Hi! I am using CureLE to slice structures that I print with a printess.org Bioprinter. Is there anyone on this quest?
Yeah, we built one of those for demonstrations where I work. There’s nothing special about CuraLE with regards to bioprinting. You’d be better off using something more modern. If you already owned the Lulzbot bio printer, and were using their materials? I guess you might as well stick with it. Otherwise, I’d just build a simple printer profile in OrcaSlicer instead.
When you build your printer profile, set the interior diameter of the syringes you use as the filament width, and needle size as the nozzle size. Steps per millimeter in your firmware for extruder axes is set to the steps for your extruder motors to move the plunger of the syringe.
If you get the suspension gel you’re printing into for “zero-g” printing and print material mixes right, it’s pretty simple.
Thank you very much! I am using a 2 heads Printess bioprinting and I use my own gel. I will give a shot to Orca Slicer!
When I was using it, they had all these translator scripts to run alongside Cura, which were just to re-math the extrusions instead of setting the filament size to equal syringe diameter.
The general process we used was to manually set the XYZ starting/zero position before executing the gcode. The startup gcode is pretty sparse, but just set the position before starting to be the home position. (G92 Z0 X0 Y0) as well as setting the offset from the tip of each syringe for when you do tool changes (M218 X# Y# Z#).
It will also probably be best to set the bed shape to round, that way the origin will default to the center.
Hi. Thank you for sharing all this. It is helpfull. My problems are related with the fact that my printess bioprinter has 2 extrision heads named B and C . X , Y are the step motors from the base platform, z in z for B head and A is Z for the C head. Cure process extrusion for and E generic head.
I want to ask you some more … are you confortable in sharing the email? Mine is stancu.george@valahiamedical.ro
Best regards,
George Stancu MD PhD
I don’t have the firmware build, as it was a student’s project that I was helping with, and development was done on their computer. It’s been long enough that the account was cleaned out, so building firmware would be starting from scratch again.
Regardless, I took a look at the original printess marlin config, and as you said, they use X and Y as expected, with Z lifting the first syringe, C lifting the second syringe, and B and C axes for the movement of the plungers.
The printess script, in addition to doing the math for extrusion amounts, is also determining switching the “E” movement commands to the appropriate B and C motors.
So the rebuild we did put all the extrusion amount calculations back in the slicer, but still relied on the script for switching the extruder movement from the E axis to the B or C.
If you have somebody who knows python enough to disable the extrusion modifiers, it’s probably going to be best for you to go back to using the mainline version of Cura, instead of trying to use CuraLE or OrcaSlicer. If you do have somebody to modify the python script, I can help with building an OrcaSlicer profile for the printess.
Hi. I ussualy create the model in fusion and export it in 3mf or stl .
Than I usually slice it uth curale and save the gcode.
Then I modify Z and E with Z and B or A and C.
After that I can start printing.
Right now I use sodium alginate + metilcelulose + colagen + hyaluronic acid and Dulbecco medium with colon cancer cells.
Now I will try to use OrcaSlicer.
I will send you feedback !
Thank you!
Best regards,
George