I am losing my mind trying to set up different filaments!?!?

[BikeWazowski]

For the longest time I have made a new "process" for each new filament I have used. I would name them after the filament and color, i.e.. eSun PLA Black or Hatchbox PLA Green. I don't think this is the best way to do that. I feel like there must be a better way! I watched the S3D video tutorial about adding new "auto-configure" materials. I tried to do this but I must be doing something wrong because when I do and I add a new material, update profile, then switch back to a different auto config material, the settings don't change (I'm mainly watching the retraction settings).

I have two printers that I am running from S3D.
I am on Mac OSX 10.10.5
I am losing my dang mind!

Can anyone give me a nice, explain it like I'm a child, how-to for the best way to manage different materials over two different printers in S3D? I would really like to have a unique material setup for each different type, brand, and color that I normally print with (I know that may be excessive).

Thank You in advance!

[CompoundCarl]

I think by default different materials only alter the temperatures, flow rates, and fan speeds. But you can make it change whatever you want. Just go to File > Export FFF Profile, and then save the .fff file to your hard drive. Just open that file in a text editor and you can scroll down to the <autoConfigureMaterial> sections to see what exactly is changed for each material.

In your case, I'm guessing if you copied the entire <extruder> section into all of your <autoConfigureMaterial> sections, it would work

[BikeWazowski]

So, basically export the fff, edit the settings I want for each auto configure in a text editor and then import it back in?

I would have to redo that process any time I added a new filament/material right?

[CompoundCarl]

No, you only need to do this if you don't like the default settings that are changed when switching materials. If you're okay just changing the stuff I mentioned previously, then no changes are needed at all. You can edit and save everything through the UI.

So you only need to do this process ONCE in the event that you want more stuff to be changed. So, for example, if you wanted to change retraction settings, just add the <extruder> section to each autoConfigureMaterial entry and then save and re-import the profile. Now you will never need to make that change again. If you make new material options later from the UI, it will automatically include the different retraction settings, since that's how you set it up. So it's pretty simple actually and quite versatile

[cyberreefguru]

So I'm really trying to figure out the settings in S3D. Specifically, the difference between Auto-Config Material, Auto-Config Quality, profiles, and processes. It seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong, the profile contains all the settings and the auto-config setting are really just a symlink to the settings in the profile? More importantly, it seems the auto-config items are unique to a profile?

If all true, it seems the quality auto-config does not save all the settings I want, which forces multiple profiles, making the material settings duplicative across profiles, and making it impossible to effectively manage materials in one single place. Do I have this correct?

Tom

[wirlybird]

I am running 4 printers so what I do is take the default profile and then do a save as new and name it something like Flashforge - ABS or Flashforge - PLA.

By doing this I can at anytime delete the profile I created if I get it to messed up and then open the default one and save as new again.

[CompoundCarl]

Read my post above. You can choose exactly what settings you want controlled by the auto configure quality option. They provide a few basic options like layer height, infill, solid layers, etc by default, but you can customize it to whatever you want.

[WZ9V]

It would go a long way if they would do a video or article suggesting a good process for managing these settings. Like the prior posters I've had trouble digesting who affects what when putting this together. In my case I got "sample" setups as part of a design I bought from 3DLabPrint and its been a bear taking their samples and customizing them to my setup. Now that I've learned the FFF is just a plain old XML file I can lookup who changes what.

It would be nice if they enhanced the GUI to have the parameters that are overridden color coded (or a symbol added) based on the Quality/Material selection. For instance, Black prompt means value came from printer, Red prompt (or *) means came from quality and Blue prompt (or $) means came from Material. At least then there would be a visual representation of what gets changed so that people could see the relationship. The really big missing piece is a tool to setup the relationships as opposed to editing the FFF in a text editor.