My Plugin: Damn First Layer

[ataraxis 51]

Hey everybody,

since I am not the only one who has/had problems with the first layer when it comes to bigger parts I developed a little Plugin that offers some options to reduce e.g. the pressure at the infill on the one hand and increase it at the walls, make a hop when travel (G0) over (at least) a predefined length, retract to not leak to much 'material' on the way, and so on...

But pictures say more than 1000 words:

This is what big prints looked like at the first layer:

 

Here you can see how much the plugin can do for you without changing the whole print:

These two prints are printed at exactly the same settings in Cura, the only thing that changed was my plugin and both have a height of 1 layer.

 

Some may say it would be better to level the print-table/z-stop, but that's not true! if you start higher, every following layer will also start higher and you will have gaps between the lines in the second, third,... layer - I tried it for days now... believe me.

 

 

I set the nozzle 0.1 lower for the walls to get better adhesion and went 0.1 higher at the skin (infill), to get less pressure in the hotend. The print stuck unbelievable good at the table and the infill is very smooth.

If you have holes, ... at the surface, you can choose e.g. between different options for "hopping", retraction and so on... (this is awesome it your printer fails to print the walls of holes at the first layer).

These are the Options you have so far:

 

You can find it here: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/cura-plugin-damn-first-layer

 

BTW... I did no research if there is already any such plugin, it's the first time i use a plugin - I hope not

 

Tell me please if you find any bugs.

 

 

changelog:

v0.2: changed the order of retraction and hopping

 

 

preview:

At the moment I am testing a very good idea to make the surface even smoother, the first testprint was awesome but there is still something to do...

 

[ataraxis 51]

updated, more will follow...

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Any reason you didn't take the RetractWhileCombing plugin for that purpose? (Writing your own plugin is certainly a good reason... )

 

[ataraxis 51]

hum, not really I didn't knew that there is any such plugin (it's the first plugin i ever used) - anyway, coding is fun and I will add some more options in near future

 

[yellowshark 153]

Not sure I agree with what you said about starting higher. If your layer height is say.300 then for the 2nd layer the bed will move .300 so there will be a .300 gap between the 1st layer and the 2nd layer - as required.

I will accept, although I have not tried, if your bed to nozzle distance is so way out, it might take a few layers to get it stabilised. The answer to that though is get the distance sorted!

I do like the idea of retraction though ; it pees me off that Cura does not do this on layer 1 - that should be a major bug fix not an add-in. The 1st layer is not always the 1st layer in use, i.e. you cannot assume the 1st layer is the base and will be hidden in use.

 

[ataraxis 51]

In theory you are right I think, that's why I wrote that...

but in practice it doesn't work for me and many others - don't know exactly why but if I start at this height without the plugin, it comes to overly visible lines at the second layer at my printer.

It's not a bad idea to have more material on the first layer without too much pressure I think.

With this method you just shift it to the second layer, where in general is less resistence.

But hey, if you don't have the problems mentioned above you will surely not need it (the plugin)

 

[yellowshark 153]

Oh if it stops line so layer by implementing retraction I do need it

 

[bagel-orb 61]

Your plugin seems very interesting!

However, it is not really intuitive.

 

Can you give a summary of the options?

 

How do you manage the pressure? By handling the nozzle-height, or by handling the feed rate?

About the options "use at [inner walls/outer walls/skins]": use what?

The description "offers some options for the first layer" is not really descriptive. Try to be more concise!

I'm most interested about extra pressure on the outer walls; perhaps I will include that option in Cura.

 

[gr5 2,172]

Bagel Orb - I suggest you just read the code. As a programmer I have learned that reading other people's code may be a little frustrating at first but you may learn some tricks and also you will understand exactly what the plugin does and you can decide if it's useful at all.

A very nice feature in Cura would be for it to make more perfect bottom and top surfaces. So "hop on move" for surface layers and "retract on move" for surface layers might be nice (not all layers - just the outer most layers).

 

[ataraxis 51]

hey! oh no please don't read the code - it's really ugly, quick 'n dirty and without any object-orientation :???: :-P

i rewrite it at the moment, it's now 720 lines long and it cannot do anything xD (well... it does "understand" the GCODE now and creates some tool objects)

the extra pressure is provided by a bed-movement in direction of the nozzle so far, but I will think about "the feedrate".

1) - 3) are self-explaining i think

4) allows to deactivate hopping on some parts of the first layer, i.e. the inner/outer-wall or the skin (infill)

5) - 6) self explaining

7) - 8) moves the bed towards/away from the nozzle. in my case that results in a good adhesion where it is necessary (the walls) and does not produce to much pressure in the nozzle while you print the skin (infill)

 

[ataraxis 51]

I'm still working on it

This is how it looks now: