Flashforge Creator compatibility and a few other questions

[curious aardvark]

So I've been using my flashforge creator for a while now and love the machine to bits.
It doesn't take much to get the best from her.

However The makerware software has a lot of limitations.

I was fortunate enough to get a thorough run through of simplify3d from the 3dpunlimited people at the tct show yesterday.
And I'm almost sold. It looks like it does everything I want in a piece of software.
But before forking over any cash and in the absence of a trial version - I just need a couple guarentees before I get the crowbar to my wallet

1) is it 100% compatible with my flashforge creator ? ie: are there any aspects that don't work 100%
2) will it let me export x3g files to my sdcard - pretty crucial as all my long prints run off the card
3) Do I need a particular version of the firmware. haven't managed to upgrade to sailfish yet, so would that be necessary ?

And that's it really.

Cheers

[JoeJ]

In my experience, 1) yes 2) yes 3) no, I've used it with stock firmware and with many different sailfish version

There's a setup guide for this printer on their support site if it helps:
http://www.simplify3d.com/support/hardw ... lashforge/

[dennisjm]

I concur with JoeJ except on 1), I've had unexplained weird behavior over usb. Some of that I explained in this post:
http://forum.simplify3d.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1459

Other times I've had prints just say they completed after the extruders warmed up but nothing happened. I think in general it's perfectly compatible but there are corner cases and states that aren't fully debugged that sometimes make it slightly annoying.

[BaudR8]

I use it on my FlashForge Creator with no issues. I always print from SD as well and all the settings in the "processes" work for me, although most of the time I use the stock profile configured for the flashforge creator that comes with the software as it produces nice prints.

[curious aardvark]

Okay thanks guys.

I'll (gulp) buy it today.

Can't honestly remember the last time i paid for software. Always managed with opensource or trial versions.

But I've got to the point now where makerware just doesn't cut it and nothing else works on geraldine.

Right - no doubt I'll be back when I've got it and start hitting issues
Cheers for the quick replies

[dennisjm]

I still use Makerware for dual extrusion prints BTW. In that case, S3D simply doesnt' cut it (Although word is next version is specifically targeting dual extrusion so hopefully that changes.)

[DaveGadgeteer]

I use S3D with my FlashForge Creator.
One minor thing is that S3D doesn't allow the extruders and build plate to preheat at the same time, though I think there's something you can edit to fix that. Haven't found it yet though.
There was a bug where if you used the left extruder you had to heat the right one also or it would wait forever before starting, but I kind of think the latest version of S3D has fixed this.

[dennisjm]

I've had start code that can heat the bed and extruders all at the same time. That isn't an S3D thing.

However, I usually heat the bed first then the extruders. It takes a long time to heat the bed compared to the extruders so I don't like to leave them sitting there hot waiting for the bed to heat up.

But here is some start code that heats the bed then both extruders at the same time....

Code: Select all

M136 (enable build progress)
M73 P0
M140 S[bed0_temperature] T0 ; bed temp
G162 X Y F2000(home XY axes maximum)
G161 Z F900(home Z axis minimum)
G92 X0 Y0 Z-5 A0 B0 (set Z to -5)
G1 Z0.0 F900(move Z to '0')
G161 Z F100(home Z axis minimum)
M132 X Y Z A B (Recall stored home offsets for XYZAB axis)
G92 X152 Y75 Z0 A0 B0
G1 X-112 Y-73 Z30 F3300.0 (move to waiting position)
G130 X20 Y20 A20 B20 (Lower stepper Vrefs while heating)
M134 T0 ; // wait for bed
M104 S[extruder0_temperature] T0 ; tool 0 temp
M104 S[extruder1_temperature] T1 ; tool 1 temp
M133 T0 ;  wait for temperatures 
M133 T1 
G130 X127 Y127 A127 B127 (Set Stepper motor Vref to defaults)
M135 T0
G0 X-115 Y-72 (Position Nozzle)
G0 Z0      (Position Height)
G92 E0 (Set E to 0)
G1 E5 F300 (Extrude 5mm of filament)
G1 X-110 Y-65 F300; (Slow wipe)
G1 Z0.6; (Raise back up)
M135 T1
G0 X-115 Y-65 F1800 (Position Nozzle)
G0 Z0      (Position Height)
G92 E0 (Set E to 0)
G1 E5 F300 (Extrude 5mm of filament)
G92 E0 (Set E to 0 again)
G1 X-110 Y-60 F300; (Slow wipe)
G1 Z0.6; (Raise back up)
G92 E0 ; @body

[dennisjm]

For reference, if you wanted to actually heat the extruders and the hotbed all at the same time, you'd just take out the

M134 T0 ; wait for the hot bed

[curious aardvark]

thanks - bought the software. And so far works fine from usb and sd card.

Haven't got to grips with all the features yet - but impressed with what I've done so far