Cura 4.8.0 appears to not start slicing

[bccarlso 0]

I've just started trying to figure out how to print miniatures on my Ender 3, and trying to learn how/why different suggested profile settings affect the print, I've built this profile (this is what opens up as "readable" at least): https://pastebin.com/aquTGHpz

 

From that profile, I'm attempting to slice mandoriflebase.stl from this model: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3989757

 

Cura's status rectangle thing in the lower right enters the "Slicing…" mode that I'm used to seeing, but does not progress at all, even after waiting one hour (this is what it looks like: https://i.imgur.com/z5dQKdk.png). I wouldn't suspect these settings on this small of a mini would be taking that long to slice? Any idea why slicing might be "hanging"? Or is there a log somewhere to reference what's going on? Thanks!

[gr5 2,234]

So I looked at that file on thingiverse.  300MB!  Holy crap.  And that's compressed.  So the slicer has to intersect every slice with all of those triangles in the STL.

 

You need to reduce the quantity of triangels before you slice.  I mean if you were printing one 20 feet tall then yeah - that kind of resolution might be useful.

 

Anyway, I recommend reducing triangles down to about 50K or even just 5k triangles.  See how much resolution you lose and decide if that's too much or okay for a "miniature".  This program is free - instructions:

http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/polygon_reduction_with_meshlab

 

 

[bccarlso 0]

Thank you! I actually reduced the # of top layers by a "9" until it started slicing and sure enough after taking 3-4 off, it would slice. It's printing now so we'll see how it goes, but thanks for the update on reducing polygons, will be useful to have.

[gr5 2,234]

Reducing polygons saves you hours of wasted time.  It makes all the software such as cura much speedier/snappier and more pleasant to work with.  And keeps cura from crashing.