Cura slicer questio.

[Daid 306]

How would you solve this one?

 

[tonycstech 5]

dont bother. I totally missed out on min distance for retractwhilecombing plugin settings. Thought i was in advanced settings and that's it.

 

[tonycstech 5]

How would you solve this one?

 

Eazy. I am printing one as we speak

 

[tonycstech 5]

Wait, forgot the center piece.

It would need to retract from middle line to print center circle first and then print the middle and continue on with the pattern.

You only have to do 1 retraction and very very small travel because its the same wall.

 

[dirkels 0]

Keep in mind that what seems obvious for a human being can be very hard to implement in software. I run into that problem on a regular basis when customers ask why our system works in certain way and as they think is obvious.

[tonycstech 5]

I program my self. Nothing as math intensive as generating patterns, but i have pretty good idea just how complicated it can be.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

How would you solve this one?

 

This would be my solution (start at red point and end at green point):

 

Of course the lines should stick to each other; I just introduced some spaces for better visibility.

 

The thoughts behind it (they may lead to an algorithm):

1. start with the innermost line and work from inside out

2. check if there are isolated lines

3. if there are, connect them to the line which lies on the inside

 

[tonycstech 5]

Yes, i like that one too.

What ever it takes to get it to complete entire perimeter before switching to the next is an awesome improvement.

If this gets implemented, i will no longer hear my extruder reversing almost every move it makes because i have combing disabled to compensate

It would retract everywhere i need, as well as everywhere i dont need LOL :-P

 

[Daid 306]

Oh, and also, you need to print everything inside, out, that's important for quality. (I did lots of testing on this a year ago)

 

[tonycstech 5]

OK everybody i found the solution

Solution called CraftWare

http://www.craftunique.com/craftware

Its much like CURA in terms of settings and how it generates the code, but it has a ton of features.

It has things like creating support with a click of a button instead of generating it.

See the nozzle location in the gcode with a slider.

Much Much faster preview.

Each perimeter is finished before moving to the next.

and much more

At this stage it cannot print directly from viewport, you have you export the code and print manually.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Unfortunately it's not open source. This means we would not know if parts from the CuraEngine have been (mis)used. I hope not (sorry, I get a bit suspicious if I read 'fast slicer engine' or similar).

However, I'm pretty optimistic that Cura PInk Unicorn will be not too far away from this slicer software after having had a peek into PU just a few days ago.

But thank you anyway for posting!

 

[nallath 1,120]

Craft ware seems to use voxels; atleast one version that they released a while back did. I'm a bit sceptic if they can get the resolution high enough if they continue with those.

 

[tonycstech 5]

I dont think it can be cura engine. if it was, it would not generate perimeter print in the same way. It would print one run opf perimeter and switch to another perimeter without finishing one complitely before switching to the next.

And why would anyone make something as great as this an open source ?

 

[nallath 1,120]

So it can grow faster?

 

[tonycstech 5]

So it can grow faster?

 

Yes. 2 updates within 7 days.

I dont know any great application thats open source. Blender ? What a mess.

Open Office ? Please.

 

[nallath 1,120]

First off, the argument you pose is a fallacy (argument from ignorance). Just because you do not know of such an application, does not mean it cannot exist.

Making something open source can increase the development speed, but it's also possible that it does nothing (or even decrease it). In most cases this is due to organisation problems and lack of a clear vision.

I'm reasonably certain that other slicers used features from the cura engine. The cura engine in return would not have been here if it weren't for other (OS) slicers. This has everything to do with not having to reinvent the wheel over and over again.

 

[tonycstech 5]

"organisation problems and lack of a clear vision" 100% agreed. Linux is greatest example. Its so messed up that OK and Cancel buttons are allways in different locations when dialog pops out. As if each dialog was coded by another person (which is prabobly true)

I discovered a problem with CraftWare slicer that CURA does not have. Reported already hoping to get it fixed asap. Last night i asked them about something and get almost instant reply so chanses are, its gonna get fixed.

Reason why i liked CraftWare is because its similar to CURA but somewhat more advanced and has ton of features i could use. However its in beta so it sucks here and there. For example at this stage its nearly impossible to print 100% infill, it gets over infilled for some reasons.

Oh well.

 

[Daid 306]

Reason why i liked CraftWare is because its similar to CURA but somewhat more advanced and has ton of features i could use. However its in beta so it sucks here and there. For example at this stage its nearly impossible to print 100% infill, it gets over infilled for some reasons.

 

Can you elaborate on which features you like in CraftWare? (Except for the support part, I've seen that, liked it, hope to learn from it)

 

[mikk36 0]

I, for one, like the ability to add extra amount of extrusion after returning from a retract.

 

[tonycstech 5]

OK

#1 it finishes individual perimeters. Cura jumps from one perimeter to another without finishing one at once.

#2 I can see where nozzle is at at what part of printing. Layer and layer progress sliders.

#3 I can see the line of code according to nozzle position

#4 i can manually create support with click and drag

#5 lots of tweaking

#6 Allot faster slicer and layers preview

#7 if your computer isnt fast enough, there is a CROP view feature as well, to block some sliced areas to speed up display, but its pretty fast so .

#8 Instead of giving mm's for shell count, you just enter the shell count and it corrects the mm's based on base sattings for you. How cool is that ?

 

[gr5 2,167]

I dont know any great application thats open source.

 

Ooh! Troll!

Fighting words!

Well... Hmm...

How about Unix. I dont' know anything about OK/Cancel buttons. I've never used buttons in unix. How about apache? I think it beats microsofts web server (iis) bigtime. I hate iis.

How about php? I really like php.

Um...

postgresql? I love love postgresql. Really smart software.

Um... Droid? What's it called? That phone operating system that's the most popular in the world. Not ios - the other one. Damn - I'm getting old. It seems to work pretty well as far as I can tell.

Firefox? I think it's much better than ie. Google Chrome? Is that open source? I'm guessing it is but maybe not.

wikipedia? Is that open source?

Really linux is the best example. It's an amazingly stable operating system (without the GUI anyway). It's very fast. It has amazing features. Good security. Takes up very little memory. It kind of makes windows os look so cloodgy. The filesystems alone to choose from - wow.

I suspect if all open source software suddenly dissapeared the internet would instantly halt.

 

[tonycstech 5]

Why are we talking about web hosting software ? Thats a totally different game.

We need to talk about TOY software, not the development software such as IIS or apache (web hosts) and PHP (web development) as well as SQL databases, thats too far off topic.

3D printer is a toy, just like my motorcycle. Slicers are also wheels for those toys (except for the motorcycle) so bring up something relative.

3D modeling would be relative. You could mention FreeCAD or Blender, but i'd give you a poem of negative about blender, just let me start its curent most updated version to remind me of what a mess it still is.

Firefox ? Man i love firefox but i hate it at the same time. It has more issues then benefits. I liked it for years but now its gone wild with MODERNIZATION. Have to download additional ad dons to keep it at bay and thats just causing more issues and conflicts.

Linux cant agree on where to place Yes/No/Cancel buttons on dialogs left or right side, because each process is coded by different person who gets to decide how he wants to prompt user for action.

Windows on other hand had YES and OK on the left since it existed and not changed once. Linux has it swapped allover. Different applications and dialogs etc coded by diferent people just making it more screwed up then ever..

Linux as OS its self is awesome but it needs law and order to obey, too bad no open source software does that.

(without the GUI anyway) is DOS. If it has no GUI its not an example to even consider.

Again, we are not talking about some coding/hacking/hosting/developing, we are talking toys here.

CURA is a toy. Its simple/powerfull and eazy to use, but compared to CraftWare it needs millions of years of evolution.

Speaking of evolution: someone above said "open source=fast development" Then how come Repetier/Cura/Slic3r and many other open source 3d printing programs still in their dinosaur state while CraftWare being relatively new in its beta stage is far more advanced ?

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

I guess you had a glimpse at the Pink Unicorn edition of Cura yet? I did. And although it is very far from complete right now I see quite some potential. And I understand why the further development of the old GUI and everything that's connected with it was kind of stopped at some point. So comparing a slicer software with the standard Cura edition might be a bit unfair at this very moment as major efforts are put now into Pink Unicorn.

[Daid 306]

Speaking of evolution: someone above said "open source=fast development" Then how come Repetier/Cura/Slic3r and many other open source 3d printing programs still in their dinosaur state while CraftWare being relatively new in its beta stage is far more advanced ?

 

I won't say open-source is always faster. But it's continues. CraftWare might be ahead now. But most likely the company behind it threw a lot of money at it to get it at this point. But, how will it progress? We don't know.

For example, look at everyones favorite slicer 3 years ago. NetFabb. Where is it now? Only a few poeple still use it, because it dropped behind in easy of use and features. As they stopped investing in it. And all the effort put into it is effectively lost.

Note that most points I see above are already addressed in the PinkUnicorn version. As they are simple access to some settings or different way of accessing those settings.

(Except for the perimeter behavior, but this actually has a technical reason. I'm also not sure if the craftware way results in the best outer skin look and dimensional stability, as cooling will act differently. Might test it one day, as changing this can be done, but I rather not. It also does not save a whole lot of time or anything)

 

[gr5 2,167]

I really don't like the mouse so I don't care much about linux GUI and there are many to choose from so I'm not sure which one your are talking about and I'm not familiar with any of them (gnome, kde, etc). I get your point that it's nice to have a UX overlord but even if windows has a UX overlord, the many applications that run in Windows don't all have the same UX overlord so you get the same problem with "Ok" buttons not always in the same place. It's nice to at least have the OS consistent but if you spend 90% of the time dealing with applications and not the OS it still seems like a mess.

Anyway I agree with all of your points for the most part. Maybe you should refine your statement from:

"I dont know any great application thats open source."

to:

"I dont know any great GUI application thats open source."?? Or "toy" applications although I don't know what the definition of that is.

I certainly agree that most really smart programmers don't seem to enjoy working on GUIs as much as they love the puzzle of the back end code. Like slicing algorithms and multithreading those slicing algorithms and getting the damn slicer to make beautiful prints. Versus making the GUI more useful. Personally I enjoy coding both. My motivation for GUI is to imagine all the people using it and what they are thinking when they are trying to get it to do what they want and how happy they will be if I make a good interface and how much it will suck if they can't find some important feature or don't understand it or if the application is slow, etc.

As far as craftWare goes - I wasn't able to use it. Also it was missing a critical dll which I got from microsoft but still - they must not have very many beta testers yet. But then it looked great and I played with it and it crashed within about 30 seconds of use - I think when I first hit the slice button. So I haven't looked at it since.

More likely the ideas from craftWare will be eventually integrated into Cura which will keep getting better.

There's something about software development that slows down rapidly the more users are using it. Fixing the last 0.1% of the bugs takes 90% of the time perhaps.