Settings for Tool Path Refinement using Infill Modifier

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

I've been working and working at this and it's really frustrating when Cura isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing. Here it can be seen that I have no top or bottom layers set in the infill modifier nor the main settings yet there are top/bottom layers being generated.

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

1 hour ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

I've been working and working at this and it's really frustrating when Cura isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing. Here it can be seen that I have no top or bottom layers set in the infill modifier nor the main settings yet there are top/bottom layers being generated.

If that's over a void, it could be generating bridges. Make sure Experimental > Enable Bridge Settings is turned off (assuming it exists in a version that old) and possibly try turning off the Fill Gaps Between Walls I see at the bottom right of that screenshot.

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

I think one thing that is throwing me off (and I'm not entirely sure of) is it appears that the yellow lines are in fact infill and not top/bottom layers. When I click off infill in line type on layer view those yellow lines disappear. Maybe it's a bug in that version that infill dosen't show in orange as it should? 

 

It could be bridges. I don't know if detect bridges is enabled. Maybe that's why those lines are yellow even though they disappear with layer view infill lines unchecked. 

 

I'll look into that.

Edited November 6, 2023 by displaynamenotallowed

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

Regardless of whatever color the infill lines are showing it's being a real challenge to get a suitable density and gap between the infill lines I'll tell ya. 

 

I've been bouncing around between v.3.6, 4.8 and 4.13 and sheesh it's been trouble.

 

I have tried scaling and changing the parameters of the honeycomb grid both with one produced by FreeCAD and one from Blender. Changing slicing resolution, union overlapping volumes, line width, height, infill density, infill offset. Tried eliminating infill for lines and tried generating them with top/bottom layers and with walls/perimeters. I've gotten close to acceptable results but not quite where I want it to be. 

 

I could accept 2 lines per layer within the modifier zone (honeycomb grid) if the start stop direction would be consistently alternating one direction then the other layer to layer and I tried to get that thinking infill line direction [0,180] would work but it didn't, not with infill optimization either the tool path was still random in which direction the infill started printing from (away from Y,0 or towards) if the direction would consistently alternate layer to layer that would even out inconsistencies with infill/wall overlap etc. which would be ok but that's not happening. 

 

I'll probably keep working at it I imagine but should keep records/methodical testing procedure related to the parameters of the honeycomb in relation to the slicer settings and outcomes which I have been using a lot of "throwing at the wall to see what sticks."

 

I really would like a slicer that could use simple inputs to develop machine learning/A.I. assisted slicing or to be part of a slicer development team. I have what I believe to be excellent directions and years of hands on experience, I know what should happen and theory/basics of how to implement excellent features but don't know how to actually code them.

 

I'm just fooling around trying to print R.C. model planes though. I don't see me being taken seriously or viewed as much of an asset to a development team unfortunately.

 

Would be nice though if I could offer my think tank to better software if I could only benefit from the outcome...

 

As I mentioned I'll probably keep at this thing with the tools that are available to me. It's either that or give up on 3D printing at a quality I should be able/want to achieve or all together. What a waste of 2 printers, a bunch of rolls of filament and years of my life that would be...

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by displaynamenotallowed

[ahoeben 1,951]

22 minutes ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

I really would like (..) to be part of a slicer development team

 

Well, Cura is open source. All that is stopping you from contributing to it is you. See https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/.

 

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

ahoeben I suppose you're right but I guess my idea is to be in a room with trendy furniture maybe bean bag chairs in a circle throwing out things and notes being taken by other people there. 

 

Really though I don't mind contributing on GitHub (I'm pretty sure I already have an account from a while ago) it's kinda a bit of effort to explain some things with screenshots and written explanations. I mean I'm still willing to do that but I don't really see how on the GitHub. The only forum type area I see there is (Issues) I think maybe that's where people post features requests/ideas but I think doing that isn't really a good way to dialogue. It seems to me Feature Requests would distract from/clutter actual diagnosis issues/bugs and/or could get lost in the such more pressing matters as fixing issues with already developed software. 

 

If I'm wrong and it's all good to post general ideas and feature requests to the issues section of Cura Git let me know.

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

10 minutes ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

If I'm wrong and it's all good to post general ideas and feature requests to the issues section of Cura Git let me know.

You're wrong, it's all good to post general ideas and feature requests to the issues section of the Cura Git. There's a feature requests option. Just maybe demonstrate that it doesn't work in a current/recent version of Cura (or explain why it won't at all).

Edited November 6, 2023 by Slashee_the_Cow

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

Thanks Slashee I don't know if I'll submit anything to Cura Git related to this specific project but good to know that I can throw out ideas for feature requests there. 

 

Maybe I should post what I'm working on now and ask for help there too. I imagine the most skilled with Cura are on GitHub. 

 

What about an add on that has grids premade for use as infill modification and recommend parameters/complementary profiles.

 

 

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

1 hour ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

Maybe I should post what I'm working on now and ask for help there too. I imagine the most skilled with Cura are on GitHub. 

The GitHub isn't a help forum. Under issues you can show a technical problem, slicing problem and make a feature request. There is a discussion forum but it's really more about the code. If you want to make a feature request, the form is here.

 

Coincidentally: they did just release a plugin that allows you to create custom infill patterns: 

 

[ahoeben 1,951]

23 hours ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

to be in a room with trendy furniture maybe bean bag chairs in a circle throwing out things and notes being taken by other people there

I'm sure the dev team would love it if their job would be to sit in trendy furniture. Perhaps one day generative AI will get good enough to be the one to listen and do all the work.

[ahoeben 1,951]

9 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

they did just release a plugin that allows you to create custom infill patterns

It allows you to use additional infill patterns. You will have to make modifications to the code add custom infill patterns.

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

17 minutes ago, ahoeben said:

Perhaps one day generative AI will get good enough to be the one to listen and do all the work.

That'll be nice. Both ChatGPT and Google Bard don't seem to listen. I was trying to get them to produce them OpenSCAD code and they repeatedly gave me the same code even though I was pointing out the glaringly obvious errors.

 

Although Bard did listen to me when I said "maybe you should just give up".

 

ChatGPT can't even understand the concept of "give me a starting line for three limericks".

 

34 minutes ago, ahoeben said:

I'm sure the dev team would love it if their job would be to sit in trendy furniture

You forgot to mention the part about how it would be nice to have the resources to have someone take notes for you.

 

I, however, dread the day when AI will be able to make full programs. There's enough @#^%ty mobile apps that we don't need every idiot who thinks they have the next world changing idea being able to publish one they had AI make for them.

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

A good way to train A.I. for 3D printing is to input a basic guide/train the program to know what walls are infill etc. Use a camera to record a model being 3D printed. Have a realtime editing software something like a video call that would allow highlighting areas/draw attention to areas and explain with voice to text software "see where I highlighted that area that's over extrusion" "that's undesirable" "please correct that" 

 

Or "that travel from there to there isn't as good as from there to there" 

 

The only hard thing would be to get the A.I. to differentiate between different lines (infill, walls, upper/bottom layers etc.) With machine/computer "vision" the way around that would be to use multi color printing to train with. Print all the different lines in the same colors as they're represented by in the slicer. 

 

That would speed up the data collection/recognition phase of the machine vision portion. 

 

A.I. is good enough to learn now. It just takes critical thinking to design a training regimen and time. like I demonstrated there. It's like how good school teachers are the ones that can find different ways to explain a subject to meet the learning parameters of a range of different students. I understand how this stuff pretty well I just would appreciate it if I could get credit for being that type of "teacher" if I would be recognized by people with the "resources"

 

If anyone that reads this and wants to use multicolor 3D printing as a tool for teaching A.I. with machine vision Please contact me say that my idea is excellent and bring me into the "fold". If you want to share this idea give reference to me and this post. let me prosper from my greatest tool, ability and resource. This is I know good thinking and a great idea I've got a million of them. Well maybe 900,000 ish now. If I don't get a little love soon I may be keeping most of them to myself.

 

Here is another one uh wait a second that idea verges into perhaps an unethical/judgemental area where I don't necessarily want to go. Let the crappy A.I. generated apps exist. Now if they were to become/are compulsory that's another story and should be delt with swiftly and perhaps mercilessly.

 

Until maybe then I wonder about why on my most recent prints the walls of the top layers printed faster than I had the highest print speed set at. Too fast. Looked like 60+mm/s when the highest speed setting that I know of set was 35-40. Using PolyMaker LW PLA that speed caused a break up of the wall line at 200°c.  

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by displaynamenotallowed

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

Here is a issue I suppose I can post to GitHub. I downloaded Cura 5.x.x. in the win64 version. Installation wizard asked me if I wanted to run the program. I did. Then no desktop icon/shortcut was generated. I closed the program and don't know what to do to reopen it. I looked through the entire file and could only see one file that had the C logo/icon. Dragged and dropped that on my desktop. It is "Cura engine" (not used to launch) 

 

v.13 failed to generate a desktop icon upon installing as well but I was able to find the shortcut to launch it and dragged/dropped onto desktop. 

 

Not with v.5 though. Do I need to learn about dealing with non user friendly installations now or is this a developer oversight, bug or what?

Edited November 9, 2023 by displaynamenotallowed

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

2 hours ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

v.13 failed to generate a desktop icon upon installing as well but I was able to find the shortcut to launch it and dragged/dropped onto desktop. 

You mean like, the ancient version?

 

2 hours ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

Not with v.5 though. Do I need to learn about dealing with non user friendly installations now or is this a developer oversight, bug or what?

Could depend on your system. are you using a Mac, as shown in your earlier screenshot?

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

I can only think it could be compensate wall overlaps setting. I unchecked those boxes and will see if the upper 3 layer walls slow down. The picture of parts are PolyMaker LW PLA and the breakup of the top 3 layers walls can be seen. These are Fuselage Formers for an RC Glider adapted from 2d drawings/plan. In the original glider design these parts are meant to be cut from 1/8" light 3ply plywood. 

 

I've laser cut these from lite ply and in comparison the 3D printed articles are both stronger more dimensionally accurate overall and approximately as light or lighter than the Plywood parts. 

 

Pretty Cool...

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

Oh version 4.13 sorry. No I was referring to installation on my new Windows laptop. My MacBook was only supported up to v.4.8

 

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

I think the issue is with how my laptop works. The no desktop icon/shortcut for program launch. I just installed Prusa Slicer and I had to get into the files and drag and drop the launcher to the desktop. It's weird because I've installed other software (Blender and ICESL) and those installations resulted in auto desktop icons. 

 

I think maybe the launcher for v.5 isn't there to drag and drop. It's maybe a thing that most laptops handle automatically by default and it wasn't included as such. Maybe it's there but isn't labelled as usual?

Edited November 9, 2023 by displaynamenotallowed

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

Are you trying to install programs on Windows like you would on a Mac? It doesn't work that way at all. You have to run the installers.

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

I'm not sure about Windows 11 but I know some versions of Windows hide desktop icons by default (so you can see the pretty pictures). Right click on the desktop and make sure View > Show Desktop Icons is turned on. To find a program you've installed you can also just press the Windows key and start typing the name and it'll show search results.

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

The customized infill could be neat for no top/bottom layer reveals. There are two types of infill I'd like to see but they would be significantly more complicated. One would look kinda like Gyroid infill. It would utilize topological optimization/generative algorithm to lay out the pattern. The other would be less complicated but would still need its own ability to calculate and adjust distances of infill lines and convergence of them. It would be only optimizing from one axis though as opposed to all 3.

 

 

[displaynamenotallowed 2]

Show Desktop Icons is on. Another thing that happened that is all of the icons on my desktop for STLS changed from having Cura icons on them to a different thumbnail/icon. It happened I think as soon as I had unzipped Prusa Slicer. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by displaynamenotallowed

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

8 minutes ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

another thing that happened that is pretty weird is all of the icons on my desktop for STLS changed from having Cura icons on them to a different thumbnail/icon. It happened I think as soon as I had unzipped Prusa Slicer

It wouldn't happen when you unzip anything. That just takes a bunch of files out of an archive. The program that generates thumbnails for each file type is defined in the registry, you'd have to run an installer or a program itself to do that.

[Cuq 198]

4 hours ago, displaynamenotallowed said:

The customized infill could be neat for no top/bottom layer reveals. There are two types of infill I'd like to see but they would be significantly more complicated. One would look kinda like Gyroid infill. It would utilize topological optimization/generative algorithm to lay out the pattern. The other would be less complicated but would still need its own ability to calculate and adjust distances of infill lines and convergence of them. It would be only optimizing from one axis though as opposed to all 3.

 

 

 

For custom Infill you should have a look to the Master Cura Release of @burtoogle : https://github.com/smartavionics/Cura/tree/mb-master

 

His Discrete Lines Infill options offer a lot of new possibilities. Not exactly what you are looking for but it's the closest thing we've got.

Some explanation to the option can be found here :  https://github.com/5axes/CuraMasterSettings/blob/main/resources/articles/mb-master/discrete_lines_infill_definition.md

 

[doublee05 0]

@displaynamenotallowed did you ever figure this out? I am trying to do the same thing with a part I need to print vertical but I need the honeycomb pattern horizontal as if it was printed laying down but due to the model I need the strength from the side but need both sides printed evenly.

 

@Cuq It doesn't look like with master cura release with custom infill, it doesn't look like it's possible yet to change the orientation of the infill, is it?