Fan On when printing top layer of infill

[MrAlvin 0]

I would like a clickable option in Cura, where the fan is turned ON when ever the top layer (of what is otherwise considered an infill area) is being printed. 

Right now I need to edit the g-code file in order to tun on the fan. But it would be so much more nice, if a general (clickable) option was available. 

If the infill level is low, then the top layer can be considered as a lot of short bridges. And bridges come out better, if the correct level of cooling is/can be  applied when printing the bridge. 


Any other suggestions, of how to automatically add some cooling to at least the first layer of the top of an infill area? 

[GregValiant 1,142]

I'm not sure if it would be easier than hand editing but the Search and Replace plugin can add multiple commands when you separate each command with "\n" (backslash+n)

 

For example:  You see in the Cura preview that you want 100% fan for layer 125.  (Remembering that Cura uses base 1 numbering for layers and Gcode uses base 0 and that fans are PWM) a Search and Replace instance would be configured to:

Search = ;LAYER:124 

Replace = ;Layer:124\nM106 S255

That would result in your gcode looking like:

;LAYER:124

M106 S255

Additional Search and Replace instances could turn the fan off or whatever.  Layer numbers are consistent and easy to search for.  You don't have to put the layer number back in during the replacement, but it makes it easier to check that the process worked.

 

I put in a request over on Github for a new feature to add a cooling profile.  IdeaMaker has it and I've written my own post-processor to do the same thing.  I think it would be handy (I almost typed "cool" but that would have been a terrible pun).  I don't code in Python (and have no intention of learning how) so we'll see if somebody picks up the ball on that.

Edited November 19, 2021 by GregValiant