Haphazard printing

[andyrauc 0]

Hi

I have recently started working with Fusion 360 and not sure if this is even a Cura problem. After I have completed my object the process of getting it ready for print is pretty standard. Cura is on default settings. When printing however the travel path is all over the place. So it will lay down three sides of a polygon then move to the other side of the model and do the same until all the Polygons are half laid down then go and do some other random bits and finally come back and complete the polygon. In-between other parts are also being half printed and then returned too. As a result of this the print takes way longer to complete and the final product is not as good as it could be.  

 

is this an issue that the print is following the order in which the object was designed or is there a setting in Cura that could make the movements more streamlined?

[GregValiant 1,410]

Mostly Cura prints according to the defined line type.  Outer-Wall, Inner-Wall, Skirt, Infill, Support, Support-Interface, and a few more.  You can open a gcode file in a text editor and search for ";TYPE:" and you will see the order that they are being printed in.  That can change depending on if the particular layer has islands or if it is contiguous.

 

Putting aside the Skirt/Brim/Raft - If there is Support on a layer, and if that support has "Support Outer Wall Line Count > 0" then Support Outer Wall will print first.  If the Support Density is high enough then the Support Infill would print next and then on to Support-Interface.

 

If there are "Inner-Walls" on this side of the model and "Inner-Walls" way over there on the other side of the model, and they are not connected, then there will be a travel move from over here to way over there.  When the Inner Walls are finished everywhere then Cura starts on the Outer-Walls.  The order of line type can be changed (for example if you enable "Print Infill First") but it's basicly going to print all the line types on a layer as groups.  Settings like the Z-seam location, the Combing Mode and Combing Distance settings, Avoid Printed Parts when traveling, etc. effect the path that Cura generates.

Then there is the Outer Wall.  With the Wall Order set to "Inside to Outside" Cura will finish everything but the last path and it will be continuous so as not to have blemishes on the outer surface of the print.  So any little areas within the wall structure will be traveled to and finished before that last loop goes down.  The only blemish should be the Z-seam.

 

If you are in Basic mode I suggest you switch to "Custom" and then to the right of the Search Settings box is an icon with three lines on it.  Click on it and set the visibility to "All".  You can make changes to a lot of different settings that will affect the generated path.  In the end though, if you are printing a horseshoe shape and don't want stringing across the opening then there is going to be a lot of travel based on the Z-seam location and the Layer Start coordinates.

 

[MariMakes 206]

Hey @andyrauc,

 

Welcome to the Ultimaker Community 🎉
 

You might be able to resolve this with combing settings. 
You can read more about them in the Settings Guid Plugin:  https://github.com/Ghostkeeper/SettingsGuide/blob/master/resources/articles/travel/retraction_combing.md

We can help you a little better if you share an example in a picture or a projectfile. 

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