Automated calibration towers plugin

[bradk3 14]

Hi, everybody!

 

After quite a lot of struggle, learning, and some very valuable help from this forum, I've written the initial version of a plugin to automate the creation of calibration towers in Cura (temperature towers, retraction towers, and fan towers).

 

This plugin takes 5axes' excellent "calibration shapes" plugin to the next level by automating nearly the entire process of creating a calibration tower, including adding post-processing.  Creating a temperature tower for PLA, for instance, is as easy as selecting the "Temp Tower (PLA)" item from the "Auto Towers" menu, slicing, and printing.

 

I've done fairly extensive testing on my Linux machine and some very limited testing on a Windows machine, but I would love some feedback before I introduce it to the marketplace.

 

If anyone would like to try it out and let me know how it works for you, the plugin is hosted on GitHub here: https://github.com/kartchnb/AutoTowersPlugin.  Any feedback is welcome - advice for improvements, especially so.

 

I'm still fairly new at GitHub (and Cura plugins), but I believe you should be able to install this by downloading the latest release from here: https://github.com/kartchnb/AutoTowersPlugin/releases and saving it in your Cura plugin directory in an "AutoTowersPlugin' folder.

 

Although it works for me, there is no guarantee it will work for you and not blow up your printer.  Sorry if it does, but you've been warned.

[nallath 1,124]

Have you also uploaded the plugin to the marketplace? I expect that you will get a lot more attention for it via that route. You can upload it on contribute.ultimaker.com/

[bradk3 14]

I was hoping to get some feedback first, but that may be the best first step.  Thank you!

[Cuq 206]

I have made a short test on Windows but it doesn't work for me. Despite the right path to the openscad.exe file I always  got the same error message regarding the location of this file

[bradk3 14]

4 hours ago, Cuq said:

I have made a short test on Windows but it doesn't work for me. Despite the right path to the openscad.exe file I always  got the same error message regarding the location of this file

First, thank you for taking the time to try this. 

 

I was afraid something like this would happen.  I'm going to get access to a Windows machine and do some more testing and get back with you to sort this out.  

 

Cheers!

[Gero 54]

I just wanted to write a quick "following". 

 

I just ended up slicing a new temperature tower print for my S5 to test some alternative PVA material while I discovered this thread.
I really like the plug-in idea for those automated generated towers for material calibration so I am just here to follow the progress.

There are quite some material profiles out there that could need some fine tuning and I would enjoy testing these much more with your plug-in.

 

Looking forward for it!

[bradk3 14]

1 hour ago, Gero said:

I just wanted to write a quick "following". 

 

I just ended up slicing a new temperature tower print for my S5 to test some alternative PVA material while I discovered this thread.
I really like the plug-in idea for those automated generated towers for material calibration so I am just here to follow the progress.

There are quite some material profiles out there that could need some fine tuning and I would enjoy testing these much more with your plug-in.

 

Looking forward for it!

Thanks for the note!

 

It sounds like I still have some issues to work out (at least on Windows), but I'll be sure to follow up with my progress.

[Torgeir 280]

Hi Brad,

 

I've also tried with Win10 and Cura 4.13 (beta) plus Cura 4.12.1 with no success.

 

Here's a screen dump of message.

 

The two files "appear" to be the same, but haven't investigated.. so not that sure..

 

Thanks

Torgeir

 

[bradk3 14]

12 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Hi Brad,

 

I've also tried with Win10 and Cura 4.13 (beta) plus Cura 4.12.1 with no success.

I really appreciate you taking the time to try this out.  I knew Windows was going to be trouble.

 

If you get a moment, and don't mind, it would help if you could send me your cura.log file, so I can see what's causing my plugin not to load.  Regardless, I'll see what I can figure out.  

[Torgeir 280]

Hi Brad,

 

I'll PT you the config file and the log file.

 

Torgeir

[krummelk 1]

This seems to be working for me, but I was wondering about how to interpret the flow-tower?

[bradk3 14]

Great question!  

 

The flow tower changes the amount of filament extruded through the nozzle and should be the same as adjusting Cura's "Flow" setting.  

 

So, for example, a flow rate of 50% will result in your printer laying down half the filament as it normally would. 

 

I hope that makes sense.

 

Thank you for asking!  I'm very glad it's working for you!