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How I can turn PET plastic into PETG?
With a friend, we managed to successfully make ABS filament and print with it (even though we sold a couple of spools) now we want to turn our attention to PET. The problem is that it's really hard to extrude properly into filament, so we are wondering how to turn it into PETG (I don't care if it's not possible to do at home, we are creating a brand of filaments, so we need to know how it's done to then attempt to make it (like a list of steps)). If it's not possible to add it, do you know any other polymers that can be mixed to achieve similar properties?

This sounds more like a Chemistry.SE question. Hopefully, those more experienced can provide additional input.

You didn't say what you plan to make it from - presumably pellets, and if so, you get PETG pellets. I don't think you can just mix things at pellet-size scale and get copolymers out. However, PET is a vastly superior printing material to PETG, so I'd like to suggest a frame challenge to figure out what problem you're hitting producing filament from it, and solve that. There are very few manufacturers selling PET filament right now (afaik only Fusion Filaments in the US, and a few here and there in other countries), and if you can figure out how to do it well, you'd have very few competitors.


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Netfabb Premium 2023 supported printer list
Do anyone knows if Flashforge adventurer 3/4 are supported by Netfabb Premium 2023? I can not find a printer list.

Have you checked the support pages? Where have you already looked to eliminate duplicate work?

yes, can not find

You have to search harder next time :)
https://help.autodesk.com/view/NETF/2023/ENU/?guid=GUID-87CA46ED-E590-45FC-93D2-B72A3EA68554

Welcome to 3D Printing! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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What are these defects caused by?
I am printing PETG with my Kobra Max.
Material: ERYONE PETG Filament 1.75 mm
The recommended print settings are 220-240 °C.
I am using a nozzle temperature of 230 °C and bed temperature of 70 °C.
Can anybody tell me what these defects are caused by?

It looks like your build-plate (print bed) is out-of-level. Specifically, your printer's nozzle is too close to the build plate as witnessed by the first layer being semi-translucent in some areas but not others; This indicates it's very thin.
The defect you see is parts of the first layer being 'peeled' up by the printhead as it moves by, as excess plastic has built up in those areas, causing the hot-end to smash into them and delaminate them as it attempts to print other parts of the part.
If you don't already know how to level/tram your bed, check out your printer's manual for instructions (if it has any) or read a Bed-Levelling guide

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


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Ender 3 V2 calibration for BIQU H2
I upgraded my Ender 3 V2 with a BIQU H2 hot end and extruder head and a BLTouch probe. I updated the firmware from Ender website using Ender-3 V2_32bit_4.2.2_BLTouch_Marlin-2.0.1 - V1.1.1.bin. All hardware seems to work flawlessly, incl. all axis movements, extruder movements, heating, fans controlling,...
However, I don't know how to really proceed with changes to extruder settings. I found no YouTube videos or internet articles, particularly about "Ender 3 V2" and "BIQU H2" and what I found is not compatible.
From what I gathered, I need to change the speed ratio of extrusion and the gear ratio of extrusion. But I don't know how to set it on Ender 3 V2. I tried to configure the gear ratio. There's a nice YT manual for Ender 3 V2, however for the old extruder, so I couldn't measure the extruded filament beyond the extruder. I made a line 100 mm above the extruder with a marker and set the extrusion to +100. I got something like 10 mm of snail-pace slow extrusion. So I went to the extruder's gear ratio and tried to raise it, but the value should be roughly $100 / 10 * 93 = 930$ (93 was the default and current value). However, the adjustment goes only to 186, and with that, I get a little bit less than 20 mm of extrusion. And I also suspect that the extruder's speed is about 7 times smaller (1:7 gear ratio) than what it is supposed to be.
So, could you advise or direct me to materials that explain how to set BIQU H2 on Ender 3 V2? Is there anything else I have to set, apart from extruder speed and gear ratio? Some tutorials mentioned about stepper motor voltage if I remember correctly, but again, that cannot be set in the menu. I'm fine with settings over G-code, as long as I have some clear instructions on what actually to set.

Note:
I marked Oscar's post as an answer, though to me it tells only part of the story. But helped to clarify some stuff. Be careful and study the matter yourself, however, you should come to this conclusion and those steps for Ender 3 V2 and BIQU H2, particularly for setting the extruder motor current.
Disclaimer: Those were my steps and I do not take any responsibility for anything if you follow them. Check everything yourself and advice in the comments below, if anything doesn't look right.

Check you have TMC2208 - you should have the large letter A written on your card reader

Check your BIQU H2 stepper motor nominal voltage is 800 mA in the attached manual

Check the resistors at the stepper motor (marked E) on your main board are R150 (150 mΩ)

If all above is true, you should get Vref = 1.05. Based on

$\frac{0.8}{\sqrt{2}} = {\frac{325mV}{150mΩ+20mΩ}*\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}*\frac{V_{ref}}{2.5V}}$
I separated voltage:
$V_{ref} = \frac{0.8A/\sqrt{2}}{325mV/((150mΩ+20mΩ)*\sqrt{2}*2.5)} = \frac{(150mΩ+20mΩ) * 2.5 * 0.8A}{325mV} = 1.046V$

Measure your current Vref with positive contact on the potentiometer and negative on the card reader cover, using an appropriate scale on your Voltmeter, i.e. up to 20V DC. You should get something like 1.4 V, if you have the default factory setting. One hint: I put a piece of insulation tape on the cooler next to the potentiometer in order to avoid a short circuit in case the cooler is connected to the negative body - it's easy to touch it with a screwdriver. Remove it after the correct voltage is set. Or use a plastic or ceramic screwdriver.

Turn slightly the potentiometer anti-clockwise, about 1/5 of the circle for start, and measure the voltage again, then do a fine adjustment, measure again, etc., until you get desired value. I could set it from 0.03 to 1.02, meaning that I set 780 mA, slightly below the nominal voltage.

This sounds like a duplicate for the question you already left a comment on the answer for your problem, you can use a console or use M92 E930 in your start G-code or in a separate G-code file with M500. Stepper reference voltage must be set manually using a multimeter and small screwdriver, your driver's don't allow to adjust through firmware or G-code. This stepper should be limited to 0.8 A.

Sorry, not really a duplicate, Ender 3 settings is very different from V2 in practical terms. What I would like to know are instructions specific for V2, so that I don't do guessing. I'll probably use a G code, though I'd like to see some firm instructions. I hope I'll be able find more about adjusting the stepper motor voltage too. Though both of the actions sound straight-forward, it's good to not experiment and do it right.

As both machines run Marlin there is no difference, it is my opinion that this could be a duplicate (which I still think it is after your comment), but, the community decides. The difference is that the V2 has a TFT with separate firmware, it is that firmware that limits the inserting of higher values for your application. The answer of the other question will help you set the new steps per mm for your extruder, this is not different for the V2. The limiting of the current is a hardware solution, measure the voltage while turning the screw.

@Oscar Thank you for hiding wrong answer. You might be right and I might be wrong, of course. I based my assumption on a YT manual, that showed how to change it in Ender 3 in Advanced Settings and it said it can't be done that way on V2 - might be exactly as you said with TFT module limiting inputs. I will use the G code, the two command are clear, hopefully there's no header or footer code required (as it is with most CNC machines). As for voltage, I put edit into my question.

@Oak_3260548 I have tried to format your equation in your recent edit but without knowing what exactly it looks like in mathematical notation, it is a bit difficult to replicate. If you write it on paper, take a photo, post it to Imgur, and link it to me in a comment, I will be more than happy to correct any mistakes on my part and make your equation look correct. (I recently needed to learn LaTex so this is practice.)

@agarza You did a very good job formatting the equation! Thank you, I didn't know I can use LaTeX to format formulas (lesson learned). I don't have the formula in nice looking format, I wrote it directly into Libre Calc in this command-like format full of brackets and was separating Vref on the fly (why they don't show it with Vref separated in all the articles, I don't know). If you want to make it nicer, I suggest: Change 2^(1/2) to square root of 2, remove completely 1 and put content of the first bracket above all the content of the bracket behind slash. Good job!

The Ender you have uses the TFT display. This display operates its own firmware, so when you update the controller board, you only update the printer function not the GUI interface. It is the interface that limits the input you require for setting the correct E-steps per millimeter as these are limited in the region of the stock extruder; it has no anticipation for using a much larger value like you need when using a large gear ratio extruder. When the correct steps per milliliter are set, you do not need to worry about the speed other than that you cannot use very high retraction speeds with high gear ratio extruders, if too fast it will skip steps.
Question Adjust E-step on Ender 3 already explains how you set the correct value for the E-steps, it does not require the display to set this. You do require either a connection over USB to a computer/laptop or an SD-card.
Do note that the stepper you use on the direct extruder is different from the one installed stock as extruder motor, the reference voltage must be set manually using a multimeter and small screwdriver, your driver's don't allow to adjust through firmware or G-code. This stepper should be limited to 0.8 A. You need to calculate which Vref you need for your driver (you probably have TMC2208 stand alone drivers) and adjust the potentiometer to measure the calculated Vref. You do not measure current directly, this is done through measuring the Vref (this is a measure for the current). There are many sources to be found to set this Vref, e.g. this one.

Just to let you know, I will definitely try that and mark the answer once I'm back; I'm away from the printer past few days.

It continues to be a babylon of clues and missing information. I've seen that formula before. OK, my motor is TMC2208, my manual says motor is rated to 1.5A/phase and seems to suggest the nominal current is 800 mA. Resistors are 150 mΩ. What is 20 mΩ? What is 2.5V? What is 325 mV? I can only trust they're constants for TMC2208, no information there. With that, I get Vref = 1.05. I don't complain, I kind of knew what I'm ´ getting myself into, but I'm still stunned that there's zero documentation for such mainstream product combination :-)


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Ender 3 power supply top screw isn't tightening
I was trying to fasten the top screw on the power supply of my Ender 3, but it won't fasten. So, I took the screw out and found something like a little yellow ring stuck onto it. I think it broke because I may have over fastened it, but I didn't tighten too much... Is this the "thread" of the hole? Is it supposed to be so fragile?

If you could [edit] in a photo that would help in finding a solution.

Just added the picture :)

Sounds like you've stripped the thread by overtorquing the fastener.
Your options are to use a slightly larger fastener and drill/tap the larger hole for that bigger thread.  And don't confuse the screws next time you open this connector.
The little yellow ring might be a retainer so the screw is held captive in the part, or it could be a load spreading washer, or a soft area to soak up vibration and prevent buzzing/rattling and resonance.


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How can I send G-code to a Bambu Labs X1/X1C?
What are the ways that G-code can be sent to a Bambu Labs X1/X1C?

Without wishing to sound pedantic, could you be a little more specific? Do you mean "Are there any unusual or undocumented ways?" I don't have this printer, but looking at the manual the only connectivity seems to be via Wi-Fi (using either a mobile app or an application running on a PC/Mac) - there doesn't appear to be an SD card slot, nor USB interface. Although there is mention of a Bambu Bus, but I have no idea what that is.

Do the printers actually exist? I only see pre-order tickets.

@0scar there have been some going to YouTubers, etc. that have prerelease versions.

There is indeed an SD card slot, at least on the X1C.  So, as long as you can generate the G-code externally, you can run it.  Not sure that answers OPs question about "sending" G-code, but it's doable.


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Can I use a Arduino Mega Clone with a RAMPS 1.4 shield?
I'm trying to build my own 3D-printer and I'm considering using a RAMPS 1.4 shield on an Arduino Mega 2560 as the controller. I could save $30-40 by using a clone Arduino Mega (not the official one) that uses the ATMega 256. Would the RAMPS 1.4 still work with this board?

RAMPS is completely obsolete and will not support modern drivers. Consider something like a SKR 2 or SKR Mini e3 board

Yes a clone of the Arduino Mega will work with a RAMPS 1.4 shield. I've used these combinations in the past.

However, it is advised to buy a dedicated printer controller board, preferably a 32-bit micro processor board, these have more memory so you will less likely run into too less memory for specific functions of the printer firmware (unless you'll be using Klipper, but that requires a RaspberyyPi, so not a cheap solution).


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Elegoo Mars 3 Pro USB drive formatting?
I recently ran into some issues where my Mac (macOS 12.6) was no longer recognizing the USB drive that came with my Elegoo Mars 3 Pro. The printer also wouldn't recognize the drive, so I used Disk Utility to reformat the drive to MS-DOS (FAT). However, after doing this, the printer still would not recognize the drive.
After some web searching, I found that the drive needs to be formatted using a Master Boot Record scheme, but Disk Utility was not displaying this option when formatting a drive.
How can I format a USB drive for an Elegoo Mars using macOS?

Disk Utility can be used to format the drive, but first, you'll need to change the view settings to enable the Scheme options when erasing the drive.
In Disk Utility, from the View menu, select Show All Devices:

Next, you'll need to select the parent device on the left-hand pane, and not the volume:

Finally, after using the Erase button in the top bar of the window, you'll now have the option to select the scheme:

Erase the drive using the MS-DOS (FAT) format and Master Boot Record scheme. The name of the drive likely doesn't matter. Using these settings, I was able to copy some files back to the newly-erased drive and the printer immediately found the files and was able to begin printing again.


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Ultimaker CURA moves XYZ at once during travel, how to avoid this?
I found out that my ancient printer from 2015 (Sharebot NG) stutters when Z is moved with X and Y simultaneously. The printer is one of those where the print head is fixed at the top of the build volume and moves in XY while the plate travels down Z layer by layer.
The printer was originally provided with a Slic3r profile but I want to switch to Cura.
I noticed that during long travel movements, typically the first one where the print head is positioned at the starting point of the print, the printer vibrates a lot.
If the print requires the head to travel long distances, these vibrations eventually shift the plate or tip the print if it's not adequatelly supported, resulting in a failed print.
By comparing the G-Codes from Slic3r and Cura I found that Slic3r moves XY first and then Z separately while Cura does it in a single movement.
Slic3r:
  G1 X45 Y50
  G1 Z0.3

Cura:
  G0 X45 Y50 Z0.3

Is there a way to tell Cura NOT to move the Z axis with X and Y?
I also tried to understand why the vibration happens by playing with the feed rate and I suspect it's a limitation caused by the firmware or the control board, as it happens even at very low speeds therefore I don't think it's due to insufficient electric current.

Can you provide more information about where Cura is doing this? Either based on reading the gcode yourself or looking at the gcode preview? My experience has been that it doesn't do this even when it would possibly improve the toolpath, except under very limited conditions.

it's the very first move after homing, when the head is positioned in the first point of the skirt before the extrusion starts

Can you just setup your start gcode to end at the initial layer height?

Interesting, thanks. The problem however could arise in other scenarios too, i.e. if I use z-hop. I'll try


text:
How can I incorporate text in my model?
I feel this is a relatively simple thing, but I am having some difficulty. The model is simple. It is 2 x 127 x 28 x π mm. It has one corrugated side and all others flat. The non-flat side has a flat area for text.
(Later deformed into a cylinder, hence pi (π))
The problem I'm having in Blender is a lot of non-manifold vertices after the union of the text into that area.
Is it possible to have the text and widget as two different meshes touching and come out as one object in the print?
Use another program besides Blender?
Manually editing the mesh... seems excessively time consuming.

This does not look to be 3D printing related, but rather a question about Blender that would be better suited for Blender.SE

@agarza Potentially. But am curious about any method to solve the problem. I'm not tied to Blender. If someone uses another application and has no issues... I'm eager to hear what the application is.

Unless your question can be [edit]ed to be on-topic, it is at risk of being closed.

This question appears to ask for modeling software alternatives to blender. If modeling software falls under the realm of this SE, the question appears valid.

@fred_dot_u 3D models and programs are only on topic insofar they show that it is a question for 3D printing and not other uses. See https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/501/cad-questions-review - The bar is super low: just declare that the model is to be printable.

@Trish - "super low bar", this made me smile... you're right, the bar is ridiculously low, when you come to think about it. We seem to be easy to please... :-)

Interesting things I've stirred up. :) Sadly I have a bad habit with stack exchanges... I'm stuck, sometimes for days. Can't figure it out. Ask. Figure it out.

Hi Nolan. I'm trying to do some site housekeeping. As your question has generated an accepted (and upvoted) answer, could you do the site a favour and just [edit] your question to confirm that you intend to print the model (once you've found the appropriate software)? If you do that, then all of the above comments can be deleted. Thanks :-) Your question has some close votes against it because the question may not be 3DP related, so by editing and stating that the model will be printed would also remove those close votes. Thanks again.

You have a number of options with respect to adding text to a shape. Top of the list would be the easy-to-use Tinkercad, but it may be too limiting for your purposes.
More complex, and coming in next would be the free hobbyist version of Fusion 360. In very many ways, a tougher program to learn, but YouTube tutorials may get you started on your specific objective.
My favorite would be to learn the wonders of OpenSCAD, a text based descriptor program that uses parametric modeling to create 3D objects.
It's not impossible to create non-manifold with the above three programs, but very much easier to create a working model.
If your final objective is a cylinder, it might be good to start with the desired shape and apply the text in the program of your choice.

Thanks @fred_dot_u! I did figure something out as well... probably something that these programs might do under the hood. I have a "bad habit," perhaps of my noob-ness, where I boolean union meshes to create one mesh for one object. There is another option to create one object... take the text mesh, abutt it to your object with snap, Ctrl+J... join. Avoids the boolean union, keeps the meshes as is, no non-manifold vertices/edges are formed, all joined are considered one object. I accepted yours as it provides people with options.

@NolanRobidoux - your comment looks like it should actually be an answer as it is a solution to the issue in your question.


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Ender 3 first layer inconsistent layer lines
I was running my Ender 3 just fine with good first-layer adhesion/everything else but my setup changed after my Pi SD card got corrupted so I had to re-install and reconfigure my bed leveling via OctoPrint. After this my first layer started to look like this:

* this is the bottom of the completed print
IIRC I changed the following (and have tried undoing it but to no avail):

Increased extruder tension (since it was skipping while retracting)
Lowered z-probe offset (since re-calibrating it was too high)

This is with PLA
Running a modified Ender3 w/

BL Touch
Micro Swiss Direct Drive Extruder for Creality CR-10 / Ender 3 Printers
PEI Plate
BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V1.2 Control Board w/ Marlin dev built 20210609

Sliced on Cura 4.11.0

Printing Temp: 210.0 °C
Bed Temp: 60 °C
First Layer printing speed: 20.0 mm/s
First layer acceleration: 500.0 mm/s^2
No first-layer fan (or any cooling at any point)

I've tried:

Increasing initial Z-offset; this doesn't work since it will affect my bed adhesion to the point the print will pop off
Adjusting extrusion gear tension; will start skipping on retraction/no-luck

After the first couple of imperfect layers get ironed over, the upper layers will not have any extrusion problems, or whatever this is, and are basically fine.

This has been asked before, but I can't find the question. I think the nozzle is too close to the bed. Will try to find it!

Yeah this is it, it's strange because I'd never seen an extrusion pattern like this. Anyways after opting for higher rather than lower and swapping to a glass bed so it would be flatter I was more easily able to get this tuned in. If you want to write/link to the other answer as an answer I would be willing to accept it as correct. Thanks.

I can't find the other question, but know it exists. Please write your own answer and accept it after 48 hours. We can always mark it later as a duplicate when i have found the question. It is good to have duplicates because this issue is hard to capture in a question title and key words.

Solved, the nozzle was set too low and was causing pressure buildup at certain points since the PEI plate wasn't perfectly flat.
After raising it and swapping for a glass bed I was able to stop this behavior.
Note: While this helped this issue a little bit, it was also making adhesion really poor on faster prints. A better fix I found was that I recently swapped filament spools, it looks like the average spool thickness was greater than the previous one, and after reducing the flow 5 %. I was able to eliminate this problem entirely, thanks to the question What is causing 'droplets' on first layer?


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FDM metal printing - is it possible?
Can someone shed some light in why FDM (Fuse Deposition Modelling) is not possible with metals?
Has anyone attempted any experiments with it?

welding wouldnt have a consistent layer deposition as other posters have tried to joke about. It would be good to hear from more experienced people about the challenges of metal FDM printing, and especially without an arc

I removed some of the superflous tags that have nothing to do with the actual core question here.

Although I did post an answer, did you attempt to research? https://i.stack.imgur.com/xhrNW.png

This looks like a posibility: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-scientists-material-plastic-metal.html

Yes, it is possible and it's done all the time. It's more commonly known as welding.
We did TIG welding on our Hyrel printers back in 2017.

Note: I work for Hyrel.

There are also (possibly experimental one-off) CNC type wire feed welders, commonly known as MIG welding, that are akin to a 3D printer.

@fred_dot_u MIG welding is industry classic, though automation is somewhat in its baby shoes.

Is that really a TIG (with a modification that feeds the filler along the axis next to the tungsten tip) or a MIG that uses the wire as an electrode?

Our chief engineer told me it's a TIG. I wouldn't know one from the other, personally.

I am not an expert myself, and only know that MIG feeds its electrode as filler, while TIG has a permanent electrode - and might work without an electrode melting the stock on both sides of the stock. The two are very similar in construction and even look similar, so I guess your engineer is right.

Robots have been welding for decades, but they don't build objects from scratch with welds as far as I know

@Kilisi  https://wonderfulengineering.com/worlds-largest-3d-printed-steel-bridge-made-welding-robots-6-months/

In Polish language, we have this word "napawanie". Literal translation would be "welding on", in contrast to regular welding. And yes, it is sometimes used to build 3d metal shapes from scratch by hand by our artist welders. Don't know if it was ever done in computer controlled manner.

First of all, it is possible in multiple ways:
Computer-controlled-Welding
The most akin to FDM is using an automated MIG-welder, building up weld beads upon weld beads using an arc to melt the metal and keeping the puddle in position by carefully low speeds and coordinated movements. With a little ingenuity, even a TIG could be used, if you manage to feed the filler rod.
Converting a MIG is possible even on a hobbyist scale, as this hackaday 2021 article shows. However, research into something like that is in research since at least 2018, and Hyrel experimented with a TIG setup in 2017.
The items created this way have a rather rough surface, yet they do have upsides: The created metal is easily machineable and can reduce a lot of waste. It might not beat machining from bar stock at the moment, but it can beat steel casting in price, though not in quality. However, automated welding also has the chance to have defects. In some applications, it is used industrially, for example, to manufacture specialized stock for machining with minimal waste or from a special material.
Oh, and it is even rather simple to repurpose 3D welding robots to 3D Weld a gap closed bead to bead, akin to how you'd 3D print in FDM.
Metal Filaments: BMD
There are filaments that contain about 80% of metal powder. These highly abrasive filaments contain a binder that is thermoplastic. You can print on a somewhat modified machine with those. That's called BMD - Bound Metal Deposition. This method is industrial by 2022, and often post-processes the part to remove the binder.
Usually, this post-processing is done in a kiln or sintering oven, melting or cross bonding the metal between layers more than with the plastic binder, and simultaneously at times burning out the binder. This technique exist since at least 2018, as this answer shows.

I concede.  You have a better answer although I will keep mine here.  I think this method could be greatly improved by shaping the electric field for better control of the deposition.  Heliarc, which actually uses argon, could be used when the metal requires.

@PerryWebb nothing wrong with your answer, and it is a good primer about the idea - and it discusses points I don't mention (by design, because I don't want to discuss MIG/TIG too deep)

For many metals you would need to run the hotend around 1000 °C.  Aluminum melts at a lower temperature but needs to be in an inert atmosphere, such as argon.  Solder melts at the right temperature, but tends to stick to most metal nozzles.  It would start dissolving a brass nozzle thus enlarging the nozzle opening.  Lockheed has a titanium alloy printer that melts powder with a laser.  I would assume they need an inert atmosphere since titanium reacts with nitrogen as well as oxygen.

I am actually interested if it is possible to melt titanium and slowly push it through 0.1 mm hole to get a constant stream of molten metal.
Assuming I can get enough temperature to build a small titanium pool.

Pure titanium has a melting point of 1668 °C https://www.webelements.com/titanium/

nah, you don't run the hotend at all at that temperature, you use an electric arc of that temperature and have no classic nozzle at all. you go the MIG route.

@Trish thus you are still running the hotend at that temperature.  You just changed the geometry and ditched the nozzle.  You are mentioning methods to greatly increase the temperature gradient.  .

true true. the argon stream in MIG or TIG keeps the actual nose (cup?) cool enough.

It is completely possible, there are 3d FDM printers that could do that with the Ultrafuse 316L. You could print filament that has metal in it, you just need a special nozzle for that. The pure metal-printing printers use an industrial heater/extruder that can reach up to 230 °C.

Printing with metal clay or, as you suggest, metal-doped polymer is not the same as printing with metal.

I have tried some stuff. It depends what problem you're trying to solve.
You can get metal infused filaments, both aluminium and copper infused filaments print fine. But since there's plastic as well you don't get the nice properties like conductivity.
If you just want some of the properties then electrolysis might be the better choice of technology.
If you want robust parts then as far as I know the traditional methods are the best as the metals properties are constant or controlled.
Something like cnc welding layers on layers wouldn't make sense in terms of cost and predictability I would think. You'd need too much heat and it's unlikely to be as strong as traditional metal forming. It has been used for a long time to spot weld, but not build up layers as far as I know.

CNC MIG welding and milling is cheaper than casting steel.

@Trish how do you work that out? I can cast steel in my backyard if I want with wood that grows on trees... but you'd need a CNC mill, cnc tig welder, software, and other infrastructure.... none of which grow on trees.

Casting properly functional steel for structural parts for industrial functions is hard, and requires oxygen as well as skin-cooking temperatures. Steel, not aluminium or even iron. Using weld bead to build up missing material on a broken part (e.g. welding over a hole or filling a gap) is a classic fabrication method. The main problem with casting steel is the mold. If you can cast proper steel in your backyard, I'd like to have your backyard kiln - because the best I manage is liquid iron.

@Trish no special kiln need, just a fan to force airflow... steel is just the addition of some carbon... I'm familiar with filling holes and building up welds... lots of post processing. It has it's uses but I wouldn't build anything from scratch with just welds.

nothing larger than about 5x5x5 cm I'd say at the current tech

@Trish no idea, I wouldn't attempt it, just weld plate steel together or something instead


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Is a thermoplastic's glass state relevant for 3D printing extrusion?
From my understanding of FFF 3D printing, the glass state is usually used to heat the bed for better first layer adhesion. Other than that, does the extruder keep ex:PLA in a glass state for any reason?
Is the transition of the filament straight from solid to liquid for extrusion without any real regard for the glass state?

Note that the extruder feeds filament it doesn't heat anything, you don't want heat in the extruder. The hot end is the part that adds heat well over the glass temperature.
The glass transition temperature, the temperature where the material transitions from a brittle "glassy" state into a viscous or rubbery state, is always lower than the melting temperature. This temperature is of importance for adhesion to the bed; in a rubbery state the stresses are much lower than in a brittle state.

Is a thermoplastic's glass state relevant for 3D printing extrusion?

No, the glass transition temperature is not directly important for the extrusion, the extrusion temperature (where the filament is fluid enough for deposition and adhesion) is much higher than the glass temperature.

Yes, the glass transition temperature may play a role in the hot end in case of heat creeping up the cold end (usually some kind of radiator or heat dissipating element; usually connected through the heat-break), but not necessarily in melting the filament for extrusion. Heat creeping up with excessive retraction may cause filament to (partially or fully) clog and as such influence the extrusion.

The transition from solid to liquid is the important part.
The bed is heated for adhesion and kept heated for the same reason, but the extruder is a lot hotter and just performs the task of solid to liquid, the fans and ambient temperature cool it to solid.
Once a layer is solid it will heat up again when the next layer goes on it both from heat radiating from the nozzle and the liquid plastic going on it. This should give better layer adhesion.


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Activating Conan run environment and running CuraEngine from command line
I apologize first if this is a super basic question to most, I am currently a computer science student in my last semester before an Associate's degree with little knowledge of the command line and Python download environments. I also primarily work with Java but have an internship using Python.
I have written a program that is able to take a G-code file and convert it into an SBP file with a Python script through a click of a button within a GUI. I have now been tasked with taking in an STL file and using a slicer (Cura) to convert that file into G-code.
I am currently trying to get the CuraEngine (without Cura) to work via the command line in order to use the subprocess library within Python to do all of these conversions within my personal GUI. However, the wiki on downloading CuraEngine isn't helping much.
I have been able to achieve installing and building the CuraEngine release, but cannot activate the Conan run environment through the walkthrough of the wiki.
I am getting the error that the pathway (\build\generators\conanrun.sh) is not a recognized internal/external command, operable program, or batch file. When looking up the files within the generators folder, the conanrun file is actually an extension of .bat (conanrun.bat).
So a few questions I have:

What do I do to get the CuraEngine running on the command line at this point?
Would it be easier to just download/run the entire Cura application through the source? I've noticed a lot of others have done that, but I don't want the GUI that goes along with it. I've also had trouble downloading the Cura application from the command line, with ERROR: pynest2d/5.3.0-alpha+testing_0@ultimaker/testing: Error in generate() method showing up in the install.
As an extension of the above question, it seems the build instructions for CuraEngine have had a lot of complaints from others. As a result, is there a better way to get a slicer engine to work through a self-made GUI?

Also, I did post this question on StackOverflow.com and community.ultimaker.com as well, in case you run into it there.

I am unsure if this question is a good fit for this site, It may be a better fit to Stack Overflow or Super User.
However, your path of \build\generators\conanrun.sh does not appear to include a . at the start, which is needed for relative paths like this. (The error produced also eludes to this missing dot)

@craftxbox: Insomuch as it's needed to build and run CuraEngine from source, which is a task you might do for 3D printing and to experiment with changes to slicing for 3D printing, I think it's well on-topic.

As far as I can tell, conanrun.sh is something you should not have to do. Just run the CuraEngine binary directly. If that doesn't work, update your question with what went wrong and I can expand on this answer.
To get into the nitty details, it appears the point of conanrun.sh is to setup library paths to find the libraries Conan (a really awful, unconventional C++ Language Package Manager the Ultimaker folks have adopted) built itself and linked CuraEngine against, since they're not present in system-wide paths. However at least on Windows, I would expect any needed DLLs to be automatically found in the same directory as the executable, and on Linux, etc., sourcing a script to override library paths like this will break anything else run from the same shell environment (!!) - it's not the right thing to do. Unfortunately, Conan has made it really difficult to build CuraEngine right (see my bug report 12941) but on Windows it's probably not that bad.


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Seams of print are underextruded causing large pits/gaps? (Prusa Mk3+, Prusa Slicer)
The seams on my print are much larger than they were a few months ago and I'm not sure what's going on or how to fix it.
Pic with seams random:

With aligned seams:

I'm using the 0.2 mm QUALITY profile with the following adjustments:

200 °C temp
Perimeters lower speed (25 mm/s inner, 15 mm/s outer; prevents small overhang warping, faster speeds don't really ease the issue anyway)
First layer speed slow (10 mm/s)
Retraction Z lift 0.2 mm (default 0.4 mm; helps stringing)
Using Jessie PLA (Printed solid)
Filament is dry, fresh out the dehydrator

My full slicer settings found here.
I've tried lowering the retraction speed, increasing it, increasing the detraction speed to 2x, raising temp, and calibration of the linear advance according to the calibration test print on Prusa's website.
What I can do to make gaps smaller?

do you have a Prusa made i3?

I ask, because direct drive has differences from bowden style. Also, we'd need retraction length.

@Trish Yes, I posted the printer model in the title along with the tag. My full settings I linked in the post which contains the retraction length.

I was able to more or less solve it by using the "extra length on restart" property set to 0.1 mm. Sort of "primes" the filament after a retraction by moving it forward a bit.
To lesser effect I reduced retraction distance from 0.8 to 0.5, lowered retraction speed from 35 to 10, and upped detraction speed from 35 to 50.

Left object is with new settings, right object is original issue.


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Prusa i3 MK8 can't achieve required temperature
I've just installed a new 12 V hotend for my Prusa i3 MK8. So, now the new hotend can't achieve temperatures above 190-200 °C and it takes about 30 minutes to achieve 200 °C. The thermistor and heating element both touch the hotend securely. The heating element gets 12 V all the time. PID changes don't seem to affect anything. Can it be fixed or do I have to change the hotend?

If the MK8 is a typographical error and should be MK3. Prusa MK3 printers are 24v. Confusing the issue is that you've noted you measured 12v (?) which implies it's a different model than a MK3.

Have you installed a 24V heater cartridge into a 12V printer? That will turn a 40W heater into a 10W heater,


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Green residues are present on all my prints, and the adhesion is pretty bad
It has been three weeks since I first tried to solve this problem. Here's the video. I cleaned the hotend yesterday, as it was fully clogged and full of plastic.
My heatsink seems to be attached good. I didn't touch it even once since I bought my Ender 3 Pro.

Please [edit] your question to add more information and some relevant photos, don’t link to external content. Furthermore, the video doesn’t add anything to your question. As it stands now it will most probably be closed by the community.

When cleaning the nozzle/block did the top of the heater block have filament build up? something like this? Leeky heat break If yes, then this should be of help to you: What causes leaking between the heat break and the heat block?

My heatsink seems to be attached good. I didn't touch it even once since I bought my ender 3 pro

If you put the video on YouTube (rather than imgur) then it can be embedded into your question. However, a photo of the issue would be useful as well as some additional textual information. Clearly you are frustrated with the issue, but the more information that you can provide the more likely that someone will be able to help you (as the less likely that it will be closed). Also, please add additional information in your question and not in the comments (I have added your comment to your question for you, this time).


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Can inserting a shim fix a misaligned nozzle assembly on an Ender 3 S1 Plus?
I recently purchased an Ender 3 S1 Plus. Printed off the benchy, went great, tried a more complex print with a 0.16 mm height, and it looks wonderful. However, when I tried to print something a bit taller (~200 mm), the nozzle assembly (I believe the fan is the culprit) started catching on the print and in one instance got stuck and burned in a small divot.
I've leveled the X-gantry to the bed and checked the assembly angle. It still appears to be off, and I'm wondering if I should insert a shim where it screws in, to fix the angle.

It is close, but overall higher positioned than the nozzle, it should not catch on your print at all. Can you print a cylinder of the same height to reproduce the problem? You may take some pictures of that.

Hey Oscar,  I added a picture of the piece that was catching the most.  There would occasionally be a very loud POP as it went over the tree support.  it only really happened towards the left side of the print.
I believe the issue is that the mounting bracket itself is bent.  If i could somehow get that back into alignment, the whole issue would be solved.

The back left is the problem, somehow it accumulated a chunk of molten filament, could indicate that retraction is a bit under par.

Thanks again for the comment.  I'm trying my best to see any chunks of filament but i seem to be missing it.  the print was catching on everything from the middle of the print to the left.  At times I could hear the sound of it moving over the infill like a bicycle with cards in the spokes.


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FlashForge Creator Pro 3 - tlumping together
I am trying to do 48 4 mm wide cylinders at a time 5-25 mm apart and after the first few layers are put down they all get caught up together and the machine goes around collecting them all into 1 giant ball of filament.  Any ideas?  I set the nozzle temperature to 215 °C and the platform to 65 °C.

You need to list info like what type of material you are printing, what print speed, speed for non-printing movements, etc.

Hello, welcome to 3DPrinting.SE! 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 --> afterwards. This will turn it visible and help us help you find the actual problem. Also add a photo of the first layer when the nozzle hasn't picked up any of the other objects, it might indicate a lack of adhesion or an extrusion problem. You also might want to avoid crossing previously printed areas.

Is tlumping a word?


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Cura UI slice progress bar read data from CuraEngine
I have a simple browser based interface that uses php's exec function to run CuraEngine on an stl file that a client uploads. It is based on the source code provided by Jesse Campbell in his 3dpartprice.com site.  I am looking for a way to make a progress bar of the slicing process. Does CuraEngine output data about the slice progress? The Cura app with a GUI has a progress bar that updates while the model is being sliced. What data is driving this progress bar? Any suggestions of different approaches to get a progress bar from CuraEngine's slicing process?

CuraEngine transfer the progress and slice data with the help of the C++ library libArcus which is a wrapper around the Google Protobuf library.
The Python binding for libArcus are pyArcus.
If you want to send messages to CuraEngine with Arcus check how it is done in the CuraEngineBackend plugin on the Cura side and the communication source code for the CuraEngine side.
But please take note of the CuraEngine, libArcus, and pyArcus licenses these also apply when using them in a cloud slicer.


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How to solve broken FEP
I have a Creality LD-006 resin printer and my FEP breaks very often. When I'm printing I heard a hard "tac¨" (it's because the cured resin is taking of the FEP when the printing bed goes up).
I'm using a Creality standard resin white with 2.7 exposure time.
This is how my FEP breaks (I replaced the FEP (it was original) and made maybe 2 or 3 prints and it broke).

Could it be that I'm printing a lot of small pieces at once?
I have a smaller printer (Creality Halot-One) and I made more prints and I never have this type of problem. Maybe I can't print small pieces in a big printer?

Note for other readers: A 'hard tac" is a French onomatopoeia for a "loud cracking sound"

Thanks for the edit. Just to clarify, the FEP is a film (not a filament)? The exposure time is in what unit of time, seconds, minutes? Presumably seconds?

FEPs are consumables
Once an FEP film on the foil has developed cracking, it's a lost cause and has to be replaced in due time - repair to pre-damage conditions is impossible even if you manufacture them.
You can try to avoid the affected areas and eek a few more prints out of the film, but the damage will spread and make the film unusable in the longer term.
Damage to FEP can occur due to bad resin
If your resin contains any chunks due to print failure, those can result in damage of the FEP.
Bad Placement and high speed can damage FEPS
Another reason can be too pointed pressure, which happens for example if the only spot is pulling up very high, and then suddenly releases.
The position of the printed objects can be as much the factor in this case as the size or geometry of the release area.
The more controllable factors that play into this are the lifting speed and height of the bed. It takes some non-zero amount of time for the film to release the model. During this time the film adheres to the model, and can be simulated as a spring. The force of a spring is dependent on a constant and its elongation: $F=k \times \Delta d(t) $. Our foil would have a variable factor $k$, dependent on the coordinate in the vat. However, for us, the elongation at the moment t $\Delta d(t)$ is relevant. By lifting faster and higher, the film is experiencing more elongation (stretch) and a sharper release from the model happens. Higher stress means damage to the film.

If the lifting speed is quite fast could this lead to this types of problems rigth?

it might... indeed, lower lifting speed might reduce the stress as forces should be lower...


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Bad print quality starting second layer
I have an Ender 3 Pro modded with the Hero Me Gen 6 air ducts, installed a Creality 4.2.7 mainboard, and updated Marlin firmware to the latest for now 2.1.1 version. I'm printing with PLA only.
It was printing well enough. The nozzle started to wear down so I replaced the nozzle (standard brass one) but also upgraded the heatbreak to a bi-metal one (not all-metal, there is still a plastic tube inside the heatbreak) and a heatblock (standard goldish Creality block). And since that moment, the printer fails to print with good quality starting the second layer
What I tried:

recalibrated it with a gauge of 0.2 mm and the first layer is perfect (did not know that could be a thing :))
updated firmware
tried to tighten screws (as it is recommended here)
adjusted Z-axis steps/mm
another filament

I can't figure out what causes that thing.

edited 2022-10-25 23:41
I think it is overextrusion. I tried reprinting object. The first layer was perfect, but second was poor again. There was no difference with cooling or without, no difference printing slower. But flow rate did matter:

100% flow rate
changed to 85% flow rate
changed to 75% flow rate
changed to 100% flow rate
changed to 75% flow rate

Maybe it is prusa slicer doing its thing. I will try Cura. The only thing that bothers me is that diagonal scratch - that is from the nozzle which makes me think it is too low for the second layer

edited 2022-10-28 15:53
It's not a slicer thing. I sliced object with Cura and got pretty much the same result. I babystepped z-axis during the print to get nice result. So I think it is either z-axis motor not stepping enough or I need to lower extrusion multiplier in slicer. I will print calibration cube to check if z-axis motor steps up enough
edited 2022-10-28 18:34
Printed calibration cube. Turns out my z-axis steps were off. Model was 19.66mm instead of 20mm. I tuned steps to 407 from 400. That helped a bit (model is 20.02mm now) , but still the same ugly overextruded result. Tried to lower extrusion multiplier to 0.8 and still got the same bad result
edited 2022-10-30 22:11
It is neither nozzle nor heatbreak tube. I checked it using my old hardware. Maybe it is somehow connected to firmware... Or E-steps are off while printing

Could you explain better what is meant with the 0.2 mm gauge? If that is the initial gap between bed and nozzle for printer Z = 0, then it might be too large. It looks as if the second layer sometimes underextrudes, at the same position of previous lines, but worsening... Strange.

I have a metal plate that is exactly 0.2mm thick. I'm using it to precisely level the bed of a printer. Angus from makers muse uses the same kind of metal plate.

It doesn't look like underextrusion for me but more like overextrusion. I thought z axis is not rising heigh enough

Print something of fixed height, e.g. a calibration cube, you can measure the size.

"I tuned steps to 407 from 400" <-- this is absolutely wrong. If your cube height comes out wrong, it means your bed level is wrong. The nozzle is too close to the bed by quite a bit. The lead screw is not wrong. Never adjust steps-per-mm on X/Y/Z, only E.

Have you altered E-steps from the default value? It looks like you just have extreme overextrusion.

Yes, I tuned E-steps a bit. it is 97.5 now. I believe it is 100 by default. Checked with a ruller. A 100mm of filament is exactly 100mm now. Why do you think it is wrong bed level? I thought calibration cube shows how accurate your steps are. I do also think it is overextrusion but cant figure out why. My guess for now is something wrong with nozzle (maybe it is not exactly 0.4 and too much plastic comes out)

I would go back to the brass nozzle and try again for comparison.
We had a batch of 10 cheap steel nozzles all of which caused problems.

I just changed my cheap steel nozzle to a brass one :-)

I think the answer is printing temperature. This shiny PLA I'm using is Eryone Silk PLA. Although the working temperature is stated as 190-220 °C, my 205 °C was too much for it. A temperature of 190-195 °C produces good results though not as shiny anymore. It is three layers printed on the sample below with no problems.


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Is there a good source for connectors and crimping tools needed for the individual wires?
When I am trying to wire things in my printer I always have trouble finding a list of all the connector types and what is needed to properly crimp them. I don't see it in the pin out for the board or anything.
Is there a good source for information about which connectors to use given a board?
I am looking for something like a list with pictures.

This is a pretty generic question which might be better of in EE.SE. If you would post your board and ask for which connectors are used it is much more fit for 3DPrinting.SE.

Skr mini e3 v3 I guess I mainly struggle with like the difference between when is a Dupont ok to use in a jst wtf is the BL touch one etc

Also apparently some crimping tools are wider than others?


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Print thread is non-uniform
I am finally unable to reach adequate printing with my Creality 3D. This is how it prints a raft

As you see, thread is non-uniform.
What can be a reason?
Printing setup:

Nozzle is brass, 0.4 width, new from Amazon

Filament is PLA

Nozzle temperature is 220, bed temperature is 60.

I am using autolevelling with BLTouch

For PLA you don't need a raft, that is used for high temperature materials that shrink considerably. 220 °C for PLA is also on the high side unless you print fast, print without raft at 200 °C and see what happens. If this works we can answer the question.

@0scar: It looks like OP's underlying problem is not that they have a raft but significant extrusion problems. Raft may have been an attempt to solve the failed bed adhesion that resulted from extrusion not working right

When you use "thread", do you mean extrusion width?

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE Indeed, and without the raft it is easier to see what the problems are.

if you found the problem, please paste it as an answer to this question and draw the followup to a new question. Defective boards happen occasionally - if this is a new printer, write to your seller that the board seems defective and you would like replacement. Otherwise, a boardswap is relatively easy.

I found a problem: it is with extruder motor driver.
I tried to control the extruder with the knob and saw it that rotates with strange sounds and jerkily. Then I connect extruder cable to the socket of Z-axis on motherboard and also tried to control it with the knob. This time I found it rotates smoothly.
I.e. motor is good, cable is good, motherboard 4th driver is not good.


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How can you print Prusa MMU2S at home?
I want to buy my first FDM printer, to print household items and wearable gadgets too big for my LCD resin one. Due to financing & tax reasons, what I'll buy now is what I will have for at least a year.
I was thinking about Prusa i3 MK3S+, and MMU2S looks really interesting and useful, especially to print water soluble supports. However, after reading reviews I hardly can justify buying it.
I have some technical experience, can make some things and once even built a 3 axis stepper motor system from scratch, and it worked. I have a resin LCD printer and have printed working parts. I still have NEMA17 motors, 4 of them.
Assuming I'll get Prusa i3 MK3S+, what else would I need to print and assemble MMU2S? Is there an official Bill Of Materials? Blueprints? STL files?

The MMU2S
The main setup of the MMU2S is one motor to choose which material is extruded, another to cut filament and move the coupler tube to the actual extruder. Then there are bearings, springs, screws, some rods, and a special chip.
The materials needed can be reconstructed from the Assembly instructions. Or you check out the help page here. It has:

Printable parts
spare part listing - which can be your guidance in purchasing some parts and used to order specialized hardware
Firmware
Hardware
aforementioned assembly instructions.

The MMU2S is quite a bit to put together, almost as long as the MK3S+ itself and the general consensus from a lot of the community is negative results for quite a lot of money. There are other options to try such as the Enraged Rabbit Carrot Feeder which is popular in the Voron community. Though there may be talks of not needing a wipe tower, the ERCF still needs one for non-voron machines, some the MMU2S has kinda fix with its wipe in setting in PS which allows for the change color to be wiped into the infill which will never be seen.
I don't want to say don't get the MMU2S but I'll definitely say even with a lot of skill its a very finicky add-on that many have claimed has stopped them from printing with it. Another notable option would be the Mosaic Palette 3 but the price tag is just about as much as a MK3S+ itself.

A more affordable solution is the SMuFF, it  uses a simple 32-bit controller board, 2 NEMA 17 steppers, some optical end stops and a couple of sets of dual gear extruder gears (up to 12 colors, the default I also use is 5). Furthermore you need some screws and some rods. All printable parts are available from the Github page and there is a 178 page manual.
A word on soluble supports, I've printed PVA on Ultimaker printers, but it is tricky, it will clog easily. You would need a filament dryer, it needs to be dried before printing.

Nice, but can one just buy the electronics for it? I'm not sure if I want to solder all this from zero :) But sure this looks good

You don't need to solder a lot, e.g. you don't need to use the cutter. Electronics are cheaper than MMU boards. Consider if you really need to print in multiple colors or want to attempt using PVA (the filament isn't cheap) and my personal experience with it caused me not to use it anymore even not on Ultimaker printers.


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Why does a raft reduce / limit build volume?
I am using Cura 4.13.1 as a slicer for my Ender 3 v2 printer.
I want to print a model which I scaled to 400 %. To improve bed adhesion I wanted to add a default raft (Extra Margin = 15 mm). Unfortunately, Cura is not able to slice the model despite being still within the printer's build volume (400 % = 190x200x200 mm). I have to reduce the scaling to 365 %  (= 171x183x180 mmm) to fit the slicing.
As a workaround for printing the 400 % size, I will try to use a small support structure for better bed adhesion but I would prefer a raft.
Edit: Sorry for leaving out the info about the models form. I get the 220+raft limitation but my model is tapered downwards:

So the raft actually fits the printers/slicers default limit.
Does it really not matter and cura simply adds the raft size to models max X and Y values?

15 mm of raft margin should really not be needed. Reducing that might help it fit.

The raft still needs to fit on the bed, and it counts as a print, because, it is printed. You want the raft for better adhesion, so that means that you need more contact with the bed. If you’re not, your basically wasting filament. Its kinda logical actually.

Thank you but I forget some info. See the edited question please.

Adjusted model Dimensions
The model has the size determined by the base area of the bounding box, in this case, $\pu{190 \times 200 mm }$. The raft as told by OP adds 15mm on all sides of the model, and thus adds 30 mm in total on both the X and Y dimensions. This gets us a bounding box floor area of $\pu{220 \times 230 mm}$.
The model's bounding box has a height of $\pu{200 mm}$. Add to that the thickness of the raft. This is not mentioned, but in the worst case, this is about 3 mm, and so you get $\pu{203 mm}$ as the maximum. Our model's Bounding Box thus is $\pu{220\times 230\times 203 mm}$
The smaller scale model ($\pu{171 \times 183 \times 180 mm}$) results in an adjusted area of $\pu{201 \times 213 \times 183 mm}$.
Printer dimensions
The standard Creality Ender3 v2 is set up with a build volume of ($\pu{220\times 220\times 250 mm}$) As your base area is 230 mm in one dimension, it just can't fit. The slightly scaled item is just under that dimension and thus fits.
Solutions
With a firmware update, the printer can be told to use all of the bed, and then Cura's printer settings can be adjusted accordingly.
Sometimes, but not in this case, rotating the model can result in a model that doesn't fit in normal orientation to fit: A line of 240 mm doesn't fit along the X or Y axis, but easily along the diagonal of the printer. In fact, it is enough to turn the model by about 23.3° and the line fits:

What? Did Creality actually go and break the stock firmware to only allow 220 mm of motion?? The bed is 235 and I don't recall my original Ender 3 having any limits on use of the full build area in the stock firmware back then. Or is this just a bad Cura profile limiting it?

Thank you but I forget some info. See the edited question please.

@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE it is set to 220 in the firmware stock. It's however rather easy to change... if you want.


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How to optimize the travel path
This model is essentially a cylinder. However, about mid-way, I break up the cylinder wall into multiple segments, while pretty much keeping to the general shape of a cylinder. Two segments per 90-degree section.
Cura has left one quadrant essentially alone. However, in the other three, it prints a segment, travels to a new quadrant, repeats until the layer is complete. The optimal path would be: print the center strip, print the perimeter, move a couple of millimeters, and repeat 8x. Essentially walking around the cylinder wall of each layer.
Are there any programs to help with this? My Google-Fu isn't the best. My searches resulted in Cura travel settings, where I already modified a few settings and can't find any that change the travel path.
Aside from a reduction in print time, the areas where the travel occurs leaves some artifacts I'd rather not have. I reduced my travel speed and increased my retraction. Instead of "sticks", I have bumps, like a mini-seam. ("Sticks" - Literally short segments of filament stuck to the cylinder wall, not hairs.)
I guess there are two routes to improving the quality here: travel / other settings. I'm essentially "blaming" travel on my problems and hence focused on it.
What I consider standard quality:

What I'm trying to avoid:

Printer: Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro - 0.5 Steel
Filament: HIPS
Nozzle temp: 265 °C
Bed temp: 110 °C
Slicer: Cura 5.2.1
Layer Height: 0.3 mm
Inner / Outer Walls: 0.75 mm | 0.7 mm (> 0.7 yields unaligned seam?)
Inner / Outer wall speed: 55 mm/s | 45 mm/s
Retraction: 1 mm | 45 mm/s
Travel speed: 200 mm/s


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Installing Creality CR6 SE Community firmware
I want to know how simple is it to install CR6Community firmware
https://github.com/CR6Community/Marlin/releases
I do not want to make low-level modifications for it.  And also I want to know how simple is it to get back to official firmware?
I want to update because I came to know it has better calibration options and also I'm having issue with Z Axes that does not remember its position.

If you can reformat a (micro)-SD-card on a Windows PC (there are built-in system tools) and copy files to it, then you have enough skills.
Going back to the stock firmware is as easy as copying the files to an SD-card and having it inserted to the printer while it starts up.
After that you have to reflash the display, but this is similar to flashing the printer, as you have to copy files on a micro-SD-card and unscrew the back of the display to get to the card-slot on the back of the display-control-board.


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How do I avoid straight lines for walls in Cura?
I need to print a thin piece.
Theoretically, it could work, but Cura prints the walls as single lines.
In my case, it is just this line that breaks apart as you can see here.
Is there a setting that would instruct Cura to avoid creating such a line as the outer wall, or how else could I resolve this problem?

Printer: Kobra Max
Material: PETG / PLA
Temperature: 250 °C / 65 °C

Speeds:

Print speed: 80 mm/s
Outer Wall Speed: 45 mm/s
Inner Wall Speed: 80 mm/s
Top/Bottom Speed: 45 mm/s
Travel Speed: 100 mm/s
Initial layer speed 45 mm/s
Travel retraction speed: 40 mm/s

@0scar Your solution worked absolutely brilliantly for me!! Thank you! Print speed: 80, Outer Wall Speed: 45, Inner Wall Speed: 80, Top/Bottom Speed: 45, Travel Speed: 100, Initial layer speed 45, Travel retraction speed: 40.

Note that PETG doesn't like to be printed fast, this may also cause issues. My premium brand I use limits to 50 mm/s, 80 might be on the high side!

Outer wall perimeters are printed as continuous lines, unless the geometry determines otherwise.
Your print faces an overhang situation in which it is prone to print walls from the inside out as where it sticking the wall lines together.
Default behavior is printing the outer wall first and traversing inwards, in overhang situations this isn't ideal so that you may want to print the wall perimeters inside out as if you stick the newly deposited perimeter to the latter.
Generally, printing outer perimeter first will give the print better dimensional precision, but, may cause problems in overhang situations where there is limited area to "stitch" your perimeter to, hence the poor adhesion you experience.
A solution is to print inside perimeters first and work outwards, in Cura, there is an option for called Wall ordering to change the order of perimeter printing.

After updating your question with the print speeds, another possibility that came to mind is that you are extruding too fast for PETG for your setup (extruder and nozzle assembly). Not all extruders can process PETG fast enough or nozzle assemblies cannot heat fast enough causing the nozzle to under-extrude. I've seen this happen on my own printers. Please note that the premium brand I use, limits extrusion to 50 mm/s, 80 mm/s might be on the high side for your setup. It isn't that PETG cannot be extruded fast, it is merely that not all extruders and nozzles are capable of doing so (especially the lower end of the 3D printer market). So even that you now can stick perimeter from changing the order, under-extrusion might prevent from a good adhesion.

I'm pretty sure your core problem is underextrusion from printing PETG faster than your extrusion system can actually keep up with. Unless you've cranked up the acceleration, long straight lines are the only place in a print where the actual print speed will reach cruise at the requested speed; otherwise, all the time is spent speeding up towards that requested speed, then slowing back down for the next turn before reaching it.
If you have a single-flat-filament-gear, no-reduction-gearing, bowden extruder like the Ender 3 and most of these Ender 3 clones have, you'll be lucky to get reliable, consistent extrusion with PETG even at 50 mm/s (assuming 0.4 nozzle and 0.2 layer height). 80 mm/s is almost surely too much without upgrading your extruder.
Also, you didn't say anything about temperature, but low temperature will exacerbate this problem and lead to the failed layer bonding you're experiencing. Anything below 245°C is "very low" for PETG - despite what manufacturers recommendations may say. They write the recommendations low so that customers with PTFE-lined hotends (which can't safely go above 245-250) will buy their product, not because it actually works well at those temperatures.

Thank you! I have edited my post and added the values, and I will experiment with temperature and speed.


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Custom Marlin update for Ender 3 Pro results in Z minimum endstop for autohome and Z move in negative direction
Good  day, I bought an z axis extension kit for my ender 3 pro and therefore  needed  to update marlin by myself. I am using the sd card for firmware   flashing. OctoPrint is connected via usb. The BLTouch is v3.1, it is   connected via the 5 pin cable in the slot directly near the LCD slot in   the Motherboard. The Motherboard is 422.
The  problem describes as follows. My printer is not able to move down  on  the z axis. I can move it by z axis moving up but after leaving the   menu or directly reducing the z axis height it wont move down. It also shows in the main menu always z=0 for its position. The Autohome function correctly autohomes x and y axis until it tries to use the bltouch to move down. In this progress the BLTouch stows and deploys the little stick several times until it just stops with autohome shown on   the display or M112 Error.
Also I  am glad if someone might also have other suggestions for  better  configuration settings in those files if someone just sees them.
I can provide configuration.h configuration_adv.h and pins_creality_v4
Thank you for time and best regards.
configuration.h: https://pastebin.com/iA7kNGyZ
configuration_adv.h https://pastebin.com/j9JyfBp9
pins_Creality_V4.h: https://pastebin.com/0f0KPMf4
Problem solved. I was dumb and have over seen the  Z_MIN_PROBE_ENDSTOP  option. This fixed it for me


text:
What is the shaded area that appears around the outside of objects in Creality Slicer?
I'm using Creality Slicer, brims and other anti-warming or adhesion settings are all turned off. when I place an object on the bed a shaded area appears around it (See picture).

Is this simply the area in which you can't print anything else in sequential print mode due to the risk of the print head hitting it, or is there some other meaning?

At first I would’ve thought it was a skirt, but all your adhesion settings are off…

Creality Slicer is a derivate of Cura. As such, all standard Cura things apply.
Cura uses red surfaces to denote overhangs.
Your upper surface is denoted as an overhang, this indicates that your item has its surfaces at least partially "upside down". The model needs to be repaired, as such can result in the print solution being "That's to be a closed surface", ignoring the hole in the center. The problem isn't the slicer, it is the generation of the STL that messed up.
About inverted surfaces, see also: here, here and here
Boxes around items come from sequential printing
The box around parts is also usually created when you try to print multiple items in sequence and relates to the dimensions of your printhead. It pretty much marks the exclusion zone where you are not allowed to place the next item. Check if you have turned print order from all at once to in sequence and adjust as needed.

I picked a random STL to create a screen shot. This one is supposed to be "upside down" so that it can be printed without supports, I just needed something to import so that I could make a screen shot. It's set to In sequence by default, so this is most likely the exclusion zone.

@AaarghZombies yep, I prefer "all at once" for all but TPU

If you do "sequence" you can take the first one off the bed and start using it before the last one has finished. It's a real time saver if you're printing multiple components that need sanding or priming.

It is, but you can not use that with items above a relatively small height - If I print larger projects, the time saving for printing small parts in sequence is nigh neglectible.

The above item was simply the last thing I printed. It was a convenient example.


text:
How to save slicer profiles?
I've taken a bit of vacation and forgotten all the settings that I uncovered while tinkering with my printers.  Different settings for different printers for different materials.  I use Cura and PrusaSlicer, and they both behave more or less (randomly) the same.  Sometimes they save some things, most of the time they don't save the important stuff.  Neither slicer ever saves profiles, nor does it seem to have an option to, and they go weird if you change anything.
How are you supposed to save profiles?  Can I save them out to a file for later import when I need them?
I realize that both will probably have different ways to circumnavigate profiles, so I don't mind breaking it out into 2 questions if need be.
Me?  Oh I've just been hating profile saving for 12+0 years back when it was Slic3r.  At least with that software I could save them as a file and make sure that they were imported at the start of every single print.
An example of randomness: on this print on a large diameter printer, the infill speed was set to 4mm/s in Cura, making the print time 9 hours.  Once I fixed that, the print time was less than 2 hours.

Both Cura and PrusaSlicer save settings as comments in G-code files, so you should be able to recover settings form Gcode files, and save them as new profiles. I generally save projects along with G-code files, for extra security.


text:
Software workflow for merging a flat image and a STL?
I have a request to create a jigsaw puzzle based on a road layout, for a customised christmas gift.  Imagine a Secret Santa present.
The city in question is Dunedin, New Zealand, which is on the waterline and has surrounding hills.   I'd like to combine a download from  https://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/?DEM_name=JAXA%2FALOS%2FAW3D30%2FV2_2  (available in OBJ, STL Binary, STL ASCII, or GeoTIFF)  with an overlay like this in JPG/PNG.

Last step before printing would be to carve out individual jigsaw shapes for printing separately.
I imagine each road would be a slight "trench" or hollow in the STL's surface.  Clearly a filament swap would not work to paint the roads as they climb, so either coloured marker or a fine paintbrush  would be used, followed by clearcoat to preserve.
What software workflow would give a useful result?
I've looked at blender and freecad and tinkercad but nothing gives any result close to what I imagine but I haven't the experience.

A low-res STL at 6.7 Mbytes can be found at This Link

Importing the above STL into tinkercad returns this mess of triangles, not a solid shape.   https://www.tinkercad.com/things/6nAgsF3lykG-dunedin-stl-imported

The STL above displays perfectly with  fstl

But same STL fails with blender etc.

I am using Linux, but have access to a modern mac or an older windows 2008 host if necessary.

I suspect the STL is not "closed" which is leading to all manner of difficulties.
What would get me close to my desired print outcome?

Totally random thought, and nothing to do with a solution, but after seeing Fred's images, and the textures - making a 2D jigsaw out of a landscape might useful for blind people to put together. I'm not blind myself, but someone I knew was, and the thought just now popped into my head -  feeling the textures to make sure that the pieces lined up correctly. Anyway, like I said - just a random thought... :-)

I was not able to perform the download at your link. Instead, I visited the touch_terrain site and approximated the location. The modifications allow for a thicker base, which I selected to 4 mm arbitrarily, eliminating the non-closed (probably) as well as exaggerated the vertical scale to 4x.

The result is satisfying and appears to have a minor validation problem surrounding the perimeter of the base, but no problems with the terrain.
If adjusting the base thickness does not resolve the problem you experience, consider also to increase the overall size of the model and use the tiling function to segment as needed.
For the roadway application, you can create an SVG of the map at appropriate scale. Thin lines will be problematic, but the thicker lines can be boolean-subtracted from the STL file. It will be necessary to extrude the SVG to sufficient thickness to impact the terrain STL in order to create the trenches.
It might also be possible, but far more complex, to use a feature in Fusion 360 that overlays an extrusion onto a surface in a uniform manner. Angus from Maker's Muse has a video explaining the process, but it's a pair of primitives, not a complex terrain and may not apply.
With the permissions corrected, the file downloaded without complications. I note that the composition/analysis is in excess of 140K triangles (Meshmixer) and could create problems with some programs. Fusion 360 will either refuse to function or provide an alert.
I reduced the mesh using Meshmixer set to 70 percent, resulting in no apparent loss of detail, but fewer than 40K triangles. Tinkercad also dislikes high triangle count objects. The reduced file will be available for download for a limited time.

Image from released (reduced) STL file.

But wait, there's more. After some additional thought, with consideration for your constraints, I think I have a workable approach. I'm not sure how you'd approach this first step, though. I used Windows 3D Builder to repair the broken base. Meshmixer shows the flaw but does not repair it. I suspect other online repair facilities will resolve this simple problem. I could have tried Meshmixer (plane cut) and certainly Fusion 360's plane cut, but only thought of that as I type this addendum.
Once repaired, I saved your map image and traced it in a suitable program to create the SVG file. Both in Inkscape and in LightBurn (a laser editing/burning program), the tracing went well. LightBurn allowed me to confirm that the SVG generated had closed shapes, but Tinkercad would not import any variation I created. I used Inkscape's Path to OpenSCAD which previews fine the extrusion to 10 mm, but it would not render, complaining of non-closed shapes.

There are "speckles" all over the map, even though I enlarged it to 200% scale to reduce that aspect of the lines. I suspect this will be problematic and suggest to locate a better resource, to eliminate excessive detail in the map.
Once you have that solved and can extrude your map, scale and align it to match the terrain STL which has been repaired. Create a duplicate of the terrain, also properly aligned and elevate it. The object of this step is to use the terrain to carve away the extruded map. If the boolean subtract does not destroy the terrain, great, otherwise, lower the extruded map into the terrain to the desired depth and perform another subtract.
This should give you the channels you require for painting.

Doh sorry I never checked the file permisisons.  It works now.

The artifacts stem from the line being too thin or pixels not being fully filled I guess.


text:
Why is the pin, which is intended to control the BLTouch, marked "IN" on Creality board?
I bought a new 32-bit board for my old Creality printer, and now I am going to connect my old old BLTouch sensor to it. I got some instructions from the internet and found that it needs to be connected to the central pin on MoBo.

This pin is marked "IN" while its purpose is to control BLTouch effector, i.e. it should be "OUT", not "IN".
Why?

MB (new) version is 4.2.7
BLTouch version is 3.1

Because Creality.
There's a reference here with that exact same board that confirms the "IN" is used to control to servo: https://tutorial.cytron.io/2021/10/19/bltouch-installation-for-ender-3-with-32-bit-v4-2-2-board/

This is not from Creality? I saw this tutorial

Your board is not a Creality board?

I'm not convinced that this question "why..?" can be answered, unless one of the actual designers of the board posts an answer. Answers posted by anyone other than the design team will be (educated?) guesswork or supposition. It probably should be rephrased. That said, I am thinking of formulating an answer - basically the I/O pins were "randomly" named... IO1 and IO2 would have equally sufficed as names. The left IO pin (IN) is for the (servo?) motor, and the right IO pin (OUT) is for the switch (and is a surrogate for the Z-axis switch). I've found guides with differing connections.

Controller IO can be configured as input or output in firmware. All this stuff is a bit of a hack, so inconsistency across versions is not surprising; just be glad it works.

TL; DR - The pins are clearly named in reverse, and the IN pin is obviously an output and the OUT pin is obviously an input.
However, as to the why, it would be hard to guess, apart from the lazy deduction of either:

Sloppy design work, or;
Translation/language difficulties/barriers.

Without one of the board's designers posting an answer here, I guess we will never know for sure. A more generic labelling of both of the pins, such as IO1 and IO2, would have been better, and less confusing.
In addition, the guide, where the image that you posted comes from, seems to be rather poorly written and I would caution you against following it - see below for more details.

Notes
I may be wrong but the image that you show is presumably from this guide, Creality V4.2.2 & V4.2.7 Motherboard BL Touch Wiring Options, which shows two differing wiring suggestions (5 wire and 3+2 wire).
The 5 wire
A BLTouch with a 5 pin connector attaches to the 5 pin socket on the controller board:
original image

The 3+2 wire
A BLTouch with both a 3 pin and a 2 pin connector attaches to part of the 5 pin socket (the three left most pins, G, V and IN) and the Z-axis minimum endstop (Z-), respectively:
original image

Note: If the image is expanded and examined carefully, it can be seen that "IN" has actually been written on the diagram, just over the yellow wire - obviously this is just a blind repetition of the mis-labelled pin.
Deduction
Either the z-axis endstop or the right most two pins of the 5 pin connector (G and OUT) can be used to connect the BLTouch probe sensor.
The right most connector (OUT) is therefore equivalent to the endstop pin, and is (most probably) an active low input, using a pull-up resistor either on the board or internal to the MCU - even though it is labelled as OUT.
This leaves the remaining connector (the three left most pins) for the BLTouch motor/servo. Therefore, obviously, the IN pin is actually an output used to actuate the motor/servo.
Note: As dandavis points out in their comment, the IO pins of the MCU IC are configurable in the firmware, and so could be reconfigured as either inputs or outputs.
Alternative 3+2 wiring
The much more useful and detailed tutorial, BLTouch Installation for Ender 3 with 32-bit V4.2.2 Board (linked to by towe in their comment) shows a similar set of connections, except that the 5 pin plug is replaced by the dual 3+2 wire connector, with both plugs (the 3 pin and the 2 pin) connected to the 5 pin socket on the controller board (rather than having the 2 pin going to the Z-axis endstop connector, as shown in the previous guide):

Enhanced 3+2 diagram and wire swapping warning - 32-bit board only
A better diagram of the 3+2 wiring configuration is shown below:
(original image)

I found this diagram via the cautionary tale, Creality v4.2.2 board and BLtouch problem - board fried! on Reddit, which highlights the mismatch of the wiring of the various BLTouch probe/MoBo versions (the V and G pins may need to be swapped on the servo connector and must be verified before connecting and powering).
This mismatch, for the 32-bit board is also highlighted in BLTouch Installation for Ender 3 with 32-bit V4.2.2 Board, under the Swap the Wiring section:

This BLTouch Kit is meant for 8-bit and 32-bit board, however, the default wiring is for 8-bit (green) board with adapter (hack the buzzer pin for LCD). No swapping of wires is neccessary for 8-bit board.
For 32-bit board, we will need to do a minor adjustment to the wiring. This is a MUST step, as the swapped wires are VCC (+ve 5VDC) and GND (0V). If you do not swap the wires, you will damage the BLTouch and it is not under warranty.

(original image)

Firmware
For the sake of completion, and because the guide where your image came from does not seem to be particularly well-written - the firmware will differ, depending upon where the probe sensor is connected to, i.e. the z-axis endstop connector or the right hand pins of the 5 pin socket.
Either a different pre-compiled firmware binary is required or (if compiling the firmware yourself) some lines need to be uncommented in the Marlin source code, in configuration.h - which, according to the first guide, are the following lines:
#define BLTOUCH
...
#define AUTO_BED_LEVELING_BILINEAR
...
#define RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28

However, I'm not convinced by that rather overly simplistic first guide, unless the right most two pins of the 5 pin socket and the Z-axis endstop pins are hard-wired together on the board, which may be possible, but seems unlikely. I would have assumed that some pin changes are required in the firmware (but I may be wrong).
Indeed, the far superior guide, How to Set Up Marlin & BLTouch for Auto-Bed Leveling, shows that those three lines are only for the bed-levelling settings and a multitude of other changes are required.
Of particular note, if the Z-axis endstop is not used and the G and OUT pins are used instead, then make sure that the following line is commented out:
#define Z_MIN_PROBE_USES_Z_MIN_ENDSTOP_PIN

and uncomment
#define Z_MIN_PROBE_ENDSTOP

There are a number of other lines that need modifying, which are beyond the scope of this answer. Please refer to this guide or some other well written guide.
References

Creality V4.2.2 & V4.2.7 Motherboard BL Touch Wiring Options - poor quality
Creality v4.2.2 board and BLtouch problem - board fried! - cautionary tale
BLTouch Installation for Ender 3 with 32-bit V4.2.2 Board - very good
How to Set Up Marlin & BLTouch for Auto-Bed Leveling - very good


text:
How to determine correct firmware for Creality MB and BLTouch?
I bought motherboard version 4.2.7 and had BLTouch version 3.1
Printer version is probably Creality Ender 3 Pro (although I don't know how it can matter if I got brand new motherboard from Amazon).
On firmwares page I dont see appropriate BLTouch verions. May be I need no firmware upgrade? How to know?

You linked to the incorrect directory, if your printer is a Creality Ender 3 Pro, the correct location is this, here you can find versions of the firmware for your printer type and controller board.
Depending on the version of the touch sensor, you either have or have not got an adapter board. If you have an adaptor board you have the components in the red rectangles:

If so you need this firmware file: Ender-3 Pro-4.2.7-TMC2225, Marlin2.0.1-BLTouch-V1.3.1(with adapter board), otherwise you need this firmware file: Ender-3 Pro- 4.2.7-TMC2225, Marlin2.0.1-BLTouch-V1.1.2(without adapter board).
An alternative is to build your own firmware, you then no longer are bound to pre-compiled files from others, the Marlin configuration file for the Ender 3 Pro is found near the Marlin sources, see here, you probably only need to enable the BLTouch in the configuration file. There are even more solutions, you can look into TH3D software or many other forks from Marlin on GitHub.


text:
Strange chirping sound appeared after firmware upgrade
I got 4.2.7 "silent" motherboard and plugged it into my Creality Ender. It worked well except it didn't recognize my (old) BLTouch device. I tried to download firmware from official site, and it worked, but strande chirping sound started to come out of printer.
Probably I have chosen incorrect firmware. Although now I can't choose correct one. Is there any explanation of this sound?

It was because of incorrect firmware.
Previously I was using BLTouch 3.1 with Creality MD 1.1.4. This MB required to plug special small adapter board between MB and display, having BLTouch connected to this adapter board.
When I bought new MB 4.2.7 I found it had seprate socket for BLTouch. I found manual in the Internet about how to connect BLTouch to this socket, which appeared to be correct.
Then I started to choose firmware and found there three versions of it: without adapter board, with adapter board, and with both adapter board and filament detector. I thought that this choice depends on BLTouch version and chosen one "with adapter board" because mine was with it initially and this was a mistake.
Apparently, this firmware was sending BLTouch control signal towards display wires and adapter board was filtering it and sendinf to BLTouch. In my case there was no adapter board and a signal, which was intended to control BLTouch, was reaching display circuit and causing it make weird sound.
Once I downloaded firmware version without adapter board the sound disappeared.


text:
Updating the firmware an Ender 3 With Linux
I have the following command:
format /q H:/fs:fat32/a:4096
that will then allow me to upload a .bin file that will update the ender's firmware.  How do I do this same format on linux?
(It seems the Ender does not respond to firmware update now, even if I leave it as the only file on the drive.  What is the Ender really looking for?)
I have a stock board.

Someone else might correct me if I am wrong, but that command only formats the SD card for use with the 3D printer. It has nothing to do with the firmware itself.

I know that.  But strangely, without it the Ender seems to ignore the firmware.

Correct. If the SD card is not formatted in the way the printer requires then it won't be able to read the information on the SD card. Please [edit] your question to explain what exactly you are having problems with.

It's not obvious which, if either, the question is asking:

How does this Microsoft gobbledygook translate into a normal Linux command.
This is how I'd normally do it, but what would it be if I have to do it on Linux?

format /q H:/fs:fat32/a:4096 is a lazy way of saying
format  H:  /q  /fs:fat32  /a:4096.
The documentation says:
>format /?
Formats a disk for use with Windows.

FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/L[:state]] [/A:size]
              [/C] [/I:state] [/X] [/P:passes] [/S:state]
…
  volume          Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
                  mount point, or volume name.
  /FS:filesystem  Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, exFAT,
                  NTFS, UDF, ReFS).
  /A:size         Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default settings
                  are strongly recommended for general use.
                  …
  /Q              Performs a quick format. Note that this switch overrides /P.
  …

Linux has formatting commands named mkfs.*
$ mkfs.fat -help
mkfs.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
Usage: mkfs.fat [-a][-A][-c][-C][-v][-I][-l bad-block-file]
   [-b backup-boot-sector]
   [-m boot-msg-file][-n volume-name][-i volume-id]
   [-s sectors-per-cluster][-S logical-sector-size][-f number-of-FATs]
   [-h hidden-sectors][-F fat-size][-r root-dir-entries][-R reserved-sectors]
   [-M FAT-media-byte][-D drive_number]
   [--invariant]
   [--help]
   /dev/name [blocks]

man mkfs.fat gives details about the individual options.


text:
How thin a void/mould can a resin printer reliably produce?
I am trying to print a very thin casting mould. Once printed, I then pour an epoxy resin mix into the printed void. After curing the resin and demoulding, the final product is a mesh/web-like set of channels. The aim is to make these channels (aka the void) as thin as possible.
With lots of careful adjustments, I have succeeded in making these channels approx 0.4 mm thick with an FDM 3D printer and a 0.15 mm nozzle diameter.
However, I'd like to go thinner. I have little experience with resin 3D printers. I often see an XY resolution advertised of 0.05 mm. Does anyone have any experience printing extremely thin voids - and if so - what is the minimum reliable void thickness that a well-tuned resin printer could achieve in relation to the XY resolution?
i.e. a 0.05 mm XY resolution (aka pixel size) might equate to a reliable void thickness of quadruple the XY resolution i.e. 0.2 mm? If I attempted to print two sides of a box with only a single pixel gap in between these two walls, would there be lots of overlap and cured regions in the middle where light leaks and therefore cures in the intended void space?

According to one of the many resources available for x/y resolution of resin printers, specifically DLP and MSLA, Chitubox provides a formula to determine the minimum resolution.

How to calculate the pixel for DLP/LCD?
As XY resolution is fixed for DLP/LCD systems, so there is a equation:
Width / X Axis = Height / Y Axis = Native Pixel Size
If there is a 3D printer with a build area 68mm wide along the X axis.
Divide 68mm (the X axis) by 1440 (the LCD width resolution in pixels),
this will equal 0.047mm (47µm). And the native pixel size is 47µm.

0.047 mm is certainly close to the referenced 0.050 mm, but as also noted, there can be overlap/smear/filling created in the process.
There are test files for downloading and printing to use on a specific printer, allowing one to optimize exposure times and other settings. Cleaning of such small details could be a complication, perhaps resolved by an ultrasonic device and multiple passes of cleaning solution.
The linked site also provides these images for comparison of resolution settings:

47 micron resolution

100 micron resolution
A one pixel wall between channels is going to be incredibly fragile and may not survive a suitably complete cleaning process.

The walls can be thick and strong, 1 mm +, no problem. Its the void space between the walls that I want to be extremely thin.

That sounds promising for your project. There will be uncured resin removal and curing considerations but I think your un-referenced (lack of) depth will take care of that. 0.050 might be possible, but it's not the usual 3D printer test sequence. Some experimentation will be required. Consider to visit Reddit for someone to create a prototype for your testing purposes. https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprintmything

Depth might be challenging as it will need to be upwards of 100 mm in some areas. I can incorporate vacuum ports into the design though so I can have vacuum assistance if required. Many thanks for you time and suggestions, I will be sure to post on the subreddit.

That's astonishingly deep! You've not mentioned the material being used for casting, but note that if it's silicone, there are complications there too. Platinum cured silicone will not cure on resin printed molds.

I'm hoping to print the mould using a dissolvable resin (perhaps like this https://www.3dresyns.com/products/3dresyn-perfect-cast-ws1-water-soluble-for-sla-dlp-lcd-printers).  Then fill the mould/thin void with an epoxy resin and filler mix, place in oven to cure, then dissolve away the mould using water and an ultrasonic bath.

That's one step closer to an accomplishment, in my opinion. You may not need vacuum ports if you have either a pressure vessel or a vacuum chamber, both of which are used for differing casting processes. Vacuum is good for silicone, pressure is good for epoxy resin. I hope the epoxy and filler are thin!

Three hundred euros a kilo! Wow. Perhaps you can convince the vendor to provide a sample at a lower cost.


text:
How much weaker do PETG parts become when exposed to UV light from the sun?
What is the effect of UV on PETG parts? Can I minimize that effect by placing some kind of UV light blocking film/coating?
Also, is there a limit in how much weaker a part can become because of exposure to UV light?

Have you done any initial research on this? General knowledge is that PETG is not heavily affected by UV, although the pigments used to color it may be. I'm not sure how to quantify "how much". Are you looking for quantitative part strength tests (like the kind CNC Kitchen does) comparing a part exposed to UV for N years vs a newly printed part? I imagine that will be hard to find.

Yes I have. There aren't any numbers out there

Well then are you looking for anecdotal info?


text:
How much weaker does PETG become when it absorbs as much moisture as it can hold?
How much weaker does a PETG part become when it absorbs as much moisture as it can hold?

To my knowledge, there is no reason to expect a printed PETG object to become weaker by virtue of absorbing moisture. Unless you keep it in a controlled environment with desiccant or unless it's solid (100% infill) and so thick that it's hard for moisture to migrate deep into the interior, the printed object will rapidly reach an equilibrium with a certain moisture content. It's not something that happens slowly over a long time of exposure to excess moisture. Even an air conditioned indoor environment with 45-50% relative humidity has plenty for it to absorb.
Where moisture affects the part strength is when it's present in the filament you're trying to print. This is because:

Water has both an incredibly high specific heat and an even more extreme phase transition energy for the transition from liquid to vapor. This means a lot of your hotend's heat will be spent boiling off the water rather than getting the plastic sufficiently melted to flow well and bond to itself. This can largely be compensated for by increasing the temperature 15-30 °C. However...

When the water trapped in the filament boils, it produces bubbles. These either remain inside the extruded lines, making them less than solid, or they burst out, making holes in the extrusion. And while more temperature makes the melting issue above mostly go away, more temperature increases the violence of the bubbling and the corresponding damage to the print's integrity.

Neither of these is a concern with moisture absorbed into the part after printing.

Good answer. For PETG moisture affects print quality but not after print strength.  Most water bottles today are made of PET.  Moisture affects PLA strength.


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0.1 mm layer height print support material always fails to print
Is there any way to increase the layer height of support material separately in Prusaslicer? When I add some supports to a model with 0.1 mm layer height, the support material also generates a smaller layer height which fails to print supports most of the time. I use an Ender 3 S1 printer.

It seems like currently there is no option to change supports layer height. Although, changing supports width may help in your case. You can try it under Print Settings -> Advanced -> Support Material.