Cura

I loaded up Cura 14.01 this weekend. I have to say, my Taz has never produced nicer parts. If you are fighting with Slic3r, give Cura a shot.



It is also doing a good job with holes.

I have attached my current Cura setup file.
cura.ini (4.25 KB)

That looks great I’ve downloaded CURA but had troubles with the first print. Can you post what settings you used ie speeds, in fill, wall thickness, etc? Any bit of help would be tremendously appreciated!!

I check out the cura.ini I attached to the post. You can load that into Cura to get started.

Thank you for sharing your g code settings. I successfully printed this front end of a Cadillac RC car model with yellow HIPS filament. The dimensions were 7 inches long x 2 inches high. The temperatures had to be adjusted as follows:

  1. Hot End Temp: 235 C
  2. Print Bed Temp: 115 C

It turned out great, and Cura is easy enough to figure out. Thanks again.
IMG_20140327_192943_575 (600 x 450).jpg
IMG_20140327_192736_475 (600 x 450).jpg

No problem.

I printed a couple small parts last night sliced with Slic3r v1.0 and the new medium profile from Lulzbot. The results were pretty good. I was even able to remove the support structure!

Hi, just now opening my TAZ4 box and had planned on using Cura as I am familiar with it from my Ultimaker Original. Any new issues or great setting mods that you have found recently??

I tried to download your Cura setting and my computer crapped itseld. for some reason it thinks the file is a viurs. Could you post what your speed settings were? Nozzle size? Layer height? ABS or PLA?

For what its worth that INI file is 100% not a virus in case anyone else was wondering. it’s a simple text file containing the following settings:

[profile]
layer_height = 0.25
wall_thickness = 1
retraction_enable = True
solid_layer_thickness = 1
fill_density = 80
nozzle_size = 0.35
print_speed = 50
print_temperature = 0
print_temperature2 = 0
print_temperature3 = 0
print_temperature4 = 0
print_bed_temperature = 0
support = None
platform_adhesion = None
support_dual_extrusion = Both
wipe_tower = False
wipe_tower_volume = 15
ooze_shield = False
filament_diameter = 2.85
filament_diameter2 = 0
filament_diameter3 = 0
filament_diameter4 = 0
filament_flow = 100.0
retraction_speed = 40.0
retraction_amount = 1.2
retraction_dual_amount = 16.5
retraction_min_travel = 1.5
retraction_combing = True
retraction_minimal_extrusion = 0.02
bottom_thickness = 0.26
object_sink = 0.0
overlap_dual = 0.15
travel_speed = 150.0
bottom_layer_speed = 40
infill_speed = 0.0
cool_min_layer_time = 20
fan_enabled = True
skirt_line_count = 2
skirt_gap = 3.0
skirt_minimal_length = 150.0
fan_full_height = 0.5
fan_speed = 100
fan_speed_max = 100
cool_min_feedrate = 10
cool_head_lift = False
solid_top = True
solid_bottom = True
fill_overlap = 15
support_fill_rate = 15
support_xy_distance = 0.7
support_z_distance = 0.15
spiralize = False
brim_line_count = 20
raft_margin = 5
raft_line_spacing = 1.0
raft_base_thickness = 0.3
raft_base_linewidth = 0.7
raft_interface_thickness = 0.2
raft_interface_linewidth = 0.2
fix_horrible_union_all_type_a = True
fix_horrible_union_all_type_b = False
fix_horrible_use_open_bits = False
fix_horrible_extensive_stitching = False
plugin_config = (lp1
	.
object_center_x = -1
object_center_y = -1

[alterations]
start.gcode = G28 ; home all axes

	M203 X192 Y208 Z3 ; Speed limits to minimize skipped steps when moving really fast courtesy of forum.lulzbot.com user 1013
end.gcode = M104 S0 ; turn off extruder temperature

	M140 S0 ; turn off bed

	G28 X0 Y0  ; home X axis Y axis

	G1 Y250 ; kick out bed

	M84     ; disable motors
start2.gcode = ;Sliced at: {day} {date} {time}
	;Basic settings: Layer height: {layer_height} Walls: {wall_thickness} Fill: {fill_density}
	;Print time: {print_time}
	;Filament used: {filament_amount}m {filament_weight}g
	;Filament cost: {filament_cost}
	;M190 S{print_bed_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own bed temperature line
	;M104 S{print_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line
	;M109 T1 S{print_temperature2} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line
	;M109 T0 S{print_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line
	G21        ;metric values
	G90        ;absolute positioning
	M107       ;start with the fan off
	G28 X0 Y0  ;move X/Y to min endstops
	G28 Z0     ;move Z to min endstops
	G1 Z15.0 F{travel_speed} ;move the platform down 15mm
	T1                      ;Switch to the 2nd extruder
	G92 E0                  ;zero the extruded length
	G1 F200 E10             ;extrude 10mm of feed stock
	G92 E0                  ;zero the extruded length again
	G1 F200 E-{retraction_dual_amount}
	T0                      ;Switch to the first extruder
	G92 E0                  ;zero the extruded length
	G1 F200 E10             ;extrude 10mm of feed stock
	G92 E0                  ;zero the extruded length again
	G1 F{travel_speed}
	;Put printing message on LCD screen
	M117 Printing...
end2.gcode = ;End GCode
	M104 T0 S0                     ;extruder heater off
	M104 T1 S0                     ;extruder heater off
	M140 S0                     ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)
	G91                                    ;relative positioning
	G1 E-1 F300                            ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure
	G1 Z+0.5 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F{travel_speed} ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
	G28 X0 Y0                              ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the way
	M84                         ;steppers off
	G90                         ;absolute positioning
support_start.gcode = 
support_end.gcode = 
cool_start.gcode = 
cool_end.gcode = 
replace.csv = 
switchextruder.gcode = ;Switch between the current extruder and the next extruder, when printing with multiple extruders.
	G92 E0
	G1 E-36 F5000
	G92 E0
	T{extruder}
	G1 X{new_x} Y{new_y} Z{new_z} F{travel_speed}
	G1 E36 F5000
	G92 E0

I will test with nopick’s profile next. I ported my Ultimaker Original print profile to a second TAZ4 machine setup in Cura 14.07 and it was working great till a retraction heavy point in the model occurred and it dry socketted the extruder several times… I believe I forgot to reign in the retraction amount as the Ultimaker has a 100’s of millimeters to draw up against vs. the direct drive on the TAZ.

I had pretty good luck with Cura. I have not used it in quite a while because I purchased Simplify3D. In almost all cases, I have found the prints produced by S3D to be noticeably better quality that Slic3r or Cura.

The only problem I have had with it (S3D) is a strange bug with thin walls and multiple perimeters. It tends to omit the center infill in those cases. S3D doesn’t seem to think this is a bug and suggests setting perimeters to 1 and increasing the infill overlap. That corrects the infill but, causes me to have to increase the infill percentage which uses more filament overall. Plus, having several solid perimeters around holes is a plus for heat sets…

I keep trying the new Slic3r versions but they just seem buggy.

I should install the latest Cura and give it a go.

Edit:
The thing that led me to S3D was the support editing feature. It is awesome. You can manually add and remove the supports during set up and after the build, they pop right off. Worth the cost for that alone.

I built a in dash screen mount that had massive amounts of supports under and in between the structure. I might have succeeded with Cura but would have had no chance with Slic3r…

No virus in there. I promise.

I just tried Cura with your configurations. The print was looking fantastic until I hit an area of bridging. There is a “lid” on the part and as it tried to close in the lid it kept the speed up at the same “infill” speed which is I think 100. The ABS just fell apart trying to bridge the supports with such high speed. I went back and looked through the advanced settings and don’t see where I can manually set the bridging speed. Is that not an option?

It looks like they lost that setting when the moved away from Skeinforge.

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4686-plug-in-bridging-settings/

If I can’t set the bridging speed manually then I would have to print the entire part much sLower which would make An eight or nine hour print take 20 plus hours. it seems like cura is really good for certain parts but not so good for other parts. I have been using matterslice with pretty good results on all parts. It’s more advanced than cura but not as complicated as slicer. It seems to be the middle ground between the two softwares. Its a free software you can download from matterhackers.Com

Yeah, I really like Cura but hate that they haven’t brought in any bridging settings. I understand that they’re focusing on other stuff first, but it seems like such a crucial part of slicing… :\

Thanks for the tips about matterslice, I’ll check that out.