SD card - reads folders but the the STL's

[lee 2]

I finally got my SD reader and finished building my ulti controller...

everything works fine now, and the card is recognised when i put the card in and get "card menu" etc etc etc

now i see folders inside my SD card, but i don't see any STL's

umm - err - ???

I'm almost certain the controller can read STL files and feel daft asking that question... what else could it be. It is a 2gb SD (standard) Fat32

 

[gadgetfreak 7]

No stl files, it needs to be sliced to gcode files first.

[lee 2]

any tuts about ?

 

[lee 2]

think i found it.. in cura export geode and save that to the card. out of interest does it need the stl files in there to or is the geode file enough ?

 

[IRobertI 514]

The printer only needs the G-code, it has no idea what an STL is.

Also, when the card is inserted in your computer there should be an "SD" button in the 3D window at the top, that's a short cut to save the file to the card. Note that it will use the same filename as the stl and will overwrite any other G-code file on the card with the same name.

 

[illuminarti 18]

No, the STL's never need to go anywhere near the printer. Just gcode.

 

[Daid 303]

STL files describe the geometry of your model. So how it "looks".

GCode files describe how the printer should move to produce this actual model, and how much material to put where.

Going from STL to GCode is a complex process (usually called "slicing", but I rather call it "processing", as slicing is actually only 1 of the steps you need to do)

This process needs to be done on a PC, and currently cannot be done on the printer, due to the large amount of processing and memory requirements.

Cura does this STL->GCode conversion for you. The Cura manual should help you here: https://www.ultimaker.com/pages/support/manuals

 

[lee 2]

Thanks for you advice this is know complete.

I am missing the different % i can set for my printing as i usually have

ouside line : 90%

inside : 120%

fill : 120

support 150%

and with the UC its one percentage for all. but thats ok i just set it at 70mm/p/s and be done with it

 

[illuminarti 18]

The slicer only offers two speed settings to build into the gcode - the print speed, and infill speed. For best results in most circumstance, set the print speed, and leave the infill speed at 0, so it defaults to the print speed.