Ret
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:26 pm

[ADDED] Improve GCODE Resolution

If S3D increased their resolution: parts would print faster, be more accurate, look a lot nicer, and would be easier on your printer, mechanically. "

Please improve the resolution at which the GCODE is exported. Due to the rough nature of S3D GCODE, parts print slower and rougher as opposed to using cura and ideamaker. If identical items were sliced with same speeds and comparable settings with cura, you’ll notice that S3D will finish last. This is because of how jerk handles the little segments of GCODE(S3D are bigger, Cura's are smaller and more precise). If jerk is turned up on the S3D print, it would be right up there with Cura in print time but would alter print quality (probably worse) since you’re running a jerk setting above what you normally use and what could be unsafe for your printer. I’ve done many tests to prove this and have a few images that clearly show the resolution S3D has versus others.


Cura by far has the nicest GCODE I've seen.


Test it yourself. I've successfully proven it on a makergear and ultimaker.

Image order: Cura, S3D, Ideamaker
CURA_GCODE_IMAGE.JPG
S3D_GCODE_IMAGE.JPG
IDEAMAKER_GCODE_IMAGE.JPG
As you can see, S3D's gcode segments are quite larger than Cura's and Ideamaker, therefor reducing quality. A circle is never a circle. A circle is composed of many little segments. The more segments you have, the higher the resolution.
Last edited by Ret on Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.
S3D-Jake
Posts: 1052
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:45 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

Thanks for your feature request. You mention having printed the same model in at least two of the slicers mentioned. Would you care to post your G-Code files and or images of the printed results? This may be a result of Simplify3D filtering out segments that are so small they would trip up the logic in some previously problematic firmwares. I can't know for sure without really seeing the results and print files. Either way, if you've proven with actual prints that this is an issue I'd love to present more of a full report to our developers.
"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."
MicroVoxel
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:53 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

I agree it would be a nice option to have S3D recognize curves and use G2 and G3 commands. Of course add an enable/disable option within the settings.
Personal Printer: Replicator 2
Yeah... I need to upgrade...
Ret
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:26 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

Here are the two Gcodes. I matched the settings in cura as well as I could with S3D. You can easily see the difference in resolution between the both. The file size also speaks for itself. We can both agree S3D has better/optimized printing movements over cura, but a lower resolution in those movements.

A little extra info:

Cura @ 100% speed: 51min

S3D @ 100% speed: 48min
S3D @75% speed: 60min

The print at 100% on S3D was horrific with terrible machine sounds and a poor printed part. Finally at around 75%, the print quality went up, and printer started to sound OK again.


The S3D GCODE I attached sounds really bad when printing curves and holes. If XY jerk is increased, the XY sound disappears, but starts to skip steps.
Attachments
HFSR5-404020-300 v3.gcode
(1.74 MiB) Downloaded 262 times
CFFFP_HFSR5-404020-300 v3.gcode
(2.46 MiB) Downloaded 247 times
Ret
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:26 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

Please also consider adding more decimal places for the extruder extrusion. This will result in more accurate extruding by reducing rounding.
ttn
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:48 am

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

Ret wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:34 pm Please also consider adding more decimal places for the extruder extrusion. This will result in more accurate extruding by reducing rounding.
Seconded. i've wanted to change extrusion rate by 0.5% before, but was unable to do it so calculated the change in filament diameter required to make it happen instead. Belongs in its own thread though?
Ret
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:26 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

Sorry if I was unclear about that portion. I agree with you about the extrusion multiplier number in the UI needing more decimal spots. I was initialy referring to the actual Gcode positioning of the extruder stepper. Currently it only has 4 decimal spots(G1 E0.0280). Adding another spot would reduce rounding a bit.
gearsawe
Posts: 233
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2017 11:06 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

what are the e-steps on your extruder?
mine is 256. so each step is only e-step is only 1/256 = 0.0039mm. 5 decimals would be excessive. if this an option then I would turn it off.
to take advantage of 5 decimals you would need 10,000 e-steps on your extruter. the Number on the extruder above "(G1 E0.0280)" is only 7 e-stemp on my system.

How many of you even have over 1,0000 - e-steps on your extruder? only at that point can you even start to take advantage of 4 decimals.
Ret
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:26 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

@gearsawe

I’m not sure your experience level or what printer you have, but a lot of modern-day printers are geared and running very high micro stepped extruders. Cura and slic3r noticed this and decided to add an extra decimal place to achieve better quality. I don’t believe anything over 5 would be needed with current day technology. Extruder rounding and errors are accumulative, don’t forget that. Besides that, some firmwares have special features that tie into the extruder to aid in better print quality. With higher resolution comes more accurate calculations from the firmware to produce better results. I’d have no problem with a toggle switch for higher resolution gcode. Some outdated and older printers may not benefit or be able to handle the higher resolution.
S3D-Jake
Posts: 1052
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:45 pm

Re: Improve GCODE Resolution

Ret,

I've added this specific request to our development team's tracking. If you have any pictures of the prints showing the severity of how much this effects your parts' surface finish / dimensional accuracy please do attach them.
"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."

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