Cura Shell Wall Thickness settings not working

[carbontek 0]

I'm using version 3.2.1 on Win 7 with a CR10 5S printer.  My design is created in Solidworks at full size and saved as an STL file - for the sake of this post we'll call it a high sided tray.  When I open it in Cura I scale it to 20% which means all of the wall thicknesses are proportionaly scaled - original thickness is 2mm.  I've tried adjusting the wall and top/bottom thicknesses to compensate but its not being printed.

 

I'm new to both the printer and Cura. I've been able to print what I want but the wall and horizontal top layers are so thin.  I have a second problem in that the horizontal layer isn't printing correctly - the filletted corners are not building up correctly and not adhereing to the previous layer which I suspect may get resolved if I get the thickness issue resolved.

 

I have a .4mm nozzle which I'm now running at 225 degree using 1.75mm PLA with a bed temp of 70 degree - no issues with base adhesion, print speed is 60 mm/s.  I've set the wall thickness to 1.5mm (started at 1.2mm) and have line width set to .3mm (started at .4 to match nozzle).

 

I've tried confirming my settings by using the Layer View and moving through the piece and can't see how the wall thickness has been adjusted.

 

Any hints or advice as to what I'm doing wrong??

 

See my attached image for my settings.

[gr5 2,005]

Please show some photos of the part in real life and also in slice view highlighting one problem spot.

[carbontek 0]

Hi gr5

 

Not sure what you're asking for when you say "slice view".  The image labelled "CR-10 print_2" is a larger version of the two.  I've included the Cura version.

 

I've got multiple issues with trying to print this part which I'm sure comes down to my settings.  I'm starting to suspect that my Print Setup settings are being included in the gcode for the print because of the Shell Wall Thickness setting.

 

As you can see in the two actual part images, the skin is just lifting off and the radius corners aren't printing correctly.

 

Hope that's enough info for you to try and give me some advice.

 

Thanks.

[carbontek 0]

My mistake, I rechecked my original full size design and what I thought was some sort of support raft is in the part required.  The way it's been printing out I thought it was something else, so in the images above, the first one is indicating the seperation of the print (bottom circle in image).

 

Just tried printing it face down and its better but too thin.

[carbontek 0]

I just printed a test piece i created in Fusion360, basically just a small box with 2mm walls. In Cura i set wall thickness to 1.2mm.  It printed out at 2mm wall thickness.  It demonstrated a couple things, first that scaling my original image in Cura is not a good idea and second the settings in Cura are not being updated in the gcode for the print.  Another interesting thing i picked up on is the extruder temp i set to 210 in Cura but the model settings display 180 in the CR-10 control panel.

 

So am i expecting too much from Cura or am i doing something wrong?

[tinkergnome 924]

Well, Cura will not change your model (besides of scaling and rotating... and some special settings that doesn't matter here...).

In your case, it will always try to print the walls like they are modeled.

 

The term "wall" in Cura is the printed "shell" around your modeled walls. If the latter are too thin to print, it will not work.

 

For the shown geometry you can try to model the part as a closed solid (without walls - only a single closed outer shell). Then you can actually choose the wall, bottom and top thickness in the slicer.

 

[carbontek 0]

Hi Tinkergnome

 

Thanks for that info, it makes sense now ... dumb user.  Taking your advice I created a solid, scale version of my design in Fusion360, and life was better.

 

So now I've remodelled my item at the size I wanted to print, with suitable wall thickness (shelled) and problem solved.  Now all I need to do is work out the best approach for trying to print a scale version of my designs without redoing them at scale size.