Request CURA 5.x & Avoid Filling Small Gaps

[OPC 2]

Hi,

Is there anyway to avoid filling small gaps in CURA 5 ?

In previous versions I REALLY liked the "Fill gaps between walls" & "Filter out tiny gaps" setting, so I could avoid filling these gaps. 

 

I have a decade old ultimaker II ext Mark II w Octoprint (which I have a love hate relationship with), but it prints way better when I can avoid the unnecessary blobs of extrusion, travel moves, and print in continuous loops.

Here are a few examples: I've recently been using large nozzles (.8/1.0/1.5) so I can get through a large part quicker.

 

As a work around I've been creating modifier meshes, that change the print parameters (to 1 wall, no infill, no top/bottom), but it's really a pain in the neck and not always feasible.

 

It would really be great if we could re-introduce "Filter out tiny gaps" back into Cura 5.

or any advice as a work around would be greatly appreciated.

[giostark 0]

+1

Same here... I'll switch back to the previous version 4.13.1 . (that work properly for this issue)

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by giostark

[giostark 0]

edit: double.

Edited August 19, 2022 by giostark

[Rustaxis 0]

Bump. I would also like to know how to prevent this.

[MariMakes 198]

Hey @Rustaxis,

 

There are settings that you can change to improve this behavior.

You can read more about them here: 

https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/4792077687068

[Jhawk6553 8]

On 12/13/2022 at 9:32 AM, MariMakes said:

Hey @Rustaxis,

 

There are settings that you can change to improve this behavior.

You can read more about them here: 

https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/4792077687068

@MariMakes Im unsure at which setting to adjust to achieve the same outcome that the old setting "fill gaps between walls." It looks like a combination of all of these while simultaneously none of them. Say I have a "line" that's 0.25mm long and 0.4mm in diameter. It is essentially a tiny dot that would otherwise get ignored with the old setting. How would you adjust these new settings to ignore that size of "gap or line" without giving the printer thumbs up to go all wild with the line widths for all of the inner/outer walls? The flow rate sounds like it could vary like crazy and potentially give someone extrusion issues. I do love the new settings and their potential. I'm just not convinced that they are a solid substitute for the old way of ignoring gaps.

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Jhawk6553
Tagging peeps

[MariMakes 198]

Hey @Jhawk6553,

 

You are right that it really depends on your situation. 🤔

In my experience, the Wall Transitioning Threshold Angle leaves most gaps as a gap.
But that's super specific per design. 

Do you have a project file for us? It contains the printer and settings we need for troubleshooting. 

To save a project file go to File -> Save project.

 

[Jhawk6553 8]

@MariMakes Thank you for the reply! I actually have it sort of explained in this post. Im printing a lithophane and I noticed that the white sections had these weird artifacts that you can see in the picture below. I then looked at the layer view and saw that the printing order is out of wack, even though I had it set to "inside to outside." It was trying to print a thinner inner wall between two outer walls after it had already printed the outer walls. It was only happening on the thin sections where it had to reduce the line width to get a 3rd wall in place. Areas where the inner wall didnt have decreased line width printed in the proper order, inside to outside. I think the heat or drag of the nozzle between the two outer walls was causing these weird artifacts. I havent tried to mess with the "odd" wall line width though. Would be nice if you could just set the tolerance of the variable line widths to say +0.1mm and -0mm instead of its current +-0.1mm. Unfortunately changing the Wall transitioning threshold angle didnt work. I did "fix" it by increasing the outer wall line width to 0.45mm and decreasing the  "Wall Transitioning Filter Margin" to 0.1mm from 0.2mm, increasing the "minimum wall line width" from 0.25mm to 0.3mm and disabling print thin walls. However, the flows was no longer a uniform color after slicing it and looking at the flow color scheme.

.

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Jhawk6553

[MariMakes 198]

Hey @Jhawk6553,

Ahh... I think I understand.
I have not tested this, but if you are just printing a thin Lithophane in this printjob.... 

It might be worth it to just change the following settings:
- Infill 0
- Wall Line Count 2
- Top Bottom Thickness 0
 

That you might have the hollow printjob you are looking for. 

[Jhawk6553 8]

@MariMakes I do set my infill to 0 and my top/bot to 0 as well. But ive never tried to print a lithophane with only 2 walls. Im not entirely sure how well thatll work because the color depth is created by the light being absorbed by the varying thickness of plastic. Although in the case I listed above, it still wouldnt make too much of a difference because the thin wall was printed between the 2 outer walls so it would still fall in that 2 wall line count.

 

I do think these varying line widths are crazy for engineering prototypes. Look at the picture below. I designed a calibration print originally for lithophanes to test how well the printer can capture different horizontal depths in the image. Each shade is 0.1mm thicker than the previous. Notice on Cura 4.x the shades are grouped in 4's. With some adjustments of the new Cura 5+ settings I was able to get the complete contour and all of the shades measured exactly +0.1mm from the previous. However, the new settings did not work well for an actual picture lithophane as well as they did for this calibration print. I think it worked well in the picture below because the transitions are very gradual from one step to another. In a picture lithophane, the corner transitions from lights to darks are much more harsh and erratic. And because the new settings are letting the flow be adjusted to vary the line width, I think the printer cant keep up with the corner transitions in a lithophane. A high jerk value could be used but mine is set to 20 and still had issues.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Jhawk6553