Preview Mode Missing Critical Information

[furicks]

This would be a new feature but it seems like such a critical feature. I can't tell you how many times I have started a print only to cancel it because I forgot to change the printing temperature.

The preview mode is excellent for determining feature types, active extruders and speed but it leaves off so much useful information! I would love to see an overlay that shows expected machine information along side the current moment in the preview. Things like "extruder 0 temp" "Heated bed temp" "Current layer height" etc. It's all information that is being processed in the g-code and it would be so useful when doing multi-material and multi color prints.

There's a lot of improvement in multi-material printing that could be had but this seems like the low hanging fruit. This would also be helpful when a setting is preventing an extruder from heating up properly or early enough

Example story:
I was recently printing PLA which were joined together by a NinjaFlex band to make everything flexible. Simplify gave me the customizations I needed to actually do the print which was amazing! But I threw away at least 3 half prints because I didn't get a temperature setting quite right and it didn't show up in the preview.

[dkightley]

What a good idea.....

+1

[C-line]

+1

How about a using a toolhead graphic that shows a number corresponding to the active tool, and a color corresponding to temperature?
The build platform could also change color using the same temperature scale.

[Fred B]

I think these are good ideas. The current layer height in preview would be extremely useful when setting multiple processes.

Starting and stopping processes properly can be problematic currently because the setting in the process is in mm and not layers. In order to calculate the correct start/stop point you have to figure the height from the layer number in the preview. It's not very hard until you start mixing layer heights in the same print. Adding the height with the layer number would fix this issue.

Temperature gages as mentioned above would also be helpful during the animated preview.

[C-line]

...The current layer height [mm] in preview would be extremely useful when setting multiple processes...

Agreed. This is especially frustrating in dual extrusion prints with ooze shield, where the layer number displayed in the preview is acutally double the actual layer number. I believe this should be corrected as well.

[spineytoad]

+1