Upgrading from 4.1 to 5.1 and getting issues

[Tom2 0]

I've recently upgraded to Cura 5.1 and tried a few prints, this slug has come out worse than on 4.1, there are very obvious seams where the print gets thin.

Any ideas? TIA

 

 

5.1 print

 

 

 

4.1 Print

[MariMakes 198]

Hey @Tom2,

 

Welcome to the Ultimaker Community 🚀

 

Ah, this seems to be a bunch of wedges, the Variable Linewidth Engine in Cura 5.x sometimes struggles with that. 

 

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-What-new-print-settings-are-introduced-to-Cura-5-

If you want, we can help you troubleshoot but for that we need your projectfile.

It contains the printer and settings I need for troubleshooting. 
To save a project file go to File -> Save project.

[Tom2 0]

Hi MariMakes,

 

Thanks for the response 😊

 

I've attached my project file hope that helps..

 

Tom

CE3PRO_SlugV1.1_wBrims.3mf

[GregValiant 1,251]

Hi @Tom2.  My printer is also an Ender 3 Pro so I thought I'd stick my nose in.

That's an interesting model.  It's almost like a tolerance calibration test.  A couple of things stick out in your project file,

• You have most Flows set to 131%.  Have you calibrated the E-steps on your printer?  I kick the flow up for PETG but only to 105%.  It looks like you have a DD extruder.  If you changed the motor did you re-calibrate the E-steps?  (You didn't happen to use a single wall calibration cube did you?  (I'm not a fan of those.)
• Your printing temperature is 245°.  I found that PETG gets pretty soupy and stringy when printing that hot.  I print it at 230°.
• If you enable "Outer Wall Wipe Distance" at about 0.1mm it will help to hide the Z seam.
• Enabling "Outer Wall Inset" at about .08 will increase the gaps between the pieces.
• I would suggest that you set your "Retraction Minimum Travel" and "Max Comb Distance with no Retract" to very short distances like 0.8mm.  That should force retractions between the segments and avoid gluing them together with strings.
• When you have "Retract before Outer Wall" enabled it also means "Prime before Outer Wall".  That prime move is at the Zseam location and can make the seam more noticeable if the prime leaves a blob.  (That is another reason to print this at a lower temperature.)
• When you figure out where you want the Zseam on a model there is an option to enable it as "Zseam Relative".  With Z seam relative enabled and the location at 0,0 and the Layer Start and Layer End also set to 0,0 you will get the Z seam down the middle and limit the amount of travel.
• With "Avoid parts when Traveling" enabled the nozzle moves off the part and then comes back in.  That can leave a mark at the exit point and at the re-entry point.  Those marks can line up and appear to be another Zseam.
• You have combing set to "Not in Skin" but there is almost no skin on that model.  I would just shut combing off for this.  The faster the nozzle gets from point-to-point the less likely it will be that oozing glues the segments together.

Models that inter-leave like that one are very intolerant of over-extrusion and stringing as either one can cause the segments to get glued together.  The "appearance" of the Zseam is also tied to those two factors.

 

 

 

 

[Tom2 0]

On 10/14/2022 at 1:32 PM, GregValiant said:

Hi @Tom2.  My printer is also an Ender 3 Pro so I thought I'd stick my nose in.

That's an interesting model.  It's almost like a tolerance calibration test.  A couple of things stick out in your project file,

• You have most Flows set to 131%.  Have you calibrated the E-steps on your printer?  I kick the flow up for PETG but only to 105%.  It looks like you have a DD extruder.  If you changed the motor did you re-calibrate the E-steps?  (You didn't happen to use a single wall calibration cube did you?  (I'm not a fan of those.)
• Your printing temperature is 245°.  I found that PETG gets pretty soupy and stringy when printing that hot.  I print it at 230°.
• If you enable "Outer Wall Wipe Distance" at about 0.1mm it will help to hide the Z seam.
• Enabling "Outer Wall Inset" at about .08 will increase the gaps between the pieces.
• I would suggest that you set your "Retraction Minimum Travel" and "Max Comb Distance with no Retract" to very short distances like 0.8mm.  That should force retractions between the segments and avoid gluing them together with strings.
• When you have "Retract before Outer Wall" enabled it also means "Prime before Outer Wall".  That prime move is at the Zseam location and can make the seam more noticeable if the prime leaves a blob.  (That is another reason to print this at a lower temperature.)
• When you figure out where you want the Zseam on a model there is an option to enable it as "Zseam Relative".  With Z seam relative enabled and the location at 0,0 and the Layer Start and Layer End also set to 0,0 you will get the Z seam down the middle and limit the amount of travel.
• With "Avoid parts when Traveling" enabled the nozzle moves off the part and then comes back in.  That can leave a mark at the exit point and at the re-entry point.  Those marks can line up and appear to be another Zseam.
• You have combing set to "Not in Skin" but there is almost no skin on that model.  I would just shut combing off for this.  The faster the nozzle gets from point-to-point the less likely it will be that oozing glues the segments together.

Models that inter-leave like that one are very intolerant of over-extrusion and stringing as either one can cause the segments to get glued together.  The "appearance" of the Zseam is also tied to those two factors.

 

 

 

 

Hi Greg ,

Thanks for looking into it.

Yes the e-steps are calibrated. The flow is set high, since I've fitted a Microswiss hot-end this seems necessary. I'll set a lower temp too.

I'll test your other suggestions.

 

 Thanks again, Tom

[GregValiant 1,251]

Cura always knows the volume of any extrusion.  L x W x H.  Cura also knows the diameter of your filament (which you should have measured so it's exact in Cura).  So the volume of filament is PI x r² x L.

When Volume of Filament IN = Volume of Extrusion OUT then flow is 100%.

But there are possible mismatches.

If Cura was set to "Volumetric" extrusion, and the printer was not (or vice versa) then the Flow will be wrong.  Both the printer and Cura need to be set the same in regards to Volumetric.

If Cura is set to 2.85 diameter filament and the printer is actually 1.75 diameter filament then the Flow will be wrong.  The diameters need to match.

I mention those because I have a Micro-Swiss hot end myself mounted to the stock extruder/bowden setup.