Slicer Settings for Tool Changing

[Red Sand Robot]

Hello all,

I'm currently using Cura, and beginning to set up a machine definition for the tool changing printer I am working on. I was curious as to what things I would need to add to the slicer itself to get it to work properly. I know there are the tool change macros in the firmware, but I'm not sure if I have to add those to the slicer side of things (Or if Cura is just not suited currently to using a toolchanger).

Would I need to add the macros to the extruder start/end gcode or when a different tool is called (i.e. T2) does the firmware automatically execute the tfree#.g, tpre#.g, and tpost#.g macros?

[Red Sand Robot]

"Tfree, Tpre,Tpost etc are called by the firmware when a tool change occurs so nothing needed in the gcode other than the normal tool change (T0, T1 etc).

There is a summary of what each of the tools change macros do here:
https://duet3d.com/wiki/Configuring_RepRapFirmware_for_a_Cartesian_printer#Tool_change_files

What I do is
TfreeN.g -> sort out the old tool (lift, park)
Tpost.N.g -> sort out the new tool (wait for temps, purge, wipe)
I do need to use Tpre because there is nothing to do inbetween the tools however if you had a mechanical tool swapping sytem you would have things in there." - @T3P3Tony

So I just saw this in a different post, which I believe answers my question, which would mean that I just need to have the relevant movements and commands in the tfree.g, tpre.g, and tpost.g macros for my machine to do a tool change when the gcode contains a line to switch tools.

Can anyone confirm this? I just want to be sure I understand the process and interaction between the firmware and the slicer.

[bricor]

I set up an IDEX machine last night. I did not need to modify the slicer Extruder G code or offsets.
I used https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/ConfiguringMultipleIndependentXcarriagesCartesian as reference, it contains examples and descriptions for each file.

[dc42]

@red-sand-robot said in Slicer Settings for Tool Changing:

"Tfree, Tpre,Tpost etc are called by the firmware when a tool change occurs so nothing needed in the gcode other than the normal tool change (T0, T1 etc).

There is a summary of what each of the tools change macros do here:
https://duet3d.com/wiki/Configuring_RepRapFirmware_for_a_Cartesian_printer#Tool_change_files

What I do is
TfreeN.g -> sort out the old tool (lift, park)
Tpost.N.g -> sort out the new tool (wait for temps, purge, wipe)
I do need to use Tpre because there is nothing to do inbetween the tools however if you had a mechanical tool swapping sytem you would have things in there." - @T3P3Tony

So I just saw this in a different post, which I believe answers my question, which would mean that I just need to have the relevant movements and commands in the tfree.g, tpre.g, and tpost.g macros for my machine to do a tool change when the gcode contains a line to switch tools.

Can anyone confirm this? I just want to be sure I understand the process and interaction between the firmware and the slicer.

That's right. The slicer just needs to produce the T commands to change tools. All the rest can be done in the tpre, tpost and tfree files.

[Red Sand Robot]

@bricor @dc42 Thank you both! Nice to know I can still use the slicer I'm more familiar with, without having to changed anything in the slicer settings.