Cura default settings: Needs a speed tweak?

[valcrow 145]

I noticed installing cura on a new computer that the default settings for 'normal' (15.01) when translated over to expert settings have the following 'advance' speed:

Basic Speed 50

Bottom layer 20

infill speed 80

top/bottom 15

outer shell 30

inner shell 60

This seems to cause a lot of problems for new people who may not understand what the advance speed settings do.

It is not immediately apparent to new users that the advance speed overrides the basic speed. So they end up changing the basic speed and encountering the same issues.

The speed between the infill, outer and inner shells feel like the difference is too large by default. For small parts this causes unpredictable issues, sometimes excessive stringing. For large parts, printing at 80mm/s at the default 210 temperature will usually cause under extrusion.

I think it's most reliable if the speeds don't exceed 10mm/s difference. Especially for default settings I think this should be reduced for reliability.

Also it would be cool if instead of a finite speed, the advanced speeds are relative to the basic speed.

so it would look like:

basic speed: 50 (finite)

Bottom layer 20 (finite)

infill speed {Basic speed} + [10mm/s]

top/bottom 20 (finite)

outer shell {Basic speed} - [10mm/s]

inner shell {Basic speed} - [5mm/s]

My 2 cents after helping a bunch of people with their extrusion issues.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

This sounds like a very good recipe.

[rigs 735]

You are right @valcrow,to print with the default settings, i must raise the temperature to 235 ° (PLA) for not under extrusion.

[gr5 2,224]

infill speed {Basic speed} + [10mm/s]

Or you could do percentage of Basic Speed (e.g. 150%) and show the actual value in gray outside the control:

Inner Shell Percent of Basic speed ___150___ (75mm/sec)

[gr5 2,224]

That way lowering your basic speed would help with underextrusion issues.

[valcrow 145]

infill speed {Basic speed} + [10mm/s]

Or you could do percentage of Basic Speed (e.g. 150%) and show the actual value in gray outside the control:

Inner Shell Percent of Basic speed ___150___     (75mm/sec)

I like + (X)mm/s rather than a percentage because I usually don't exceed 10mm/s over or under the set speed. I usually set it as +5 for infill -5 for outer perimeter regardless of speed. But I guess it's personal preference.

You would get non-integer weird numbers if it was a percentage of the speed though.

Perhaps in addition to this feature, it could detect your maximum volume extrusion required and warn you if your temperature is too low.. so at the default current settings, it should recommend you increase the temperature to 230C since it will be doing some parts at 85mm/s.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

infill speed {Basic speed} + [10mm/s]

Or you could do percentage of Basic Speed (e.g. 150%) and show the actual value in gray outside the control:

Inner Shell Percent of Basic speed ___150___     (75mm/sec)

I like + (X)mm/s rather than a percentage because I usually don't exceed 10mm/s over or under the set speed. I usually set it as +5 for infill -5 for outer perimeter regardless of speed. But I guess it's personal preference.

You would get non-integer weird numbers if it was a percentage of the speed though.

Perhaps in addition to this feature, it could detect your maximum volume extrusion required and warn you if your temperature is too low.. so at the default current settings, it should recommend you increase the temperature to 230C since it will be doing some parts at 85mm/s.

Relative speed is something for Pink Unicorn. As nearly everything is built out of plugins, it should be possible to have the inputs as relative numbers. This will also have an impact on traditional plugins such as the TweakAtZ (which anyway needs to be rewritten for PU).

I like the concept of having a basic speed and relative offsets. Maybe it should be selectable if the numbers represent mm or percentage.

The additional feature you suggest would have to work with a threshold setting somewhere in Cura as different hotends/nozzles/nozzle sizes will have different thresholds. And don't forget different colors...

Edited May 9, 2015 by Guest

[gr5 2,224]

I think percentages are better than offsets if you think about what you are trying to do and your goals for these offsets. The goal should be to print faster but still maintain some quality thing. When you change speeds you get over/underextrusion - for example if you are going at a higher speed and then slow down for the outer skin you can get some over extrusion at the outer skin right where it starts printing the outer skin. This can result in a slight thickening for short distance - or a major thickining. The amount it thickens won't be relative to the amount of speed change but by the percentage of speed change. For example the thickening should be identical if you transition from 100mm/sec to 50mm/sec versis if you transition from 70mm/sec to 35mm/sec.

So the quality has more to do with the relative change in speed (2x in this case) and not the absolute change in speed (35 or 50mm/sec).

But either way it would be a nice feature.

[nallath 1,124]

We overhauled this in the new Cura. It now actually suport setting inheritence and will hide the basic speed if all children are visible. You can make custom 'sets' of settings that you use often, which enables a much more gradient skill slope.

[KevinMakes 22]

I agree with this ^

[yellowshark 153]

Is Pink Unicorn coming or has it arrived

[yellowshark 153]

Personally I question the wisdom in setting different speeds (except layer 1). As an ex Slic3r user I used to do this all the time but since moving to Cura and not doing it I find that you loose unwanted artefacts that are caused by the period of change in pressure mid print whilst the printer stabilises to the new setting.

I would agree that on large models it can be very useful and that in itself would be helped if there was the capability in Cura to set where the layer change is located, i.e. somewhere that would be out of site when the model is displayed; of course that is not relevant to all models but every bit helps!

[gr5 2,224]

pink unicorn is now called version 15.06 or newer.

[yellowshark 153]

Interesting, for whatever reason I always had in my mind that Pink Unicorn was going to have extra stuff to help with dual extruder printing - I think I had it in my mind that Ultimaker cancelled the dual extruder printer - due early 2014 - until the software provided more support. Did this make it to 15.06 or was it dropped?

[nallath 1,124]

There is no dual extrude support in 15.06. The dual extrusion wasn't dropped due to software support. Legacy cura supports dual extrusion.

[KevinMakes 22]

There is no dual extrude support in 15.06. The dual extrusion wasn't dropped due to software support. Legacy cura supports dual extrusion.

 

@S3D

As much as I hate to be someones free advertisement...Simplify3D Has some amazing resources including manual jog, manual extrude and it supports and encourages dual extrusion. @ a cool $150 the software is not for the occasional printing printnewb. I had my company buy it and it was probably the most beneficial purchase to getting dual extrusion working with minimal tweaking.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Guest

[KevinMakes 22]

You are right @valcrow,to print with the default settings, i must raise the temperature to 235 ° (PLA) for not under extrusion.

 

haha oh the days when I used sub 230 deg temps

[yellowshark 153]

... and it supports and encourages dual extrusion. @ a cool $150 the software is not for the occasional printing printnewb. I had my company buy it and it was probably the most beneficial purchase to getting dual extrusion working with minimal tweaking.

 

Ooh that is interesting info @kevinmakes, it is clear to me that the new Cura is not going to do me any favours so S3D may well be the way I need to go, I just have a personal hatred of paying people for software when they do not make trial software available. Do you know if it is easy to set up a "custom" printer in S3D.

[KevinMakes 22]

I just have a personal hatred of paying people for software when they do not make trial software available. Do you know if it is easy to set up a "custom" printer in S3D.

 

Me too, I ...borrowed... the software at first for testing at home. For obvious reasons I chose to get a legitimate version for the company I work for once I knew I would be satisfied with the product.

Yes it is really easy to set up a custom machine and if you get in touch of the s3d tech support (by email only) you get mediocre support. But they will send you the Ultimaker 2 Dual extrusion "profile" (or I can email it to you) and then all you need is the firmware (there's a basic version of the ulti2dual firmware in the Cura program files) (I can send you that too) if you aren't up to building your own. If you would like to see a test run of the software I would be glad to show you on a team viewer meeting or something I was thinking about making a review of the software but didn't really see a demand for it.

[nallath 1,124]

Getting dual extrusion support (again) is on the roadmap for Cura, but this will take at least three months (eg; it's definitely not going to be in the 15.10 release)

[ultiarjan 1,223]

and then all you need is the firmware (there's a basic version of the ulti2dual firmware in the Cura program files)

I suggest you use @tinkergnome firmware when you want to play with UM2 dualextrusion.

http://tinyurl.com/nn8mt7p

[Kevparang 10]

Agreed with you.

[avogra 68]

@Kevparang, I think there is no need to post in a thread with the last post almost one year old, if you don't bring in any new ideas. Please don't get me wrong, but for me and i think for others too this clutters the list of newest topics/posts. Maybe, if you want to show your approval, you give a "like" for a single post or for the initial topic?

Best regards,

Alex