I’m encountering a persistent stringing issue while printing with my Snapmaker Artisan (dual extrusion setup) using PrusaSlicer and Cura. I printed the test model with identical settings both on prusa slicer and cura, but the results are significantly different. Cura-sliced prints are coming out clean, with minimal stringing, while those sliced in PrusaSlicer exhibit noticeable stringing between the two towers (see picture).
Printer: Snapmaker Artisan with dual extrusion module
Filament: PLA (same spool for both tests)
Temperature: 210°C
Here’s an overview of my setup and what I’ve tried so far:
I have also ran several more tests with prusa slicer where I adjusted some of the settings which are knowen to impact stringing like for example retraction and travel speed, retraction legth, z hop and z hop height, but had no luck with it. No matter what I change the stringing looks like the PrusaSlicer side in the picture.
Has anyone else experienced this issue, or does anyone have suggestions on how to configure PrusaSlicer to reduce stringing on the Snapmaker Artisan? Maybe there is a setting which I’m not aware of that impacts stringing. Any tips for additional tweaks or overlooked settings would be incredibly helpful!
If you can upload the two GCode files, I can compare the first layer. I’m not great with GCode, but that’s the sort of thing that will help me improve.
I tried to look at them but I’m not great with comparing the code.
However: I made a video recording of the part printig with both gcodes and compared the nozzle movements that way. Seems like on the prusaslicer code the nozzle is z-hopping in the center of the post and than lowering again BEFORE traveling to the other post. I think this is the cause for the massive stringing. With the cura code the nozzle makes the z-hop and travels across before lowering, as it should be.
I found the setting “only retract when crossing perimeters” (under print settings > infill > advanced) which forces the nozzle to retract when crossing a perimeter. To my understanding it should already have done that but maybe it didnt because of a bug and this setting forces the retract when crossing the perimeter. I dont know the reason why this is the case but with the setting enabled the stringing is way better (see picture), although far from perfect.
There are quite a few differences between the two.
The Cura file has higher max accelerations than the Prusa file, particularly for retraction and extrusion. Prusa initially sets the hot end to 250ºC before targetting to your desired 210ºC, then starts printing. That could affect the first couple layers as the nozzle cools, but shouldn’t affect the whole print.
M201 - Set the max acceleration for one or more axes M203 - Set the max feedrate for one or more axes M204 - Set the preferred starting acceleration M205 - Set various motion settings. See parameters for details
So Cura is allowed to accelerate faster. I don’t know enough about acceleration to have an opinion on this.
When the actual printing starts, Prusa appears to be printing slightly faster on the first layer. I’m having a hard time comparing because Cura uses absolute extruder positioning (M82), and Prusa uses relative (M83). The feed rate is generally set being set to a higher value in Prusa.
I don’t see Cura doing any ZHops. The G1 ... Z... commands are only increasing in Z value. Prusa is doing ZHops.
shows raising the head (G1 ... Z1.4), moving, then lowering the head (G1 Z.4). I see a 1mm retraction happening during the ZHop (the two G1 E# commands)
