Start Printing at height ....

[Monty3DP]

There's a feature to start the print at a set height under the advanced tab...

I think this is an excellent feature as if you catch a print that's about to fail, you can stop it, fix the problem and resume printing.
However, instead of specifying this height in mm, can we also have the option to choose the layer... so start at a defined layer.

And one final thing is this option has a bit of a bug... So say you tell it to start printing at 3mm... it carries out the starting gcode and priming but then the extruders start moving into position before the build plate has moved into position causing it to collide with the part.
Can you please change this so that the platform moves into position first before the extruders move to prevent this... because of this collision, I had to manually align the platform again (glass plate held by clips) which will not be a perfect alignment...

Cheers

[JoeJ]

Hi Monty,

You can just add one line at the end of your starting gcode script if you want to avoid this in the future. Something like G1 Z200 F3000. Just make the Z-value something large so that the extruder will be moving DOWN to your print instead of up through it. But not large enough that you exceed your Z-axis stroke

[Flateric]

I would still like to have the option to continue a print from a layer number also though. This would simplfy the process of saving a locked or problem print.

I honestly would like to have both as a possibility.

[jimbabb]

Thanks JoeJ! That's the answer I needed too.

I'm trying to print an object in two colors, so I made a job that stopped at 3 mm, then a second job that starts a 3mm. I changed spools in between. There was a bit of a collision starting the second job.

Forgive this noob question, but could you explain the best way to insert that code that raises the extruder? I can edit the gcode in a text editor (if I know the right place) or is there a way to do it in Simplify3d?

Thanks again!

[jsc]

Right after the gcode that completes your priming sequence, and before the move to the start of print, insert a "G1 Z[height] F[speed]". The first G1 move that has a Z value of your print start height is the one you are looking for. You want to raise the print head before it moves to the start of print location, because otherwise it will move there diagonally and maybe intersect with the already printed portion.

You also have to be careful if you have z end stops at the top, because when the printer is homing Z your already printed object might collide with the frame.

[AndersE]

If you stop printing at 3.0 mm shouldn't your next start be 3.0mm + layerheight?
Otherwise you will bump into the layer you just printed...?

[jimbabb]

Thanks. I'm doing the second layer as 3.1 mm.

[Dssguy1]

It may possibly already know this. Like when you are using two different profiles for the same part, you stop one at 3mm and start the other at 3mm. You don't adjust for layer height. Maybe this more disjointed process that is being discussed here doesn't work the same way.

If you stop printing at 3.0 mm shouldn't your next start be 3.0mm + layerheight?
Otherwise you will bump into the layer you just printed...?

[Monty3DP]

Hi Monty,

You can just add one line at the end of your starting gcode script if you want to avoid this in the future. Something like G1 Z200 F3000. Just make the Z-value something large so that the extruder will be moving DOWN to your print instead of up through it. But not large enough that you exceed your Z-axis stroke

Hi Joe,

Thanks for this suggestion.

I tried to insert the line but it seems I have to compensate for it in the actual gcode and not the start script. Or maybe the code is not write.

So I inserted the code G1 Z50 F3000 to first move the bed away before the extruders move to the purge location. - This prevents the extruders hitting the part on the way to the purge location
(As an aside, this wouldn't have been a problem if S3D didn't change the purge location... anyway)

So after purging, the extruders move to location over the print bed where it'll be starting the Print...
the bed then moves to the set height (Again it makes absolutely no sense why it's done this way!)
but since I've moved it away initially, there's the gap (I believe 50) from where the bed should be.

So I inserted the line G1 Z-50 F3000 as the very last line in the start up script but that didn't work.

Any advice/Suggestions please??


P.S Simplify3D, if you're reading, please make this Feature useable otherwise, why go into the hassle of including it!!

[ImShogun]

Hello S3D team, I'd like to digg this one up. It is version 3.02 now, and I still see that

• 1) Printing starting at highers levels than 0mm still have a sequence that first moves the head IN the already partially printed part, en then up but that's too late, the harm is done and the part is no longer where it should be.
• 2) While it is true that you could add a last line in the starting custom gcode script stating f.e. G1 Z50 if the part have to restart anywhere beetween 0mm height and 50mm height, it does have two problems, one being a very big one:
  
  
  • a) That height needs to be adjusted frequently
  • b) it does NOT solve that fact that before that sequence the Makerbot type printer will first initiate a diagonal movement from bottom back right to front left, around 400mm higher. That diagonal is a killer for any partially printed part in the way.

That last point, in particular, is raising another question: How do we, in Simplify 3D, edit that sequence so instead of going directly from back-right-bottom to front-left-top, it would gently do it in 3 instructions, the safest order being: up then right then front, thus avoiding anything standing on the plate?

Switchiing colors at certain heights is not a cheap idea for the poor guy without dual extruders; it is a great way to produce high quality parts with multiple colors without the inconvenients of one color leaking on the other. Of course it wont allow the same, but what it allows (In my case, printing a fake circuit board with white components on a green board) can be vbery usefull, so please, if you could give us a bulletproof solution for this?

Many thanks!