Anybody using Cura 4.13.1

General Software
1

So I downloaded and am playing around with Ultimaker Cura 4.13.1. It doesn’t seem to have the lulzbot printers listed.

Any tips for setting it up? I’m doing my best to compare the settings to the ones in the lulzbot edition of cura that I downloaded recently.

1 Like
2

Okay, so one issue I am having is I cannot find certain material settings that seem to be key.

For example, in the new user interface, there is no “soften temperature” for adding materials. Consequently, my use of the material_probe_temperature in my start up code gets rendered:

M104 S{material_probe_temperature}

The print seemed to work except that there was filament oozing out of my nozzle.

It looks like the lulzbot edition has an option to change the probe and soften temperatures, and these are missing from the latest cura.

Since it seems that it was a useful feature I am not sure why they would do that.

Is there a way to add your own variables (as seem to exist on the lulzbot edition) so that I can follow for the most part the flow in the lulzbot edition, while taking advantage of some of the other new features in cura?

Okay, I just found this: Cura 4 vs. Lulzbot edition - #3 by TheVirtualTim (and I think he is replying right now). Basically:

So you can use other slicers. But when you copy the start g-code from Cura LE to wherever you want to use it… just make sure you check all those variables (they are always in curly braces {}) and be prepared to hard-code them with the actual values if the slicers doesn’t support the variables.

So, based on the above, I guess I’ll have to get around to write a script to modify the generated g-code and do the substitutions based on settings in another file. I’ll post it here. Meantime I will manually edit.

3

Ultimaker Cura 4.x doesn’t have the same G-code replacement variables that you see in Cura LE. LulzBot added additional variables (it’s open source) to their version to support everything needed for the bed leveling on their hardware.

Cura LE has things like:

{material_soften_temperature}
{material_wipe_temperature}
{material_probe_temperature}

Ultimaker Cura 4 doesn’t have those replacement variables.

Here’s the list of replacement variables for Cura 4.x:

http://files.fieldofview.com/cura/Replacement_Patterns.html

You are allowed to do math inside the curly braces.

So while there is no soften, wipe, or probe temps… suppose your material has a “standby_temperature” of 170. Then you could do the following:

{material_standby_temperature + 20} to soften
{material_standby_temperature} to wipe
{material_standby_temperature - 10} to probe

But you need to go into the Preferences → Materials, pick a material, then you’ll see (for that material) two tabs… an “Information” tab and a “Print Settings” tab. Check the values in the “Print Settings” tab for that material and that’s where you’ll find the values for things like the Standby Temperature.

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4

Cool…good to know about the math. I ate dinner and came back and wrote a script before seeing your post. As promised, here it is. It requires installation of sed and bash in its current form. The post processing commandline script will allow you to copy the current “start gcode” and “end gcode” scripts from the lulzbot edition into the Cura 4.13.1, and then run the output file of Cura 4.13.1 through the script, then print.

I have not 3d printed the resultant gcode (I am just starting one now as of this edit), but after examining the processed gcode file in a text editor, it looks like it will work. It should be easy enough for others to extend to other materials, as I have included a few that I use or will use (but use at your own risk):

#!/bin/bash
if test $# -ne 2; then
  echo example:
  echo "    Usage:  $0 <material> <filename>.gcode "
  echo "    Where material can be:"
  echo "    o ABS_IC3D_1_75"
  echo "    o POLY_PLA_1_75"
  echo "    o PETG_1_75"
  echo "    o NinjaFlex_1_75"
  exit
fi

case $1 in
  ABS_IC3D_1_75)
    MST=170
    MPT=170
    MPRT=60
    MKPRT=60
    ;;

  ABS_CHROMA_1_75)
    MST=170
    MPT=170
    MPRT=60
    MKPRT=60
    ;;

  PETG_1_75)
    MST=170
    MPT=170
    MPRT=50
    MKPRT=50
    ;;

  POLY_PLA_1_75)
    MST=140
    MPT=140
    MPRT=45
    MKPRT=45
    ;;

  NinjaFlex_1_75)
    MST=180
    MPT=180
    MPRT=0
    MKPRT=0
    ;;
esac
sed -i "s/{material_soften_temperature}/$MST/g" $2
sed -i "s/{material_probe_temperature}/$MPT/g" $2
sed -i "s/{material_part_removal_temperature}/$MPRT/g" $2
sed -i "s/{material_keep_part_removal_temperature_t}/$MKPRT/g" $2
5

The test print got far along to confirm that the script worked for me. No oozing/dripping onto the bed now that it is all working. Sweet.

6

Well, it is not exactly plug and play, but even a lulzbot isn’t exactly plug an play unless you plan to print the octopus–that is.