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How can we calculate the build time of FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling)?
I am currently working on my research project in the field of additive manufacturing, specifically focusing on estimating the build time of FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling). As part of my work, I am seeking guidance on how to calculate or estimate the build time for FDM processes.
I would like to understand the equation or methodology used to determine the build time, particularly for both a single part and decomposed parts. Additionally, I am interested in knowing how to calculate the number of decomposed parts in the build process.
If possible, I would appreciate insights into any specific factors or considerations that should be taken into account when calculating the build time, such as material properties, printer settings, or part geometry.
Any references, recommended literature, or personal experiences related to this topic would be highly valuable to my research.
Thank you in advance for your time and expertise. I look forward to learning from your insights and contributions.

You may get a better answer by approaching the company behind whichever software you are using as most of the variables used are highly customisable, and can vary considerably between the hardware that you're using.

Thank you for your suggestion. I'm specifically looking for the fundamental equation or methodology to calculate the build time in FDM. Do you have any insights on this?

I think that you're question may be too involved for this forum as there are too many variables involved to easily explain. For example, the bottom and top layers are often printed slower than other layers, and the support material is printed at a different speed again. You also need to take into account travel time between different places when not printing.

Can we estimate the build time with  Build time = Number of layers x Layer time.?

Yes, but you'd first need to calculate the time for each layer, which is difficult since each layer might be very different. For example, some layers would be hollow, other would have filling material printed at a different speed. With a resin printer you just calculate the time per layer X the number of layers because every layer takes the same amount of time to print (allowing for the first few layers which take slightly longer).

Ok so there is no exact formula to estimate the build time of FDM thank you for your time

Don't forget about acceleration and deceleration... This question has been asked before, if you search for calculate print time at the top, you will find this answered question. This can be closed as duplicate.

Please keep in mind that the model you are going to print should be computationally feasible. However, the more coordinate changes you make, the longer the printing time will be. If you intend to print a detailed part with transitions between layers, for example, the more indentations it has and the variation in material density, the longer the processing time will be. The compatibility between the material used and the printer is also important. The melting temperature should be suitable for both the filament and the printer.

The time estimation of the typical slicer operates the following way:

First, the model is cut into layers, as demanded by the slicer.
Each layer is solved for its perimeters, infill, and required movement between them, resulting in a very long and complex path that the print head will follow. This is by the way the longest part of slicing.
The length of all paths is multiplied by the speed for each path type, and the times for each segment are added up. Technically, the speed needs to be a term including the 1st and 2nd derivate of the speed (acceleration and jerk), as well as the set max speed, but in older programs, those are often skipped, resulting in a gross underestimation of print times but much faster computation.

These durations are added up per layer, so that the next operation can be performed properly.

Then, if a layer has a shorter time than the minimum time, a pause is added into the code at the appropriate place, bringing that layer to the minimum duration.
Finally, all the layer times are added up, resulting in an estimated print time.

Generally, there is no way to estimate the time for heating up the printer to running temperatures, so those times are generally not accounted for in the print time estimates either.


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Resin printer LCD breaks if layer is too big
I've recently gotten into Resin 3d printing with a refurbished Elegoo Mars 1 but I've run into a weird bug where the printer would not expose any resin to the LCD.
I tested it by taking off the build plate and basin and looked at the LCD when it was exposing the layers. I've tried updating the firmware and tested about 20 odd prints of various sizes and detail. With those I saw that prints with large individual layers essentially stopped the LCD entirely (The exposure would flash on the LCD for a second then the LCD would not turn on again until I completely restarted the printer). What is more bizarre is that the first test print I did worked perfectly and still does for some reason (which was the tugboat and a random miniature).
For specific printer details I have an Elegoo Mars with the C type motherboard. There are no burn marks on the wiring or circuits and the LCD screen was replaced recently with a brand new one. And nothing is misaligned or unplugged. I even double checked that the LCD was still functional with the test exposure tools on the printer.
From my observations it is a data streaming issue with how it is connected with the USB drive. But that is a software issue that I am not capable of knowing.
Any ideas on what could be wrong or if this has happened before?
EDIT: Discovered that the Firmware needed to be updated to the latest version. Also, after testing out several very different print files the original print file that was having this issue was corrupted in some way as rebuilding it and printing the new version more or less worked. I also did another go around with cleaning everything and making sure that both the plate was level/tightened, FEP replaced, and that there was no IPA leftover on either.

Just a few suggestions. Maybe try updating the firmware. Even if it is up to date, reinstalling it may help fix a corrupted firmware. Maybe also put the slicer on an entirely different laptop or computer and slice it from there. It could very well just be a slicing bug.

I never thought about using my laptop. I'll try that out in the morning along with reinstalling the firmware

I've tried updating the firmware...
aaand here is most likely your problem. Your Firmware update most likely did not handle properly, resulting in a corrupted firmware. Reinstallation of the firmware might be in order.
You might want to test a different USB drive, in case it is a problem with just that specific dongle. Sometimes a USB stick might be ill-formatted or too large to allow running an update.
To verify it is a problem with the USB driver, in many machines one could also slice a model, connect to the printer via a cable and print directly from the computer's slicer. If the problem is the USB port, then this should print properly, but it is not always an option.

Sadly, the mars doesn't have the capability or port to be connected directly to a computer.
The firmware also refuses to update. It will say that it does but the version doesn't change.

UPDATE: I dug deep into several other websites and found out that I had to partition my  newer 32gb usb with a FAT32 4096 partition and only put the .SH4 .CBD and .TXT files in the root. Then the firmware finally updated.

Ah yes, the classical "That can't be, the stick's too big!"

@IllogicalConsistency - you should post the info in your comment as an answer. It may help others who are also having similar partitioning issues (and necessary files) with their SD cards. Solutions should not be posted in the comments as comments are ephemeral in nature and tend to be deleted over time.

@IllogicalConsistency - I meant that the comment should be posted as a new answer rather than an edit to this existing answer. As an edit, it looks like an attempt to reply. Sorry, if I wasn't clear. Also, please take the [tour] in order to better understand how the Q&A mechanism of Stack Exchange works. Thanks.

If the user, Illogical Consistency (who suggested the edit) posts their own answer, then this wiki answer can be deleted

From this (rejected) suggested edit:

I had to dig deep into several other websites and found out that I had to partition my newer 32gb usb with a FAT32 4096 partition and only put the .SH4 .CBD and .TXT files in the root. On then would the firmware update properly.

From this comment:

I dug deep into several other websites and found out that I had to partition my newer 32gb usb with a FAT32 4096 partition and only put the .SH4 .CBD and .TXT files in the root. Then the firmware finally updated

4096 what? Sectors, bytes, kB, MB...? A number without units is pretty meaningless. Also, what websites - any links, or references?

Resin particles or residues can accumulate on the LCD screen, hindering its proper operation. Check that the connection cables are not loose or damaged.
Before performing a firmware update, I suggest making a backup.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


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How to print the outer contour before inner lines with Cura?

I would like to print the outer contour without extraction, and after that print the straight lines between the contour. I attached a picture how Cura does the slicing. It does several extractions from the outer contour to print the straight lines.
Is there a setting so that Cura slices so that the outer wall is done first, without extractions and finally does the straight lines in between?
I am not looking for "vase mode", but almost. I would prefer a nice outer contour.

As far as I understand Cura, you can't. It optimizes the path, this isn't always how we would think or like it to be.
To fix this, you'll need to write your own G-code, for such a simple geometry this should be very doable if you have some programming skills. It is printing an elliptical shape with cross lines, the latter all having a little offset from the previous layer.

With limited programming skils you could also achieve some success. When the current sliced G-code is inspected in e.g. an online G-code interpreter/visiulizer, you could extract the correct path for the elliptical circumference (cutting out/move the parts that break the printing of the circumference as a whole) to ensure continuity of printing the outer elliptical shell. Note that you need to take care of the E parameter in the code as this must be reset e.g. using (G92)[https://reprap.org/wiki/G-code#G92:_Set_Position] to the correct starting point for extrusion. Once obtained you have a continuous printing code for the outer shell. Now you need to add the cross line paths to be placed after a move to the correct position. It would be beneficial to have the formula of the elliptical shape to determine the length of the cross line and the position it needs to start, otherwise you need to move the cross line printed parts here. This may be a lot of work to achieve.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Model is cut off when printing despite showing correctly on slicer
My printer is the Creality Ender 3 V2 Neo printer. Firmware is factory new.
You can see the problem below:

As you see, the long rectangle on the bottom is getting cut off when printed. Outline shown in red shows the path the printer is really taking. (you can ignore the gray area, it is only there because both long rectangles are part of the same .stl file)
Here is another view of the sliced print:

Additionally, you can see in this other picture:

The print started quite a bit from the left edge
The start G-code, which prints lines on the left, printed lines closer to the left edge than where the print started

Here is the start G-code:
; Ender 3 Custom Start G-code
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G28 ; Home all axes
G29 ;
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to start position
G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.3 F1500.0 E15 ; Draw the first line
G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to side a little
G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 ; Draw the second line
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X5 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move over to prevent blob squish

Slicer settings:

How can I fix this? Is this due to the slicer? Due to the firmware? In either case, how do I change it?

If I look at the printed middle rectangle, it appears that the printer is printing way too far to the right, or, your slicer used an incorrect bed size.
You should look into question How to center my prints on the build platform? (Re-calibrate homing offset) or Recalibrating Home-position to center the print area and try to re-print the object again. Furthermore, as far as can be interpreted from the low res images, your printer may need some better leveling as some parts are too high and some too low.

Regarding the bed leveling, I raised the print head on purpose to peel the print off easier (since I was just testing). Then, after reading those links, my biggest question is: but why do the lines on the left (from the start g-code) print correctly? Does the printer use 2 coordinate systems, 1 for the start g-code, and 1 for the actual print?

@Milichip we don't know, maybe you could share some of the G-code (including the start of the rectangle) from the print, not just the start code. Or post a link to GitHub or a text sharing site. Also look at your settings in the slicer for the bed size and post these as well as the actual print area and bed size. If you have a prime line, this effectively reduces the print area, not much, just 0.4 mm.

Here is the g-code of the entire file (I didn't know you could just open it with a text editor): https://pastebin.com/geJRm4BG , I have also added a screenshot of the slicer settings in my original post

Your firmware and slicer operate on different sizes.
You need to update the firmware to update the bed size (and the 0-Offset) from the factory setting to the actual size. There is no way to alter the Maximum sizes via a direct connection.

I don't see how that can be true, considering the gcode that is being printed does make use of the left part of the build plate (altough only to clean the nozzle by printing 2 straight lines). It may be missing 5mm from the very edge, but that is not the problem in this post. Could you elaborate in a way that explains the current behavior?

if you demand the printer to go beyond the X or Y max position, the printhead will stop there, resulting in a clean cut.

That's not what I mean. If you look at the photos, you can see that the print started a little ways off from the left. However, the slicer shows the print would've started closer to the edge. In other words, yes, it makes sense for the right side to get cut off, but only because the left side started 2cm from the edge, for some reason. However, the "start g-code" lines started very close to the edge, which proves it is able to print there.


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Interlocking and joints for 3D printed structure, tips&types
I'm a student and I need to 3D print a structure for a research. I know nothing about mechanic parts, joints and interlocking so I hope someone could help.
 The diameter of the whole structure is about 44 cm while the diameter of the tubular has to be 1.5/2 cm.
I need to divide the structure into different pieces:

The part that fits the black tubular: I can't put it there from the top but it has to be 2 different pieces that I can tighten with a bolt in order to assemble and disassemble.
Then, I have to divide the arms from the little circular "plate"

I know nothing about interlocking and parts.


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Printing spare plastic parts
A small [7 cm long x 5 cm high x 10 cm deep] hard plastic piece of my old luggage broke (see attached). The manufacturer does not have spares for this old model.

Is there any way to scan the working piece on the left with an Android app and order a 3D printed one-off one?

For a simple part like that I'd say it would be easier to just draw the part in CAD from scratch than to deal with all the hassle of 3d scanning.

@floppydisk Please make this an answer! This is exactly what I was thinking as well. Having worked with dedicated 3D scanners I know that after scanning you frequently need to redraw or edit the parts anyways as not always the part comes out fine.

IMHO, it would be better to clone the left one with silicone caulk and cornstarch to make a negative mould, then use epoxy to fill the mold and create the positive. You can stain the epoxy with a bit of charcoal dust to make it black. Lots of 3D printing has also taught me that simpler methods are often, well, simpler.

Thanks guys for all the comments!! I am just thinking, is there any possible way to get this for less than... say, $40 USD? Because all this sounds very advanced to me. I wonder if I can scan the piece, share it with some 3d printers online and get it for some reasonable price.

Create a model and find someone with a printer in your vincinity; there are probably open printer networks or maker spaces you can use nearby or through mail.

I used some thermoplastic. It does not look exactly like the original as I had to give it shape with my own hands, but certainly does the trick. It also costs less than $10 USD. Let's see how long it lasts.

You absolutely could try using Polycam to try to scan the piece on the left, and then create a model from it.  That's not "plug-and-play" though - would take some modeling prowess to get it to what you need.

I don't think 3d scanning would be practical here since this is a small and very simple part. You can model it using reference pictures in Fusion360 instead. The program is free for personal use too. Plus learning how to do this means you can start fixing other stuff on your house using the same method later.


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terrible quality on Ender 3
Sorry this is kind to embarrassing to post compared to other images but this is our first attempts.  It starts out roughly acceptable then does this waffle thing.  I tightened the belts and leveled the plate.
I have a Creality Ender 3 which I use together with UltiMaker Cura slicer. I print in PLA at 220 °C. The print bed is set to 70 °C. I use a print cooling fan at 60 %. The layer height I set to 0.[?] mm, the line width [line width/extrusion width] from the 0.4 mm nozzle. The Printing Speed is set to ? mm/s for walls and [?] mm/s for infill]. My retraction is [?] mm/off at [?] mm/s.

Problem seems to be solved, thanks everyone.  I dropped the temperature to 200 and fan speed to 100% and print looks much better.

Hello MK. Your question is lacking detail and as such is hard to answer without knowing a couple of things about your printer setup. Please [edit] and fill in the [placeholders] in the template I added and then remove the leading <!-- and trailing --> afterward. This will turn it visible and help us help you find the actual problem.

agarza is correct in saying that we need more details. As stated in the answer, what slicer are you using? Please [edit] and add that detail, at the very minimum (along with others mentioned in the above comment, if possible). Thanks.

not so fast, young grasshoppers. Not everyone works from home.  I'll get the details when I can!

still trying to figure out some of these settings. Are they all in slicer somewhere? Is there a page describing how to fill out this template?

(for now trying to print with 100 % fan speed and lower temperature)

Yes, these should all be in your slicer. On the top right side, there should be a drop-down menu that will have additional settings. If you can readily see the setting, use the Search settings feature within that drop-down to find what you are looking for, i.e. layer height, infill, retraction, etc.

We've closed the question for you to fix. At the moment it is very unclear. The template has not be filled out properly. It is also best to add more and better photos, it is very difficult to see if the print starts out fine. If so, this is not a filament diameter problem but filament entanglement or heat creep (220 is possible but is on the high side for PLA).

I am really not a fan of these strict closing rules enforced by some folks on StackExchange.  Clearly the question is by a newbie (that'd be me) who is struggling to ask the question properly.  Closing it while I'm trying to figure out how to fill out the template is quite discouraging.   Anyways, the question was clearly asked well enough since I got help I needed.  I dropped the temperature to 200 and prints look much better.

As someone who has been on SE for over 14 yrs, you know how the site functions. You should also be aware that just because a question is closed doesn't mean that you are unable to edit your question; closure if so no more answers can be posted.

@agarza oh believe me i know how it works.  I have been respectfully disagreeing with closures of this type for about 12 out of these 14 years :)

200C is still really hot for PLA, i get best results with white PLA at 112C. RTFM.

Hmm, we all seem to have worked ourselves into a bit of a pickle with this question... However, I'm sure we can sort this out (as we seem to be on the home straight) :-) 1st, thanks for adding the slicer info. 2nd, 0scar hinted at a possible solution in his comment on the filament answer (which seems to have helped you). 3rd, Maybe you could tidy and add the missing/unknown data (marked with "?") to your question. 4th, it gets reopened, 5th, you move your solution to an actual answer and then accept it. 6th, And/Or 0scar posts his comment as a fully fleshed out answer. Something like that..?

I'd be happy to update but I couldn't find these settings in Cura; if these are configured on printer , they are all at defaults..

FYI, as you sliced this in Cura you must have used a profile. The slicer is probably in simple mode (aka recommended mode), you need to set it in "advanced/custom mode" to see all options. You can use the search box to find the options, you can make these visible when hidden. But, I think we now know that this is heat creep. If you can, post a better image from the side of the Benchy. If you permit, we can clean up the question for you!

the poorly printed benchy got destroyed. I'll take a look at advanced mode settings.  But almost 100% sure it was heat creep.  Seems to be printing much better (though benchy still has some weirdness, might have to drop temp a bit more).

This is a severe under extrusion problem.
What slicer are you using? It could be a filament diameter setting issue.
Are you using Cura? I don't know about the most recent version but older versions defaulted to 2.85 mm filament diameter which is the diameter the Ultimaker printers use (as Cura is developed by Ultimaker) but the Ender 3 uses 1.75 mm diameter filament.
Have a look at this question  where a similar issue is discussed.

Questions don't belong in answers, please comment on the question if you have questions, you have sufficient reputation to do so. The print looks as if it starts okay (but it is hard to tell from this angle), but gets worse over height, this hints more to heat creep than wrong filament diameter.

i don't see selection for filament diameter.  There is nozzle setting which is 0.4mm (which i think is correct for Ender 3)

Yes, the temperature might have changed on its own while printing from 220 to 200, I've seen it happen before. Why does it happen?

You've probably checked this already but offering a basic issue I've had before on my Ender 3 with the filament not unraveling cleanly from the spool hanger (gets caught on the post or bound up on itself).
When this happens it would produce a similar result to your picture...started fine and then turned into wispy/burnt layers before ending entirely.
When this has happened I just need to untangle the filament, clean the nozzle, cut a clean starting point on the filament, and empty the Bowden tube of the old filament.


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Stepper Motors not responding, Ender 5, BTT SKR1.4, tmc2130
I upgraded my ender 5's main board to a BTT SKR 1.4 Turbo and am using the TMC2130 (V3) drivers. None of my stepper motors are responding
I'm having quite a hard time figuring out why the steppers won't move. If I run M122, the spi connection is good and the motors are enabled with the right settings. Then as soon as I send a move command, nothing happens to the motor, but the M122 command shows that it is now disabled.
Tried a whole bunch of firmware combinations (Marlin 2.1). I've adjusted the current, disabled hybrid mode, disabled the stealth option, and about every option that anyone online suggested might be an issue.
adjusted the vref on the driver and tried every combination of stepper wiring.
Tomorrow I'm going to try building an Arduino project to drive the motors with the stepper. That will at least verify the driver isn't broken and the motor wiring is correct.
I'm pretty stumped.... I reached out to BTT for support, but I've heard their support is pretty awful, which I hope to be false.
Any help is appreciated. Let me know if I've missed any critical details. This is my first time posting in the 3d print stack exchange.


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Weird slicing of threads in Cura
So I'm trying to print this part which has some external threads, for some reason Cura puts a lot of start/stops right on the surface of threads. And it makes the thread all dashed/choppy.

The strange part is that a very similar thread on top of the same part is printing just fine.

Is there some setting that's responsible for this? What is it trying to do with all those starts/stops?
I tried changing the thickness of the part, thinking maybe it has to do with infill pattern. This didn't help.

For anyone reading this, I didn't find a proper solution but cranking up resolution during STL export seems to make the issue go away. These start/stop points that Cura is placing have something to do with STL ridge lines


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Problem with PID, temperature won't reach setpoint
Yesterday, I was trying to print with PETG for the first time, I have two printers: an Ender 3 Pro and an Ender 5 Plus.
I started with the Ender 3 where there were no problems with coming up to temperature: nozzle set to 235 °C and the bed at 90 °C. I had to change some settings in the slicer as I forgot support, then I forgot to set a proper Z for the first layer.
So after a couple of times, I run the printer and it's not reaching up to temperature, it stalls around 225 °C; so 10 °C under my setpoint. I try a few times with no success, then I try heating the nozzle by itself with no success, I gave up with the Ender 3.
So I try with the Ender 5 Plus, it happened the same, I try a few times and then it start stalling around 10 °C under the setpoint and then setting off an alarm.
After trying again and again I can see that if I change the setpoint to 245 °C, for example, it will very easily reach 235 °, then I try changing the setpoint a few times and I can see that it stalls around 10 °C under doesn't matter the setpoint.
I tried repowering the machine, I had the cable off the machine all night and this morning it does the same.
My Ender 3 Pro has one only upgrade wich is the touch display.
The Ender 5 Plus doesn't have any upgrades.


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How to improve flat, large areas over supports
I have a similar issue like this one. I'm using Cura 5.3.1, a Dremel 3D45 and PLA+ by eSun. The printings are almost perfect and repeatable. The only issue is about flat and large areas over supports.
Like the user of the linked question, I have no problem to remove the supports and they don't leave anything bad on the upper layer. Furthermore I enabled the bridge feature, and even more longer gaps (than the support density) print very nice.
Here a picture:

As you can see, the small trenches are clean, while the large box in the middle is awful.
The supports have a density of 8 mm with the zig-zag pattern. As said before, even without support I can print very good gaps longer than 30 mm.
To have an idea of the dimensions, the hole has a diameter of 15 mm, and the larger rectangle is 60x45 mm.

As you mentioned, there are zigzag patterned supports here, but your area is wide and flat, which can sometimes cause printing errors. You can get better results if you try to print your settings by trying one of the grid pattern or rectilinear pattern options.
They have more points of contact than a zigzag pad and leave less roughness in the area under the printed part.


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Gaps in infill only - walls are perfect
I'm printing for the first times on my new Sovol SV04, using their PLA @ 210 °C (after printing a temp tower).
The walls and top layers are almost perfect, but the infill has a lot of gaps between layers:

I'm not sure which parameter needs to be tuned, since the walls are ok and I'm afraid to make a mess...
What could cause this behavior?

The infill speed might be set too high, but it's possible this is just some of the normal badness of self-intersecting infill like "grid" and "triangles". If you notice, these patterns have the extrusion path cross back over itself once or twice at the same points. Hitting this barrier of material already being there when the nozzle gets to it causes a rapid spike then drop in backpressure in the nozzle, and tends to make material push upward around the sides, and then underextrude right after the intersection point. This could be the cause of what you're seeing.
If so, there are several possible ways to improve the situation:

Use a non-self-intersecting infill pattern like gyroid.

Print the infill slower. The effect is lessened by slower motion.

Print hotter. I'm not sure why this works, but it does. It might help re-melt the intersection point when slamming through it, or it might just make flow more consistent and less susceptible to the pressure swing.

If this isn't the issue, other things to check for:

That flow % for infill hasn't been turned down in slicing settings.

That your infill speed times line width times layer height (in units if mm³/s) is within the flow capabilities of your hotend and extruder.


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New Neptune 3 Max. Cubic infill problems. Flexible Flashforge PLA
Using settings and filament (Flashforge Flexible PLA) that work well on my Ender S1, I am having trouble with cubic infill on the Neptune 3 max.  I was wondering if you could offer some advice.  The cubic infill becomes very ragged.  (See picture).  When I use grid infill it is better but still a little ragged.  I am printing pretty slowly at 50.  I have calculated E-steps.  I was thinking I could raise the z-offset but I calculated this during leveling and the bottom and top layers look great.  Any help would be appreciated.


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How I could make that my PC can recognize MKS SGen L V1.0
I have a Custom Printer BLV, but since I bought the board, MKS SGen L V1.0, never had been possible for any PC can recognize the board. Now, I'm having an issue with the temperature calibration, and it's impossible to set a setting for the PID. Is there any way to activate something as my PC can recognize the machine?
When I use pronterface, even the software blocks itself after few minutes, due to never advancing the message connecting.
Marlin 2.0.X


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Trying to print separate models one on top of the other using PrusaSlicer
I'm currently using Cura for one printer (Hellbot Magna SE, essentially an Ender clone) and PrusaSlicer for another (Artillery Hornet).
I first learned this method for multicolored prints with Cura on CHEP's channel since I have had awful accidents with manual filament changes in the past, given that my Hellbot printer doesn't understand the M600 command and I have to use M0 pauses instead. this way works great and gives me a lot of peace of mind since now I can leave the printer unattended for a bit knowing it will finish printing then turn the nozzle and bed off, home on all axes and just sit there idle until I come back and start the next print on top, this one sliced with the corresponding Z Offset value so as to not collide with the one currently sitting on the bed.
I would like to do the same on my Hornet, but I use PrusaSlicer with it since the builtin profile is so much better, and I can't figure out how to do it. I have located the Z Offset setting, but the only way to be able to lift objects from the platter seems to be by making them "parts" of another one, and in that case I lose the option to disable the "Printable" flag that lets me hide the different components of the object so I can slice them and export them as separate files.

Note: While typing this it just occurred to me maybe setting the
corresponding Z Offset for the object that goes on top of the one
already on the bed without making it a part but rather the only
thing on the platter might work? Perhaps this isn't necessary for
PrusaSlicer to generate the code that I need. I'll test this tomorrow
but anything that implies possible collisions will always make me a
bit nervous. I will update the question with the result of the test.

Thanks in advance!

I think you are asking something that has been asked before; does "Pile up objects and attach them for mass 3D printing" answer your question?

@0scar thank you but not really. I want separate files that will print one on top of the other so I don't have to deal with pauses.

I'm gonna answer myself since I tested my hypothesis today.
Turns out in PrusaSlicer you don't need to "elevate" the model from the build plate and make it sit on the other model in order to be able to print on top of it. Just the Z Offset option is enough.
Here's what I did:

Load the first part that will sit at the bottom.
Right click it and Add Part(s). This will be just for reference.
Take note of the height of each part (this will be the Z Offset for the next print)
Remove all parts and import the files as separate models.
Now you can generate separate files for each of them. First one will of course have an offset of 0, next one will have an offset equal to the previous ones' heights, and so on.

As an important note, only have your bed on for the first print, afterwards always leave it off as this will start to deform the print from below. I recommend you use glue stick or hairspray to help the adhesion instead.


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Let the nozzle wait on the parking position
The Sovol SV04 has a "parking" position for the nozzles (i.e. X = -60), outside the bed area. The parking position has a small basket below to catch little pieces of the filament, and a rubber that wipes the nozzle when it enters the bed area.
When I launch a printing, the nozzle goes at the center of the working area and sits down there to wait until the temperature reaches the target. In my opinion it should sit at the parking position, so when the print begins the nozzle will be cleaned by the rubber.
I'm using Cura 5.3.1. Is there a setting I can tweak?
I'm aware about the experimental feature "Wipe nozzle between layers" but it's not what I'm looking for. I inspected the start gcode of the machine:
;Single 01 start
M140 S{material_bed_temperature};
M104 T0 S{material_print_temperature};
M280 P0 S160;
G4 P100;
G28;
T0
M190 S{material_bed_temperature};
M109 T0 S{material_print_temperature};
G92 E0;
G1 X10.1 Y20 Z0.28 F5000.0;
G1 X10.1 Y200.0 Z0.28 F1500.0 E15;
G1 X10.4 Y200.0 Z0.28 F5000.0;
G1 X10.4 Y20 Z0.28 F1500.0 E30;
G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder
G1 Z2.0 F3000;

Should I manually hack this adding, say, a G0 X-60) at the beginning?
Or is there a more elegant solution? But most important: is there a reason why it's not enabled by default? Perhaps there is a drawback I don't see...

There is a specific command that instructs the head to park at the predefined position as set in the firmware configuration of your printer is using Marlin firmware. This G-code, G27 will position the head at the parking position:

Raise and park the nozzle according to a predefined XY position and Z raise (or minimum height) value.

The parking XY position and Z value are defined by NOZZLE_PARK_POINT.
The minimum Z raise is defined by NOZZLE_PARK_Z_RAISE_MIN.

This implies that if you are using bed leveling with a leveling sensor, after G29 or G28 (if you defined ENABLE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28) in your start G-code you need to call G27 or without a bed leveling sensor, like in the example of the question you need to call G27 directly after G28.

I fixed this by homing the x axis again after homing all axis in the starting G-code. There might be an  more elegant solution but this works so I'm happy.
G28; home all axes   G28 X; home x axis to get to parking position


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Why Cura refuse to slice this object?
I downloaded this SpaceNavErgoStand_for Space Navigator NB USB from Thingiverse. But Cura 5.3.1 refuses to slice it:

I'm aware I can file a bug report, but before I'm kindly asking here if there is something obvious I missed. Of course, I tried to change a lot of settings, but it never sliced it.
To be clear, the failure happened with the printer Dremel 3D45 as reported in the tag. Using another printer, like Sovol SV04 there are no errors.
Here are the machine settings. As said, they are the default ones. I didn't change anything. And I also tried to install Cura and the Dremel printer on a new PC. Same behavior.

I was able to slice the file with Cura 5.3.1 on a Mac without any warnings/problems. Have you tried reinstalling Cura?

@agarza did you slice it using Dremel 3D45 printer?

No, but I don't think that would matter. Have you tried slicing for a different printer?

@agarza, yes. It works. Perhaps it's not so clear in the question, I'm going to update it.

I recommend making your "edit" an actual answer. This will provide future visitors to see how you solved the problem. After 24 hrs of posting, you can accept your own answer as the solution.

@agarza I didn't solved it at all! I need to print it on my Dremel. I still don't know how to fix.

it sounds to me like the profile for the Dremel might be defective. Can you share the details of the profile?

@Trish, of course! Actually, which details do you need? I didn't change the settings of the printer. Or are you talking about the slicer settings?

The machine settings in the slicer.  have you tried just RE-creating the machine in case the machine settings are borked?

@Trish, as said the settings are the default ones. I tried to install Cura and the Dremel printer on a different PC but the behavior is the same. Anyway, I updated the question with the information requested.

Have you tried an earlier version of Cura? maybe even back to version 4?

@agarza, no I didn't. Even if it turns out it works, I don't want to use such an older version. I'd like to understand how to fix in the latest version.

If the older version works, then you will have determined that the newer profile has an issue. You may even be able to take the old profile and use it with Cura 5.3.1.

@agarza, well I tried Cura 4.13.1 but the Dremel plugin was not available. Cura 5.0.0 can slice the object, but the machine settings are the same. Now, how can you be sure is the profile instead of the actual code in Cura 5.3.1?

The only way is to try it. It is all a process of elimination.

@agarza sorry, try what? I only know in 5.0.0 it slices, in 5.3.1 does not.

Try moving the Dremel profile from an older version of Cura to 5.3.1.

Copied Dremel3D45.def.json from 5.0.0 to 5.3.1. It does not slice. Anyway, the files are identical.


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Is there a simple device that lets filament through in one direction only?
When the extruder on my 3D printer goes back and forward, it may pull some filament, unrolling the spool, and then return to a position that causes the filament to drop from the spool, which later causes a tangle.
A perfect solution for this would be to pass the filament through something that only lets it go one way, unrolling the spool, but doesn't let it back through.
I have two ideas of how to achieve this, but they both seem overengineered:

An extra stepper motor that is synced with the extruder
A ratchet bearing with a couple of 3D printed rolls

I suppose my problem is commonly encountered, so maybe there's a simpler solution that I'm missing?

There are lots of solutions to this problem. The key word to look for is "filament buffer".

Or a DC motor that is always trying to run the spool backwards? Strong enough to roll the spool back but not so strong as to overcome the extruder motor? How much engineering skill do you have to implement a solution?

For the Prusa line of printers, there is a device known as the MMU in versions 2 and 3 to the best of my understanding. It operates by pulling in the desired color/material to the extruder/hot-end and then retracting it to provide for a color/material change. Operators of this device experience problems similar to yours.
There are third-party creators who have designed models known as buffers. Using the search terms "mmu buffer" results in a number of options, most of which are overkill for your concerns.
Thingiverse search does present what is described as Prusa MMU Mini Buffer MK2 and shows a single filament device providing for "take-up" of the retracted filament.

Image from linked site.
Printables has a similar collection, most of which are also overkill, in my opinion.
I have experienced similar problems, especially with a new, full spool. I have also seen attachments to the axle of the spool holder that places a bar across the flanges of the spool, but am currently unable to locate such a model. My print attempt failed due to modifications I've made to the axle and the model has been binned.
Additionally, I redirected the filament vertically downward on the back of the (enclosed) printer, through a loop of PTFE tubing and upward again to the filament entry point. When the retraction action took place, the filament was pushed rearward but not downward, nor upward, causing no effect on the spool. It's a hack job using cable ties to hold the PTFE tubing to the fan grilles but it works. Unfortunately no photos and it would have to be custom fit to your configuration.
Some of the MMU solutions incorporate a ramped axle holder on which the spool is pulled upward while filament is being extruded, then allowed to roll downward, returning the excess filament to the spool. Depending on your level of irritation, this may not be overkill, as it is a mechanically simple design and appropriately reliable.


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What is PrusaSlicer showing as the world Z position?
I'm continuing my previous question with another one.
I managed to figure out how to tell the slicer to consider a Z Offset to be able to print on top of a previous print, but the prusa interface is confusing me.
The model I want to print is 1.5 mm in height. The model I'm printing it on is 2.4 mm in height, so that's my Z Offset. Up to here it's okay. The issue is that when I import the model I want to print now, it shows its position in Z as 0.75. This makes no sense.

I checked the model on 3DBuilder to see if it had extra space under it for some reason, but it has none. Cura has no issue dropping the model on the buildplate but Prusa is showing this weird measurement.
What is Prusa measuring as the position on Z? I thought the position meant where the bottom of the model sits, and the platter visualization does show this, but the number does not, it should be 0.

ETA: Using the cut function and cutting the model exactly at 0.75 solved the problem and it is now displaying at 0 on Z but it still makes no sense.


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Stringing problem with Anycubic Vyper
I replaced my Ender 3 by an Anycubic Vyper, the problem is that all the print have stringing. I tried all the night to change the retraction, change the temperature, but I can get a piece without stringing. By the way, I'm printing PLA, it's dry and I tried from 180 °C to 200 °C.
Does anyone have a Cura profile that works? Or anybody can explain to me what I missed to reach my goal?

Have you tried dedicated string test prints? There are questions and answers on how to solve this at this Stack. E.g. "Stringing on Anycubic Vyper". Or did you just changed settings and reprinted your object over and over?

I did a temp tower, and a retract tower. I'm not at home now, but when I'll be at home I'll try to send you picture of it (I don't know if it's possible ...). But to be honest the towers didn't help me a lot.


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Extruder motor jerking back and forth
I recently got a used Creator Pro printer, and I just did a few prints amounting to about 10 hours of total print time, with no issue. But suddenly, the extruder started jerking filament back and forth, not feeding. If I force the filament with my hand, it goes through the hot extruder easily, and when I do filament loading, this still happens. I disassembled the extruder to make sure the motor isn't stuck on anything, and even with nothing touching the shaft, it does this wiggling when I tell the printer to load the filament. I doubt the sequencing for the motor spontaneously changed after hours of printing. I pulled the cable and plugged it back in, same thing. The firmware is Sailfish if that matters. I'm beginning to suspect the stepper motor is toast, but I wanted to ask here first if anyone thinks it could be something else.

Plug the extruder cable into one of the other motors and send a filament feed signal.
If the problem manifests the same, then you can probably rule out the motor as the culprit. You could have a bad cable or a bad controller board. To rule out a bad cable you'd just swap out the cable from the board to the extruder.
However, if the problem doesn't recur, then the motor might be bad. It might also be mounted poorly. You may be able to remove it from it's mounting and test if the problem persists.

It ended up being a bad cable


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Vertical repeating pattern
I've got these strange vertical grooves on my print. They are, at some locations well feelable and at some locations they are completely gone. The printer is an Ender 5 Plus or based on it at least. I use a MicroSwiss Dual Gear Bowden extruder instead of the stock one. Are they from the extruder or from the belts? Or something completely different?

If they're positionally aligned across layers like this, the chance of them being extrusion related is essentially zero. Most likely either positioning system related (belt/motor stuff) or actually present in the STL file.

Are the patterns only visible on opposite sides of the print by any chance? If it is, the problem can be isolated to a specific axis (only X or Y axis in this case)
You could start with the basic checks like belt tension or something else that came loose. maybe even worn out belts.
I've had some (for me at least) unexpected patterns on what should be smooth curves that turned out to be a setting in the export as mesh function in Fusion360. The resolution was set too low so the STL triangles became visible.
I doubt this last option is the problem in your case because the pattern should be visible all along the part so as mentioned before I would start with checking your X and Y axis

I also thought of the STL resolution first and increased the resolution, but that didn't help. So I guess it's down the age-old question, what's the correct belt tension.

@MarcoRebsamen: Not just belt tension. Also motor current, intrinsic properties of the motors, whether you have belt teeth running on smooth idlers anywhere (bad bad BAD!!), etc.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE I also thought of the idlers. At the front they are actually flat. But I'm having a hard time finding different ones that fit and are not only available on amazon.


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3D printer G-code problem

I am currently doing a DIY 3D printer using RAMPS1.4 and it works as I have tested all X, Y and Z axis including the extruder extruding filament. I have jogged all the axis using Pronterface Software. I am printing a simple solid cube (20 mm x 20 mm x 20 mm) and the cube G-code I generated from Slic3r is uploaded on google drive here.
The problem is when it is printing for like 5 seconds, the X- and Y-axis suddenly moves so much to the ends of the beams and I am unsure why, I believe is the G-code problem. I would really appreciate if anyone can give me some advice on this and what went wrong. I am so close to printing my first cube.
I run G-code from Slic3r on the Pronterface software. The video on this problem is uploaded google drive here, can just view without download. As you can see at the end of the video, the axis can move from one end to the other end and the beam is so long, how is it even possible? I have to switch off the power at the end to prevent damage to wheels.

@Greenonline, hi, do you know what went wrong? I believe is the g0code, right? I can see you have a lot of experience on this. I just started a week ago haha buiding it from scratch :)

@Greenonline, I have tested it with CNC ramp using arduino uno to skecth out some 2d skecth using a pen, not a problem with the hardware at all. What a weird problem haha.

@Greenonline, yes, i tried also to put it center. But after some time of printing 10seconds, the x and y axis just miraculously moves out of bound to the edge of the beams and almost damage my wheels, so i just turn off the mains switch emergency

@Greenonline, hi, I have uploaded a video link of my problem in my post :(, feels dissapointed

The center of the build plate is rarely the origin, in 99 % it is a corner (unless it is a Delta, a MakerBot or an Ultimaker and some rare other brand).

@Oscar, one thing I notice, is that when I try to press the center red button (home button), the axis moves out of bound and almost damage the wheels too and I have to switch off the power suppy :)

There is too much wrong with this build, I don't know where to start. First fix your endstops and homing, next fix your slicer settings. Depending on the endstop positions the origin is defined through your firmware, so fix firmware. Great first attempt, ingenious ways to fix parts,  a true tinkerer!


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MKS Base V1.4 does not recognize my PCB MK3 heat bed
I am using an MKS base V1.4 board, PCB MK3 dual-power heat bed, and Marlin 2.0.1. My printer does not recognize my heat bed. I cannot control it and I cannot even see the temp. Actually, my printer LCD shows nothing where it has to show the bed temp.
My bed is working fine when it's connected directly to a 12 V power supply.
Pin Definings on firmware are checked and fine. The thermistor is checked and fine. Bed solderings are checked and fine.


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Printing with 1 mm nozzle keeps failing
I'm printing a large print model, but it fails when I use a 1 mm nozzle. When I use the 0.4 mm nozzle, it works fine. What can cause a print to work with a smaller nozzle?
I'm using Cura as my slicer and Neptune 3 Pro (Klipper) as my printer.
Here are screenshots of my Cura settings, 3D model, and one of many failed prints:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/M1xSF5hEZ3zaiKti8

Hi and welcome. It is better to upload your photos into the question, using the editing tool, rather than provide an external link. People are less likely to click on an external link.

@amb1s1 For this you need to reduce the speed for printing, try to use 60mm/s but recomended is 50. the temperature seems ok, however if you need a fast print, you may need to increase the temperature to 220. infill speed 60mm/s. My printer has an upgrade to use a large throat nozzle.

@FernandoBaltazar Please don't answer in comments.  Instead, write an answer that can be voted up or down.

A cursory inspection of your settings shows that you are printing at 75 mm/s and 210 ℃.
If you were printing with a 0.4 mm nozzle and a 0.2 mm layer height, the flow rate will be 75 x 0.4 x 0.2 = 6 mm3/s, which is well within the capabilities of a stock MK8 hot end.
However, if you print with a 1 mm nozzle and 0.7 mm layer height, the flow rate will be 75 x 1.0 x 0.7 = 52.5 mm3/s, which is well outside a stock hot end's capabilities.
You could try raising the printing temperature and lowering the printing speed, but frankly, a 1 mm nozzle is not really suitable for most FDM printers. A 0.6 mm nozzle should be eminently usable, and you may be able to get away with a 0.8 mm nozzle, if you are prepared to use lower printing speeds.

1mm nozzle is fine if you're happy with chonky layers; I've seen folks use even larger ones. The OP's problem is just having configured speed that produces an impossible flow rate. Slicers should really be working in flow rates not positional speeds.


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Octoprint does not detect Serial port of RPi zero
I am following the tutorial of Prusa for using Octoprint with my Prusa i3 MK3. I have a Raspbery Pi Zero and I'm using the built-in GPIO pins, not an USB connection.

Wifi works. I can reach the Raspberry via HTTP and SSH
I have enabled [RPi Port] via the i3 menu

But in the Octoprint website, there's no serial port to select. It just shows "AUTO" and after a while it displays an error message that there's no Serial port found.
Via SSH I can find quite some devices which look like Serial:

/dev/serial1
/dev/tty#, where # is a number
/dev/ttyAMA0
/dev/ttyprintk

I haven't had any issues with Serial connection since 2019 and despite all warnings, the Pi Zero did a great job. However, after the last Octoprint update, Octoprint didn't come up any more, so I did a reinstall from scratch.
I'm using OctoPrint 1.9.0

Neither the tutorial of Prusa nor the Octoprint setup instructions mention this. But it's common Raspberry Pi knowledge, for everyone how experiments with the RPi.
The Serial interface that works over GPIO needs to be activated via
sudo raspi-config

In the menu, go to "Interface Options" (3), then "Serial Port" (I6). Answer "No" for the login shell and "Yes" for the Serial port hardware. After that, reboot your Raspberry when being asked.
The Octoprint web interface should then detect /dev/ttyS0 and be able to connect.

I really wish you would have added just a tiny bit of detail here. For example... "In the menu"... - In the menu of what? I have been scouring every menu I can find for octoprint / PUTTY and absolutely nowhere is there an "interface options" or "Serial Port". I have no idea what the (3) or (I6) is referencing. This seems like the info I need but the vagueness leaves me with more questions than answers.

@abiss221 - Thomas is referring to the menu(s) of the command line tool raspi-config.

Thomas, please don't forget to check your answer as the "accepted answer".


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Should I calibrate Z-offset so that Z = 0 has the nozzle touching the bed?
When calibrating my printer and configuring my slicer there are many different values that can affect the final distance between the print bed and the nozzle for the first layer. I'm trying to figure out where I should be making different adjustments. I'm having some first-layer issues, and I'm trying to get my layer height configured correctly to make changing materials and print settings easier.
Intuitively it seems like I should be configuring the printer so that when Z = 0 the nozzle is just touching the bed and leaving the height of the first layer entirely up to the slicer. That way the slicer can accurately calculate the first layer height. But a lot of the instructions online imply that Z = 0 is calibrated slightly above the bed (the thickness of the paper). If I were setting zero on a milling machine I'd subtract the thickness of the feeler gauge to get a 'true zero' to the table.
Some of the Marlin calibration features also seem to assume that Z is configured somewhat high. For instance when leveling the bed manually or when editing a UBL mesh it homes the printer and then moves to each point to verify the bed height, but it doesn't seem to account for the thickness of the feeler gauge. This makes me think that the feeler gauge height is expected to be built into the probe Z-offset. I'm using a 0.2 mm metal gauge as it's more repeatable than paper. If I have my Z-offset set to 'true zero' I can work around this by homing the bed to my feeler gauge and then calibrating.
As far as I can tell the following values can affect the final Z height of the first layer:

The Marlin probe Z-offset value. If this value is accurate then Z = 0 should have the nozzle just touch the bed. If this value is set to the probe/nozzle offset plus the feeler gauge height then when the slicer asks for 0.3 mm it will get 0.3 mm + gauge height.
If not using an ABL printer:

The gantry level
The Z limit switch position
The bed level screws

The UBL mesh values. Not only does the mesh conform to the shape of the bed, but I think that it also acts globally on the Z-offset. If I were to bias all of the values in the mesh by the same amount it should effectively have the same effect as adjusting the Z-offset. I think that this could happen when manually tuning a mesh if the Z-offset is incorrect. Tuning the mesh this way would 'hide' the incorrect Z-offset, but require that the error be replicated when the Z-offset needs to be reset (for instance after a nozzle change). This seems to imply that the UBL mesh value at the initial probe point (used when homing) should always be 0 to prevent confounding it with the Z-offset value.
The Marlin probe XY offset values seem like they could also have an effect on nozzle/bed distance since they will affect where the UBL mesh is sampled for a given nozzle position. I don't know if these values are used when generating the mesh or when reading it. I've measured these values using a dot on a piece of paper, but I'm worried I might have the sign wrong.
The slicer's initial layer height. Since the slicer 'knows' about this height it uses it to calculate the amount of filament to extrude to create a perfect line of the specified width and height. This setting will vary for different prints and materials.
The slicer initial layer offset value (Z Offset in Cura). This is where it seems to make the most sense to introduce any initial layer 'squish' since it is configurable per print (as opposed to the Marlin Z Offset which stays with the printer). I could also add the squish by adjusting the initial layer flow multiplier to extrude a bit more filament than calculated by the slicer.

For reference, I have a Sovol SV01, with a BLTouch and Marlin 2.0.5.3. My pre-calibration process is as follows:

Power up the motors and measure the height of each side of the gantry from the printer frame.
Turn one of the Z-axis lead screws until both sides sides of the gantry are the same height.
Home the printer.
Run the Marlin "level corners" wizard. I use a 0.2 mm steel feeler gauge, and go through the corners until they all have the same amount of friction (the centre of the bed is a bit loose now, so the center is slightly concave).
Home the printer.
Measure the distance to the bed using the feeler gauge.
Adjust the 'Z-offset' value to get a distance of 0.2 mm. This will mean that the surface of the bed is at Z = 0.
Go back to 5 until no adjustments are needed.
Heat up the bed and the hotend (not necessary yet, but can't hurt).
Use the Marlin assistant to generate a 'Cold Mesh' UBL mesh.
Save the mesh.

No, you should not, unless you adapt your slicer settings.
This answers explains the Z-offset. If your nozzle is at true Z=0 when touching the bed, then you need to find out all the property's in your slicer that adjust for the paper thickness. E.g. first layer is slightly overextruded and lines are usually wider, with your nozzle at the true zero, these kind of aids need to be changed else you will get too much flow in the first layer, pressure will build up and this will not help you to get a perfect first layer. This may result in rippling, balling up of filament, etcetera.
Commonly used printing paper is about 0.1 mm, this is pretty negligible on most prints you will print.
But, yes you can, could also answer your question, this may prove to give you additional work to get your prints printing.

Good to confirm that the z height is expected to be slightly offset. I'll do some experimenting to see what the best value to set my initial layer height is. So far I've noticed that 0.050mm works better than 0.100mm.


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3D printer restarts itself
I have a 3D printer that when I try and heat the hot bed the printer shuts down and restarts.
It is an IDEX printer, when I heat the nozzles, they heat up fine, when I move the X-axis it moves fine. Z is fine and Y is fine as well, so I eliminated the steppers having a short or nozzles. The company sent me a new hot bed, I plugged it in and it did the same same exact thing. No viable burn marks on any component on the controller board that I can see. Any ideas where to go from here? I want to say it is the power supply but I do not know how to check this. I have some basic electrical knowledge but have now gotten in deeper then my knowledge. The wires have all been checked for resistance and show good results. Any ideas or links would be appreciated.

Hi Mark, welcome to 3DPrinting.SE! I've tidied up the question, I hope you can add by [edit] when it restarts. Furthermore, which company? Why a new bed? When does the restart happens? Is it a DIY scratch build or an existing brand? Please help us out so we can help you!

Hi Oscar and Thank you.

Hi Oscar and Thank you. It is a purchased printer. A Sovol sv-04 Idex printer. The company after e-mailing them had me try some things. one was to unhook the bed heat wire Red at the green block it is connected to turn on printer hit PLA on Temp and see what happens. it did not shut down right away after a few min. it went to error need to restart did not come up to temp or something to that effect. so they thought it was the bed and sent me a new one. i used multi meter today to measure voltage in and out of cpu wass suggested. 121 v in . 52 v out the sticker on cpu says 500 watt 24 v 21 a .

this was measured in DC mode on multi meter not a electrician just some basic knowledge. ?


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How do I fix deformities when printing on my Ender 3 V2?
Being a newbie in 3D printing, I have some trouble with my prints. After removing wiggle room from the X axis and the bed, there are deformities even on simple prints. The first layer turns out okay-ish but there seems to be some stringing that makes the print deviate consisently when there is a turn. How could I improve?
My setup:
Ender 3 V2 - stock printing bed, extruder/nozzles
Firmware: mriscoc
Auto bed leveling (BL touch) - Z offset -2.18mm
Slicer: Cura - 0.2mm layers, 20% infill
Material: PLA - 200C nozzle, 60C printing bed.

The Gcode of the XYZ cube:
;FLAVOR:Marlin
;Layer height: 0.2
;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 5.3.0
M140 S50
M105
M190 S50
M104 S200
M105
M109 S200
M82 ;absolute extrusion mode
; Ender 3 Custom Start G-code
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G28 ; Home all axes
M420 S1 ; Use mesh level stored
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed

Sample output (XYZ cube):

Update: I identified the issue as a lack of tension in the X and Y timing belts. After tightening the belts, the prints are much smoother !

Thanks for answering your own question! Please accept the answer after 48 hours! Looking at the images I also suspected belt tension, it is quite clear from the top side view!


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Is 3D printing progress linear?
Is 3D printing progress (the one you check on the display of a 3D printer) linear or not?
By linear I mean that equal differences in percentual progress will take the same clock time.

Depends on the printer. Probably usually not. Programmers are very lazy (source: am programmer.) It's harder to make the progress bar properly linear, so most of them won't bother.

On some printers it's just percentage of layers printed. So if your part has wide portion on the bottom and thin on top, the progress will be very non-linear.

Or sometimes it's a percentage of the instructions in the source file that have been run. Of course, they don't all take the same amount of time...

There are lots of ways in which one could interpret this question, but in pretty much all senses I would say no, the progress is not "linear", unless you're talking about a progress bar whose values were computed based on a detailed computation to predict times.
Progress is not linear because different moves the printer makes take different amounts of time. Some may be performed fast, others slow. Even if you requested everything (travel, perimeters, infill, solid fill, etc.) to take place at the same speed, they would still take different amounts of time, because physics. Just like your car doesn't immediately start and stay at 65 MPH just because the highway speed limit is 65, the printer does not immediately start and stay at the requested speed. It has to speed up and slow down gradually (accelerate/decelerate), both from stops and when entering/leaving curves.
As a result, portions of the print with lots of detail take a lot longer than portions with mostly long, straight or almost-straight lines.
On top of that, for the print process itself to look "perceptually linear", you'd need a similar amount of time to be spent in each layer. However, some layers take a lot more time just by virtue of the amount of material in the, even if detail weren't an issue.

Thank you for the answer. It clarified the issue for me, my experience with my printer was not sufficient to tell either way and it felt silly to run a print just to find out. I guess I don't really understand what the progress bar measures exactly. Anyway, now it makes more sense why it seems to be stuck in a certain percentage for a long time.

Funnily enough, "portions of the print with lots of detail" might just make the progress bar progress a lot faster than portions with just straight line since some firmwares use the amount of lines of code to calculate progress and curves have lots of individual segments. So there's really no safe answer without using plugins that calculate the duration on each line / layer.

If you are using a resin DLP 3D printer. (The kind that projects the entire mask in one instance).
Then 3D printing progress is linear (except for the first layers which are cured for longer).
And the depends on the height of your 3D print, not on its complexity.

Short answer: Usually not.
Longer answer: Depends on the printer.
Many consumer grade 3D printers show progress by how many layers are printed in relation to how many layers in total. But some layers take a lot longer than other layers, so it's just an approximation, at best.
Some higher tier 3D printers calculate differently, and as a result the progress indicator is more precise.
For example, the current models of Bambu Lab printers are pretty good at showing precise progress on the display. I think most resin printers are fairly accurate as well.
I think that if we look back at this question in 5 years or so, the answer should probably be changed to: "Yes, usually", since printers get better and better each year.

I think for all practical purposes, the time can be considered linear, yes.
Sure, there are some differences in print speed depending on the shape of the layer (e.g. ratio of infill, different disconnected surfaces, etc. etc.), but those are all independent of what I believe the real question here is. Assume that one has an object that is very wide at the bottom, but very thin at the top. One could assume that the progressbar is based on the height of the print. In that case, the print would of course not be linear, since the top layers would be printed much faster.
This is not the case, since the percentage is normally calculated on the number of gcode instructions done and to be done. So aside from minor differences in speed of different instructions, it would be near-linear.
The only exception to this would be the heating-up. For most slicers this is not counted into the prediction of time, and is also a very non-linear part of the print.
OP's comment under @R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE's answer indicates that this this is the question he really had. The progressbar being stuck for long periods of time cannot be explained by difference in speeds of certain regions in the model.

"Minor differences in speed of different instructions" is where you're wrong. These are major differences. Measuring as % of gcode file size in bytes, which I believe is what Octoprint does, can give you anywhere from "vaguely right" to "horribly wrong" depending on the particular file.  If the slicer estimated the times and put LCD update commands in the gcode, it's likely to be closer, but these estimates are usually somewhat wrong too.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE "major differences" compared to what? Sure, a layer with lots of fine perimeters and hops and retractions will take a lot longer than a perfect square with only infill. (assuming sensible slicer settings)
But are these differences significant, compared to how non-linear the time would be if you assumed the percentage to be an indication of print height? No. They would be near-negligible. That is my perspective in this answer. Which doesn't mean your answer is incorrect. It's just that I'm making the assumption that mine is closer to what OP wanted to know.

Yes, they are significant.


text:
How can I connect a 3-pin fan to RAMPS 1.6?
I have a 3-pin (red, black, white) fan, and I need to cool my RAMPS 1.6 board with this fan. How can I connect the fan to the board and turn it on/off?

As far as connecting, this answer explains how.

@bkarpuz Connect only the wires Red and Black to 12V line input; there is not any AUX 12V output on this board like Ramps 1.4.


text:
How do I remove filament from the hotend of a direct-drive printer?
I have PrintrBot Simple Metal and over the course of today's use, I managed to get a piece of filament stuck in the hotend, just below the extruder gear. There's not really much to grab at, and my tweezers aren't that strong. How should I go about getting the filament out of the hotend? If it matters, I'm using 1.75mm MH Build Series PLA.
Though I solved my problem, I would still like for members of the 3D community to share solutions that work for them.

Cold Pull
The technic is nigh the same as for a bowden machine:

Do NOT cut the filament!
First heat the hotend to your filament's print temperature or about 20 °C lower
Then pull at the filament, possibly using a pair of grooved tongues.

If you want to get rid of residue, especially after printing a high-temperature material, you might want to purge the nozzle too.
But the filament is short...
If the filament is too short already, purging it is the solution:

try to cut the filament to just after the extruder gear
Heat the hotend to printing temperature of the stuck filament
insert any other filament that has the same or lower melting temperature behind and (using pliers) make sure that it will line up with the filament path.
Push the stuck filament through.
Best perform a purge now.

Purging
I mentioned above purging. Purging is just pushing extra filament through. As it melts and gets pushed out with extra force, it takes with it all the residue and old filament. You pretty much purge the old material from the system. It might be easier for you to use a different color, as then you can see when you have purged the previous filament fully.
If you still need to clean more or want to swap the nozzle, you can let the hotend cool down to about 20 °C below the printing temperature of your now-loaded filament and return to a cold pull.
I generally have good enough success by performing a cold pull and then purging some centimeters more after the filament is of even color.
Nozzle geometry warning
Core-Heating nozzles are very complex and doing a cold pull in them is very hard to impossible. It is best to not cold-pull and instead just purge forward if possible.

I guess what I did was a cold purge.

@TheTridentGuy more likely a normal purge (purge is forward and works best with print temperature, pull is backwards and works best if you are a little under print temp)

Sorry, I meant just purge.

No problem^^ we all are here to learn. True, you discovered purging before I came around to help, but it is indeed a classic cleaning method. I usually coldpull and then purge (with a bowden setup) so my nozzle is clean after filament swaps.

Ok, so I finally figured out a way to get it out:
I heated the hotend to the melting temp. of the filament, and then used another piece of filament to push it through. Just make sure that the other piece of filament is connected to the spool you want to print from :).
Thanks to @Trish for teaching me that this is called a purge.


text:
Missing walls in Cura after slicing
I designed some line art figure in Blender using several Bezier Curves, converted them all to Meshes, joined them to one Mesh and converted it back to a Curve.
Then I extracted the curve and set a depth and at the end I saved it as a STL file.
Now in Cura (5.2.2.2) using the standard settings I have the following struggle:
When opening up the STL everything seems normal and as designed:

But after slicing some lines/walls are ignored:

Judging by the preview visualization and time those inner structures disappear.
Do you know how to correct by tweaking the Cura settings?
I think the problem comes from the Blender Project due to the multiple converting and joining process but maybe I can save the current model instead of starting over.

Are you sure that the problem isn't caused by Blender, Blender is notoriously famous for creating incorrect models (inverted normals, non-manifold structures, etc.). You need to get your STL through a mesh fixer first, if the problem still persists, there may be a different issue at hand.

Blender is however way better than SketchUp...

As suspected the error came from the Blender project. I tried using only Bezier curves and after joining and extruding the exported STL file behaves as expected.


text:
J19 Pin on Ultimaker 2 Mainboard Marlin Config

I am trying to configure an Ultimaker 2 (go) with Marlin. My current hotend is a 1.75 mm E3D V6 (still bowden), and the extruder fan uses J19 24V, as circled in green in the picture. Whenever I turn on the printer, the extruder fan keeps running no matter what, and regardless of the temperature. This is kind of annoying, as I want to leave the printer on along with setting it up with Octoprint. So, in Marlin, I want to find the pin number so I can configure it as a proper extruder fan, so it isn't running constantly. I tried M43, but it didn't list J19.
(Just plain Marlin with config, not the specific Ultimaker-specific marlin )


text:
Get 2D object from a 3D object's face in OpenSCAD
Basically I am working on automating the generation of upper and lower shells of device enclosures. These enclosures have a rather irregular shape that was generated e.g. with hull(). I currently have a hollow enclosure object that I would like to split into an upper and a lower half in order to print them on a 3D printer. This is easily done by intersecting / diffing them with a large cube object. But I would like to also have a lid at the split position so both parts have a mechanically solid fit.
My approach would currently be to get the 2D surface of the cut plane and modify it to get an outer part for one shell and an inner part for the other shell. But I do not know how to get this surface object in the first step of the process.
Any ideas how to do this in OpenSCAD? Or even better proposals?
EDIT:
A possible workaround is as follows:
I model the inner hollow structure by combining the necessary room for the components. The enclosure is constructed by applying minkowski() { inner(); sphere(r=wallThickness); } to it. The overlapping lid parts are then generated by applying the Minkowski operation with a sphere half the wall thickness in size. Problem is, this creates a non-vertical overlap as you can see in the example by setting cutHeight = 10 instead of -20. I know that having a vertical lid (i.e. perpendicular to the cut plane) may on the other hand lead to problems when the wall thickness is too thin.
$fn=32;
wallThickness = 5;
lidHeight = 5;
cutHeight = -20;    // or 10

module inner()
{
    translate([0,0, cutHeight])
    hull() { // example only, may be an arbitrarily irregular shape
        translate([0, 0, 20]) sphere(40);
        translate([20, 20, -10]) cube(50,center=true);
    }
}

module shell(wall)
{
    minkowski() {
        inner();
        sphere(wall);
    }
}

module lower_enclosure()
{
    union() {
        intersection() {
            difference() {
                shell(wallThickness);
                shell(0);
            }
            translate([0,0,-500]) cube(1000, center=true);
        }
        intersection() {
            difference() {
                shell(wallThickness/2);
                shell(0);
            }
            translate([0,0,-500 + lidHeight]) cube(1000, center=true);
        }
    }
}

module upper_enclosure()
{
    rotate([180,0,0])
    union() {
        intersection() {
            difference() {
                shell(wallThickness);
                shell(0);
            }
            translate([0,0,500]) cube(1000, center=true);
        }
        intersection() {
            difference() {
                shell(wallThickness);
                shell(wallThickness/2);
            }
            translate([0,0,500 - lidHeight]) cube(1000, center=true);
        }
    }
}

lower_enclosure();
translate([0,110,0]) upper_shell();

Any chance to make a sketch? Know that if you are creating lids, you need a rim so that it stays on top, the inner rim needs to be smaller than the hollow enclosure objects inside. It sound like you modelled the whole thing in OpenSCAD, so you can use that code for the lid? You can post your current code for reference.

@0scar: I model the inner hollow structure by combining the necessary room for the components, say hull() { translate([0, 0, 20]) sphere(40); translate([20, 20, -10]) cube(50,center=true); } with the cut going through the XY plane. The enclosure is constructed by applying minkowski() { inner(); sphere(r=wallThickness); } to it. So, my current solution is now applying the Minkowski operation with a sphere half the wall thickness in size which generates the lid, and then combining this with cutting above and below the plane for the overlap. Problem is, this creates a non-vertical overlap.

You can use the openSCAD projection() function.
With cut=true, this slices your model at the Z=0 plane.
3D to 2D Projection documentation.

projection(cut = true) example002();


text:
Under-extrusion in Certain Locations
Recently, I've been noticing what looks like under extrusion. My first thought was a clogged nozzle, but it only occurs in some places:

My printer is a PrintrBot Simple Metal, using MH Build Series 1.75 mm PLA and the model was sliced with Cura 5.1.0. What could be causing this, and how should I fix it?
Slicer settings:

infill density 10 % (pattern: cubic)
layer height: 0.2 mm
print speed: 50 mm/s (travel: 150 mm/s)
print temp: 200 °C (bed: 0 °C)
retraction: enabled (Z-hop: disabled)
cooling: enabled (fan speed: 100 %)

I'm not printing faster than usual, and I watched some of this print print, and there were no obvious issues like a clicking extruder. I find it strange that it occurred regularly along the edge of one piece, but the piece next to it was perfect. It seems to occur around two sharp corners. The other piece didn't have those sharp corners.
Another doubtful theory by me:
I've had some issues with a loose plug recently. Could this be causing a drop in temperature?

Are you printing fast? What temperature? Please share some settings.

@Oscar I added the print settings: I'm not printing extra fast, and my print temp seems fine for PLA.

Is the extruder skipping? Should be easy to observe, look at the gear that pushes the filament. Do you hear a click every time the gear rotates backwards?

@anttix I had the honor of watching the shown part print. The extruder gear wasn't skipping.

There is one topic discussing the under extrusion of this printer. This printer uses an old (PEEK) hotend, which underperforms. From what I read, the original hotend is not the best around and the stepper is weak. Replace the hotend for a more modern design, or buy a new printer to save the hassle and frustration. For the price of the Simple you can get two entry printers with better  extruders/hotends.

Are there any settings I could change to provide a quick fix? It doesn't seem like a hardware issue.

I suspect it is a hardware issue, a weak stepper and an underperforming hotend. Stepper could be given some more current probably, but for fixing this you need to be up for some tinkering to install new parts, hence the hint to buy a new one and sell this one to a tinkerer.

But it only happens in specific places. Another piece printed right next to this, and is perfect, albiet a little ghosting.

@Oscar could a more powerful power supply help?

No that won't work.

Solved! Finally...
So after having this issue off and on, an extreme case appeared. It turns out that filament was resisting coming off the spool, and when the extruder and hotend (the Simple is a direct-drive) pulled away from the spool it created tension in the filament, effectively pulling it out of the hotend, though only just enough to cause this issue. In this specific case, it seems that the long edge before the side of the piece was pulling the filament.
Shoutout to @metacollin and @DragonDon for their answers. I'm still calibrating my machine, so they'll useful.

If the motion of the printhead (on a direct drive printer) is pulling the filament to turn the spool, and this is affecting its ability to push the filament through the hotend, this can be mitigated with a reverse bowden tube running from a fixed point near the spool to the filament intake on the toolhead. If you don't want to do that, adding bearings to reduce the rolling friction of the spool may suffice.

Thank you so much for posting this, this was my issue too!  What a silly problem that I never would have considered.  Thank you so much!

Ultimately, your printer is pushing out less filament than the gcode is telling it to (which you know, but its worth focusing on the exact problem).
If your stepper motor isn't missing steps, then that leaves just a few  possibilities:

The extruder's hobbed gear is slipping against the filament
The extruder's hobbed gear (or whatever is being driven by the extruder motor) is slipping on the motor shaft.
You got a bad spool with short lengths where the filament diameter is substantially out of tolerance (in the negative direction).

#3 seems extremely unlikely though is still possible. The filament need not be noticeably under spec, it just needs to narrow enough that the hobbed gear can't grab onto it well enough and you get slippage.
#2 is also unlikely but its so easy to check, might as well.
#1 is what my money is on.
Now we have to think of what could be causing filament slippage. This occurs when the hobbed gear's ability to grab the filament is overpowered by the resistance to flow through the nozzle.
This can either be from too little grip, or something causing unusual and intermittent resistance to flow that causes the hobbed gear to shred the filament.

If there is too little grip, you simply need to tighten the screw that has the spring that pushes the idler arm and idler pulley against the filament more pressure means better grip for the hobbed gear).

Your hobbed gear might have gunk between the teeth preventing it from gripping well and merely needs to be cleaned with something sharp.

Your idler pulley might have be broken, check for any play or unsmooth rotation on the shaft

Once you're certain grip is nice and strong, that leaves something causing resistance to flow:

There might be a spec of debris with an irregular high aspect ratio shape in your hotend. It can't exit through the nozzle, but it also can't completely block it either, and is constantly moving around and only becomes a problem some of the time.
One of your hotend's thermistor wires might have an intermittent short, or the thermistor itself has cracked. Low/short circuit resistance ends up getting interpreted as really high temperature, so no power is sent to the heater until a good enough thermistor connection returns. This can result in the hotend getting too cold for short periods. This option seems plausible since there seems to be a rough correlation between the print head position and when it happens, which is consistent with a broken conductor issue. The connection goes bad when the wires are positioned in certain ways, basically.

And it could of course be any combination of these things cooccurring and all contributing.
Unfortunately, under extrusion has so many potential causes that you just have to start going down the list from easiest to hardest thing to fix, and hope the problem is more towards the easy end.

The odd thing here is that it's only happening in specific spots. If it was a random fluke, It would happen all over the print instead of just on one side.

@TheTridentGuysupportsUkraine: When it only happens in certain spots, normally that means the condition causing underextrusion is dependent on the sliced geometry. It could be that there's a long move just before the underextrusion where the motion has enough length to accelerate to a higher speed than you have the flow for. It could be that there's a retraction/unretract just before, and your retraction speed or acceleration is bad, causing filament to slip or the E motor to skip steps while adjusting the filament position, offsetting the amount extruded. Etc.

Another very possible cause is oozing during a travel move just prior to the line that's underextruded. In this case, the missing material was extruded, just in the wrong place. This can be a result of poorly calibrated retraction settings and/or "combing"/skipping-retractions.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE Thank you! This is the point I've been trying to make. Turns out condition causing underextrusion was the filament resisting coming off the spool and the extruder moving quickly away from the spool.

I would strongly follow Teach Tech's calibration guide.  It's entirely possible that there are a number of things out of whack, contributing to the overall print quality.  In this case, I'd look at doing a PID tune and seeing if your print temps are consistent.
Also, as the filament is fed into the nozzle, that lowers the temp, and if your temperature is not consistent, it might be lowered to a point where it starts to solidify, this would account for the results you get but again, could be a number of things.  Even wet filament.
The filament you are using has a temp range of 205 +/-15.  That means anything from 190 to 220. Even in your pic you can see the issue starting at lower layers.
Calibration is clearly the first thing to do before anything else.


text:
Why do these horizontal lines appear when I don't use supports?
I am trying to print several parts on my Elegoo Mars 3. When I support them, the parts come out fine. On the other hand, when not using supports (with 2 mm walls), a horizontal line appears in the same place and I don't understand why it appears. Could someone help me solve this?


text:
Ender 3 v2 X limit switch not working sometimes
The limit switch of the x axis on my Ender 3 v2 is not working sometimes. The gantry hits the switch but the motor does not stop. Restarting the printer fixes the issue and prints normally. Next time you restart the printer the problem reappears.
I have changed the switch and the cables with brand new and the problem still remains.
This problem occurs 8/10 times I print and always goes away with restarting.


text:
Disabling bed level before each print
I am running SKR Mini E3V3 on my Ender 3 Pro with CR Touch. I'd like to stop the bed leveling before every print and to use the stored Mesh (UBL). Where and how do I do this? Do I need to do it in the firmware and Cura?

Yes you can disable the bed leveling procedure, just make sure to comment out the G29 G-code and put the M420 S in after G28 in your start G-code.
From the Marlin documentation you can read:

Get and/or set bed leveling state. For mesh-based leveling systems use Z parameter to set the Z Fade Height.
With AUTO_BED_LEVELING_UBL you can use L to load a mesh from EEPROM.
Option L followed by an integer (M420 L<int>) -> Load mesh from EEPROM index (Requires AUTO_BED_LEVELING_UBL and EEPROM_SETTINGS defined in firmware)

Also note that

G28 disables bed leveling. Follow with M420 S to turn leveling on, or use RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28 to automatically keep leveling on after G28.

This implies that if RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28 is set in your firmware, you do not need the M420 S command.
You can test this by removing G29 in a current print, if you don't see the Z stepper move during the first layer, the RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28 is not defined in firmware and you will need to use the M420 S command in your start G-code directly after G28.


text:
Ender 3 S1 Pro extruding/jamming on random layers
My relatively new Ender 3 S1 Pro with default extruder started to under extrude and jam on some layers. When it happens I can hear extruder skipping/clicking noises. I printed same g-code multiple times and happened on different layers.
I replaced the nozzle (default 0.4) with the new one (same size/type, from Ender's 24Pcs Brass Mk8 pack), but got similar results.
I removed and checked the nozzle and throat, but didn't see anything abnormal, there was no filament between the nozzle and the throat.
I tried using different SD cards, tried different extruder temperatures.
I'm running default latest firmware from Ender. I haven't performed any PID tunes or any other firmware changes, I've just changed the nozzles and adjusted screw/belt/roller tensions.
The models were sliced on Cura v5.3.0 on Mac and Windows versions (default Ender S1 Pro profile).
I don't think it's a filament or slicer issue as my Tronxy CRUX1 printed same model with the same filament just fine.
What could be the main causes for such jams/under extrusion?
Under extrusion example:

Nozzle and throat:


text:
Stringing test results in towers with weak base
As you can see, no stringing! But the base of each tower is deformed, non-circular, and extremely weak. The tops of the towers are perfectly circular, so I don't believe it is entirely an X, Y axis issue.
This is PLA at ~195 °C with a 64 °C bed on a QIDI X-MAX. I have tried this with multiple copies of the print on the bed which does not solve the problem, so I don't believe it is a layer-cooling issue. Also tried different temperatures, Z-adjust, and re-leveled multiple times. Any thoughts on the cause of this?

This is an odd issue I haven't seen before, but your bed temperature is quite high for PLA and the nozzle temperature is quite low. These could be factors.

How did this ever happen?

The warping on the base's corners suggests too much heat on the bed. You should try the same print but with the bed turned off since you're using PLA (if you're worried about adhesion you can use hairspray/glue stick to keep the print in place). If the print comes out okay then lower your bed temperature (I generally use 50 °C) or consider carrying on with the bed off + adhesive combination instead.

Also, on QIDI X-MAX, since there's an enclosure, as well as lowering the bed temperature, maybe try to leave the door open for some filament (such as PLA).


text:
Fortus 250mc will randomly freeze up midprint
I have an issue where my Fortus 250mc will freeze mid-print. What I mean by freezing is it will stop printing and the LED display will be stuck, wasting all the material and time up until the point of freezing. To get it working again we have to unplug it, plug it back in, and pray that it will finish the print on our next try.
This seems to happen randomly, my boss had the issue during a 30-minute print job for something small and it also happens for very long print jobs (5-10 hours). We originally noticed this happening on long prints where we leave the printer to run overnight, but with a bunch of new projects requiring 3D printed prototypes, we've noticed it happening during the workday as well.
If anyone has any suggestions for troubleshooting or has come across this before I would appreciate the help.


text:
Problems with BLTouch on Ender 3 Pro
I have had some issues with my Ender 3 Pro (v4.2.2 motherboard). The BLTouch decided to just probe the air. It had been working quite fine until one day when it stopped. IDK if this helps, but I have dual Z axis installed, and the BLTouch stopped working shortly after I installed it. The actual BLTouch works fine - I tested it under the test section of the menu. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you provide more information please? When you say it "probed the air" do you mean it 'activated' without touching the buildplate? I have an Ender 3 Pro with the Dual Z upgrade and BLTouch as well, though I upgraded to the BTT SKR MINI E3 V3 board, but prior to the upgrade, I had no issues with running the BLTouch and Dual Z together.

@EchoTree Sorry, I should have closed the post. I fixed it by hot-gluing the connection wires to the board, as they were a bit loose.


text:
No extrusion, but manual extrusion works. The motor turns but no filaments pushed down
My printer doesn't have extrusion but when I push it manually it extrudes just fine.
The extruder motor turns but it won't really push the filaments to get extruded.
I am using the same G-code file that was used two years ago and back then it extruded without any issue. But to think it is the problem of hardware. The extruder extrudes well when I tried to prime the filament (I use gel). So I am confused whether this is a problem of extruder hardware or G-code.

Transcribed G-code from screenshot (may contain errors/differences)
; generated by PrusaSlicer 2.3.3+win64 on 2021-12-15 at 16:39:29 UTC

;

; external perimeters extrusion width = 0.15mm
; perimeters extrusion width = 0.15mm
; infill extrusion width = 0.15mm
; solid infill extrusion width = 0.15mm
; top infill extrusion width = 0.15mm
; first layer extrusion width = 0.15mm

M107
;TYPE:Custom
G55
T0
M302 P1
g90
G21 ; set units to millimeters
G90 ; use absolute coordinates
M82 ; use absolute distances for extrusion
G92 E0
; Filament gcode
;LAYER CHANGE
;Z:0.06
;HEIGHT:0.06
G1 Z0.060 F900.000
G1 X-0.092 Y-0.377
;TYPE:Perimeter
;WIDTH:0.15
G1 X0.116 Y-0.418 E0.00004
G1 X0.328 Y-0.418 E0.00008
G1 X0.536 Y-0.377 E0.00012
G1 X0.731 Y-0.298 E0.00016
G1 X0.906 Y-0.184 E0.00020
G1 X1.053 Y-0.040 E0.00024
G1 X1.169 Y0.128 E0.00027
G1 X1.248 Y0.315 E0.00031
G1 X1.288 Y0.512 E0.00035
G1 X1.288 Y0.712 E0.00309

It is preferable to paste in the actual code instead of a picture of the code. This allows users in the future that do a search can actually find your code.

This suggested edit, whilst an admirable effort and attempt at transcribing the screenshot, is not exactly the same as the G-code in the screenshot. There may be some differences. It would be much better if the OP could just paste in the actual G-code..

It seems like your extrusion multiplier might be off.
Apparently you're using a layer height of 0.06 and an extrusion width of 0.15. For your moves (traveling around 1.5 mm diagonally) I would expect 0,0135 mm³ of filament being extruded. However, your extruder only moves 0,00031 mm, which would be 0,00074 mm³ with 1.75mm filament or 0,0019 mm³ with 2.85mm filament - off by factors of 18 or 7 respectively.


text:
Add minimal support or breaking layer in multi part
I am new to 3D printing, so this is probably a simple one.
I am using Freecad to design and Bambu slicer for printing. The object (simple cable clip) basically consists of vertical walls with no relevant overhangs. However, for printing, I have stacked seven of them in a vertical tower separating all seven objects by a small gap.

When I slice this with supports enabled, I get a preview that somewhat looks like Devil's Tower. I tried to draw the support manually and even blocked support at the walls which allows me to draw exactly what I want, but this doesn't change anything. The slicer still throws material at it like crazy.
What I ideally want is a single vertical support/breaking layer separating the parts. I know, I could model this breaking layer in Freecad, but the curved nature of the upper side makes sketching and modeling this quite difficult.
So my question is, is there an easy way to do this in a slicer?

The most easy solution is to edit the G-code file. In the G-code file you can see when the next stacked item starts to be printed. If there is no gap between the objects, the objects fuse together. If you insert G-code to raise the Z height by 0.1 - 0.2 mm and redefine the new Z to the old value prior to move you have created a weak/break layer similar to a support roof with a gap to the printed part.
So after the last layer of an object you insert:
// E.g. last Z is 15 mm, layer height is 0.2 mm
G1 Z15.15 // Raise Z height by 0.15 mm
G92 Z15   // Define this the Z you left
// Continue printing next object

Modifying this g-code file seems to be a powerfull option. I guess I first have to get some experience with it before modifying this thing. The g-code file for this project has more than a 100 thousand lines and I dont want to ruin the printer just yet. So what I did was, to add some support in the cad only at the bottom plate and then let the printer do its thing. The fact that there was a gap was enought to reduce layer adhesion between parts, so I could easily breake them apart.

@lmielke I usually write a python script for custom editing. You can also use scripts in the slicer itself. Your comment also is a solution, feel free to make this an answer!


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3D scanning parts that don't stand on their own
All the scanners I have seen, are scanning objects that stand on a platform. What about something like a plastic part which doesn't stand on it's own? for example this plastic piece I broke on my Kärcher pressure washer

Do you just have to be skilled at modelling enough to create a model from scratch?

At work we print holders for parts that don't standup themselves. This part you broke is probably not suitable for being printed yourself, this is most probably Nylon (or even worse, POM), when you print this yourself you will get into some challenges, like warping. If this has been broken, I doubt whether you find a suitable replacement material. Personally, I would buy this part, it is too difficult to scan and print yourself. And, if printed outside using a print service, it will be more expensive then buying a spare.

ok so you print a holder to hold the part you're scanning but wouldn't the holder be scanned into the model as well? how would you get rid of the holder?

You need to edit the scan anyways. I've done it a few times, lots of work afterwards repairing or redrawing the object.