Cura 4.3.0 fails to slice entire model

[Geep 2]

I am building a face plate for a project.  When I try slicing just the plate, it is sliced as I expect.  When I go into dual extruder mode to slice certain parts of the plate in a different color, Cura slices only a portion of the face plate.  The majority of it shows in preview but is greyed out, and when running an animation, it is not included.  I've tried repairing the face plate and all the add on pieces in another program, but to no avail.  I created the plate and all the parts in Tinkercad.  I have successfully sliced and printed this plate with the embedded label parts earlier, using the beta of 4.3.0 but that isn't working now.  Any ideas appreciated.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Geep

[Geep 2]

A follow up.  I returned my S5  to version 5.2.xxx firmware, and decided to try the slicing of my face plate again. Didn't really think the firmware version on the printer would affect Cura, but...I sliced just the plate, and it gave me a 22 hour print, about what I expected.  It's fairly large.  I added the text pieces, merged the files and sliced it again.  The time went down by about an hour.  ????  Finally, I unmerged the print, changed the text parts to print on the second extruder, so I could have the color contrast.  Sliced again and the time was cut in half.  I am going to start the print and see what it does.  Makes little sense to this novice that the time should change so drastically and in the wrong direction.  Using Ultimaker ABS for the print.

[Geep 2]

I removed the finished plate this morning, and the reason the time was cut back was that the slicer only used perhaps 10 layers for the main plate.  It is very thin at .5 MM instead of the 2 MM it should be.  Something very strange happening as slicing only the main plate results in what looks like the right amount of time as well as the right thickness.

[Geep 2]

I thought I had perhaps found the problem.  I tried using an older version of the face plate, thinking that I had done something while modifying it.  No dice.  The plate alone slices as it should, and adding the 2nd extruder text pieces to the design and merging them into the design results in the same problem.  I also tried 4.0 and 4.2, as I had printed this design successfully with the lettering in an older version.  Still no dice.

 

Hasn't ANYONE got a suggestion other than to start over and recreate the whole thing???  This is so frustrating.

[Geep 2]

Since I am the only one replying to this thread, let me try once more.  After spending an inordinate amount of time looking for topics that resemble mine, and failing, I finally went back into Cura and started looking at the sliced model.  I found that Cura is not placing any infill in the first 3 mm plate of the print.  It does fill the 5 mm high rectangle that is attached to the 3 mm plate.  That would be the reason, I would guess, for the slicing errors.  Infill is turned on at 20 percent.  Increasing it to 50 or 100 percent does nothing. I mocked up another STI file to see how that would be sliced, and the infill is present, along with the long print times I would expect.  But my original model will not slice properly.  Does ANYONE have an answer for why this is happening?  I am sorta disheartened that no one, not even the admins, have offered any support.

[burtoogle 513]

Hello @Geep, please save the project file (File->Save) and attach the resulting .3mf file to this thread so we can look at the settings, model, etc.

[Geep 2]

Thank you.  Face plate file attached.  Also attached is the merged version of what the finished product should look like.

UM5 Lighthack 2 Rev3 plate.3mf UMS5_Lighthack 2 plate merged.3mf

[burtoogle 513]

The Lighthack 2 Rev3 file only contains a single model and appears to slice OK to me. Do you have a project file that shows the problem you are having with the 2nd extruder?

 

I'm finished for tonight, will look again in the morning.

[Geep 2]

If you go into preview and look for the infill, it isn't there.  I did include a second file, putting it up again, of the project as it is supposed to look when all the parts are merged.  The merge adds text in two places and arrows in four.  If you slice that one, you'll note that the print time gets halved or more.  Perhaps I don't know what I am looking at in the plate file, but it did not appear that the infill is not present in the 3 mm thick plate, only on the display rectangle.  Thank you very much for looking and commenting, any help greatly appreciated. This file title says Rev2 but I think I mislabeled it when saving.  It should be OK

UMS5_Lighthack 2 plate merged.3mf

[burtoogle 513]

The plate isn't 3mm thick, it's only 1mm thick. It's 3mm thick in the centre and there you do get infill. Looks like you sliced 2mm off the bottom.

 

BTW, do you really need to print this using 0.06mm layer height? You could save a lot of time using 0.15 or even more.

[Geep 2]

I mis-stated the thickness of the plate, it should be 2 mm. I thought that dimension was correct in the file I attached, but apparently I was wrong.

 

Loaded in another model with that dimension and sliced it, still had no infill in the base plate.  Increased the base plate thickness by .25 to 2.25 mm, which still allows the plate to fit flush to the face of the box it goes in, sliced it, and I still see no infill.  Cura does see the total height of the plate, which is now 5.25 mm -- shows it as 5 mm, however.  The base plate is 2.25 mm and the display portion extends 3.mm above the surface.  It is actually 5 mm, but is placed 2 mm below the surface of the faceplate to make sure it anchored in place and the mounting holes go all the way through.

 

I returned to Tinkercad and re-positioned all of the components, re-exported everything.  I am attaching a new faceplate file, which Cura says will take 24 hours and 6 minutes to print using ABS an a .06 layer resolution.  I chose the extra fine print as I wanted the best finish I could get.  Also attaching the merged print with labels.  Cura says that one will take only 21 hours 47 minutes to print.  I still do not see any infill on the 2.25 mm layer in the preview view, either just the face plate or the combined project.  I don't understand how it could possibly take 4 hours less time to print the combined file.

 

Your comments are most welcome and helpful, thank you again.

UMS5_LightHack 2 Face Plate Merged REV 4 .3mf UMS5_LightHack 2 Faceplate REV 4 .3mf

[tinkergnome 927]

I still don't understand where you miss infill?

For the face plate only Cura estimates approx. 20 hours, 50 Minutes in my case - sounds reasonable.

But the whole model sits 0.36mm below the build plate - so it's perhaps different, if you have "drop model to buildplate" enabled in preferences.

 

A few notes about your model:

• the large bottom area is 2.25mm thick and is printed solid because top and bottom shell thickness are both set to 1.2mm
• the smaller rectangular area on top is 2.75mm thick - sums up to exactly 5.0mm
• i don't know if it is intended, but one of the four counter-bores in the corners is deeper than the others, on another corner the hole is not round
• the model in the first file (without text) has an serious amount of mesh errors (non-connected faces), it seems like Cura can use it anyway, but that's perhaps another reason for abnormal print times

 

BTW: i strongly doubt that the tiny layer height will have any visible effect on the surface finish of this model. It's a simple flat rectangle after all. You can very well double the layer height and you'll see no difference.

 

[Geep 2]

I printed the model last night and despite the time differences between just the face place and the full model, it printed nicely.  Before printing, I zeroed the Z axis to make sure the model was sitting flat on the build plate.  So the portion that you mentioned that was below the plate should have been fixed.  I don't have that feature turned on, just make sure by observation before each print that the model is properly placed and not below the build plate surface.

 

• the large bottom area is 2.25mm thick and is printed solid because top and bottom shell thickness are both set to 1.2mm
  • That was the area that I was referring to, and you have given me the answer.  The first time I tried this print, it was only .5 mm thick.  This time the thickness was correct.
• the smaller rectangular area on top is 2.75mm thick - sums up to exactly 5.0mm
  • It should be 5.25 mm, 2.25 plate and 3 mm for the display plate.  Cura shows 5 mm.  Perhaps it truncates to the nearest whole number.
• i don't know if it is intended, but one of the four counter-bores in the corners is deeper than the others, on another corner the hole is not round
  • Doing things like counterbores in Tinkercad is not easy.  You guess a lot at measurements, at least I do.  Not intentional, but given the thickness of the plate, it is close enough.
• the model in the first file (without text) has an serious amount of mesh errors (non-connected faces), it seems like Cura can use it anyway, but that's perhaps another reason for abnormal print times
  • That could certainly be.  I imported the plate to MeshMixer and it reported no errors.  I ran the automatic fix anyway, and exported it.  What are you using to observe the issues?  I'd like to let the Tinkercad people know, since the entire model was done there, and, IMHO, shouldn't have these issues.  Once again, I am a complete novice at CAD design, and if I could figure out how to do things in TurboCad or Vectorworks, I probably wouldn't have these problems.

Your layer height comments noted.  I need another one of these plates for a second project and will try it with a larger layer height.

 

Once again, thank you very much for the comments and help.  I am learning.  Slowly.