New Plugin: Z-lift

[davidbue 0]

Hi all,

I've just gotten around to create an account, and decided to celebrate it by uploading one of my home-brew Cura plugins. I have added it to the wiki, but am unsure if I have done so correctly. First time I've been messing about with the mediawiki system.

If I am not following the guidelines, please help me fix it. :-P

http://wiki.ultimaker.com/CuraPlugin:_zLift

I call the plugin zLift and it is a plugin tested with Cura 13.12. It is a plugin that emulates the Z-lifting behaviour of the heavy industrial FDM machines. On fast-moves, (from one spot to the other, without extruding) the tool-chain of these machines looks like this:

1. The nozzle is lifted ever so slightly over the build

2. The nozzle is moved to the new position

3. The nozzle is sat down on the build again

The purpose of this tool-chain, giving my best guess, is to avoid collisions with defects protruding from the build surface, but not least, to minimise the unwanted effects of nozzle oozing. While the nozzle is lifted, no strings of oozing filament will be drawn from the build to the nozzle. Instead a droplet forms underneath the nozzle and will be deposited when the nozzle is sat down on the build again. Given that there is a bit of hysteresis on the extrusion startup after the fast move, this deposited droplet merely compensates for otherwise missing deposition of material. As such the ooze is no longer a phenomenon that deteriorate print quality. It is turned into a beneficial phenomenon.

Adding this plugin to Cura will enable the lift functionality under the Plugins pane. There are thee process parameters you can adjust.

Z lift (mm) - The lift height

Z lift federate (mm/sec) - The speed at which the nozzle is lifted. Don't stall your Z-axis! Be careful not to exceed this speed.

Min length (XY) before lifting (mm) - This parameter is used to prevent lift when doing fast-moves over short distances

 

Enjoy, and do supervise your first print job. The plugin has only been tested on my own deltabot. :-|

 

Cheers!

David

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

After having just a very quick look at the code I think it's a nice piece of software. Thank you for sharing!

Sometimes 'lifting the head' can be something nice indeed. I wrote myself a similar plugin when improving results with the dual extruder where oozing is much more visible than just with one extruder. But actually mine is coupled to retraction while yours executes the lift at certain logical points.

You may add the 'help' preamble in order to automatically link the plugin in Cura to the Wiki page with the description.