Arc Welder Anti Stutter plugin

[Thiete 0]

7 hours ago, ahoeben said:

I have created a new development snapshot which includes an OS X executable of the ArcWelder console application that I manually built on an OS X 10.12 virtual machine and which seems to work there.

 

Hey @ahoeben! First of all, thank you so much for your amazing work on Arc Welder! I just got my first FDM printer and set up Octoprint only to find out firsthand about the serial stutter issue. Arc Welder makes a big difference.

 

I can confirm that the development snapshot correctly produces G2/G3-containing code on my Macbook running OSX 10.14. The marketplace version was not working for me, as reported by others. Until now I was using the octoprint plugin, but it makes a lot more sense to do this on the slicer end. 

[PricklyPear 3]

Great work, @ahoeben!

The latest development snapshot created G2/G3 code in my test file, and without throwing any errors. I will print these test files as soon as my printer is free. But here's hoping!

(MacOS 10.15.7 and Cura Arachne)

 

EDIT: The files printed great.

Edited January 17, 2021 by PricklyPear

[ahoeben 1,808]

@macmaddog if you are still interested in getting the plugin working, can you test this development snapshot? Download the file, and drop it onto the buildplate in Cura as if you were opening a 3d model. This latest version contains fix for the ArcWelder executable not being able to run to the plugin does not initialise its setting on some Windows installations. Previously I incorrectly assumed you were using a mac, because of your username :-).

[ahoeben 1,808]

15 hours ago, Thiete said:

thank you so much for your amazing work on Arc Welder!

Thanks, but the amazing part of the work is done by @FormerLurker; my plugin is just the glue between Cura and his ArcWelder application.

[ahoeben 1,808]

Version 1.1 of the ArcWelder tool was released. Here's a new development snapshot that includes the new binaries. The new binaries should fix the plugin not working on some windows systems, as well as on OS X. It also fixes compatibility with the UM2 family of printers using UltiGcode (by moving the orginal gcode header back to the top of the file after processing).

 

Please let me know if this version processes the gcode for you, especially if previous versions would not.

.

[FormerLurker 24]

@ahoeben, regarding the Ultimaker, should I be considering adding this capability to the ArcWelder console app?  If so, can you point me to some reference for how this works, and samples of the gcode header in question?  I'm just totally ignorant about ultimakers.  If I had one, I would have probably know this, and accounted for it.

[ahoeben 1,808]

The Ultimaker 2 family of printers know (and use by default) a gcode dialect named "Ultigcode". The idea is that the user selects the material on the printer instead of in the slicer, so a single gcode file could be printed with different materials. Effectively the start gcode and heating the bed and extruder are inserted on the fly by the printer firmware. 

 

The printer has to know if the current gcode file is using this Ultigcode dialect or normal Marlin, because it needs to know whether it needs to insert its start sequence. And it does so by looking at (only) the very first line of gcode, which in the case of UltiGcode must be a comment line stating that the file is an ultigcode file. ArcWelder put diagnostic comments in front of that; in the new version I am putting the preamble comments made by the slice back in front of your comments.

 

Printing Ultigcode over USB has never worked and will never work; there is no way for the printer to know when you start a print vs just issuing separate gcode commands, so the printer would not know when to insert its start gcode. In other words, Ultigcode works for SD-card printing only. And the issue that ArcWelder is trying to solve is not very prevalent in sd-card printing in the first place.

 

I would not soil your code with this very limited usecase.

 

PS: newer Ultimaker printers don't use UltiGcode anymore. Instead they use "Griffin" gcode. Yay. But at least it seems to be less picky about detecting Griffin vs Marlin.

[cgarry 0]

Is there a best place to submit a bug report?

 

I get this error when I try to save the GCODE file in Cura when the arc-welder plugin is enabled:

'Error: 'charmap' codec can't encode character '\ufeff' in position 453: character maps to <undefined>'

[ahoeben 1,808]

24 minutes ago, cgarry said:

Is there a best place to submit a bug report?

In this thread is one place, but the official place is here:

https://github.com/fieldOfView/Cura-ArcWelderPlugin/issues

 

The particular bug has been mentioned before in this thread. The latest development snapshot should fix it. Download the file and drop it on the Cura buildplate as if you were opening a 3d model.

[Snarg 0]

Hello,

 

I have a CR-10s that I have installed about EZBoard Lite (a 32 bit board) into. I also primarily print via SD. Is this plugin if any use/interst to me? If yes, do I need to change Cura's Mesh Resolution settings at all?

 

Thank you for your time.

[ahoeben 1,808]

I honestly don't know. Try it.

 

The ArcWelder technique was originally thought of to reduce the amount of gcode that needs to be sent to the printer while printing detailed models via USB, because the USB printing protocol can be overloaded with gcode that is too detailed. especially on underpowered 8-bit boards. However that does not mean that only USB connections can be overloaded. It may or may not have benefits in other scenarios. But generally, unless you have stuttering issues with your prints, I don't think the plugin should improve your prints.

Edited February 3, 2021 by ahoeben

[dfrez 18]

On 12/31/2020 at 2:44 AM, ahoeben said:

Hmm, strange. Can you post a link to your Cura.log file?

I'm having the same issue as @macmaddog. Running Cura 4.2 on Windows 10. I checked that the plugin was installed, I also disabled, enabled and restarted Cura. Still not seeing the Arc Welder plugin under Special Modes. 

 

Where do you find the log file?

[ahoeben 1,808]

9 hours ago, dfrez said:

Still not seeing the Arc Welder plugin under Special Modes. 

Did you try the latest development snapshot?. Download the file and drop it on the Cura buildplate as if you were opening a 3d model.

[ScoutParamotor 0]

Hi, I also tried using the plugin but nothing shows up in special modes. As you can see from the linked image, I installed it and it is ticked, also restarted. Wet to settings and nothing... SOMEONE PLS HELP ME :(

[dfrez 18]

6 hours ago, ahoeben said:

Did you try the latest development snapshot?. Download the file and drop it on the Cura buildplate as if you were opening a 3d model.

 

I tried this and it's still not coming up.

 

I installed it just fine through the plugin manager on my other laptop which is running Cura 4.6 and Windows 10. 🤷‍♂️

[Snarg 0]

With ArcWelder installed what, if anything, should I change under the Cura Mesh Resolution, Maximum Travel Resolution and Maximum Deviation settings?

 

Again, thank you for your time.

[ahoeben 1,808]

22 hours ago, dfrez said:

I tried this and it's still not coming up.

 

What exactly did you try? Did you try the exact link I wrote in my reply to you, or one of the several other links to development snapshots in this thread? There are several different development snapshots listed in this thread, and they don't all contain the fix for the issue you seem to be having; only the latest ones do. The filename should be "ArcWelderPlugin-v7.0.0-2021-01-25T11 08 03Z.curapackage".

22 hours ago, dfrez said:

I installed it just fine through the plugin manager on my other laptop

The version in the Marketplace relies on a dll being present on your system. One of your laptops has that dll, the other does not. The development snapshot I linked to has a newer version of ArcWelder, which no longer needs that dll. I have submitted a new version of the plugin to the Marketplace, but it is awaiting approval.

 

[ahoeben 1,808]

12 hours ago, Snarg said:

With ArcWelder installed what, if anything, should I change under the Cura Mesh Resolution, Maximum Travel Resolution and Maximum Deviation settings?

The defaults should be a good starting point.

[dfrez 18]

44 minutes ago, ahoeben said:

 

What exactly did you try? Did you try the exact link I wrote in my reply to you, or one of the several other links to development snapshots in this thread? There are several different development snapshots listed in this thread, and they don't all contain the fix for the issue you seem to be having; only the latest ones do. The filename should be "ArcWelderPlugin-v7.0.0-2021-01-25T11 08 03Z.curapackage".

The version in the Marketplace relies on a dll being present on your system. One of your laptops has that dll, the other does not. The development snapshot I linked to has a newer version of ArcWelder, which no longer needs that dll. I have submitted a new version of the plugin to the Marketplace, but it is awaiting approval.

 

I did exactly what you said. I downloaded the file in your reply to me, which matches the filename you stated. Then I dropped it into Cura as if it were a 3D model, and I restarted Cura like it prompted me to do. 

[ahoeben 1,808]

On 2/5/2021 at 2:16 PM, dfrez said:

I did exactly what you said

Ok, then I need your Cura.log to see if there is anything in there. It can be found via Help -> Show configuration folder. Please don't copy/paste the file into a post here, but upload it somewhere and post a link here.

 

Edit: is there a non-ascii character in your Windows username?

Edited February 6, 2021 by ahoeben

[Snarg 0]

That made my printer try to print crazy fast. Lot's of clicking from the extruder. CR-10s with TH3D's EZBoard Lite, Cura 4.8.0 and, what I assume, the most current Arc Welder plugin. I don't recall the exact Marlin version I am running but it is 2 something.

 

Links included to the original .stl, Cura's .3mf layout file, Cura profiles with AW on and off, and gcode files from AW on and AW off.

 

Original .stl: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jpynj6nkb5rkfsl/sloth.stl?dl=0

.3mf layout file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pswsva8b78tn8zd/sloth.3mf?dl=0

gcode with AW off: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ib4nsgn8t7en67h/aw_off_sloth.gcode?dl=0

gcode with AW on: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gl68ucmovmqn02i/aw_on_sloth.gcode?dl=0

cura profile with AW on: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xsjhmwskhrsso9l/aw_on_sloth.curaprofile?dl=0

cura profile with AW off: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3ofg0ba4gmth0t5/aw_off_sloth.curaprofile?dl=0

 

If you need any other information, please, let me know.

[ahoeben 1,808]

It is possible that the firmware in your printer does not support curve gcode commands. I don't know what firmware flavor you use. Also my plugin is just glue between Cura and the ArcWelder processor developed by @FormerLurker. I can't help you much with the actual results.

[FormerLurker 24]

@snarg, I ran your welded gcode through simplify to see what I could find, and it doesn't appear as though the speeds are unreasonable.  However, I've gotten a couple reports about your exact printer and firmware doing exactly the same thing.  See this issue in my GitHub repo.

 

 

[FormerLurker 24]

Also, @fieldOfView, I want to personally thank you again for fielding all these questions.  I really appreciate all of the great work you do.  I understand the sheer effort it takes, so I'm doubly thankful!

[Snarg 0]

Here is the firmware I am using:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e8ja3lo9jnwdvuo/TH3D_Unified2_TH3D_EZBoardLite-UFW_2.13.zip?dl=0

Edited February 5, 2021 by Snarg