a lot of my files won't print at all (Ender 3)

[Camineet 0]

Hi guys, can you please help me figure this out. Most of my files won't even start to print. I've made a video here that shows some of my files will start printing fine, but some of them won't no matter how many times I try.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16jfZpIEmYZl5hXpIg93KMtP6mjbBEo1F/view?usp=sharing

 

What's going on here?

[Mari 36]

With this little information we can't really help! We don't know your machine settings nor your Cura settings!

 

Attach the project-file so we can see your machine settings and cura settings! -->File - Save Project

 

Keep filenames as short as possible, don't use spaces to make filename easy readable!

 

I see you only test 2 files, so it seems that one of the 2 files is corrupted or not sliced the way it should. Re-slice that file, put in on Micro-SD card and try again!

Edited November 15, 2020 by Mari

[GregValiant 1,251]

Mari says "Keep filenames as short as possible, don't use spaces to make filename easy readable!".  This is excellent advice.

The Creality machines don't deal well with filenames over 16 characters.  Short names are good.  I find I have to re-format the SD card every couple of weeks as well.

[geert_2 557]

I don't know about current Cura-versions, but on older versions special characters could make files invisible to the printer.

 

So indeed the above is very good advice: use only short filenames, only lower case letters a...z, numbers 0...9, and underscores or minus-signs. Nothing else. Definitely no spaces: they go broke in URLs and across some operating systems, and in batch-programs (batch copying or backups). No special characters, i.e. no: * / \ & | ? : + = " @ etcetera, as they are often interpreted as commands by operating systems, instead of as character. No foreign language characters.

 

The reason for no uppercase characters is because Linux is case-sensitive: there can be two files "data.txt" and "DATA.TXT" in one directory, each with different content. However, if you copy both to a Windows system, one is lost, because Windows is not case-sensitive, and considers both the same. So it will or overwrite the first one you copied, or skip the second one. You may or may not get a warning message "file already exists", but if you have no clue about the cause, you won't understand it anyway.

 

So, only: "a...z", "0...9", and "_" or "-". And short names indeed (UM2 can display max 20 characters, I don't know about other printers).

 

Then the file is most compatible with all operating systems and devices.

 

The diffence between "_" and "-" is mainly with search engines and line-breaks: an underscore is considered a normal non-breaking character, thus "john_johnson" is one word for search engines and word-editors. Whereas "john-johnson" is two words, and indexed and split over multiple lines accordingly.

This doesn't mean that the filename is the cause of your current issues, maybe, maybe not, but it is definitely good practice.

 

[gr5 2,172]

You should have mentioned that this is an Ender 3 as there are lots of ender 3 people on this forum but they may not have noticed this post as you didn't say anything in the title.  I'll update the title now just in case that helps.

[Mari 36]

Don't use underscore "_" to start a filename with... then the Ender 3 will not see the file...

 

Still no reply from OP... so the problem seems not as big as OP stated... 😉 (else you would visit this forum on a daily base to read the replies!)

[gr5 2,172]

lol - I know, right?  Lots of people ask a question and then apparently never come back for the answers.