Cura is Great but there are some things I wish they would add

[Rickz1222 1]

I am really enjoying the new Cura 5.0 took me forever to build a printer profile again though, as I am running an ender 3 pro with a 2 in 1 out mixing hotend that works great.  I only wish that instead of having to do everything from the beginning everytime I update, Cura would add the option to just add an extruder to the ender 3 pro profile.  I just don't understand why they haven't done this yet as there are a ton of people now running mixing hotends and IDEX kits on these ender 3's.  I have been running Cura since I purchased my first printer 3 years ago, and it gets better and better, it just gets tiresome having to build these profiles from scratch all the time.  

 

Rick

[GregValiant 1,112]

There are different ways to do it.

I altered the Creality_base.def.json file to include up to 4 extruders.  That meant adding extruders and nozzles.  When I update Cura I copy those files into their respective folders in the new Cura.

I altered the creality_ender3Pro.def.json file so it has my own start and end gcodes and some other defaults that I prefer.  That also gets copied into a new version of Cura.

If you export your settings profiles then you will have them to import after upgrading Cura.

One thing about Cura is it is heavily customizable.  It does require some maintenance to move your changes from one version to the next but the way I've decided to do it I'm not actually typing in a bunch of changes, just copying files and that only takes a minute or two.

[PeterT08 0]

Its more of a question then a post I been searching for a few weeks now and cant get an anwser or fix anywhere I have windows 11. I use a creality 10s Pro V2.  I just opened up a file and as I normally do I go and scale my model, then I go and rotate my model on its x axis and I notice that the scale of the y, and z swap places. So i tried again and rotated from a y axis and instead ity swaped x and z scale and of course did the same with the z axis and its swaped x and y axis is there a way to fix this please I am losing my mind and sleep please and thank you I havent changed anything other then I updated to Cura 5.0

[GregValiant 1,112]

That may be a fault in your Cura installation but there are some oddities with the Rotate Tool that may be involved.

 

When you rotate a model it's X Y Z coordinate system stays oriented to the World rather than rotating with the model.  If you try to rotate first and then scale using the handles, you'll see some really weird stretching go on with the model.  The only way around that I have found is to rotate the model last (and that includes support blockers).

Because the coordinate system doesn't rotate with the model:

• When you rotate 90° about the Z:
  • The X dimension becomes the Y dimension and the Y dimension becomes the X dimension.
• When you rotate the model 180° about the Z:
  • The dimensions don't appear to change because the model is still the same size along those axes as it was before the rotation.
• When you rotate the model 45°:
  • The model size becomes a trig function of however big it was when it was square to the world.  If you rotate a 25mm cube about the "Z" by 45° you will see the X and Y dimensions in the Scale boxes change to 25 / SIN(45) =35.3553 but the Scale% remains 100% if that's where it was.  If you had already scaled the model then the % numbers may look wacky too.

I know...it's confusing to say the least.  The numbers in the "scale" boxes reflect the size of the "bounding box" of the model and that bounding box stays square to the world no matter how you rotate the model.  But the bounding box changes size according to how the model is orientated within it.

 

Maybe you have noticed that the "Y" orientation of the model coordinate system is "mirrored" in relation to the build plate coordinate system.  When you grab the "Y" handle and pull it in IT'S  positive direction - the model moves in a negative "Y" according to the build plate coordinate system.

 

Rotate the model last and hopefully your dementia will go back to being dimensions.

 

Bring a model into Cura.  Multiply the model so there are two.  Right click and select "Select all models" then right click again and select "Group Models".  There is your bounding box.  Now rotate it.

Edited June 12, 2022 by GregValiant

[PeterT08 0]

Thank you for the quick response. I have have not used support blockers yet so not sure how to use then yet. I have Uninstaller and reinstalled cura many times already so it's there a way to fix it the coordinated rotate around the model the way they should be. Thank you. 

[GregValiant 1,112]

There is no way to "Fix" it without opening up the files and changing the code.  I put in a request on Github just for the translate tool so the Y would agree with the Cura build plate.  One fella came up with a fix in the code that controls the handles but all the other handles were backwards and it was more confusing than ever.  I went back to the standard Cura way.  You get used to it but it never feels right.

I absolutely know for sure to "Rotate Last".