Gcode Question

[meagan 0]

I have been printing with my printer for a couple weeks now. I believe I have been generating my gcode files the same. My last print I had three models that I wanted to print all together. I put them all into cura and generated my gcode file. When the printer ran the program it finished printing one object before it moved onto the next one. That hasn't happened to me before, usually it prints all objects together by a layer at a time. What did I do differently??

 

[illuminarti 18]

It will print them one at a time, by default, so long as none of them is taller than the gantry clearance height in the machine settings. If any are, then they print layer for layer at the same time, so that the cross rods don't knock over the print.

You can force it to print all at once, even when it could do them one at a time, by picking that option from the tools menu.

The advantage of printing one at a time is that the head doesn't have to move as far, and retract between objects, so you get a faster print and better surface. You also are at less risk of everything being ruined, if there is a failure midway; any parts already finished do not need to be reprinted.

 

[meagan 0]

I thought one of the reasons you should print a few parts at once was to allow for cooling time. Doesn't printing one part at a time defeat that purpose?

 

[illuminarti 18]

It depends on the size of the smallest layers. So long as the head doesn't have to slow down below about 10-20mm/s to meet minimum layer time, then printing one at once is still very useful.

 

[gr5 2,026]

There's advantages to both techniques. One at a time for larger prints is faster because it doesn't have to retract and move back and forth between the parts on every layer. But for very small prints it might be faster because you don't have to wait for minimum layer time. Also I have found that in one-at-a-time mode sometimes just as it is about to start the next part it extrudes a blob which falls near the base of the next part and sometimes the head gets it stuck on the side and pushes it around and causes minor trouble.

Both features are great and it's nice to be able to choose them. There's a menu item more to the left in cura that lets you force "all at once" mode.

 

[meagan 0]

Thanks Guys!