I recently updated Cura Lulzbot to 3.6.20, however this problem was happening on the older version I had installed. When I updated the software I uninstalled and made sure to delete the data from the appdata and local appdata before installing the new version.
Cura LE will load 1 model fine, if i do “multiply object” its a 50% chance if it crashes. If i open the additional STL’s from the file select it tends to work more reliably. When i have multiple models and do prepare, its a 50% chance it crashes. then if i have multiple models and do “reload all models” its more like a 75%.
The STL’s aren’t too crazy, but they have a fair amount of geometry. The file size is about 45mb and 30mb for the two that have crashed recently.
How large are these models? I’ve had CURA crash before but it’s when I was trying to load like 20 of these lightsaber flower holder things and it was taking FOREVER to process, then just gave up
One item you can do to help avoid this, is to turn off automatic slicing. This should allow your to rearrange and multiply models before attempting to slice. (With this turned on, it will try to reslice as soon as you change any parameter)
Fortunately I dont have auto slice on, I cant stand it. The model is like 1.5x4.5x2.5 it’s not big. The craziest geometry that I’ve done might really bog down the computer and take a minute but it never crashes.
I’ve put 1000 prints through this printer without this issue so it’s weird. I had these same stls printing via usb and cura crashed, so the printer just froze mid print. I moved the gcode to an sd and then it printed fine but that didnt fix the crashing while trying to prepare it.
Boggled. I have the file prepared now so thankfully i wont have to mess with it for awhile. Or until another model messes with it.
I’ve had the same trouble with multiplying objects over various versions of Cura LE. The multiple model options are clunky and slicing duplicated models doesn’t actually result in the exact same tool-path for each model (so printed parts aren’t identical). Cura seems to be primarily geared towards folks that print a single object at a time.
One thing that I have found that improves my chance of success in multiplying and arranging models without a crash is converting the .stl file to a .3mf file (file>save as>select .3mf). Then clear the build plate, import the 3mf file, then multiply the model. 3mf files are considerably smaller than .stl files of the same model (sometimes by a factor of 10) which may be a contributing factor in causing crashes.
Is it a clean model? If you are trying to import something that is a really bad model file, CURA for all we know could be having trouble interpreting it (possible infinite loop concept)
The model is fine, I think the problem I was having was setting the stl export from cad too precise. For example “high quality” would generate a 3mb stl whereas the same part on my ultra high settings was 45mb. It’s never been a problem before but on this one it mattered.
So its kind of what buster was saying in the cura cant handle large file sizes it seems. Makes the sizes smaller makes it more agreeable.