Set Default Material When Connecting to Printer

[alkekmakerspace 5]

I am wondering if there is a way to set the default material when connecting to an Ultimaker printer over the network. I specifically have (8) Ultimaker S5s that we connect to from 5 PCs and every time someone connects to one of the printers, it defaults to Ultimaker Blue PLA. Some of our users don't always know that they need to select a material from the drop down so that it will match what's on the printer. I have found the printer definition file. Where it is set as the "preferred_material", and I imagine that I can change this to another material name. The issue with this is that the material will always be different depending on what is loaded in the printer. Is it possible to have the "preferred_material" reference what is loaded? Is it possible to use a variable to get the first material option from the drop down? This would prevent users from sending prints that are not configured correctly.

EDIT: I tried just using the following

"preferred_material": ""

which then set the material to be Generic GFF CPE

This may work as a temporary solution since that material shows incompatibility with the print cores, but I'd still like to find a more elegant solution.

Edited January 29 by alkekmakerspace

[alkekmakerspace 5]

Just bumping this up to see if anyone has an insight. I have tried a "empty_material" but that does not work. Checking the cura log file shows the following:

 - WARNING - [MainThread] cura.Machines.VariantNode.preferredMaterial [99]: Could not find preferred material empty_material, falling back to whatever works

 

For the time being I think I will just set this to a material that is not compatible with the print core to prompt our users to click and change it.

[Slashee_the_Cow 435]

I'll just tag @gr5 who actually knows something about UltiMaker printers and hope it gets noticed.

[gr5 2,234]

Yeah I don't know much about this.  I have an S5 but don't use digital factory.  But there is a setting in cura where for material you can have it automatically choose the material based on the printer you are connected to.  I haven't enabled that for years so I don't know much about this feature.  I assume you noticed that feature?

 

It was when you click on the material to choose the material, there was some kind of "auto" option.  Once set to auto it stays there.  I didn't like that as I was often slicing for the *next* print which was a different material.

[alkekmakerspace 5]

23 hours ago, gr5 said:

Yeah I don't know much about this.  I have an S5 but don't use digital factory.  But there is a setting in cura where for material you can have it automatically choose the material based on the printer you are connected to.  I haven't enabled that for years so I don't know much about this feature.  I assume you noticed that feature?

 

It was when you click on the material to choose the material, there was some kind of "auto" option.  Once set to auto it stays there.  I didn't like that as I was often slicing for the *next* print which was a different material.

No I was not aware of that setting. Where is that located? I don't see anything in the material drop down section or in the general settings in cura.

[gr5 2,234]

There's 3 ways to print that I know of:

 

DF (digital factory)

network

USB flashdrive

 

Which do you use?

 

With the first 2 methods you have to connect to a printer with Cura.  It used to be that when you connected you could then choose "auto".  I forget if it was for the printcore, the material, or both.  Probably both.  So it would be on the PREPARE tab of cura where it shows the materials.

 

I can't test this now as my printer is off and I am hundreds of miles away right now.  I have been using USB flashdrive for years and I've never used DF but I'd be surprised if this feature went away or never got incorporated into DF. 

 

I'll ask around.

 

 

[tinkergnome 927]

On 1/29/2024 at 6:24 PM, alkekmakerspace said:

I am wondering if there is a way to set the default material when connecting to an Ultimaker printer over the network.

 

It's problably this topic?

 

"How to connect to a networked printer in UltiMaker Cura"

https://support.makerbot.com/s/article/1667410781484

 

...with some related details in this article:

 

"The benefits of a network connected printer in UltiMaker Cura"

https://support.makerbot.com/s/article/1667411002596

 

 

[gr5 2,234]

But then he wants the loaded filament to show up in cura.

[alkekmakerspace 5]

On 2/9/2024 at 8:30 AM, gr5 said:

There's 3 ways to print that I know of:

 

DF (digital factory)

network

USB flashdrive

 

Which do you use?

 

With the first 2 methods you have to connect to a printer with Cura.  It used to be that when you connected you could then choose "auto".  I forget if it was for the printcore, the material, or both.  Probably both.  So it would be on the PREPARE tab of cura where it shows the materials.

 

I can't test this now as my printer is off and I am hundreds of miles away right now.  I have been using USB flashdrive for years and I've never used DF but I'd be surprised if this feature went away or never got incorporated into DF. 

 

I'll ask around.

 

 

We are printing over the network from a set of 5 computers to (8) Ultimaker S5s with Material Stations. Each printer has a reserved IP. Each user logs in with SSO to the computer, which will almost always be a new user since they are erased on a 14 day cycle. Almost every time they open cura it will act like a new instance. Editing the "preferred material" in the Ultimaker S5 definition file will set it to whatever is in there when you first connect to one of our networked printers. Ideally I would like this to auto select one of the configurations that is in the drop down list. It really doesn't matter which one, I just want it to be an actual config that is printable.

The reason for needing this is because most of our users are first timers and forget to select a material. They then send a print job to the machine with a configuration that it does not have (even though we train them to not do that). Most of the time we have to cancel this job and have them set it up again. If it just auto-selected the 1st configuration upon connection it would really streamline this process.

[gr5 2,234]

So you don't use digital factory?  I guess that's what you said.  I'll ask around.  Have you tried DF?  It's free.  The feature you want may be in DF as it has much more features than direct network printing.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

@alkekmakerspace Opening the pull-down menu of the material selection and selecting the first entry as a default process is not an option?

[alkekmakerspace 5]

On 2/12/2024 at 10:25 AM, gr5 said:

So you don't use digital factory?  I guess that's what you said.  I'll ask around.  Have you tried DF?  It's free.  The feature you want may be in DF as it has much more features than direct network printing.

The problem with Digital Factory for our use case is that it requires an ultimaker login. This would require all students to create their own account which would just introduce more problems for us. Unless there is a workaround for that?

 

On 2/12/2024 at 1:35 PM, Dim3nsioneer said:

@alkekmakerspace Opening the pull-down menu of the material selection and selecting the first entry as a default process is not an option?

You would think it would be that simple, but we still get a lot of patrons that just leave whatever it defaults to and hit print without thinking about it. It was defaulting to Ultimaker Blue PLA, then people would send a print job with that material, which we don't have. It doesn't make sense that it would default to a material that isn't there, that is just a bad user experience.

 

Here's a screenshot after connecting to one of our printers. Setting the preferred material to Generic GFF CPE seems to have solved our problem. I would still like to find a more elegant solution.

Edited February 14 by alkekmakerspace