How to prevent those surface dimples

[cekuhnen 1]

0.8 nozzle 0.4 line width (I think)

 

randome z alignment

 

notice the dimples where a new layer starts ! How can that be filled / fixed ?

 

 

 

 

[gr5 2,172]

Print slower.  I know we all want to print faster but if you are patient you will be rewarded.

 

some dimples can be fixed by tweaking the retraction distance as well but if these are where layers start then probably not in this case.

 

There is a trade-off between speed/dimensional accuracy/beauty.  If you want beauty you really need to print the outer surfaces slow.  If you only care about dimensional accuracy you can't print faster.  Once you get parts looking really beautiful then you can start learning tricks to speed things up.  There are dozens of tricks.  For example gradual infill, faster speeds on inner layers.  No infill at all usually works quite well also - surprisingly well.  thicker layers, wider layers/larger nozzles, no support, custom supports, etc.

[gr5 2,172]

Wait - layers should not start on an outer layer, right?  Maybe that's where the outer shell starts and ends?

[cekuhnen 1]

8 hours ago, gr5 said:

Wait - layers should not start on an outer layer, right?  Maybe that's where the outer shell starts and ends?

 

I think it always starts inside, then the inner wall then prints the outer wall.

 

 used the ultimaker 2+ 2 years ago and I swear I never saw those issues.

[yellowshark 153]

Well  I guess layers will start on the outer layer if one were to specify walls before infill and outer wall before inner wall(s). Also I cannot but help think, never having done it, that specifying 0.4mm line width with a 0.8mm nozzle is not going to help. Certainly the result is up the gumtree. Given that you seem to have some dubious settings it will help us if you post all your main and relevant settings, rather than us making assumptions and guessing.

[LePaul 321]

You could also turn off coasting if you have that enabled...someone suggested that to me a while back

[gr5 2,172]

On 5/29/2018 at 7:24 PM, cekuhnen said:

 used the ultimaker 2+ 2 years ago and I swear I never saw those issues.

Definitely try cura 15.4.  I still use it sometimes for my UM2.  A very nice slicer.

[cekuhnen 1]

18 minutes ago, gr5 said:

Definitely try cura 15.4.  I still use it sometimes for my UM2.  A very nice slicer.

 

When using an older Cura version do you also have to flash the older firmware?

[mnis 11]

I would say NO.

That's how I understood it: Roughly speaking, the machine receives only control commands which must be processed sequentially, such as: Move at Z-point from A-point to B-point at S-speed and E-extruder-speed, etc. So even a device with old firmware should always understand the basic commands (GCodes) of a current Slicers.

 

Firmware updates mainly improve the usability of the machine (user interface) and correct known errors in it. That's why it's always useful to upgrade to the latest available version!

 

I also suspect GCodes are not re-invented every day and added to a firmware, so this is mainly about the command interpreter understanding and executing the basic command set properly. Special GCodes are most likely not critical to the basic process of printing. Special GCodes that do not understand every machine are recognized as special commands by the respective machine and processed. Machines that can not handle this special GCode simply ignore these commands, I think. And other known slicers probably use only the base GCode instruction set so they can be used universally.

 

I use my Ultimaker2 with Cura v15.04.6 as well as with Cura v3.3.1. As firmware I used the last official version known to me and available. And for some time the almost ingenious Tinker firmware v17.10.1 Aka Tinkergnome. So far, I could easily switch between the Cura versions and firmwares.

Edited June 1, 2018 by mnis

[gr5 2,172]

On 5/31/2018 at 4:25 PM, cekuhnen said:

When using an older Cura version do you also have to flash the older firmware?

No.  Definitely not.