Some gliches and features improvement

[plgarcia 0]

I am a Cura user for many years now since I bought my very first Chinese Prusa I3.

This is a great software with many interesting features. That is the only software I use for my FDM printers.

But I have noticed some glitches and some things not optimal. I have photos and screen shots to explain each of them and I have ideas on how to solve problems introduced. Here is a first list:

1 – Minor, preview mode: A glitch I experienced a few times: one of the layers in preview mode to be displayed on the build plate and not at the right height. Thankfully the gcode is correct the layer is at the right place. Re-slicing changes nothing. Closing and restarting Cura makes the glitch disappear. I have a screen shot if of interest.

2 - Annoying, Adaptative layers: Adaptative layers is a great idea, but obviously the width of the external wall depends on the thickness of the layer. This is probably because extra pressure is required to extrude thinner layers, so not enough material is extruded for thinner layers. But I can reduce this effect by using a line with bigger than the nozzle diameter (0.45 for 0.4 mm for example) what introduces other problems. See next point.

3 – Annoying, line width, bridges, ceilings: When using a line width bigger than the nozzle diameter, the bridges are looser as there is no squish of the flow. There may be different ways, but the solution could be to have adaptative width depending on the layer height and how the line is supported by the previous layer.

4 – Serious, Gradual Infill Steps: This feature leads to create infill at a certain level. When the top surface is not even this lead to start infill connected neither to the walls nor to other infills lines, in other word created in midair what cannot work and may cause blobs and jams. When creating infill or subdivision of the infill, the few first lines should be connected at every end either to the wall or to another stable infill structure.

5 - Annoying, Adaptative layers: The layer height may be inaccurate for bridges what leads to various quality of ceilings (as the one in the Benchy) depending on the height of the current layer.

 

Let me know what to do with these remarks. Maybe it is not the right pace to report bugs and suggest evolutions.

I can provide more information and start a topic for each of these that is considered as of interest.

I can also participate.

Regards

Pascal Garcia

[fvrmr 73]

Hi @plgarcia 

For bugs and feature request please report Github: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/new/choose 

A quick answer to your questions now.

1. What OS are you using? We are currently having some problems with Big Sur and the M1 chip that new MacOS computers have. 

2, 3 and 5. Please be aware that adaptive layers and bridging is in experimental. But a feature request is always welcome on Github. 

4. This is a known issue, but changing this would only apply on certain infill patterns. But it wouldn't be for concentric, cross and gyroid infill. 

 

And you can always create your own pull request of changes you made on Github, because Cura is open source. 🙂 

 

Let me know if this makes sense to you!

 

[plgarcia 0]

Thank you for your response.

That is for me the first contact with this community that is why I ask questions to provide the appropriate level of information at the right place.

 

I am not using Mac. I am using Windows 10 Professional. But I encountered this glitch also on a Windows 7 Professional. To be fair only once on each of these system in many years of use. Sure it is not often. As restarting Cura solves the problem it is not reproducible what makes this bug difficult to analyze.

 

For the development it could be possible. I have not much time to spend. I will start to setup an environment to compile and analyze, and if the effort is not to great, I will be happy to participate.

 

Regards

[fvrmr 73]

2 hours ago, plgarcia said:

I am not using Mac. I am using Windows 10 Professional. But I encountered this glitch also on a Windows 7 Professional. To be fair only once on each of these system in many years of use. Sure it is not often. As restarting Cura solves the problem it is not reproducible what makes this bug difficult to analyze.

 

Then it is indeed hard to debug. But when it happens more often, please let us know on Github!