Ultimaker printer support for built-in Cura features

[matt_dt3d 1]

Hello,

I have one UMs5, two UM3s, one Prusa MK3S, and one custom RepRap.

 

1. I'm trying to figure out how to capture time lapse videos of my prints on a UMs5 and UM3. Cura has a time lapse feature built-in under the Extensions -> Post-Processing menu, but it doesn't seem to work with the Ultimaker machines. It executes the gcode that moves the print head to the specified location and back, but it doesn't take a picture. Do I need to use a different gcode than the standard M240, or do the Ultimaker machines just not support time lapse capture?

 

2. The gcode for filament change (M600) doesn't seem to work on the Ultimakers. The one time I tried it on a UM3, it ruined my print because the printer crashed at the M600 command and wouldn't continue without being rebooted. Is there a better way to do a filament change mid-print that I don't know about? The only time I've ever successfully done a mid-print filament change, I had to wait for the print to reach the layer I needed (which I judged by eye, comparing to the Cura preview of the layers), then manually pause the print and feed in new filament. This is way too labor-intensive when Ultimaker has a built-in filament change feature that works perfectly. However, it only works when the machine isn't printing.

 

3.  When I connect via OctoPrint to the Prusa or RepRap and print a file, I get a control panel in Cura under the Monitoring tab that lets me set preheat and set temperatures, jog the printer in each axis by 0.1 / 1 / 10 / 100mm, home the axes, pause or abort the print, and even send arbitrary gcode. Are there any plans to backport/add some of that functionality to control Ultimaker-brand machines? It would be amazing to be able to run arbitrary gcode. In particular I'd like to tune the extrusion multiplier exactly by extruding 100mm of filament and seeing how much the machine physically moves the filament. The Ultimaker machines seem to over-extrude slightly, especially for CPE/PETG filament.

 

It's very strange to me that Cura has support for these features for third-party printers, but the Ultimaker machines don't support these gcode commands, even though they are built into Cura.

[ahoeben 1,948]

Cura has been from the very start an open source project, used by many people with many different printers. People from the community can add features to it. When Cura was "young", most 3d printers had the same featureset. Since then the 3d printer landscape has developed, and featuresets have diverged. Not all features supported by Cura are applicable for all printers, but there are printers/workflows for all features.

 

1. There is no built-in way to make timelapses with the UM3/UMS5. It could be developed, but so far it has not been a priority. The postprocessing script you found is meant for other printers.

2. The change filament script does not work with the UM3/UMS5. But I think the pause at Z does, and when paused I think the filament can be changed from the menu system on the printer.

3. The interface shown by the OctoPrint plugin is actually based on what the UM3 interface used to be, before it was replaced by Ultimaker Connect. Ultimaker Connect is considered by Ultimaker to be a superior user experience. I agree that it lacks some features.