Ultimaker Cura 5.5 beta released

[ArunC 24]

With the latest release of UltiMaker Cura, users can look forward to easier organization of models on the virtual build plate, exciting new plugin capabilities, and huge speed improvements for UltiMaker S series printers!

Double your 3D printing productivity on UltiMaker S series printers 

 

At UltiMaker, we are constantly trying to improve the machines we make. Not just our latest printers, but also the ones already in the hands of our users. This Cura release has enabled us to double the 3D printing productivity for everyone using our S series printers. with UltiMaker materials.

 

Why do we say productivity instead of speed? The reason is that saying our printers are now faster is selling short what this update achieves. Printing parts faster is relatively easy, but doing so without reducing print quality or increasing failure rates is much harder. With this update, we have managed to do just that. Prints can now be completed in up to half the time, without any reduction in reliability or quality.

 

As an example, in Cura version 5.4, this part printed in PETG on an S5 using an AA 0.4 mm print core would have taken 2 days and 35 minutes to print:

 

 

But in Cura 5.5 it will take just 1 day 7 hours and 19 minutes using the same material, extruder, and printer:

 

 

In the past, when we have made improvements like this, it’s often been because we have tested and tweaked our print profiles over and over again to find the absolute best combination of settings. We have done that here too, but we have also introduced new features that help push our printers to their limit. Some of the more notable ones are:

 

Optimized print speeds for different line types 

 

Outer walls, inner walls, and supports are all printed at different speeds. We have optimized the print speed for these and other line types, while also adjusting the acceleration and deceleration behavior when moving between line types. As a result, we are now able to print internal structures faster without reducing the visual quality or mechanical properties of your part. 

 

Smooth internal wall pathing

 

Previously the inside of walls was printed using a diagonal pattern that resulted in the print head performing a jittery zig-zag motion during printing. This has been changed so that the inside of walls now print using long smooth lines which enables the print head to reach higher speeds.

 

Prevent infill crossing close to walls

 

Tweaks have been made so that infill no longer overlaps near to external walls. Overlapping infill near walls can cause artifacts on the surface of your print, this change prevents those artifacts and also reduces print head travel, increasing print speeds.

 

These are just some of the improvements that were made to speed up our printers in this release. For the full list, check out the release notes on GitHub. Speed gains will vary significantly depending on which material, nozzle size, or model you are using. The biggest improvements can be seen when printing large models and when printing multiple models at the same time. 

 

AA 0.8 mm print cores get intent profiles as well as speed and quality improvements

 

 

 

The AA 0.8 mm print profiles for UltiMaker PLA and Tough PLA have been optimized for both speed and print quality, as well as gaining access to recommended intent profiles. 

 

One of the easiest ways to print more parts in less time on an UltiMaker printer has always been to use a larger nozzle size. 0.4 mm nozzles have become somewhat of an industry standard and as a result, our 0.4 mm print cores have long been our most popular. However, we also offer 0.8 mm print cores, and for many users, these would be a better choice. 

 

As mentioned, moving to a larger nozzle size means much faster print speeds, with the tradeoff that your parts will have more prominent layer lines and, therefore, may not look as nice. However, all the way back at the release of Cura 5.0, a new slicing engine was released that enabled variable line width. This resulted in improved print quality when printing thin walls and fine details. What many people may not have realized, is that it’s also now possible to print using a 0.8 mm print core while still getting great print quality. If you're looking for the absolute best print quality then a 0.4 mm print core is still your best choice but if speed is a priority then a 0.8 mm print core is the better tool. 

 

Our new 0.8 mm print profiles will make this easier than ever, allowing you to select the profile that matches your requirements (Visual, Engineering, or Draft) and then print with the confidence that you are using reliable print profiles that have been professionally tuned for your needs. Better yet, with the combined effect of moving from a 0.4 mm to a 0.8 mm print core and the other speed improvements in this release, you will find that it’s possible to print huge parts in less than half the time!

Powerful new engine plugins

 

This release sees a huge new addition to Cura which will fuel improvements for years to come: engine plugins with powerful new capabilities! 

 

Since 2015, Cura has allowed members of the community to create plugins that add new functionality to Cura or augment existing functionality. Over the years we improved our plugin system to make it easier to create and share plugins. Today you can find and download dozens of plugins through the UltiMaker Marketplace and many people have, with some of our most popular plugins being downloaded millions of times!

 

Examples of popular plugins include the Settings Guide plugin which adds additional context to the over 600 settings in Cura, and the OctoPrint Connection plugin which lets you use the popular OctoPrint web interface for remote printing and monitoring. 

 

Up until now, the functionality of plugins has been limited to manipulating your parts before slicing and UI tweaks. Everything that happens after you start slicing your part could not be modified. In other words, if Cura was a car, plugins would allow users to modify the paint scheme, change the rims on the tires, and maybe even swap out the seats for something more fancy. But everything under the hood was off-limits. You could make the car look better, even feel better, but it would still drive the same. 

 

With the new plugin capabilities in this release, that has all changed. It is now possible to fundamentally modify how Cura works by interfacing with the slicing engine at the heart of Cura. This allows plugins to add new settings, modify existing settings, and change how Cura behaves when slicing a model. The result is more powerful plugins with a much wider range of capabilities. Some examples of the kind of functionality that users could add with these new plugins include:

 

• Paint on supports: By combining the new and existing plugin capabilities, it would be possible to create a plugin that allows you to manually tag areas as requiring supports

• Version number in print: It’s possible to create a plugin that modifies the skin area on layer 0 to have a version number or any other custom text that will appear on the bottom of the model when printed

• Texture: You can use a plugin to give your model a custom texture embossed on the surface

 

These are just some of the countless possibilities that are unlocked with engine plugins. As has always been the case, plugins still need to be approved before they are added to the Marketplace so it is unlikely that a plugin will be dangerous but it is important to be mindful that the expected behavior of Cura may change drastically when installing engine plugins.

Duplicate and organize models on your build plate more easily

 

 

Two new improvements have been added that make it easier than ever to fill up your build plate with models and organize them effectively. 

 

The first is that you can now duplicate your models using the same copy-and-paste shortcuts you would when duplicating text. Just select the model you want to copy and press Ctrl+C, then Ctrl+V (Command+C and Command+V on Mac) as many times as you want to spawn additional copies of your model. Each additional instance of your model will be placed on your build plate as if it were a new model being loaded into Cura with the added benefit that any changes made to your original part, such as it being resized, will also be reflected in all duplicate models. Right-clicking your part will also bring up the copy/paste shortcuts in the context menu. 

 

The second change is that you can now organize multiple models on the build plate using a grid formation. When multiplying your part or when using the new copy/paste function, parts will now be placed in a grid pattern. There is also a new option in the context menu (or when pressing Ctrl+Shift+R) that will arrange all instances of your model into a grid pattern. 

 

These two features combined make it much easier to fill your build plate with prints and keep them organized when doing so!

Additional improvements 

 

The following improvements have also been implemented in the Cura 5.5 beta release:

• A donation button was added for users to help fund Cura’s open-source development 

• A new Apple Mac build of Cura is now available for users with ARM processors

• Numerous bug fixes

 

Download now and give us your feedback 

 

Download this latest release from GitHub to start discovering new 3D printing possibilities right now. Material interlocking is a cutting-edge new feature and we would love to find out how you’re using it. Leave us a comment below to give us your feedback.

 

[Cuq 198]

On my windows post I still have this problem with the new plugin: CuraEngineGradualFlow. Cura crashes and I have in the messages :

CuraEngineGradualFlow\GradualFlowPlugin.py", line 41, in usePlugin
    return any([extr.getProperty(f"{constants.settings_prefix}_gradual_flow_enabled", "value") for extr in machine_manager.activeMachine.extruderList if extr.hasProperty(f"{constants.settings_prefix}_gradual_flow_enabled", "value")])
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'extruderList'

 

Am I the only one with this problem?

[Cuq 198]

Shouldn't the CuraEngineGradualFlow plugin folder contain compiled executables?

[JelleSpijker 1]

the binary of a bundled plugin needs needs to live in the bin directory (next to CuraEngine.exe etc) because Mac Apps are very picky about the folder and file structure.

 

https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/pull/16776

Edited October 10, 2023 by JelleSpijker

[ahoeben 1,951]

Beta versions of the Sidebar GUI and Tabbed Settings plugins that work with the Cura 5.5 beta are available here:

https://github.com/fieldOfView/Cura-SidebarGUIPlugin/releases/tag/v4.6.3-DEV

https://github.com/fieldOfView/Cura-TabbedSettingsPlugin/releases/tag/v1.0.3-DEV

 

Download the .curapackage and drop it onto the buildplate in Cura as if you were opening a 3d model.

 

Update: both plugins have updated versions available in the Marketplace. The beta versions above are no longer needed.

Edited October 21, 2023 by ahoeben

[Dadkitess 19]

This look promising to finally get "decent" print duration !!

 

Look forward to install the stable version, even if I'll wait for a week or two after the release to get proper patch haha.

 

Edit : I might add that i'm pretty always tweaking the different speeds : if this is all what have been changed or have the more impact it won't help me much 😕

Edited October 11, 2023 by Dadkitess

[Gero 54]

The beta certainly makes a good impression. However, I am still a bit skeptical about the print speed. The mechanical construction of the Ultimaker printers is, in my opinion, not stable and stiff enough that the speeds can simply be increased without some loss of print quality. 
I will try it out, of course. 

Grouping the walls seems to look good in the first preview of print objects. But the print order here is still on "outside to inside". i had understood the answers from the github post on this topic that this should actually be changed again?

[GregValiant 1,260]

1. Materials are my first problem.  There weren't any for my printer and the Preferences dialog does not configure to "Manage Materials".  I was able to get the Material list loaded by opening a project file.

The dialog is always "whatever the last subject was" rather than Materials.

If you look closely you will see that the "Defaults" button is actually displaced from the button below.  The amount of displacement varies, but I can always see two (maybe three) buttons on top of each other.

 

2. AA0.8 print head file was misnamed and Cura wanted me to reset.  Changing it from "um_s5_aa0.8_tpu_0.2mm.inst.cfg" to ""um_s5_aa0.8_um-tpu_0.2mm.inst.cfg" seems to have fixed it.  An S5 "left" extruder was also a problem.

(I open a lot of 3mf files so my config folder may have been incorrect.)

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by GregValiant

[LePaul 322]

I don't even dare download it since the link "For more information" that came up on Cura links to the June release (https://ultimaker.com/learn/ultimaker-cura-5-4-beta-release-notes/)

 

C'mon guys.  Let's get this right.

 

[MariMakes 198]

Hi all, I'm keeping a close eye on the feedback for the team to resolve. 

@Dadkitess

We've done more than just changing the values of the speeds. The Gradual Flow plug-in will also gradually increase and decrease the speed making it easier for the printer to handle the sudden changes and reducing the ringing that comes from jerking the printhead around. Settings like Small Top/Bottom Width, Top Surface Inner/Outer wall Speed/Acceleration/Jerk, and changes like these all help to make motions more smooth facilitating the speed. 
 

@Gero
The default "outside to inside" wall ordering is defined by our print experts and they believe it's the best for the applications that are being tested. I believe I mentioned a workaround before where you can set the setting by default, you can also use profiles to keep track of your favorite settings. I invite you to try out the new settings and let us know if you see ways to improve them. 

 

@GregValiant
We did do an update to that printer preferences window, so your bug must have snuck in there and the misnaming has us a bit worried so we'll dive into that ASAP because that might break future upgrades. 

@LePaul Oh! That must have fallen off our checklist. I raised it with the team and it should be resolved now. ~ Please give it ~30 minutes to show up

Thanks for raising your issues! 

[3dprntz 4]

1 hour ago, Gero said:

@MariMakes
 

I have tried it again with custom parts for a customer, the material here is CPE Yellow from Ultimaker. The error pattern is the same since cura 5.0. The material flow is not 100% at the nozzle here and shows up at the Z-seam with under-extrusion. 
I can therefore not take any of the standard profiles from Ultimaker without adjusting the settings for simple customer parts, despite Ultimaker printer and Ultimaker materials. 

I'm afraid I can neither understand nor confirm the opinion of the printing experts at Ultimaker that these would work. 

I've had this issue for a while for most of my prints on the s5 with .8 mm nozzle. I've tried changing retraction settings which helped a bit, but didn't completely fix it. It either leave a hole, thin wall, or bump. which doesn't work for end use products for our clients.

[3dprntz 4]

54 minutes ago, LePaul said:

 

Is that printed on an Ultimaker machine?

I know I have added frequent core cleanings to my routine and amazed what comes out using the cleaning filament sticks from Ultimaker.

 

I find the default profiles for Ultimaker machines tend to work alright.  However, on my other machines at work and home, I stick to calibration testing for each material.  Temp Tower, Slicer Flow settings and then on the retraction tests just to be sure.  I print large, multi-day prints so I try to get it right the first time.

 

Do you use plugins for these tests? I've tried the post processing plugins in the past for the s5 and newer models but they dont work and give a leveling error or other error.

[3dprntz 4]

23 hours ago, ArunC said:

Powerful new engine plugins

 

This release sees a huge new addition to Cura which will fuel improvements for years to come: engine plugins with powerful new capabilities! 

 

Since 2015, Cura has allowed members of the community to create plugins that add new functionality to Cura or augment existing functionality. Over the years we improved our plugin system to make it easier to create and share plugins. Today you can find and download dozens of plugins through the UltiMaker Marketplace and many people have, with some of our most popular plugins being downloaded millions of times!

 

Examples of popular plugins include the Settings Guide plugin which adds additional context to the over 600 settings in Cura, and the OctoPrint Connection plugin which lets you use the popular OctoPrint web interface for remote printing and monitoring. 

 

Up until now, the functionality of plugins has been limited to manipulating your parts before slicing and UI tweaks. Everything that happens after you start slicing your part could not be modified. In other words, if Cura was a car, plugins would allow users to modify the paint scheme, change the rims on the tires, and maybe even swap out the seats for something more fancy. But everything under the hood was off-limits. You could make the car look better, even feel better, but it would still drive the same. 

 

With the new plugin capabilities in this release, that has all changed. It is now possible to fundamentally modify how Cura works by interfacing with the slicing engine at the heart of Cura. This allows plugins to add new settings, modify existing settings, and change how Cura behaves when slicing a model. The result is more powerful plugins with a much wider range of capabilities. Some examples of the kind of functionality that users could add with these new plugins include:

 

• Paint on supports: By combining the new and existing plugin capabilities, it would be possible to create a plugin that allows you to manually tag areas as requiring supports

• Version number in print: It’s possible to create a plugin that modifies the skin area on layer 0 to have a version number or any other custom text that will appear on the bottom of the model when printed

• Texture: You can use a plugin to give your model a custom texture embossed on the surface

Are there already plugins for these? I've seen some past posts on trying to put input shaping via the slicer and velocity printing as an application for adding textures to prints. I think ideamaker has something similar and it would be nice to finally get model painting like in meshmixer and slicer to change color or material type. Also, does this verison allow for more full use of the material station to expand material use to more than two materials in the slicer? It would be great to be able to use all 6 materials as we want it rather than just two. I understand that there are the purges and different temps of materials, but if I want to make a complex part using tpu, abs, and LW-asa, then i would have more use case for my machine bundle.

[ahoeben 1,951]

1 hour ago, 3dprntz said:

Are there already plugins for these?

As far as I know, only the Gradual Flow plugin that ships with Cura uses the new CuraEngine plugin system. This beta is basically the first time plugin developers have a mostly stable architecture to work with.

[ahoeben 1,951]

On 10/10/2023 at 8:17 PM, JelleSpijker said:

the binary of a bundled plugin needs needs to live in the bin directory (next to CuraEngine.exe etc) because Mac Apps are very picky about the folder and file structure.

How is this going to work for plugins that do not ship with Cura then?

[GregValiant 1,260]

3.  Missing supports.

This is with normal supports.  The outboard supports start abruptly with nothing below except the floor interface. 

 

The problem appears to be "Support Infill Layer Thickness" as I often run it at 2 layers high as in the image above.

When set to 1 layer high the preview is as I would expect.

 

 

GV_report 3.3mf

Edited October 12, 2023 by GregValiant

[mrender 25]

I'm finding that which ever z seam option choice is picked the result in the slicer turns out as sharpest corner!

 

UPDATE: works fine with some existing project files not in others.

Edited October 13, 2023 by mrender
UPDATE

[AndyHazz 0]

I'm getting something odd happening with walls in 5.5 that doesn't happen with the same .stl files in 5.4 ...

 

At irregular intervals some layers are 'all shell' instead of using inner walls. Sometimes just a single layer, sometimes a bunch of layers together. This results in some visible differences in the printed surface (along with slightly slower print times). I've tried changing any settings I thought might affect this but not had any luck yet.

 

Full_Coin.3mf Full_Coin.stl

[UltiSpangler 2]

On 10/10/2023 at 9:33 AM, ArunC said:

Prints can now be completed in up to half the time, without any reduction in reliability or quality.

I am seeing a significant reduction in strength.

 

I ran a test with the attached bracket last night and UltiMaker ToughPLA.  Printed with Balanced 0.20mm, 100% infill, walls=3, using the Ultimaker ToughPLA profile.

 

With 5.5.0-beta.1, print time was 0:57 for 6 brackets and one half-height bracket, vs. 1:47 for 5.4.0.  So, yaay, almost twice as fast.

 

But then I put the brackets on my strain gauge.  Brackets printed with 5.4.0 failed at 180N.  Brackets printed with 5.5.0-beta.1 failed at 131N.  The failure was always in the infill, with one of the walls intact (see attached photo).  So, about 2/3 as strong.  (With 5.4.0, the piece snaps all the way through after some initial yielding right at the notch.)

 

I did a toughness test by attaching the bracket to a hook in the ceiling and a slide hammer on the other side, and dropped the slide hammer against its stop.  The brackets printed with 5.5.0-beta.1 failed at less than half the drop distance = printed with 5.4.0.

 

The speed increase (and strength reduction) seems to be specific to the UM ToughPLA profile.  If I force the material to Generic ToughPLA, 5.5.0-beta.1 still takes 1:47 to print.  That's a decent workaround so I can keep testing the rest of the beta; I don't know if there's a simpler way to toggle the speed increases off.

Strength tests - C 6x5.stl

Edited October 14, 2023 by UltiSpangler

[Gero 54]

We have had the same experience with other high-speed printers. 
It is now well known that the faster you print, the less time the layers have to fuse together properly. 
Nevertheless, the higher printing speeds are welcome for many projects. 

I think the engineering profiles still have significantly slower speeds. I would also expect this with the according description. That if I need parts for mechanical loads, these are printed accordingly with the best possible accuracy and strength. 

[MariMakes 198]

@GregValiant, What you are seeing might be undesired but also seems a setting/model issue. 🤔 I can also have the support generated correctly if I increase the Support Horizontal Expansion a little:

Do you have another model that also shows this behavior?

@mrender We introduced a small change to the zseam, that might be causing that. It seemed to only improve the zseam, but your report makes it seem it's not the case. Do you have a project file that displays this behavior so we can do some more troubleshooting? 

@AndyHazz, Your issue was reported internally aswell, and should be fixed in the stable with this PR. I'll add your model as a testcase! Thank you 😊

@UltiSpangler, I love your dedicated research. I'll make sure to share your insights with the team to see if it's something that can be improved. 
 

[GregValiant 1,260]

Good morning @MariMakes,

In regards to that model and the alleged problem - this appears to be another clear-cut case of "Everything affects Everything".

 

There does appear to be an interaction between some settings.  I don't think Support Horizontal Expansion is one of them.  In the end I have to conclude that the "slightly lower" edge that requires support is confusing Cura and that the situation requires the user to closely examine the preview and make adjustments so that the edge (two layers lower) is supported.

• I noticed that the "unsupported support structure" started at the cross hole on the back side of that large pocket of the model.  "Hole Horizontal Expansion" had been set to 0.1.  With HHE set to zero, or Max Hole Diameter set to 25, the condition kind of went away.
• Setting the Support HE to 0.8 changed things, sometimes for the better, but it was conditional on some other settings ("Support Density", and "Support Infill Line Directions" are two of them).

This is with both the Support HE and the Interface HE set to 0.8.  I'm going to described this as "Wonky".

 

Here I've set "Support Wall Line Count" to 1.  The wall is around the periphery of the area requiring support and so it picks up that narrow ledge.  Experience tells me that it will also make it harder to remove the supports from the back of that pocket.

 

This is with the Support Line Directions at [90].  Once again the outside is picked up.

 

So this condition does appear to be something that can be "Tuned" and eliminated and seems to be model specific.

 

(That doesn't mean I'm letting the Cura Team off the hook.  I'm going to blame all of this on the continued lack of progress on the Cura "Easy" button 🔮 .)

[PaulKuiper 11]

@UltiSpangler Great work! The higher print speeds, especially in the infill, cause the extruded material to be colder. This causes two things, less flow due to more back pressure = more voids = less surface area = less tensile strength. However the drop is too large (30%). So I suspect that we are losing entanglement in large parts of the interface that breaks (https://www.stevenabbott.co.uk/practical-adhesion/entanglement.php). Both issues can be counteracted by increasing the print temperature, which is what I will try to do for the final release. Increasing temperature also has a limit, so we need to balance a bit better in this case. 
Thanks for reporting this.

P.S.: The engineering intent profile operates at lower speed with very little flow changes. This will give you the required tensile strength back. We will however make an effort to also improve the balanced mode. 

Edited October 17, 2023 by PaulKuiper

[Pandagoo 0]

there a big problem with this cura 5.5.4 beta i have notice the time are out by mile cura 5.5.0 for the sovol sv07 saying 3hrs to print and the 5.5.4 say 23hrs to print there somthing very wrong i have the faster setting 

[MariMakes 198]

Hey @Pandagoo,

 

Welcome to the UltiMaker Community 🎉
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.