Better time estimates - current ones are 30% too optimistic

[jasu]

Time estimates are a great feature, especially if you are on a busy machine and have to explain when you will be finished for a colleague to start her print. Unfortunately, Simplify3D's time estimates are like that of an awful plane carrier trying to appease its customers by optimistic predictions and then arriving hours after the scheduled times.

I recorded predicted and actual times for 4 models. All of them were widely off the mark and all were predicted to finish much before the actual end time. On average the underestimation was a whopping 30%, i.e. you expect 3h hours and it lasts 4 (see below or http://1drv.ms/21wF4Oa) printing on a Flashforge Creator Pro with dual extrusion.

print times.png (17.81 KiB) Viewed 2900 times

I understand that it's hard to make predictions for many different machines but a little closer to reality would be great. If this were an airline and I'm always 30% later, I'd have quit that company already.

[jhaupt]

I've noticed the same thing, and have grown to expect --as you report -- prints to take 30% longer to complete than the estimate. This is on both a Makergear M2 and a Fablicator.

My guess is that it's because there's no way to account for the acceleration settings in the printer's firmware, although if acceleration is set via the starting script it at least has access to the information. If this is indeed the reason I could imagine an input box where the user can manually specify the acceleration and jerk settings known to be entered in the firmware.

~Justine

[smartavionics]

However, for my Kossell Mini, the time estimates are pretty good, if anything, slightly pessimistic. I guess it's very much a case of YMMV.

[jasu]

..My guess is that it's because there's no way to account for the acceleration settings in the printer's firmware..
~Justine

Hi Justine,

This is certainly part of the problem but then again I'm using Simplify's machine presets and I haven't modified the default settings of the machine either, so it should be possible to tweak the time prediction using user feedback by adding a time adjustment into the process presets.

It would be best to be slightly over the actual time, say 110 minutes for an actual 100min print. This would lead to fewer complications on a heavily used machine, since the next user would find that the print has ended a bit early and be able to start right away. The opposite, waiting at the machine due to optimistic predictions is much worse.

I've opened the spreadsheet for editing, in case anybody wants to add their predicted/observed print times: http://1drv.ms/22oE1p1

All the best