color/material change at height ?

[buder5 0]

what are the way todo this?
my search point to the tedious script insert
for the color change gcode m600 
and i will need todo a temperature one too if its a different material

i need an easier method  prusaslicer does it
thanks for any help

[Slashee_the_Cow 382]

The script isn't that tedious. I personally use the Pause at height script, which doesn't send an M600 command, so you have to unload the filament and prime the next one manually. My printer (Ender-3 V3 SE)'s built in unload and load programs suck anyway.

1. Go to Extensions > Post Processing > Modify G-Code
2. Click the Add a script button
   
3. Select Pause at height from the list (I have a lot of custom scripts installed so your list probably won't be so packed)
   
4. Then there's the settings. It might look a bit overwhelming but it's not that hard, although some of the settings will depend on your printer:
   
   Pause at: Choose whether to pause at a particular height (like 5mm) or a particular layer (like 48 here)
   Pause Height / Pause Layer: The height or layer number you want to pause at.
   Method: This depends on the G-Code flavour your printer uses. Marlin is pretty common, but if you're not sure open the machine settings for your printer and see what it says for the G-Code flavour setting.
   Keep motors engaged: You need to keep the motors engaged. This stops you from moving the print head (without deliberately trying, anyway) because if you move it then it will be out of position and you'll get layer shift (your next layers won't line up with what you already have). Not all printers obey this setting, including mine. That's why if you turn off Keep motors engaged, you get...
   Disarm timeout: How many seconds until the motors disengage automatically. You have this long to change your filament. Fortunately most printers accept pretty high numbers, I think mine can go higher but I figure 2 hours (7200 seconds) is more than enough.
   Park Print: This moves the print head out of the way of the print so you can change filament without having your print in the way, which is important for when you're purging the new filament.
   Park Print Head X/Y: Where the head moves to when it parks. Usually a corner of the build plate is most convenient. I get mine to go to the front left corner; the front because it means the build plate is completely behind it and not in the way and the left because the printer's control panel is on the right and doesn't really get in the way but I figure when I can avoid it easily enough why not.
   Retraction: How much the filament should retract before the head moves to park. This is there to hopefully retract enough that it doesn't leave a trail when it moves. Again it depends on your printer: I have a direct drive extruder so I only need it to be very low. If you have a Bowden extruder (the filament goes into a thing on the printer's frame which has feed wheels and then the filament goes through a tube to the print head) you'll probably want a higher number like about 5mm.
   Retraction Speed: How fast the material should be retracted. If you're really not sure you can look at the retraction settings in the print quality profile (they're in the Travel section). Most printers can probably do at least 35mm/s. It's not the end of the world if you set it a bit higher than your printer can do because then it will just do it as fast as it can (which is what you want if you're using a fairly stable material like PLA).
   Extrude Amount: How much filament the printer should extrude before it gets back to printing. We're manually purging, so it should be 0mm, then the speed doesn't matter it all.
   Redo layer: If you turn this on it will make it print the layer it did before you paused. You almost certainly don't want this.
   Use M109 for standby temperature? This is another one that can depend on your printer. M109 is "wait for hotend temperature" and M104 is is "set hotend temperature". Some printers, if you use M109, can start cooling down after a certain time period without printing. Some printers will do that for an M104. You can either experiment or search the web for the right option, it's probably out there somewhere.
   Standby Temperature: How hot the hot end should stay while it's paused. We're changing material here, so set it to the print temperature so it's hot enough we can unload and load.
   Display Text: What (in theory) shows up on the printer's screen when it pauses. Creality's custom firmware doesn't actually show these messages (M117) but I like to have it there so I know where I am if I'm looking through the G-Code manually.
   Beep at pause: Hopefully I don't have to explain this one. I want to know when it's ready to change filament so I have it on. That enables the Beep length setting which is again self-explanatory (just remember it's in milliseconds so 1 second = 1000ms).
   G-code Before/After Pause: A lot of the time this won't be necessary, but some printers have quirks and you have to have to do something to make it pause happily. If you want to change the print temperature after you pause, you'll need to use the G-code After option and insert M109 R<temperature> so for example M109 R200.
    
5. You can close the post-processing settings now. Hopefully it's all set up.
6. Slice it.
7. Print it and if you turned on a beep, wait for that (or if you didn't, just wait for it to stop printing).
8. Unload the existing filament. In most cases the extruder has a button or lever you hold down and just pull the filament out (don't forget to clip the end so it's nice and smooth next time you want to use it).
9. Load the new filament. Hold down the lever and push the new filament in, enough to make it start pushing filament out of the nozzle. Keep pushing until the colour of the new filament is coming out of the nozzle. Pull all the purge off so it's out of the way.
10. Resume printing. Depends on printer, but on mine you just have to press the control knob, regardless of what's selected on screen.

8 hours ago, buder5 said:

and i will need todo a temperature one too if its a different material

Warning here: most kinds of material will not adhere to each other (hell, ABS will hardly adhere to itself) which means the new part is likely to be dragged around by the nozzle because it can't get stuck down where it starts printing. There are some combinations that work but most don't. That's why filament changes are usually only done to change colour with the same kind of material.

[GregValiant 1,330]

@buder5 remember that you are programming what is essentially a 4 axis robot.  Cura automates a lot of that but a user needs to make some decisions to make the print come out correctly.

 

There are around 636 settings in Cura 5.7.1.  Decisions need to be made, settings adjusted, and options picked.

One of the decisions would be whether to use "Filament Change" or "Pause At Height".  It requires some practice to know which one you would prefer.

One thing I know for sure...there will never be an "Easy" button in Cura.

[Slashee_the_Cow 382]

1 hour ago, GregValiant said:

One thing I know for sure...there will never be an "Easy" button in Cura.

Sure there is:

 

Seriously though, of all the slicers I've tried, Cura is the easiest to use. And also least frustrating. They're different scales. Frustrating is often stuff designed to be so idiot-proof that it lacks access to things useful to non-idiots. Anyways, in Cura the settings for 98% of the things you're likely to want to print are easy to find. What settings it doesn't have, often there's a post-processing script or plugin that can help. If you have as much free time as me, you can and do write a single purpose script for something you're not otherwise able to.

 

And for stuff that Cura just can't handle... we might not always admit it, but we all have dalliances with the dark side on occasion. And if I did that, it would generally remind me why Cura is always my first stop.

[buder5 0]

i have an heavily modified ender 3 pro most recommended setting for ender 3 dosen't work anymore
i aslo did my own firmware for an octopus pro board

i guess i'll keep doing what i was doing  thanks for the help

note: once i am done printing part i have an ender5 waiting to be rebuild/modified i want a 4 tool head based color/material change

Edited May 21 by buder5

[buder5 0]

following that how you change temperature at height ?
i want to test petg has raft then asa for the print
230c for petg 250c for asa

inserting the gcode manualy is such a chore
Edit: got my anwser  there a gcode before and after at filament change script i'll put a m104 before and m109 after so it set and then wait at the after
edit2: if temperature command ignored make sure its  a M and not an M same for S 
 

Edited May 23 by buder5

[Slashee_the_Cow 382]

5 hours ago, buder5 said:

Edit: got my anwser  there a gcode before and after at filament change script i'll put a m104 before and m109 after so it set and then wait at the after
edit2: if temperature command ignored make sure its  a M and not an M

If you're increasing temperature, only put the M104 before the pause if you know you're going to be there to change it when it pauses or else you risk burning the PETG.

If you're decreasing the temperature, make sure the gcode after is M109 R<temperature> and not S. S means "wait until it's this temperature or higher' and will automatically trigger. R means "wait until it's this temperature even if that's cooling down".

[buder5 0]

the brand i use dont mind 250c but it has a if idle for too long stop heating the hotend if i am not there to change it right away

Thanks for the warning