opened to full screen then captured or sent to a printer. It currently takes about 12 screen shots to capture all the full menu. I guess that's why I see so many partial profile images posted on the web.

 

OT: Major kudos to the Cura developers. For example, the Adaptive Layers function is brilliant! It's working wonderfully for my spheres in particular. I wonder why it is considered "Experimental".

 

Regards,

dc

 

 

[dchurch 2]

Here's a follow up:

I found a free text grabber (OCR) called Capture2Text that works pretty well for this.

In Cura go to: Settings/Profiles/Manage Profiles

Select a profile from your list.

Select the Global Settings tab and capture that text using Capture2Text and paste it into your text document of choice (I used MS Word)

Select the Extruder tab and capture/paste each section, scroll the Extruder window as needed.

 

The results is a user friendly document that you can save, edit, print... It is a pretty painless operation with much nicer results than screen captures.

 

There are several free OCR's available. I tried two, each of them resulted in a few minor spelling errors...  See image

 

I plan to keep these printouts in a binder with notes about: printer, material, filament, quality, strength, models, and print times... 

 

Regards,

dc

[nallath 1,120]

If you're only interested in the changes, you're looking for the "quality_changes"  & "user" profiles

[yellowshark 153]

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 11:46 AM, ahoeben said:

A. There is not

 

It is not requested often enough, and then it falls in the category of "so much to do, so little time".

Not sure what the definition of "enough " is but there was a thread on this very same subject a month or two ago.

[ahoeben 1,948]

"Enough" in this case means that the product owner of Cura deems it so often requested by a significant number of customers that it is worth spending the development and testing resources on it. I don't think that two threads on the forum is "enough" in that definition.

 

Having said that, Blackbelt has requested I provide something fairly similar (a human-readable profile summary in the gcode) for an upcoming Blackbelt Cura release. I will ask if they will agree to implementing this in a plugin that can be separately distributed for use with Ultimaker Cura.

[dchurch 2]

Good tip Nallath!

I could use a complete print for a baseline profile and then prints and notes to changes only.

 

Yellowshark, I'm not surprised. When I posted the question I honestly thought there was a method I was simply missing.

 

Thanks Ahoeben, That sounds promising. I am very new to the forum or any public discussion of the subject. But I suspect plenty of folks would benefit from a user friendly summary.  Personally I have two related uses. One is having a printout that I can compare and make notes on during profile tests and development.  The second use is having something I can file in a binder as a reference for my ever growing number of dialed in profiles.

I tend to save and reuse a lot of specific profiles rather than doing a bunch of tweaking on just a handful.
Isn't that common? A lot of effort and material goes into dialing in a great profile, so I keep adding them to my collection.

 

Honestly, I recently found and joined this forum while specifically looking for solutions to the above issues.

I don’t know how other folks keep track of all their profiles for various filaments, printers, and types of models. I imagine others must be struggling like I am. A pole might be telling here.

 

Regards,

dc

 

[nallath 1,120]

4 hours ago, dchurch said:

Honestly, I recently found and joined this forum while specifically looking for solutions to the above issues.

I don’t know how other folks keep track of all their profiles for various filaments, printers, and types of models. I imagine others must be struggling like I am. A pole might be telling here.

I make quality profiles (aka; not quality_changes, but the "real' qualities that you need to add by hand). As for Ultimaker machines, i hardly ever change recommended settings. Even after 5+ years of working with Ultimaker printers, our materials & processing team is far better at making good profiles than I am.

I'd also would never print out papers with profiles. It's not a good way to back up profiles at all. Cura already is capable of being backed up without having to resort to paper.

Edited May 31, 2018 by nallath

[dchurch 2]

Understood,

The Ultimaker support sounds great! Yes, I print with multiple manufacturers and as you know there are a lot of variables that come with that. I do not expect generic profiles to be all that reliable.

 

The paper copy is not intended as a back up. It's for a shop reference.

 

I'm putting together a 3 ring binder of my collection of profiles. I can use tabs for material type. So if I'm working with a structural model for outdoor use I can go to the ASA section and see what profile I have on hand. "Perfect, here's one that I've used for similar projects on the brand-x printer. It already has the needed roof support and z distance... all dialed in. I just need to change the infill to 100% and I'm ready to print." 

 

I don't have dozens of profiles for each material but for ABS I have at least 7 or 8. For example, one was saved after dialing in a lithophane project. I wont remember the exact settings next week so I saved the profile. I'll be using ivory or white ABS. The ivory prints a bit hotter and has a nice vintage photo look but the white produces more detail and contrast... 

 

So, the other reason for the shop reference is for making notes. Notes as reminders and also for comparing or improving profiles. I haven't found a way to make notes or describe a profile in Cura, other than the limited space for the profile name.

 

I'm just trying to get a bit more organized and spend less time with trial and error.

 

Regards,

dc

[haddad 1]

Hello,

I'm searching for any method to copy my customized printer settings, materials and profiles to another computer.

This topic is the closest thing to it that I've found. I'm not sure if I should start a new topic...

So, I guess that if it's not possible to backup all settings, it won't also be possible to transfer them to another computer.

Hopping to be wrong, best regards.

 

[ahoeben 1,948]

Go to Help -> Show configuration folder. Copy all the files there to the configuration folder on the other computer.

 

Alternatively, use the “cloud backup” plugin in Cura 3.4 which is currently in beta.

[Deve 5]

Hi Guys! Getting in on this late, but want to say how wonderful the program is and how much we appreciate it. As an Anet A8 user, I have three of them that run 24/7 for the past two years, I run into little things that are just wrong in the way the prints come out, so I go to different A8 forums and others want me to give them my profile so we can compare settings. Here is my argument for pushing this to a higher priority... We can stop bothering you with the little crap if we can compare our settings readily. Right now I am perplexed with the problem that has existed all along with concentric circles that are not connecting on the top layer around holes. Why bother you with that when I can first check with my A8 compadres and compare notes? But getting them to give me their list of settings for Cura is an impossibility. I took 5 screenshots and placed them on my web site, but I don't know if its a deterioration of society, political incorrectness, or what, but that requires too much work for them to compare my screenshots with their settings, so I get nowhere. Just a delimited text dump of every setting is fine. Others can go from delimited format to a pretty page. I don't want to waste a lot of your time. Support Blocker is coming along great! Thanks!

[nallath 1,120]

On 6/8/2018 at 2:37 PM, Deve said:

Hi Guys! Getting in on this late, but want to say how wonderful the program is and how much we appreciate it. As an Anet A8 user, I have three of them that run 24/7 for the past two years, I run into little things that are just wrong in the way the prints come out, so I go to different A8 forums and others want me to give them my profile so we can compare settings. Here is my argument for pushing this to a higher priority... We can stop bothering you with the little crap if we can compare our settings readily. Right now I am perplexed with the problem that has existed all along with concentric circles that are not connecting on the top layer around holes. Why bother you with that when I can first check with my A8 compadres and compare notes? But getting them to give me their list of settings for Cura is an impossibility. I took 5 screenshots and placed them on my web site, but I don't know if its a deterioration of society, political incorrectness, or what, but that requires too much work for them to compare my screenshots with their settings, so I get nowhere. Just a delimited text dump of every setting is fine. Others can go from delimited format to a pretty page. I don't want to waste a lot of your time. Support Blocker is coming along great! Thanks!

You can just send them a project file. That stores all changes that you made and in such a way that it's easy to compare them.

[Artfreak45 1]

I tried the Capture2Text and it does not work 100%.  I found a much easier, and better way to list out all the information in a profile.

In Cura open the Profile Manager.  Click on a profile and Export.  Open the folder the profile was saved to.  Change the file extension from .curaprofile to .txt.  You can then click on the file, and in the file preview, select all, copy, and then paste into a word document.

[dchurch 2]

Hey Art, I'm glad I subscribed to this thread. I appreciate your post and will have to take a look at that method. 

Well done,

dc

[cjc0306 2]

I too have been looking for a way to print layouts. Artfreak45 you're the coolest, it worked great on my mac, except I had to open the .txt file directly from pages. Now if only cura would get on board with a print option!

Edited March 29, 2019 by cjc0306

[dchurch 2]

Sorry this is somewhat off topic, but cjc0306 reminded me that capturing and printing profiles is still a pain.

 

So I've started using a clip board along with this form that I made up. The "Item" is normally the file name. I have a naming method for Cura Profiles including: Date of Creation, Material Type and Manufacturer, and Name of a memorable item that helps me recall the quality and features that the profile was developed for.

 

It would still be nice to able to print profiles but at least I can reference them on this form and make notes about the tweaks that I use for different items and filaments... 

 

Here's an example of the form and a 4 hour print I did this morning.  No, I don't keep these records on the PC it's strictly a pencil and paper record. I've been using this method for a few months now and it has become very helpful in keeping track of what works... 

 

 

3D PRINT RECORD
 

DATE START TIME	ITEM VERSION	CURA PROFILE	FILAMENT TYPE /BRAND	NOTES
3/28/19 0830 EPT 4:28	dB_jive_v125 This v is 125% on Z only	022119 MH ABS Jive	ABS MatHack/Blk	Temps 230/110 Fan off then 40% at layer 20 for bridges, no support, Z seam random. >Results Perfect, Next reprint @150% Z

...

 

 

[dchurch 2]

Update!

I have to add that the only slicer I have used for years is Cura (it came with our first printer).

 

Cura has always served us well for printing but as you can see I've struggled a bit with keeping records of my prints, profiles, and settings. I've always wished there was a way to print or make pofile notes...

 

I recently downloaded Slic3r Prusa Edition.  I  am really excited by the attention to organizing. There is also a generous Notes area for each printer setup and another for each filament profile. The Notes section even supports cut and paste from supplier web sites... very handy.

 

This may not be a big deal for some folks but for our shop this is HUGE!!!

 

PS/ The slicer appears to be very fast and reliable... We also noticed Slic3r PE automatically detected and fixed manifold errors in a couple of our .stl models, an unexpected bonus. 

 

There is a wizard that guided me through the install and printer setup.

Here's where I downloaded the zip package (yes it's free and does not require registration...)

https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/general-discussion-announcements-and-releases-f61/slic3r-prusa-edition-1-41-1-rc-t25011.html

 

Anyway, instead of trying to print profiles and make notes in margins... Slic3r is really filling our needs.

 

I think the deep number of setting options is a very strong point of Cura. Unfortunately we find it very awkward to keep track of all of the adjustments.

 

Regards 

 

[dchurch 2]

Artfreak45,

Again, thank you.

 

I also just figured out that the exported ***.curaprofile files can be opened directly using Microsoft WordPad (Windows 10).

I just used the right click "open with" command and it worked perfectly! 

 

NotePad also worked but the text was not correctly formatted.

 

This is pretty convenient for printing a shop copy or sharing profile settings on user forums... 

[Moonrose 0]

I've noticed multiple people looking for a physical copy of the Cura 4.7 print settings, I was working on my own to tweak settings and decided to publish my excel list. Hope this helps others out and saves them time to custom type everything out.

Cura 4.7 Ender 3 Pro Settings.xlsx.zip

[Philler 0]

On 11/29/2018 at 10:06 PM, Artfreak45 said:

I tried the Capture2Text and it does not work 100%.  I found a much easier, and better way to list out all the information in a profile.

In Cura open the Profile Manager.  Click on a profile and Export.  Open the folder the profile was saved to.  Change the file extension from .curaprofile to .txt.  You can then click on the file, and in the file preview, select all, copy, and then paste into a word document.

TY. Tried this but the text in the file is not complete. missing some valuable parameters like temperature, wall thickness, ...

 

If someone at Ultimater is keeping count. I would like to request a simple print on paper option as well.

Often I have stray clicks with multiple monitors and don't (didn't) realize I accidentally changed a setting where my cursor was.

[nallath 1,120]

15 hours ago, Philler said:

TY. Tried this but the text in the file is not complete. missing some valuable parameters like temperature, wall thickness, ...

 

If someone at Ultimater is keeping count. I would like to request a simple print on paper option as well.

Often I have stray clicks with multiple monitors and don't (didn't) realize I accidentally changed a setting where my cursor was.

Check the marketplace. There are multiple plugins that do this.