BETA Help us test Ultimaker Cura 4.5 beta!

[Guest maht]

Hi everyone,

 

Ultimaker Cura 4.5 beta just went out into the wild. Get a preview of new features and help us gather as much user feedback as possible. The stable release will go live two weeks from today.

 

The focus of this release is integration with our brand-spanking-new web-based Marketplace. Use the web Marketplace to add plugins and print profiles (a.k.a packages) to your Ultimaker account, completely outside of Cura. When you log in to your account within Cura, you'll be prompted to synchronize packages if differences are detected in your installation.

 

The result? A simplified experience, without the hassle of manual package installs. Synchronize your packages on multiple workstations. Packages are tied to your account, so if you’re logged in within Cura 4.5 or later, (and the package maintainer keeps their package compatible with the latest SDK), your packages will be with you.

 

What about community contributions?

This release merges a great deal of pull requests from our community, with various improvements to the CuraEngine, fixes to some persistent bugs, and native compatibility for popular third-party printers (find them in the 'add printer' list).

 

As usual, a special thanks goes out to smartavionics (aka @burtoogle) and @fieldOfView for their valuable contributions.

 

fieldOfview continues to maintain one of the most popular plugins in the Ultimaker Marketplace; the Octoprint Connection plugin, as well as a useful code optimization to make Cura load faster on start, and a lot of other stuff that we are in awe of.

 

Lots of plugins are still being updated to our latest SDK, and we hope to have them in for the stable release. @thopiekar has updated his very popular set of CAD integration plugins, and they will be filtering through to the Marketplace soon.

 

smartavionics made some notable contributions to the CuraEngine, including a new shared heater option in the machine profile menu for printers with one nozzle but multiple extruders, and new settings to add walls into the infill underneath where a skin layer stops, reducing the chance of skin sagging at the edges.

 

Thanks to the help and feedback from our community, we were also able to fix a major Windows bug that would prevent Cura from opening. Proof that sending logs is useful.

 

There are still a lot of PRs in the queue, and we do our best to answer as many as we can, while keeping things on track with our roadmap! Be gentle with us.

 

Release notes will become available on GitHub in time for the stable release. In the meantime, help us out by exploring this release and offering us your feedback.

 

What's the best way to give feedback?

This is beta software, so naturally bugs will be found. If you should find one, please let us know, it's extremely helpful to get that feedback so we can produce a quality product. We’ll be able to help you effectively when you follow these guidelines:

 

For Cura-related issues, e.g. "Cura has crashed on startup", post it in this thread, and include as much detail as you can about the issue. The likelihood of us being able to help you is massively improved if you include .3mf project files and logs with your report.

 

You can also post issues you find on GitHub, being sure to fill the issue template completely and attaching logs/zipped 3mf project files.

 

For web marketplace and account-based issues, e.g. "Packages from the web marketplace aren't installing” post in our brand new online services forum subcategory, and our cloud services team can pick it up and talk you through things.

 

See the marketing blog here. Find the beta here (underneath the big blue button).

 

We look forward to your logs!

 

[Guest maht]

Update: I added some release notes, too

[thopiekar 46]

All plugins have been reviewed and are available through the marketplace now.

 

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

- Thomas

[Adam324 13]

Nice that the marketplace is updated.  Thanks.  Will start testing it myself.  I depend on the ZOffset plugin to work.

I wonder if the burtoogle fix for adaptive layers will ever get integrated.  It fixes the issue where if you set dynamic layers to 0.2 with a variation down to 0.1 and up to 0.3, The top layer count will not factor in that the top layer might be at 0.1mm layer height.  It takes the 0.2mm layer height to figure out how many layers instead of 0.1mm.  You end up with only 4 layers of 0.1 mm instead of 8 layers of 0.1 mm to equal the top thickness setting of 0.8 mm top skin.

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by Adam324

[burtoogle 513]

1 hour ago, Adam324 said:

I wonder if the burtoogle fix for adaptive layers will ever get integrated. 

 

The fix (https://github.com/Ultimaker/CuraEngine/pull/1094) is still waiting for the UM devs to decide whether they want it or not.

[AcJoker 0]

Hello,

I'm testing the beta and I'm happy that Cura is now starting without a compatibility mode.
It was probably due to an HTTP request, after shortly after running in compatibility mode I was able to start Cura normally.

But now in beta I have a gray border on the bed above and below, and that without skirt / brim / raft.
What could be the reason for this?
A new function?

I use an Ender 3 Pro.

 

[hi1rob 0]

well lets try :D

 

[johnnyphive 0]

Decided to give Cura on Windows another shot, as I'm a victim of the issue discussed here (https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/26654-cura-crashes-my-entire-computer/) and here (https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/5265), but alas, Cura still hard locks my machine.  As any investigation gone in too this lately?  I have a Pi set up to run cura, but man, it gets painfully slow sometimes.

[DivingDuck 104]

I recognize a little "maybe" glitch:

Settings Guide wasn't asking for an update after installation of Cura 4.5 beta and the plugin wasn't listed under menu item Extensions. Going to Marketplace the plugin was listed as installed and up to date and after clicking on Installed I was asked to update the plugin. Doing so the plugin was working again.

[DivingDuck 104]

Translation DE

There shouldn't be two different menu entries with exactly the same translation. This always ask for confusion using an UI.

 

 

 

[DivingDuck 104]

I'm just working on my experimental printer and recognize after activating in my printer profile an additional extruder I loose the ability to print in sequence because of not available menu entry under Special Modes. Guess this behavior isn't intended?

 

Printer with one extruder in printer definition:

 

Printer with two extruder in printer definition:

Edited February 22, 2020 by DivingDuck

[ahoeben 1,948]

Yes, that’s intended behavior

[DivingDuck 104]

Oh. Can you tell why? I like to ask because of implementing a tool changer.

[ahoeben 1,948]

Exactly because of toolchangers. Cura does not know what movements the head makes to change tools. That path might crash the head into previously printed parts, which can be higher than the current part.

 

If you know that this will never be an issue for your printer, you can enable the setting in your printer definition.

 

nb: this has not changed since Cura 2.x

Edited February 23, 2020 by ahoeben

[Guest maht]

The stable release is now live, please follow up in this thread