UltiMaker Cura 5.4 beta released

[ArunC 24]

This new Cura 5.4 beta is all about cleaner prints and easier material removal. In this beta release, we have two major improvements that will make your prints easier to get off the build plate and have them looking great with minimal effort. As well as a whole bunch of other tweaks and changes, of course. 

 

Click here to go to the download page for the 5.4 Beta.

 

Updated tree supports use less material and print faster

 

 

In this release, tree supports have been improved so that they now print faster and use less material, while also being easier to remove after printing.

If you downloaded our previous Xmas tree support alpha, then Xmas has come again thanks to you and everyone else who helped us test and refine these supports.

 

Also, a big shout out to community member Thomas Rahm who originally created a fork of Cura in June of 2020 where he started making improvements to Tree Support because they did “not meet his expectations”. Many changed lines of code later, his idea has finally made it into an official Cura release for everyone to use. 

 

These new supports use more and smaller branches rather than fewer larger ones that previously had a tendency to merge together. As a result, tree supports will now use less filament and therefore take less time to print. They should also be significantly easier to remove and are also less likely to leave behind scarring on the surface of your completed print. 

And better yet, it’s not just print times that are faster, but also slicing times. Slicing is now done on multiple cores meaning you won't have to wait very long for your tree supports to grow!

 

In order to help get the most out of these new tree supports, you will be able to modify a number of new settings, including: support blocker, per model settings, and support horizontal expansion.

 

And as an extra treat, if you want to try out these new tree supports using the awesome dragon pencil cup model shown as an example above, you can download it from UltiMaker Thingiverse and use it yourself!

 

New brims are easier to remove

 

The order in which brims are printed has been tweaked so that they are now easier to remove. Brims are an incredibly useful tool that can help improve the adhesion of your print to the build plate. Particularly when printing small or thin parts, or parts that are top-heavy, a brim can often be the difference between a failed print and a successful one. However, many people don’t like using them because they can be difficult to remove and often leave behind a rim or excess material at the bottom of your print which needs to be cut or sanded away if you want a completely clean print. 

 

The new smart brim setting in this release will reduce this issue significantly. If you enable it in your Cura print settings, you should find your brims are much easier to remove and that they leave behind less (or no) excess material. 

 

Also, since we’re in the habit of giving away cool models, here’s another one! The Cura symbol in the example above is not just a Cura logo, but part of a Cura Cookie Cutter, designed by Johan Gude from the UltiMaker team.

 

Additional improvements

 

The following improvements have also been implemented in the Cura 5.4 beta release:

• PyQT Library has been updated resulting in speed and pop-up improvements

• Added Skirt Height setting to make a skirt easier to remove

• Improved printing order of the prime tower to include a dual brim, primed every layer, and primed before and after the extruder switch

• Introduced Hole Horizontal Expansion Max Diameter setting so you can tune the expansion of only the smaller holes while leaving larger holes untouched

• Added or updated profiles for 20+ 3rd party printers

• Numerous bug fixes

 

Give us your feedback

 

Download this latest release to start discovering new 3D printing possibilities right now.

Click here to go to the download page for the 5.4 Beta.

If you have any feedback please comment below so we can make the stable release even better!

Edited June 16, 2023 by MariMakes
Included the Download Links

[GregValiant 1,255]

From Github #15757

Berserk_Fury.stl

 

[Cuq 198]

[MariMakes 198]

This looks like the type of crash we reported internally. It would show up if you would load one 5.4 to another 5.4 version. 
It was a cash issue related to: the implementation of this feature.

 

I was under the impression that it was resolved for everyone, but seeing this report, I'm not sure if that's the case.
I'll have to double check with the team. Thanks for the report 💪

[Gero 54]

How about a little download link to the beta so that we can try it out right away? 😉

Edited June 16, 2023 by Gero

[MariMakes 198]

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CURA 5.4 BETA
How about this?

I've also updated the post so it can be found there as well. Thanks for the feedback @Gero 😊

[Gero 54]

Ah, missed the link and clicked the "react to post" button instead. Gonna try again

[FredFish 4]

It looks like at the end of the print, the {machine_extruder_end_code} is set to the last tool position in the used extruder stack rather than the last extruder tool that was used.

 

example; print two items each with different heights, each with different extruders (multi extruder setup) swap the extruder order, its missing the last {extruder_end_gcode} in both cases. If you add the line {machine_extruder_end_code}  to the printer_end_gcode box,the output for {extruder_end_gcode} is pointing to the last position in the extruder stack regardless of what tool code was used last.

 

I think it should include the start and end code for each extruder, and point to the last extruder tool used at the end.

 

Hope this helps

[ahoeben 1,949]

6 hours ago, FredFish said:

It looks like at the end of the print, the {machine_extruder_end_code} is set to the last tool position in the used extruder stack rather than the last extruder tool that was used.

Have you tested if this behavior is new to Cura 5.4, or has this always been the case? I would think the latter.

[GregValiant 1,255]

The "active tool" can't be asked for in the Ending Gcode (no decisions allowed) and so it defaults to the first tool "[0]" in the extruderList.

As a consequence this needs to be done as a post process. 

Unzip and put "gv_AddActiveExtruderEnd.py" into either the Configuration Folder "scripts" folder or the Installation Folder "postProcessing/scripts" folder.

It will be available under "Extensions/PostProcess/Modify Gcode" as "Add Active Extruder Ending Gcode" when you restart Cura.

gv_AddActiveExtruderEnd.zip

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by GregValiant

[FredFish 4]

This was a previous issue but has now changed, The difference I saw was 5.3 did always default to extruder stack[0], after installing 5.4 it seems to defaults to last item in extruder stack, position [1 or 2] on my system depending on printed item tools used, so it can no longer be used as a preset variable, I pointed out something has changed.

 

Regardless, the post processes script can make the required changes, so the machine_end_gcode does not need to be used as a preset now. Thanks

[GregValiant 1,255]

I went back to 4.13.1 and found the same behavior (T0 end gcode is always returned).

Within the ending gcode there isn't a way to ask Cura to provide the Tool Number so it can pick out (in this case) the proper Extruder End Gcode.  Cura just performs a simple replacement as near as I can tell.

[FredFish 4]

yes, even with my 4.12.1 , using multiple extruders, if I add M117 {extruder_nr} in the printer end gcode window, the returned value in the previous revisions gcode file was 0, running the same model in 5.4 the returned gcode is 1 (consistently the last extruder in the model, not the last extruder used)

 

thanks to GregValiant’s script, it’s now a moot point for me, but interesting to note that 5.4 has changed this setting for some other reason, that may affect other areas less apparent .  

 

thanks again for staying on this, I like the upgrades, and I hope you add the script as part of the release.

[Gero 54]

I am currently experimenting again with the tree supports. The post mentions that the horizontal expansion has been added here as a new setting. 
However, as in the alpha, this does not seem to be adjustable when using the tree supports. 
However, the value that can be entered when switching to normal supports is not accepted here either. 

this means that no horizontal expansion can be set for the interface layers. 
unfortunately, i cannot use the tree supports for larger and flat support surfaces, at least in this way. 

[Gero 54]

Another problem I face is that when printing with only one material, it is under enormous stress from the many retractions in the tree supports. 

The picture shows a component that has a 1.5mm high nose around a hole. this means that supports are printed next to this nose to support the lower flange. when using the tree supports, an extremely large number of very small dots are printed here, between which the filament is always pulled back one at a time. 
this may still work with PLA, but a test with PET-CF15 shows that more technical materials cannot do this. i cannot adjust the minimum length before a retraction because this affects other parts of the component. 

Unfortunately, this is another problem that severely restricts the use of tree supports at present. 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Gero

[MariMakes 198]

Hey all 👋,

 

Thanks for the reports. Quick update on our side.

 

A. Upgrading from 5.4 to 5.4 requires a little more investigation, but we have someone looking into it. 
B. The  {extruder_end_gcode} that is broken, is added to the list to be resolved for stable
C. The Support Horizontal Expansion being applied to tree supports even though it's not an available setting is also added to the list to be resolved for stable. 
D. We've been getting reports that the setting Connect Top/Bottom Polygons is broken in this release, so if suddenly custom profiles are not working, that might be the case. That's also one added to the list. 

Thanks for all the input! If you see anything else, please keep them coming 💪

[MariMakes 198]

Hey @Gero,

 

The following settings have been introduced and updated for tree support.

• Maximum Branch Angle
• Trunk Diameter
• Branch Diameter
• Branch Diameter Angle
• Preferred Branch Angle
• Diameter Increase to Model
• Minimum Height to Model
• Initial Layer Diameter
• Branch Density
• Tip Diameter
• Limit Branch Reach
• Optimal Branch Range
• Rest Preference

If you are seeing too many retractions it might be worth it to tune the following settings. 
Trunk, Branch, and Tip Diameter, or Branch Density. It might also be worth it to check the support interface settings. 

Good luck!

[Cuq 198]

On 6/16/2023 at 8:04 PM, MariMakes said:

This looks like the type of crash we reported internally. It would show up if you would load one 5.4 to another 5.4 version. 
It was a cash issue related to: the implementation of this feature.

 

I was under the impression that it was resolved for everyone, but seeing this report, I'm not sure if that's the case.
I'll have to double check with the team. Thanks for the report 💪

Could be ...   Lot of message with :

 

UM.Settings.ContainerRegistry._updateMetadataInDatabase [437]: Removing corrupt database and recreating database. no such column: icon

 

But stange that I'm the only one with these issues ... And the last Alpha doesn't have any issue ... A little bit frustrating 

[GregValiant 1,255]

I posted a model called "berserk fury" up above.  It will slice in all Cura versions up to and including "5.3.0 alpha+christmas".  As much as I have played with it, I cannot get to slice in 5.3.1 or 5.4-beta.

It's not something I would print myself, but so far as I can tell it is an error-free model that Cura is no longer capable of slicing.

 

My question is "What's up with that?".

[nallath 1,120]

4 hours ago, Cuq said:

Could be ...   Lot of message with :

 

UM.Settings.ContainerRegistry._updateMetadataInDatabase [437]: Removing corrupt database and recreating database. no such column: icon

 

But stange that I'm the only one with these issues ... And the last Alpha doesn't have any issue ... A little bit frustrating 

We also got it from some engineers internally, but those were also people that ran it from source / nightly / custom modded versions from Cura. I've not yet checked if it also happens if you use the "official" path.

[geocodyrgia 0]

I would HIGHLY recommend not publishing/advertising that this is out until AFTER Beta.  Just upgraded and all of my material profiles (except one weirdly) are all gone.  If 30 mins of troubleshooting and rolling back to the previous version don't solve it other slicers will get a very strong look.  Didn't have a reason to look outside Cura before now as all of my hard-fought material profiles were here.  Seems strange there wasn't some kind of backup process initiated prior to installing the new version.  Seems like that would be part of "migration 101" in dev school.

[Cuq 198]

On 6/16/2023 at 8:04 PM, MariMakes said:

I was under the impression that it was resolved for everyone, but seeing this report, I'm not sure if that's the case.
I'll have to double check with the team. Thanks for the report 💪

 

Switch to 5.5 Alpha testing ( without Issue) 

 

It looks like I'll be sticking with Alpha ... they work much better (😁)

[ANKFCustoms 0]

Can someone help! The new cura 5.4.0 beta 1 won't let me select a nozzle with the default Neptune 3 Plus profile. I've tried reinstalling, deleting folders, etc.

[GregValiant 1,255]

Go to the MarketPlace and load the "Printer Settings" plugin.  After restarting Cura and switching to "Custom" settings - Printer Settings will be the bottom group in the settings list.

One of the settings is "Nozzle Diameter" and you can try inputting the nozzle size there.

 

Are you using one of the definition files built into Cura or did you install the printer as a Custom FFF?

Edited June 19, 2023 by GregValiant

[GregValiant 1,255]

Alright, I found it.

There is a typo in your nozzle files.  In Windows they are located in "C:\Program Files\UltiMaker Cura 5.4.0-beta.1\share\cura\resources\variants\elegoo\elegoo_neptune_3plus" folder.

Using a text editor open each nozzle file in turn and change the line:

definition = elegoo_neptune_3max

to

definition = elegoo_neptune_3plus

I'll go ahead and put in a pull request on Github for this.

Edited June 19, 2023 by GregValiant