Request Opening project files - VS - Keeping profiles, material- and printer settings clean (update / create new)

[denkgeraeusch 1]

Hi 🙂

I'm new to Cura slicer, so please correct me, if I'm understanding things wrong here regarding how cura project files work.

 

A classic usecase of opening old project files in cura imho is to print them on the printer currently configured, with the material currently configured (as this is what is available at the moment in your workshop). Nevertheless, one would want to load the print settings that were once saved to that cura project file to continue, where you left off. At the same time one would likely want to compare these old print settings to the current profile.

In contrast to that usecase, at the moment cura either loads everything or nothing from the old cura project file while only providing the option to overwrite current setups or create new setups. This either leads to months-old configurations having your current setup overwritten (who would want that?) or it leads to a mess of profiles, printers and materials. I think, opening an old project file should focus more on the classic usecase described before.

 

Short | The Goal / Request:
Assume you want to open an old .3mf Cura project to your current Cura setup. It should be possible to load the print settings profile contained in this old .3mf-file while neither overwriting the current profile nor creating a new profile or changing the current printer and material setup.

After the old project file was loaded, its stored old print settings should be shown as temporary changes from the current profile without acually changing the current profile. It should further be selectable to use the current printer and material setup instead of the setup of the old file. Adding one option each in the drop down menu appearing when opening a file should allow this selection and solve the problem. (See details below)
If desired, the print settings can still be saved as new profile afterwards.

In Detail | My problem broken down to a minimum example and a possivle solution:

• I have initially created let's say
  • one profile containing print settings
  • one printer preset
  • one custom material
• I loaded a .stl-file and sliced it with these settings
• I saved the GCode file and the .3mf cura project file
• In the following days or weeks I update the print settings profile, the printer preset with improved Start- and End-GCode and the custom material to further improve my cura setup and print, print, print...
• Weeks or months later, I open my old .3mf cura project file in order to print it (again) with improved settings.
• Cura gives me the option to either load the model or the project file. (Ok, so far so good.)
  • If I load the model, I can use the current printer and material setup, but I can't use the print settings profile contained in the file. (Ok, so far so good.)
  • If I load the project file, Cura only lets me choose to have the current printer-, profile- and material settings either updated or created new based on the old file.
    • Thus, Cura forces me, to create a new profile, printer and material setup for every file I load in order to not compromise my current setup. This leads to a huge mess.
    • It would be much cleaner imho to add the following options to the dropdown menu (see attatched sceenshot):
      • Printer settings: Use current printer settings
      • Profile settings: Add print settings from .3mf file as changes from the currently active profile (Keep existing profiles unchanged)
      • Material settings: Use current material settings

I would really appreciate if it would be considered to facilitate project file handling in the described way or if someone could explain to me, what I'm doing wrong.

Thank you very much in advance :-)

[4n0nyM 2]

Is there any news on this? I also find it very annoying that an old project file breaks a carefully maintained profile.

[Cuq 162]

This option is already available since a long time . In the general settings : Default behavior when opening a project file.

 

If you select "Always ask me this" , When you will load a project you will have the choice between :

 

Open As project -> the default behaviour with the choice of the creation or update of the existing profile. 

OR Import Model. In this case Cura will only load the geometry, And in this case the current printer, the current profile and the current material are used.

 

[4n0nyM 2]

Thank you for the quick reply.
I know the function so far, but maybe I'm missing something. For example, I save a file as a project where I have carefully thought about the fill, support settings, walls, etc.. However, I have a retract of 1.2mm there. After some time I then want to print the object again and therefore import it as a project in Cura. In the meantime, however, I have optimized the retract and set it to 0.8mm. After importing, however, my profile is overwritten and the retract is set to 1.2mm. 
Why isn't the value simply entered without overwriting the profile, so that I can simply press the reset arrow?
So that it looks like this, for example:

The same is true for the Start G-code. Without overwriting it permanently, I would find a temporary overwrite, with reset arrow much better.

[Cuq 162]

Hello,

That's a different request from the initial demand. But on this point I'm totaly agree with you. It's almost impossible to know what have been modified and if you say "Update",  your profile are automaticaly updated whitout any option to get back the initial state. So by security you prefer to create a new one and after a while you have dozens of profile #1 #2 #3.. But you don't know what is the real good one.  Profile management in Cura sucks ! 🙂   

Thats Why I'm not using it 😢

Edited June 1, 2022 by Cuq

[SionSR 0]

I too find the project management confusing. It would help me if I could edit the .3mf files without using the GUI. Is there a Python add on that can do this?

Hacking the g-code is laborious. 

[fgprim 0]

Switching layer height +-0.06mm between files of the same work and just found why my profile configurations got modified "by themselves".

My bad I didn't read (thought I was just overriding current settings with old ones, not Updating my profile), but I still find it an awful workaround creating a new profile. (No rollback, one missclick and I lose my base profile)

I mean for just one work I need 4-5 profiles -minimum- because of small changes?....or maybe shuld I memorize every little change? Come on guys, counterintuitive

[denkgeraeusch 1]

 

Thanks for all the replies 🙂
 

On 5/30/2022 at 10:32 PM, Cuq said:

This option is already available since a long time . In the general settings : Default behavior when opening a project file.

@Cuq, I know this feature but unfortunately this doesn't solve my problem. Actually, @4n0nyM and later also @Cuq are describing exactly the problem I have with Cura file/profile/settings management. Maybe it is time to move on to another Slicer - just for the sake of better management of saved files and settings - it's a shame 😕
 

On 6/1/2022 at 11:13 AM, 4n0nyM said:

[...] After importing, however, my profile is overwritten [...]
Why isn't the value simply entered without overwriting the profile, so that I can simply press the reset arrow?[...]
The same is true for the Start G-code. Without overwriting it permanently, I would find a temporary overwrite, with reset arrow much better.

 

On 6/1/2022 at 12:02 PM, Cuq said:

It's almost impossible to know what have been modified and if you say "Update",  your profile are automaticaly updated whitout any option to get back the initial state. So by security you prefer to create a new one and after a while you have dozens of profile #1 #2 #3.. But you don't know what is the real good one.  Profile management in Cura sucks ! 🙂   

Thats Why I'm not using it 😢

Do you have recommendations for slicers with better file/profile/settings management? Where can feature requests be sent to the cura team?

[denkgeraeusch 1]

I opened a feature request on github:

https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/14564#issue-1585708583

I would very much appreciate the support by those frustrated with the suboptimal management of files/profiles/settings by current Cura versions.