Introducing Universal Cura Projects in the UltiMaker Cura 5.7 beta

[ArunC 24]

Strap in for the first Cura release of 2024! This 5.7 beta release brings new material profiles as well as cloud printing for Method series printers, and introduces a powerful new way of sharing print settings using printer-agnostic project files! Also, if you want to download the cute dinosaur card holder featured below, it was specially designed for this release and can be found on Thingiverse! 

 

 

Introducing Universal Cura Projects
 

Cura 5.7 includes a new way to share both models and print settings: Universal Cura Projects (UCP). These printer-agnostic project files allow you to selectively share print settings that are common across nearly all printers. 

 

At the moment, when you want to share a model with someone, you have two main choices, you can either share an STL file that contains only the model itself with no additional information that would help inform you how to best print the model. Or, a project file such as a 3MF file that contains a whole host of metadata which can include all of the print settings that you have applied to that model (or models). The problem is that many of the settings that can be included in a 3MF project file are not universally applicable to all printers. If you accidentally include a setting value that conflicts with or does not take into account the specifics of the printer that the file is then printed on, the result could be anything from a failed print to a damaged printer. UCP files solve this problem!

 

UCP files only include a limited selection of settings that are either universal across all commonly used FDM printers or are safe to modify even when using a variety of different printer types. There are 40 allowed settings that can be included in a UCP export, a full list of which can be found here. They include commonly modified settings such as those that control supports, infill, and build plate adhesion.

 

UCP projects export using the .3mf file extension but they have a number of safeguards in place that make them more reliable than a regular .3mf. You can tell if a .3mf file is also a UCP by the preview image for that file, all UCP files will have the UCP symbol in the top left corner of the image preview as you can see in the left-most file in the image below.

 

 

 

When selecting a Universal Cura Project, you can choose to either import the models into Cura as you normally would or to open it as a Universal Cura Project. 

 

 

 

When opening the file as a UCP, a screen will pop up that shows you which settings were included by the creator. In the top right corner, you can select the printer on which you want to open the model. This will overwrite the settings on the printer and remove any models already loaded on the buildplate.

 

 

Cloud printing and new materials for Method series printers

 

In the previous Cura 5.6 release, we added the ability for Cura users to slice files for Method series printers. With one major limitation, cloud printing was not yet supported. We are happy say to that this limitation has now been removed. Both the Method X and Method XL printers now fully support cloud printing using the UltiMaker Digital Factory. 
 

That means it is now possible to send a sliced file directly to a network-connected Method printer from Cura over the cloud, or to send it to Digital Factory first. Allowing you to make use of the many features of Digital Factory, including: file storage and organization, monitoring of ongoing prints, collaboration of print management using shared workspaces, and more!

 

This is the latest step in bringing our two professional desktop printer ranges together so that both the S series and Method series can benefit from all of the workflow advantages that Cura and Digital Factory provide.

 

 

 

 

 

ASA combines the strength properties of ABS with added UV and moisture resistance. Nylon12-CF is a carbon fiber composite with an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, high stiffness, and brilliant heat resistance, making it a powerful replacement for parts that would normally be made from metal. Finally, SR-30 is a dissolvable support material that pairs well with ABS and other high-temperature materials.  

 

New failed slice analysis

 

We have also rolled out a new tool that allows for better analysis and tracking of failed slices within Cura. From now on, when a crash occurs during slicing, a log of the errors will automatically be sent to our support team so that they can diagnose the reason for the crash. This will hugely improve our internal process for identifying and fixing bugs and we expect it will help us prioritize and ultimately solve the issues that lead to failed slices. 

 

If you do experience regular crashes, make sure to reach out to our support team who can now consult your crash logs to help troubleshoot the issue. Finally, if you do not want your crash logs to be automatically sent to our support team, you can disable data sharing by going to the Preferences menu and unticking the "Send engine crash reports" in the Privacy section.

 

 

 

Additional improvements 

 

The following improvements have also been implemented in the Cura 5.7 beta release:

• Faster slicing of complex models

• Additional settings for customizing rafts

• Ability to manually define the print sequence when printing multiple models at once

• Various bug fixes

• And much more!

 

Check out the full release notes on GitHub for a complete list of changes. 

 

 

Give us your feedback 

 

Download this latest beta release to start discovering new 3D printing possibilities right now.  Let us know what you think of the release in the comments below!

[Torgeir 242]

Hi Everyone,

This is "just" a new Beta version of Cura (5.7.0-beta.1), but for experimenters and others have time to evaluate, this one are a big improvement of UltiMaker's own slicer.

I've been testing it with various "known" problem object -and the result was impressing, -really impressing.

As I've two UltiMaker printers, I cannot be sure that any other printer cope well with this version, -but really there should not be any big different..

Sure this are a Beta version and people depending of 3D printing production, should stay with their stable version of Cura.

There might be problems that I've not seen, -that's why it's named Cura 5.7.0-beta.1, so be aver about that.

So awaiting this new stable version of Cura will be a kind of change IMHO.

Kudos to the Cura team.

Thanks

Torgeir

 

 

 

 

 

[Torgeir 242]

Hi Folks,

 

As I'm in my third day of testing this last Cura 5.7.0-beta.1.

 

There are issues with this version I did not see yesterday, so be aware of this.

If you slice any model (stl file and all of them do not "leak" or having other issues), then start a playback of the line track during build up. At the last point of the model, Nozzle freeze and time glass shows up -then Cura shut down.

Ufp model Created by this version was uploaded to Cura 5.3.1, the nozzle stopped in same position but this version did not crash.

 

Model looks ok., but Cura just quit before nozzle leave the printed object.

OFC., did not try to print anything..

 

Thanks

Torgeir

 

 

[DivingDuck 104]

I did some tests beginning the week and was often annoyed about "not watertight" models. They are since years as I print them quite often in the past (most of them was CAD models from Fusion360).

Then I thought us one of the most printed models: The 3DBenchy. Guess, what happen...

 

 

Shouldn't at least the 3DBenchy slice w/o errors? Regarding errors, pls. see the the error description shown in the picture, it's speechless as well  😉 

I had also some crashes during slicing that was reported automatically, so they should be available.

 

 

Cura then is in a slicing loop that you can only break with closing Cura. The part itself is ok.

Two or three plugins wasn't working, but that was expected (I did report them to the plugin owner).

 

Looking forward for the next release. 🙂

I attached the log file. Please let me know if anything else is needed.

cura log.zip

[ahoeben 1,948]

12 hours ago, DivingDuck said:

was often annoyed about "not watertight" models

The one in your screenshot is shown by the MeshTools plugin. If you want, you can turn them off in the settings for MeshTools (see Extensions -> Mesh Tools -> Settings...). MeshTools checks if a mesh is watertight by making sure every edge ("line between two vertices") of the mesh is included in exactly two faces.

 

 

[DivingDuck 104]

Thanks @ahoeben. I forgot to turn off this plugin in my test.

 

Unfortunately after turning off MeshTools I still have the error with settings that prevent slicing. Looking in the log it shows - well, the most important information is missed.

Infill.log
2024-03-22 09:16:59,488 - INFO - [MainThread] CuraEngineBackend.CuraEngineBackend.slice [348]: Starting to slice...
2024-03-22 09:16:59,489 - DEBUG - [MainThread] CuraEngineBackend.CuraEngineBackend.slice [368]: Going to slice build plate [0]!
2024-03-22 09:17:00,391 - WARNING - [MainThread] CuraEngineBackend.CuraEngineBackend._onStartSliceCompleted [499]: Unable to slice with the current settings. The following settings have errors:

 

I made yesterday evening an additional observation. The bracket I show in my last post concerns me a bit, so I thought give it a try once more and send it directly from Fusion360 to Cura. It slices while sending it as 3mf file, but sending it as stl cause the slicing error again. wired. The next test was to export the model as 3mf and stl file to the desktop and then add them to Cura. both time it fails again.

 

Now I have all kind of scenarios for one part.

1. Using an old project version as 3mf is crashing the Cura Engine.
2. Using an old stl will not slice because of an unknown, possible wrong setting
3. Exporting the model in Fusion 360 as 3mf and let it open in Cura slices the model
4. Exporting the model in Fusion 360 as stl and let it open in Cura do not slice because of an unknown, possible wrong setting
5. Exporting the model in Fusion 360 as stl and 3mf file to desktop and then put them via drag n drop into Cura do not slice because of an unknown, possible wrong setting for each file
6. Changing the printer profile to an other printer while the not slicing model is on the build plate causes Cura Engine first to slice and then to crash and calling the debugger.

The part itself is a simple part that is solid, so no chance to have a not watertight model at all.

 

So fare my observations for this build.

[ahoeben 1,948]

52 minutes ago, DivingDuck said:

I forgot to turn off this plugin in my test.

You don't have to turn off the plugin; you could just turn off the warning if it is annoying you. Though it is there for a reason.

[GregValiant 1,251]

",,,so no chance to have a not watertight model at all," 

 

I made a note of that and stuck it on my CAD computer.  Inventor is good but it will occasionally give me a non-watertight model.  It usually happens when a loft is involved, but once in a while (rarely) it happens with other operations in CAD.

I've been burned too many times by the words "Never" and "Always".

 

My testing has been limited, but what I see so far from 5.7beta is a large improvement over 5.6.

Many bug reports about 5.6 were coming in from Windows11 users.  I hope those issues have been resolved.

 

The members of the Cura team seem to be making a concerted effort to clear the backlog of bug reports on GitHub.  My congratulations to them for being proactive.  The bug report list was getting long.

Edited March 23 by GregValiant

[DivingDuck 104]

11 hours ago, GregValiant said:

I've been burned too many times by the words "Never" and "Always".

I too, but I never had problems with Fusion360 and .stl export the last maybe 8 years The model I'm talking about was sliced / printed around 100 times since I create it. Sliced with different versions of Cura, different slicers and Fusion360 itself. The model is very basic with two holes and one of them include a hex nut profile on one side. I have big hope that it is watertight  😇

I don't know where the problem come from and I hadn't the time for digging deeper. My best guess is something changed in the beta as the older Cura versions do slice fine. Maybe the beta have a problem with project files of different printer profiles, but trying to proof this gave me a "some times working , sometimes not" experience. There is an indication from Cure itself that it has a problem with a setting but was not able to tell what setting prevent slicing. I saw this behavior sometimes with 2 other models as well. Running Cura w/o plugins didn't help either.

Today I changed accidentally the build plate adhesion from none to skirt and the model surprisingly slices again. It wasn't that specific setting. It doesn't matter what setting I choose, changing any setting makes Cura able to slice the model - well, up to until CuraEngine crashes again. It looks like Cura loses at some point some setting information (only a guess) and after changing a setting it is able to access all needed parameters again.

At this point I am not able to do more. It is now up to the development team to investigate further.

 

Regarding effort of the Cura team, I recognize this as well. The development team try to work down the issue backlog and I'm happy for this.

 

This is a beta and I expect to see some problems as this is the nature of a beta test. I'm fine with this. It is, why I spend some of my time with testing the beta and reporting my findings (without being upset).

[ahoeben 1,948]

15 hours ago, DivingDuck said:

I have big hope that it is watertight

Is Cura itself, or the Mesh Tools plugin telling you that it isn't?

[ahoeben 1,948]

On 3/21/2024 at 7:47 PM, DivingDuck said:

Then I thought us one of the most printed models: The 3DBenchy. Guess, what happen...

 

I have never printed a benchy myself. I went to 3dbenchy.com, and downloaded the 3d benchy hosted on Thingiverse.com. 3D Builder (by Microsoft, ships with Windows) agrees with Mesh Tools that that model is "invalidly defined" (which is what 3D Builder calls non-watertight). Just that a model is printed a lot does not mean that it is a perfect model.

 

 

But let's not focus too much in this topic on what is and what isn't watertight.

Edited March 24 by ahoeben