Settings for print with PETG
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Thanks. I have to say that I love what pressure advance can do - it's just this issue with curves that I have. It looks like I'll have to find another slicer but none that I've tried so far can deal well with multiple machine profiles and firmware retraction and 5 extruders. The latest version of Cura is about the only one I haven't tried - I'll give that a go when I get time.
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@deckingman
Happy hunting! -
@deckingman cura requires a plugin called printer settings to enable firmware retraction. You can also input your speed settings and the print time estimates will become accurate.
Overall I like Cura better but it takes a lot more settings tweaking to get it really dialed in. Even then it can do some bizarre things.
No experience using it with multiple colors
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@phaedrux Thanks. I've got a very old version of Cura which I gave up on but I haven't tied the later versions. The other one that's on my list to try is Kissslicer, but it only supports 4 extruders and even then only with the paid for version. I like to "try before I buy" (learned that lesson with S3D but I did eventually get a refund).
TBH I'd much prefer to stick with Slic3R but for pressure advance to work for me, I'd have to revert back to using a version of firmware around 1.17 or 1.18 - that was much more tolerant of less than perfect gcode files.
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@deckingman said in Settings for print with PETG:
@phaedrux Thanks. I've got a very old version of Cura
Cura changed a LOT, and recently.
I'm using the "latest", and many, many times (after setting a decent printer profile) I can just "accept all defaults" and get a great print. Some specialty stuff, like 1 layer thinwall for RC airplanes, requires a bunch of settings. But most prints... use the new summary gui, click one or two basic things, and print.
Its not magic, and its not perfect... but it has evolved a lot in just the last few months.
Delta / Kossel printer fanatic
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@deckingman I'm curious, were you using the detect thin lines option in Slic3r? I've found that it can break up lines more than you'd expect when trying to vary the line thickness below nozzle width. Sometimes it works out great and combines two lines into a thicker line of gap fill, other times it utterly ruins a print. I could see the way it breaks up lines playing Havok with pressure advance.
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@danal agreed. The version 3 series of Cura has really improved. My biggest complaint is the GUI performance is pretty poor for me. And occasionally certain models will take an extremely long time to slice with some of the optimization settings enabled.
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@phaedrux said in Settings for print with PETG:
@deckingman I'm curious, were you using the detect thin lines option in Slic3r? .......................................
Quick answer is no.
Longer answer is that what Slic3R does is random - or at least if there is a pattern to it, I haven't been able to fathom it. I have a test piece which is simply 10 cylinders of different sizes. When it's sliced and I look through the gcode file, for 95% of the layers it's fine and every segment for any given circle is the same size. But, every now and then there will be one circle which has a larger segment, followed by one or more small segments. That "pattern" may repeat for a few moves then resort to every segments being the same size. It doesn't happen on every layer, nor does it happen on the same cylinder every time. I might get 2 or 3 layers where every circle is fine with no odd size segments. On the next layer, one or more of the cylinders will have uneven segment sizes.
It's hard to spot unless you know what to look for, and doesn't show up under normal printing - the difference in segment size isn't that great. It's only when I enable high pressure advance that I get problems trying to print it.
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@deckingman have you considered posting an issue to the Prusa edition GitHub tracker? They seem to be pretty good at at least investigating the odd corner cases.
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@phaedrux No not yet. I suppose I ought. For what it's worth, I get the same behaviour on Slic3R 1.2.9 as well as Prusa editions up to 1.37.1 so it's obviously a historic thing that's been around a while.
