dennisjm
Posts: 343
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 9:51 pm

The new workflow for adding materials...

Under the old 2.x workflow, I'd add a material to the xml file and then add entries for material width, cost, temperature etc.
In 3.x when I add a material and change some settings in the process, then go back to an original material. Those settings don't change back how they were or back to what they need for the new material. Do I need to manually edit the xml the way I used to or is there a way to get the expected result from the UI?
User avatar
KeyboardWarrior
Posts: 480
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:02 pm

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

dennisjm wrote:Under the old 2.x workflow, I'd add a material to the xml file and then add entries for material width, cost, temperature etc.
In 3.x when I add a material and change some settings in the process, then go back to an original material. Those settings don't change back how they were or back to what they need for the new material. Do I need to manually edit the xml the way I used to or is there a way to get the expected result from the UI?
Each material tag has custom settings, depending on what profile you use this will be slightly different. For instance, some users may have:

<PLA>
<PLA_ExtruderTemp>
<PLA_BedTemp>
<PLA_FanSpeed>

<ABS>
<ABS_ExtruderTemp>
<ABS_BedTemp>
<ABS_FanSpeed>

In which case, whenever you change one of those values and change profiles it will be saved seamlessly. However, if your FFF profile is setup in this manner, changing something like Material cost would not get saved. Your FFF profile would need to look like :

<PLA>
<PLA_ExtruderTemp>
<PLA_BedTemp>
<PLA_FanSpeed>
<PLA_MaterialCost>

<ABS>
<ABS_ExtruderTemp>
<ABS_BedTemp>
<ABS_FanSpeed>
<ABS_MaterialCost>

You can add a ton of tags and really customize your FFF settings profile. It's just important to understand that the only the Tags that are attached to a Material Auto-Configure will be saved for a certain material when changing/updating profiles.
dennisjm
Posts: 343
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 9:51 pm

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

Yeah I understand the process. I had a quite extensive few profiles for 2.x. I was just hoping that for 3.0 I didn't have to manually go add to the xml files again. Seems that is the expected workflow though still.
dennisjm
Posts: 343
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 9:51 pm

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

So just to get this straight...

1) Export your profile
2) edit with a text editor
3) import the profile
4) delete the original?

This seems to me worse than 2.0 was. At least in 2.0 I could just modify the .fff file and the settings would take effect in the UI. Am I missing something big here?

If you only have to do that once to add the tags into the materials section I think I can live with it but next time I want to add a material I have to do it again right?

I cant help think that's a little bit annoying.
horst.w
Posts: 861
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:00 pm

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

I save only a factory-files of objects and when I need this values again, I open it, delete the old object und import the new object.

I name the factory-files with the main-values as ABS-245-90 for the materials, the temperature of nozzle an temperature of the bed.


horst.w, GER
JoeJ
Posts: 1435
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:52 am

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

You only have to do this one time. You are essentially telling the software which options you want to change when you select a new material from the drop down list. As KBW mentioned, by default, each profile already has a few basic settings which are setup to change when you select a new material. If you want new ones included, just add them one time into the XML and then you're done.

After that, the software will automatically keep track of those settings. It will automatically change them if you edit them in the UI and if you add a new material, it will automatically record those settings as you define them for the new material. It's a huge improvement over 2.x where you had to manually change the XML every time you wanted to adjust any of these settings. Now you just have to edit the XML one time if you want different settings to be controlled. If you're fine with the stock settings that are changed for each material option (such as bed temps, extruder temps, and fan speeds), then you wouldn't even need to touch the XML at all!
KC_703
Posts: 238
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 5:23 pm

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

For those making recommendations for adding fields to the XML, have you actually tried this? Can you post example FFF?

I'm curious, because I have and it didn't work for all the different parameters. Only certain parameters are stored with the Material and Quality dropdowns, most are still associated with the main profile.
JoeJ
Posts: 1435
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:52 am

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

Yes, I have done it several times and it works fine. You just have to make sure to add it to every single section where you configure quality or material.

For example, if you want to adjust printing speed as part of the quality options, then you need to make sure that <defaultSpeed> is present in every single <autoConfigureQuality> section. After you make those changes, just save the file and then go to File --> Import FFF.

As I said before, you only need to do this once. After that, you can do everything through the GUI. If you're having trouble, post your .fff file
KC_703
Posts: 238
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 5:23 pm

Re: The new workflow for adding materials...

Thanks, I don't think I added the new field consistently to all the sections. I'll give it a try, it would be a great help to be able to add custom fields.

Return to “General Discussion and Tips”