airscapes
Posts: 403
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:35 am
Location: Philadelphia PA Area

Re: print speed updates in every material?

I just write the following on the spool
Nozzle size (I have 3 different sizes)
Extrusion width,
Extrusion Multiplayer
Average diameter of filament if not 1.75
Temps don't change much between brands and if they do I can add that
Also add each new set of parameters to a spread sheet.. but lets face it each roll of filament can be different even from the same manufacture.

Then when a print is complete I save the factory file in the same dir as the model for future reference..

Most all other setting will need to be evaluated on a model to model basis including temp .. i.e 28mm D&D figure printed with .25 nozzle and .25 E width with a particular PLA at 215C may need 205C with some other PLA.. and a larger item may print better ate 225C..

I agree completely that the process needs to be make more usable and documented.. but documentation is a real weak area.
darktic
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:55 am

Re: print speed updates in every material?

DarthRevan wrote: Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:18 pm I see this trip people up fairly regularly, myself included. Creating a new material or quality option with the plus buttons in Simplify3D doesn't necessarily assign your newly saved settings to the newly created auto-configure option. I have a Makergear M2 Dual, so any examples I providewill be tailored to my experiences with it's profile and how adding a new configure option works. I'll attach the default profile for this machine so we can all work with the same example file. (See below)

MakerGear Dual 2015-05-01.fff

It turns out that when you press these add buttons, the only settings that will be saved specific to this new material or quality, are those which are already saved to the existing materials or qualities. So for example, this profile uses different extruder settings on a material specific basis, but uses the same print speed for any material. Print speed, I've found, is not a material specific setting. So if I were to add a new material or quality and change the speed settings, then save over my previous profile. The new default speed for EVERY material becomes the speed I thought I was setting for just my new material or quality I just added. Pretty confusing, I know, but I've learned how to change this. I've outlined how to set defaultSpeed to be material specific in the rest of this post.

To start, you'll want to focus on what settings are already material specific. These are found conveniently "nested", or indented, between an opening tag and a closing tag that will look something like this:

Code: Select all

  <autoConfigureMaterial name="PLA">
    ...
  </autoConfigureMaterial>
(Imagine that the huge chunks of other tags that are linked have been collapsed into the "..." displayed here)

So if you're decent at interpreting the settings names into actual settings in the software you can begin to see what you can edit and still have the "core" of the profile intact. Quickly looking at the settings for the M2 Dual, I've made a few images that help visualize what this means. If there is a green box next to the setting, it is a "material specific setting" and can safely be edited without worrying you're messing up another material's settings, as it won't change the mysterious "core". Here are the images.

MakergearM2Dual_MaterialDefaultSettings_PLA.zip

Creating a material specific setting:
But what if we want to make other settings that are part of the "core" into something specific to materials? Get out your copy paste guide book and find the setting you want to do this to. Let's try printing speed. I found that printing speed, at least the speed setting that all other speeds are seeded off of, is on line 147 of the Makergear M2 Dual Profile. It looks like this:

Code: Select all

<defaultSpeed>4800</defaultSpeed>
To make speed a "material specific setting":
  • select the line
  • copy it
  • paste it inside the auto configures for EACH material.
If you don't put it in each material setting, you'll not have specific settings for each material. This would result in any time you switch to the material that does have this tag nested inside, it will write over the previous value for defaultSpeed and there will be no way to go back, since the other materials don't load their own defaultSpeed setting. SO PASTE IN ALL OF THEM.

Also, make sure to paste the setting being added at the correct indentation level. I've noticed that each indent is two spaces. So if the auto-configures all start at 4 spaces and then the settings inside of them start at 6 spaces, you'll want 6 spaces in front of the setting you add. This is pretty basic xml formatting stuff but, if you're not from the coding world or just don't necessarily have an eye for details like this one, it's helpful to know when performing these types of edits.

Simplified example:
Take this code

Code: Select all

  <autoConfigureMaterial name="PLA">
    ...
  </autoConfigureMaterial>
and make it this code (For EACH material block)

Code: Select all

  <autoConfigureMaterial name="PLA">
    <defaultSpeed>4800</defaultSpeed>
    ...
    </autoConfigureMaterial>
This same process can be repeated for Quality options. Heck, you can even toss your quality auto-configure sets inside of your material auto-configures, creating "material specific quality options" and qualifying yourself as a certified king of the castle. 8-)
DarthRevan,

You are a genius :)
This was driving me nuts, because for example, TPU requires me to set the speed at 25mm/s and PLA, PETG 75mm/s. Now if I dont use TPU for a long time, I forgot the setting. I am glad I am familiar with coding :)
Thanks for that great solution. Too bad, that S3D don't habe this function out of the box.
lutorm
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:35 pm

Re: print speed updates in every material?

DarthRevan wrote: Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:18 pm This same process can be repeated for Quality options. Heck, you can even toss your quality auto-configure sets inside of your material auto-configures, creating "material specific quality options" and qualifying yourself as a certified king of the castle. 8-)
I attempted to do this. I moved the AutoConfigureQuality blocks into the materials settings (and named them material-specific so it would be obvious which ones it's showing.) However it does not work. When I pick the newly-imported profile, the auto-configure quality selector just disappears. If I restart S3D, it comes back and shows one of the materials and its quality options. So far so good. Except when I pick a different material, the available quality options don't change, I still see the quality options for the material I no longer have selected.

The configuration situation is SO frustrating. I'm well aware that configuration management is not an easy topic, but having nested quality settings for each material seems like a no-brainer to me. Really, it's no point if you have the best slicer in the world if people can't configure it...
Bmanderson82
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2018 4:01 am

Re: print speed updates in every material?

I've been reading over this thread looking to associate not only speeds to materials.. but... also filament density so that my calculated extrusion multiplier actually works per saved profile without me having to go manually change the filament density every time I switch materials. while I understand this could probably be set manually in the FFF for each material.. it begs the question of - for the money paid for this slicer - why is it necessary? .. shouldn't it automatically save this so that I'm not having to manually hack the FFF to make it work?
S3D-Chris
Posts: 250
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:52 pm

Re: print speed updates in every material?

The filament density setting is used to calculate the projected weight of your part. Changing that value will not change the amount of material that is extruded.
wirlybird
Posts: 1374
Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:32 pm

Re: print speed updates in every material?

S3D-Chris wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2019 2:04 pm The filament density setting is used to calculate the projected weight of your part. Changing that value will not change the amount of material that is extruded.
Thank you.
ghosty
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:18 am

Re: print speed updates in every material?

Thanks Darth raven for letting us know how to fix this problem. Its Feb 2020, and I am having a hard time deciding which slicer is better, S3D or the new Prusia Slicer 2.1.1 (PSs)
I like a lot of features in the PSs, it does what I would have expected these setting in Simplify to do but DONT. unless you code it like Raven has suggested.

@S3D... When I first setup S3D, I should be able to select a printer type, then go through the "Auto config for material" menu add my various filaments, set the temps, cooling, extrusion, retraction etc... for each one. Then move over to the "Auto config for Print Quality" and do the same, set speeds layer height, shells etc..
Once this is done I should not need to go into advanced unless I need some specific tweak for some wired thing. I should just select from the 3 drop box, Printer, Filament, Quality.

I have just spent the last 1 hour trying to do this, only to find half the settings DONT follow the selections, and with NO idea WHICH ones are captured in each setting, I have no Idea what will be stored until I do this pain staking exerciser to find out what does and doesn't get effected, and then go looking on the web for work around and band aids solutions to make it work properly..... this is not a Beta version of software.

This is where PSs kicks your ass and its free.....I had to pay for S3D... dont get me wrong there is plenty good about S3D and I am still using it,but its becoming tiresome having to remember settings, tweak this change that every time I change to a different filament.
S3D you need to lift your game a lot as far as user friendly goes.....take a look at your peers and at least keep up if not stay ahead.

Somewhat frustrated
Ghosty
PicoTreed
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2019 10:14 am

Re: print speed updates in every material?

ghosty wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 10:10 pm @S3D... When I first setup S3D, I should be able to select a printer type, then go through the "Auto config for material" menu add my various filaments, set the temps, cooling, extrusion, retraction etc... for each one. Then move over to the "Auto config for Print Quality" and do the same, set speeds layer height, shells etc..
Once this is done I should not need to go into advanced unless I need some specific tweak for some wired thing. I should just select from the 3 drop box, Printer, Filament, Quality.
Not necessarily in my opinion!
I find the generic approach of S3D to print settings truly suitable for power users: they like the freedom to set print profiles untied from specific machines, and that give them the power to truly experiment not just turn on the machine, run a wizard and print some action figures with a "default" PLA.

S3D is not perfect and we all are waiting for the V5 release, anyway I find that this piece of software is truly useful for experimenters.
R&D for 3D printers, materials & software.
kbarkes
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:24 pm

Re: print speed updates in every material?

It is now 2022, 5 years from when this thread started and from what I can tell this issue has not been addressed. Causes confusion in my shop on a daily basis.

Don't really understand why any other improvements would be prioritized over being able to save your settings in a simple way... That is putting the cart before the horse.
S3D-Jake
Posts: 1052
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:45 pm

Re: print speed updates in every material?

kbarkes wrote: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:32 pm It is now 2022, 5 years from when this thread started and from what I can tell this issue has not been addressed. Causes confusion in my shop on a daily basis.

Don't really understand why any other improvements would be prioritized over being able to save your settings in a simple way... That is putting the cart before the horse.
I can understand your frustration with other improvements getting more attention. Is there a certain way you'd like to see this area of the software improved? Modifying the way settings are linked to various presets is something we really only expect a fairly advanced user to be diving into.

Are you wanting the ability to change the presets, add additional presets, remove presets entirely?
"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."

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