Machine settings are stored in individual project files!

[rimbo 0]

This is my biggest gripe with Cura, right from the start. Over the months I was figuring out the right offset and head polygon settings to finally have it how it should be. Now each time I reach for an older project file I risk literally damaging my printer if I fail to remember to verify and MANUALLY re-enter the correct values in a cumbersome interface (it takes multiple clicks to even get there plus it manifests some quirky behavior). Is there a way to override this?

[Slashee_the_Cow 410]

I just tried making the configuration file for my machine instance read only, and that just made Cura crash when I tried changing any of the settings.

 

Try making a new instance of your printer (add it again through the add printer wizard), make the changes on that, and use it. Hopefully older projects will open in the original instance then you can just switch to the new one, and it should keep the quality profiles as they'd be based on the same definition, but not transfer the settings. I think.

 

An option to save .3mf files with only the necessary quality profile changes to print it properly (and/or a "guest mode" where it doesn't make any permanent changes when you load a file, which would be awesome for us on the forum testing things) has been discussed but I don't know if it's currently in active development. You could try submitting a feature request for your specific situation and see what the developers have to say about it.

 

I have the same sort of problem... all my older projects are saved with a typo in the head size which triggers a bug where the head is shown as a parallelogram if you put it in "one at a time" print mode. Whenever I load an older project, I have to go into the machine settings, click in the box for each of the print head sizes, then select another box (any one) to get it to save it the correct way.

[rimbo 0]

Thanks for chiming in. I did just that and I'm testing currently.

 

Is there a way to extract pure text printer definition out of a 3mf project file? If so, one would be able to just feed it to

https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/wiki/Definition-Files-Explained

[Slashee_the_Cow 410]

Edit: Ignore me. @ahoeben actually knows what he's talking about.

that I know of, unfortunately. 3mf is a binary format although there is some plain text sprinkled in there:

(I have no idea why it's referencing the quality profile for a printer which isn't the one that's active).

I'm not sure you could edit it without breaking it, but it is referencing the instance configuration of my printer:

žŽØ?fåGõa™Ã4cˆ†¢ÆñL-?ãas #6Á,h½´?Ê)½cXn_¬=Ìäý/Ê8‹³~SÜ PK      ! Ý£E—   Ô   9   Cura/Creality Ender-3 V3 SE, Slashee_settings #2.inst.cfgEŽ±

You could try changing that to a filename which doesn't exist, or an instance configuration for a copy of your printer, but as I said, I have no idea if you can do that without breaking the whole file. If you want to try it, I'd just recommend making a backup of your Cura configuration folder first in case it really messes something up.

Edited February 16 by Slashee_the_Cow
I'm an idiot

[ahoeben 1,984]

8 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

3mf is a binary format although there is some plain text sprinkled in there:

Er, no it isn't. A 3mf file is basically a zipped folder of text-files.

 

Rename the file to yourname.3mf.zip, and you can extract all the files from it. See the Cura folder inside the 3mf folder structure, and you should see familiar looking .inst.cfg and .def.json files.

 

Edit: To be more precise, the 3mf format is based on the Open Packaging Conventions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Packaging_Conventions

Edited February 16 by ahoeben

[Slashee_the_Cow 410]

2 hours ago, ahoeben said:

Er, no it isn't. A 3mf file is basically a zipped folder of text-files.

 

Rename the file to yourname.3mf.zip, and you can extract all the files from it. See the Cura folder inside the 3mf folder structure, and you should see familiar looking .inst.cfg and .def.json files.

 

Edit: To be more precise, the 3mf format is based on the Open Packaging Conventions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Packaging_Conventions

I apologise for my idiocy. I hate accidentally misinforming people. Like, honestly, makes me feel bad.

Edited February 16 by Slashee_the_Cow

[rimbo 0]

After some time and experience - this is an outright bug! It's really simple.

1. Create a PRINTER PROFILE 1 with values 1,2,3.

2. Open a project. In the open project window select to open the project with PRINTER PROFILE 1.

3. PRINTER PROFILE 1 is clearly indicated as active right at the top of the interface.

4. Click on the PRINTER PROFILE 1 > Manage Printers > Machine settings

 

Expected result:

PRINTER PROFILE 1 contains previously set values 1,2,3

 

Actual result:

PRINTER PROFILE 1 does not contain previously set values 1,2,3!

Instead it shows values from whatever printer profile that was active at the time of saving of the profile.

Cycling through the profiles in the main UI window doesn't work as a workaround.

 

 

This is ridiculous that I constantly keep a set of screenshots handy, manualy correcting the same values over and over when working with older profiles.

 

[Dustin 160]

If you find this to be a bug, please report it to the dev team on github.
here: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues

Reporting bugs on the community forum will not be very productive.

[GregValiant 1,342]

"Instead it shows values from whatever printer profile that was active at the time of saving of the profile."

 

That is how it is supposed to work.  You saved the "Project File" with a specific set of settings and it is those settings that are imported when you chose to "Open file as Project".  If it didn't work that way then saving a project would be pretty pointless.  You can elect to simply "Import" the models rather than bringing in all the settings.

 

When troubleshooting a bug report it is important that I get the settings and the printer, exactly the way they were set up when the project was saved.

If the project was saved in 4.13.1 with "GV Profile" active and I open it in 5.7.2 then the settings should be as they were when the project was saved.  That should be true even though my latest and greatest "GV Profile" is active in 5.7.2 when I opened the old project.  Yes, the current setting configuration will be as they were in 4.13.1 when the project was saved.  If I click on "GV Profile" I can discard those changes in favor of my up-to-date, current, 5.7.2 version of "GV Profile".  Then I can slice the file with the new setting configuration.

If I had some over-rides in place to "GV Profile" then when I open the project file, that old collection of settings will come in and when I reset "GV Profile" I would lose any over-rides.

The same holds true for any post-processors that might be active.  They are connected to the printer so when a project file is opened any post-processors that were in place will also come in (provided they exist on the local computer) with their settings.  Once again, settings will be over-ridden.

 

Doing the triage on Github I open A LOT of other peoples project files.  I always have to be very careful to check the printer that is active in the project.  If it happens to be an Ender 3 Pro then I make sure that my personal Ender 3 Pro does not get over-written by the one in the project.

 

[Dustin 160]

It also says all this (though not as detailed) in the knowledge article about Project files
https://support.ultimaker.com/s/article/1667337917554