I’ve seen on a lot of the post on the forum about people making adjustments to temps, layers, and all kinds of different variables.
My questions are:
Are these adjustments made while the printer is printing, or do you pause for a moment while making the changes?
Are these adjustments done on the touch screen? Or through another command line through software?
Haven’t gotten my printer yet, but I was curious, and just wanted to understand what I was reading.
Thanks for your input.
Mostly this is done in the Slicer, Luban or Cura, there is not much you can do on the fly with the touch screen.
I assume using Octoprint you may be able to pause and make changes but I havn’t got to Octoprint just yet
You can get started by downloading the above software and exploring the settings
Pugs
@pugs Thanks. So once a print is started, you are commeted to the end, or do you just start over if you see something isn’t working?
Pretty much, you may be able to work with the console or gcode on pause.
If you can find the line the machine is working on it would in theory be possible to go into the slicer, find that line and change parameters only slicing from that line up and resume.
Pugs
No I haven’t needed to as yet. I come from a machining background where changes on the fly are fairly easy to achieve.
The touchscreen you can change things like workspeed, nozzle temp, bed temp etc on the fly.
Things like layer height and cooling fan speed are going to be a bit more difficult to change on the fly, as I said Octoprint may well be able to do a bit more while printing.
Pugs
I’d suggest the way to think about 3D printing is in 2 phases
For the purposes of calibration, you can change z height, temp, cooling, flow percent, speed percent, and anything that’s not something related to the toolpath in realtime, either from the touchscreen or from a computer connected via USB with a terminal. This can be useful for speeding up calibration, as you can change cooling or temperature mid print to see if it has a positive or negative effect, possibly allowing you to run multiple tests in a single print. Most people would do this ahead of time by modifying the gcode file before playback (such as with a temp tower) but if your style is more interactive you can do that as well.
For the purposes of production, generally you will be running prints unattended for hours on end. It would not be wise to get accustomed to constantly tweaking parameters as that would make sleep impossible if you print something that takes 30 hours. The end goal of operation is to have everything set up such that you get the prints you want with no adjustments made mid-print.
More specific answers to your questions: I would not pause the print to make adjustments on the fly, but make them seamlessly in the background via the USB terminal. Typical adjustments would be flow or speed percents. I hardly ever do this, as the machine is calibrated pretty well.
Layers cannot be changed on the fly, that is the toolpath generated by the slicer. You can nudge the toolhead up or down if needed but that’s really only needed for problem mitigation and not something usually done.
Great insight guys. I will take your advise into test once my printer arrives. Again, continuing to learn, and I appreciate your input.
Cheers!
Always watch the couple of layers on a print. That gives you a chance to back out if there are problems in the basic shape of the part, or the extrusion sessintgs (Z offset, temp, etc). Cancel the print, scrape it off, fix and start over.
Everything I have seen in regards to stopping a print, changing the gcode, and starting over says simply: don’t. Unlss you’re woking on a hundred-hour print, it’s usually cheaper and less time-cnsuming to just start over.
Be aware of problem areas in your print, such as when it gets too high (height more than 2x width or depth, overhangs, thin or round projections) and try to be present when those are printing. Once you’ve done a few prints, you can tell a lot about what is going on just by watching a layer print. It’s like watching paint dry, only even more exciting!
I can’t stress this enough: don’t be afraid to waste filament. Start a one-layer print, let it run while you tweak the Z offset in .01mm increments just to get a feel for what too high, too low, and just right looks like. Once you do this, the images @brent113 posted will make immediate sense. Try some parts with and without a raft, brim, and skirt, just to see how those work.
One last item: Cura lets you preview the print, to an extent - you can view the different wall or line types, and there is an attempt to display the toolpath. I think they’re still working on it. But definitely check that out once you are comfortable with the basics - Cura is free, there is a Snapmaker plugin in the (also free, despite the name) marketplace, and there are a zillion things to tweak.