Ultimaker Cura | a new interface

[mastory 44]

I think small text and icons are programmed by younger programmers with good eyes.  They can't realize that the small details are hard to see even with average less than perfect middle age eyes.

 

As for the new layout, I think people are making more out it than its worth.  I do prefer the earlier more spacious work area.  What I would like to see is for the settings menu to be floating, dockable and resizable.  This would allow moving it to the other monitor for even more workspace.  I might turn my side monitor to portrait mode, and stretch the menu down the page to see much more without scrolling.

 

Much more beneficial to me would be the capability to turn off perspective in the model view.  I think this would be widely appreciated if it were implemented.

[phantom 17]

I've come upon a bug in "Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion"

 

Printed a couple of calibration cubes with setting going from -0.52mm to 0.52mm and there was absolutely no change in measurement in the cubes elephant foot, whilst this isn't a small difference ?

 

 

[burtoogle 513]

31 minutes ago, phantom said:

I've come upon a bug in "Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion"

 

Printed a couple of calibration cubes with setting going from -0.52mm to 0.52mm and there was absolutely no change in measurement in the cubes elephant foot, whilst this isn't a small difference ?

 

 

 

Please create a new thread about this and attach sample gcode files. Thanks.

[nallath 1,120]

21 hours ago, Asger-P said:

That is sad, as there is plenty of room in the items for a larger font, much easier for the eyes.

If you want to, you can quite easily change this yourself.

[Xeddog 6]

14 hours ago, mastory said:

I think small text and icons are programmed by younger programmers with good eyes.  They can't realize that the small details are hard to see even with average less than perfect middle age eyes.

 

As for the new layout, I think people are making more out it than its worth.  I do prefer the earlier more spacious work area.  What I would like to see is for the settings menu to be floating, dockable and resizable.  This would allow moving it to the other monitor for even more workspace.  I might turn my side monitor to portrait mode, and stretch the menu down the page to see much more without scrolling.

 

Much more beneficial to me would be the capability to turn off perspective in the model view.  I think this would be widely appreciated if it were implemented.

I agree with the eyes comment.  Imagine my 70+ year old yes.  🙂
As for the layout, I have been trying the 4.0b2 and I have to say I still prefer the 3.6 style interface.  I like your ideas about making the menu floating and dockable.  I like that idea a lot.  But I also realize this is a slicer and free to boot, and my guess is that the programming staff is . . . not numerous.  This is a company that makes their money selling printers, not software, so the emphasis should be on slicing to make their printers perform better, and beautification secondary.  And that is my main concern right now as supports for the last couple of releases have been driving me to other slicers for certain models.  Like supports for an overhang where the supports start in mid air, or some supports that start on the build plate the way they are supposed to but don't get within several layer thicknesses of the model and are just wasted plastic.  And I have had numerous problems with support blocker and custom supports.

 

Wayne
 

[Aybom 2]

I have to admit that when I first started printing, I hated Cura. It was too obscure, with all the hidden settings. Was there a reason the settings were hidden? Were some bad to use? etc. etc. I shelled out the bucks for Simplify 3D and though it was just great at first. It has some simply stupid issues features that seemed backwards for such an expensive product, but everything was there, and I was able to learn about everything quickly. Then I went back to Cura and realized how much easier it was to use and how much more powerful it seemed. I now use it exclusively. Sure, there's some specific use cases where S3D has the upper hand, but they haven't been an issue for me. That said, I'd love to see improvements in support work, and especially in process masking (my term) defining an area for different processing is great, but only a square shape isn't good enough for example. Bottom line is that I"m hoping for features, not improvements in looks. 🙂

 

[ahoeben 1,948]

Note you can load any shape you want, and use the Mesh Type in per model settings for “masking”. 

[Guest maht]

Another cross post. We released 4.0 stable today.

 

 

[marcottt 0]

any info about moving from beta2 to stable ? need to change or remove something ? will mantein configs ?

thanks

[ahoeben 1,948]

Just installing the stable version over beta 2 should work.

[jens3 11]

I installed the final version of Cura 4.0 the other day and although some things have changed, overall I find the changes positive and believe that most people will quickly adapt.

I wish to give cudos to the Cura team for producing a product that had no hickups (at least for me). All previous versions had substantial issues in their x.0 releases. On this one, everything worked just fine, including the migration of all the settings and profiles!

 

Well done !

[Firepower 0]

I have a Cocoon Create/Wanhao Duplicator i3 v2 and copied the Cura profile from an old Cura to Cura 4.

 

Some questions:

 

1.  The old version of Cura went to the home position at the start but Cura 4 prints just where the head is.  Not sure if that is right.

 

2.  Is there a new profile I can load for my Cocoon Create printer for Cura 4.

 

3.  I load a STL file in Cura 4 and want to save as GCODE.  I am not now getting the Save coming up in the bottom right corner any more.

 

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

 

[Brulti 177]

6 hours ago, Firepower said:

3.  I load a STL file in Cura 4 and want to save as GCODE.  I am not now getting the Save coming up in the bottom right corner any more.

 

Did you slice the STL? The 'Save' button comes up after you've sliced and allows you to save as gcode.

[Firepower 0]

With the stl files off Thingiverse it says can not slice due to errors etc

 

I did save a GCODE file once the other day but I can not do it any more.  I have tried lots of stl files.

 

 

[Brulti 177]

Bizarre. Maybe a bug in CURA then. I think there's a log file somewhere that might help, but I'm not sure where it is and this goes a bit beyond my knowledge.

 

You could also try a reinstall, but do save your materials and profiles. You can now save it in the cloud, which is very practical and fast. Though I always do a secondary save on my external HD just in case. It's a bit longer, as you have to export each material and profile one by one, but better safe than sorry.

[kfsone 5]

Spent an hour trying to figure out what one of the UI buttons did, but nobody else seemed to have it, before it dawned on me it was probably an extension. Would be helpful if:

 

- There were tooltips over the UI buttons in the left-toolbar,

- Extension UI components were visual distinguishable from built-in - plus, if it's possible for an extension to imitate a built-in, it will eventually be abused

 

[ahoeben 1,948]

Could you show a screenshot?

 

Given that most of Cura is implemented as a plugin, I don’t think it is a good idea (or even feasible) to force plugin controls to look differently.

[Firepower 0]

Thanks all for the replies.  I just installed this Cura PLA Profile V2.  Is this the right Profile.

https://support.winplus.com.au/hc/en-us/articles/115002537203-CURA-Versions-2-x-Profiles-for-the-Cocoon-Create-Touch-HE161192

 

Now the saving GCODE works but it does not go to the home position when it starts.  It still just prints where ever the head is.

 

Maybe I should install Cura V4 again.  I guess this is the right Cura 4 for my Cocoon Create printer.  It says Ultimaker Cura.  I guess it is not just for the Ultimaker printer?

https://ultimaker.com/en/products/ultimaker-cura-software

 

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2019 by Firepower

[kfsone 5]

[ahoeben 1,948]

31 minutes ago, kfsone said:

That is a default tooll (Support Blocker). It does have a tooltip, but only when it is enabled (and these “tools” are not enabled when there is no model selected)

[Firepower 0]

Thanks I now understand that.

 

At the moment it just prints where the head is..

 

I just need to get the head to go to the home position when a print is started and then move to the middle to print. 

 

[nallath 1,120]

3 hours ago, Firepower said:

Thanks I now understand that.

 

At the moment it just prints where the head is..

 

I just need to get the head to go to the home position when a print is started and then move to the middle to print. 

 

So you need to add a home command to the start g-code of your printer.

[Firepower 0]

Sorry -  where do you mean to add the home command.

 

It still works perfectly on the old Cura version but with Cura V4 do I need to add the home command to Cura V4 somewhere? 

[LePaul 321]

2 hours ago, Firepower said:

Sorry -  where do you mean to add the home command.

 

It still works perfectly on the old Cura version but with Cura V4 do I need to add the home command to Cura V4 somewhere? 

 

It sounds like your Start gcode is missing some stuff.  Can you cut/paste what you have in there?

 

There should be a G28 in there, ideally at the beginning,  to home everything

 

If you aren't sure where to find that, in the upper left where it says your printer, click the chevron/ arrow icon, that will give you the Manage Printers at the bottom of the list of printers.  Highlight yours, hit manage printers.

 

It should look like this

 

 

Edited March 27, 2019 by LePaul

[Firepower 0]

Thanks for the reply and good info to find the GCODE.  I think the problem there is no Cocoon Create Profile for Cura V4.

This is from the Machine Settings as you mentioned.

 

This is my:START CODE which looks not too good.

G21 ;metric values

G90 ;absolute positioning

M82 ;set extruder to absolute mode

M107 ;start with the fan off

G28 Z0 ;home Z

G1 Z15.0 F840

G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length

G1 F200 E3 ;extrude 3mm of feed stock

G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again

G1 F840

;Put printing message on LCD screen

M117 Printing...

 

This is my END CODE where at the end of print it goes to home position and cools down which seems good.

M104 S0 ;extruder heater off

M140 S0 ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)

G91 ;relative positioning

G1 E-1 F300 ;retract the filament a bit

G1 Z0.5 E-5 F840 ;move Z up a bit and retract even more

G28 X0 Y0 ;home X/Y, so the head is out of the way

M84 ;steppers off

G90 ;absolute positioning

 

So looks like the Start Code needs fixing up?

 

 

 

Looks like it should be something like this from the old Cura.

 

G28 X0 Y0  ;move X/Y to min endstops

G28 Z0     ;move Z to min endstops

G1 Z15.0 F4800 ;move the platform down 15mm

G92 E0                  ;zero the extruded length

G1 F140 E30              ;extrude 3mm of feed stock

G1 X20 Y0 F140 E30

G92 E0                  ;zero the extruded length again

G1 F4800

 

Edited March 27, 2019 by Firepower