Ultimaker Cura not slicing.

[borgn 0]

I have been using Cura for a couple months now, and I've run into a problem all of a sudden. When I try to slice my project to get it ready for printing, it loads indefinitely. This is the only model that this happens on, it has 110 parts, and most of my others had much less. I have excess memory 32 gigabytes, and it is still super laggy, and never loads even overnight.

The top image shows the detailed model with 110 parts, and as you can see it never loads. The bottom image only had about 10 parts but it loads immediately. I have also attached the project fil so you can see for yourself. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance.

CFFFP_shipv1.3mfCFFFP_shipv1.3mf

 

[GregValiant 1,256]

I get an error when I download that file.  The file is only 70 bytes.

[borgn 0]

20 hours ago, GregValiant said:

I get an error when I download that file.  The file is only 70 bytes.

Sorry, it won't let me download it, it uses 20g of my memory and just freezes. It also won't let me upload the stl file for some reason, its about 1.3gigabytes. Is there any way you could help me without this info? I understand if you can't.

[GregValiant 1,256]

This is your image of the boat.  Cura will show a polkadot pattern when it notices errors in the model.

Here I've marked two areas where there are definite problems.

That can keep it from slicing, or slice it in error.  The model needs to be repaired.

If you are running Windows you can go to the Microsoft store and download "MS 3D Builder".  It has some good tools for altering model files and a pretty fair repair utility.

One of the Edit tools in MS 3D Builder is a "Merge" tool.  After repairing the model you could try merging all those parts into a single solid

 

That's a huge file and even zipped it is likely too large to upload here.  You could try posting it on Google Drive or some other storage site and then post a "Share" link here.

[borgn 0]

25 minutes ago, GregValiant said:

This is your image of the boat.  Cura will show a polkadot pattern when it notices errors in the model.

Here I've marked two areas where there are definite problems.

That can keep it from slicing, or slice it in error.  The model needs to be repaired.

If you are running Windows you can go to the Microsoft store and download "MS 3D Builder".  It has some good tools for altering model files and a pretty fair repair utility.

One of the Edit tools in MS 3D Builder is a "Merge" tool.  After repairing the model you could try merging all those parts into a single solid

 

That's a huge file and even zipped it is likely too large to upload here.  You could try posting it on Google Drive or some other storage site and then post a "Share" link here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pd_qNsvUPuarVvblV3SKj7Y7qYq4ZBR-/view?usp=drive_link

Does this link work?

[GregValiant 1,256]

I got the file.  At 1.2gb and over a million triangles it brought my laptop to it's knees.

It's full of errors and I tried to repair it but MS3D Builder hung up.

I tried to slice it but Cura hung up.

I finally tried simplifying the model with 3D Builder.  After knocking the triangles down to a reasonable 40,000 the app was able to repair it.

Then back to Cura.  I scaled it up so it's 200mm long.

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!!

 

I don't believe this model is printable.  There are missing parts, parts that are floating in air, the support might be removeable if you use PVA.

 

This has taken over first place in the "Worst model I've ever seen" competition.  Congrats.

Good Luck!

 

Edited February 19 by GregValiant

[borgn 0]

13 hours ago, GregValiant said:

I got the file.  At 1.2gb and over a million triangles it brought my laptop to it's knees.

It's full of errors and I tried to repair it but MS3D Builder hung up.

I tried to slice it but Cura hung up.

I finally tried simplifying the model with 3D Builder.  After knocking the triangles down to a reasonable 40,000 the app was able to repair it.

Then back to Cura.  I scaled it up so it's 200mm long.

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!!

 

I don't believe this model is printable.  There are missing parts, parts that are floating in air, the support might be removeable if you use PVA.

 

This has taken over first place in the "Worst model I've ever seen" competition.  Congrats.

Good Luck!

 

Well, that is disheartening to say the least but, I do appreciate the time you spent to help me. Can't say I know how this happened, or how I got over 2 million triangles but, there is one thing I do know. That is that I have officially wasted over 50 hours of my time and got nothing, how wonderful.

[GregValiant 1,256]

"...wasted over 50 hours of my time and got nothing..." 

You learned a bit.  I learned a bit.  That's worth something right there.

I've saved the image of that slice.  It's awesome.  I thought of Captain Jack Sparrow right away and started laughing.

[Slashee_the_Cow 269]

On 2/20/2024 at 9:19 AM, GregValiant said:

This has taken over first place in the "Worst model I've ever seen" competition.  Congrats.

Now now, be nice. It should be first place in the "least printable model you've ever seen" competition. Errors aside, it's a sweet looking model.

 

21 hours ago, borgn said:

Well, that is disheartening to say the least but, I do appreciate the time you spent to help me. Can't say I know how this happened, or how I got over 2 million triangles but, there is one thing I do know. That is that I have officially wasted over 50 hours of my time and got nothing, how wonderful.

I find it hard to believe you spent 50 hours making a model and didn't learn some cool tricks for modelling. The attention to detail on that thing is amazing. You could probably get it commercially 3D printed and it'd look awesome.

 

It's just that if you're making something with 3D printing in mind, you need to account for limits of 3D printing, in this case your main problem is how many overhangs there are that need support and that many of them are in difficult places for support to reach. And possibly how the flagpoles right at the top are thin enough that they would snap like toothpicks.

 

You can also look at it as a personal challenge: "I have this awesome model, how do I make it work for 3D printing?"

Like if you made the bottom of the front sail rest on the top of whatever the octagon things are and have the bottom of the sail arc up at an angle that you can print it with overhangs.

 

And these... ladders? Cool thing that look like someone with carpentry skills only significantly better (my last and so far only attempt did not come out well, so someone with no experience is probably better than me) would stick together with planks and nails in about half an hour?

Change them so they don't go as far up the mast and they'll be able to print with overhangs which don't need support.

 

And this treehouse which probably has a "no girls allowed" sign stuck next to the door?

Instead of just sticking it on top of the mast like that, make the bottom chamfer all the way down to the top ring of the mast.

 

The engine is actually pretty good: yes, it'll need support, but it's directly above the build plate so support is easy.

 

This rear treehouse which probably has the "no boys allowed" sign:

I'd be surprised if that held up after support was removed, it just has too little connecting it to the rest of the model and it's sticking out at a 90° angle, basically a worst case scenario. It might be sort of a cop out, but if you had a connector that comes from the top of the engine and connects at the top (basically a Y joint) it'll be much more secure.

 

=======

 

Now there's some things which just aren't going to work and need to be redesigned:

The top deck extending out over the bottom deck:

That's going to need a lot of support in annoying places to print. But if you make it smaller so that it doesn't extend past the top of the bottom deck, no more overhang.

 

These... bolts?

They just stick out straight so far that printing without support is impossible. It might not look as good, but you could mostly flatten them and keep the same effect.

 

These... rivets?

Just make them spherical and not stick out too far (i.e. not a hemisphere, but a quarter or a third of a sphere) and they'll print fine.

 

These... bolts?

The have the same problem as some of the other pieces: they come out at a 90° angle and stick out further than any reasonable overhang will allow, so you'll need support. But you'd get a similar effect if you made them go in to the model instead of out.

 

The flags:

As I said earlier, unless you print this thing massive, those flagpoles are going to be incredibly weak. Just bulk them up a bit. And the flags themselves are another case of "sticks straight out waaaaay further than an overhang will allow". Triangular flags aren't uncommon at sea (or sky, possibly) though. Bonus points if you make them a bit curvy so it looks like they're waving in the wind.

 

This rear sail:

It falls into the category of "entirely reasonable that it needs support, and support can get to it easily". So it's okay, as long as the arc along the bottom of the cloth is at an angle you print with overhangs.

 

Hopefully that's given you some food for thought.

[Torgeir 243]

Hi @borgn,

 

I'll say this was a very interesting object, with quite a few challenges.

By learning from the other's experience with this model, I've made another approach.

So, as I've another slicer S3D (Simplify 3), I loaded this big model in here and it took a little more than a minute.

I was using the oldest version 3.1.0 of S3D (from 2016). 

This slicer have a built in mesh tools that also can reduce the number of triangles of an object.

 

This futuric ship consisted of more than 27 million triangles, so in order to avoid to much loss of details, I reduced it just to a little more than 3 million of triangles and ~152 Mb.

Also made a version with less details and only ~2.5 Mb.

 

The "shipv5.stl" may be used in the (free version of) Autodesk Meshmixer, that's a tool for repairing those errors in this model. Sure this takes some time, but can be done. There are lots of videos on youtube demonstrating the meshmixer.

 

Here are the link to the free version of "Autodesk Meshmixer"

https://meshmixer.com/

 

The model suffer for the vertical posts in a railing around the after part, those are easy seeing missing when sliced.

Cura Arackne ver 5.6.0 will show this, but I'll think the version of Cura Master are better suited to show all thous issues when using layer view after model is sliced.

 

Here are a picture of your Ship loaded into Autodesk Meshmixer:

 

 

Here are another picture of the Ship sliced in Cura 5.6.0 using "both" found in "Special Mode" by selecting "normal" and then "both".  Under "Normal" you'll find two other settings, "Surface" and "Both", a handy tools for understanding slicing problems.

 

 

Here are the reduced files:

 

Shipv5.stl (high res). 150.4 Mb.  shipv5.stl

 

Shipv4.stl (lo res). 2.4 Mb shipv4.stl

 

A project file for UM2E+ UM2E_Cura_5_6_0_shipv4.3mf

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Well, hope this work for you.

 

Good luck.

Torgeir