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OctoPrint Cura profiles?

Discussion in 'Software' started by dguisinger, Dec 26, 2015.

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  1. dguisinger

    dguisinger New Member

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    Hey guys, I'm trying to figure out how to get OctoPrint on my Rasp Pi 2 working. Everything is installed, i've configured the printer, I can send commands, etc.

    When I go to print something, OctoPrint is asking me for a Cura profile.
    It appears I'm supposed to import cura .ini files, but they don't really say where you get these, or what is even in these. I'm obviously not google searching for the right thing because I'm not getting anything helpful.

    Does anyone here know what I'm looking for?
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I don't have any recent experience with that (I messed with Octoprint on the original Pi).
    Did you review Tom's updated video?

     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    He recently redid it for the Pi2 and the newer Octoprint version
    Skip to about 6 minutes for the configuration stuff.
     
    #3 mark tomlinson, Dec 26, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2015
  4. dguisinger

    dguisinger New Member

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    I did, I didn't see anything on it regarding to the profiles. If I go into the Cura plug-in documentation, it says to import a file, but it doesn't say where to get them.

    https://github.com/foosel/OctoPrint/wiki/Plugin:-Cura
    Initial Setup, step 2

    Hate when instructions assume everyone knows what they are talking about.....
     
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  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I haven't used Cura in a while, but I imagine you can copy one (the config file) from the PC/MAC* and use that.
    It is a bit odd that they don't just allow you to create one.
    It is what configures Cura so that it knows the fundamental size/port/etc. for your printer.

    @WheresWaldo has done this more recently, maybe we can get his attention :)

    *which would mean you have Cura installed and configured on that PC
     
  6. sesl

    sesl New Member

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    I think I know what you're talking about... It sounds like you're trying to upload an .stl file directly to Octoprint instead of Slicing it first in Cura and exporting the GCODE. While you can slice the model on your Pi, it will be much slower than slicing it in Cura or other program on your desktop/laptop and also is easier to adjust the settings in Cura on the fly. Your "Profile" is simply an ini with all your Cura printer settings.

    If you're in Cura, you can go to the File Menu > Save Profile to save all your current settings to an ini file. I like to have different profiles for my different materials along with high quality settings as well as fast n dirty settings so I don't have to go through and adjust settings every time I switch materials.

    If you want to import your profile in Octoprint to slice on your Pi...
    Goto your Settings in Octoprint
    Scroll all the way down to the Plugins section and click on "CuraEngine (<=15.04)"
    From here you can import your Cura
     
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  7. dguisinger

    dguisinger New Member

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    Ah, thanks for the clarification. Yeah I discovered afterwards that I could export my gcode from MatterControl so that's how I'm doing it so far. Ultimately I'd like to log in from work, drag an STL file I find on a random day onto the printer and just print it. Though, I guess if I don't know much filament is left on the printer it's probably not a real help.
     
  8. sesl

    sesl New Member

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    In that case, yeah you can totally set it up that way just you will have to setup your profile in Cura, save the profile and load it into Octoprint. I never thought of that use for it and is a really good idea. I just started loading up my reliable profiles so I could do the same thing. I would definitely recommend a webcam or pi camera if you don't already have one. It saved me even last night from a potential disaster when I was at the in-laws and saw that I had a snag in the spool causing extreme under extrusion and some gnarly grinding.
     
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  9. dguisinger

    dguisinger New Member

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    I hooked up a logitech camera. I need to print out a mount for it.
    I wish there was an optical sensor to make sure there was filament coming into the printer, and a way to pause automatically and alert you that you need to add filament... and I wish you could lock it down reliably enough to not throw off the positioning while feeding new filament in....
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  11. phaggood

    phaggood New Member

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    I'm still struggling with Octoprint/Cura and my Robo3D. I reset the temperature settings to 235/80 and uploaded gcode with the limiter to not start printing until the bed hit 80. Hit print on octoprint and it started printing at 60. Also, although was able to create a printing profile on desktop Cura using the settings I had in MatterControl, the Cura plugin seems to also want a slicing profile. I have no idea what this is and can't find any references to create one.
     
  12. CDitty

    CDitty Member

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    I'm in the same situation dguisinger is in. Tryong to set this up for the first time. I don't have cura installed and have just used mattercontrol.
     
  13. Spidematt

    Spidematt Member

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    Can you not just slice it on cura and save the geode to you're octo print? If you are using the raspberry octoprint I wouldn't use that as a slicer. It's pretty slow and you don't have much control over it mattercontrol is ok but after searching the forums you'll find that the older version of cura is a lot better. Even if you are using cura as the slicer in mattercontrol it's different I get better prints out of cura itself
     
  14. CDitty

    CDitty Member

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    I don't have cura installed. I was able to find the profile in the source code though. Won't be able to test it though until after Christmas.
     

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  15. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @CDitty and @phaggood if you slice first on your PC or Mac with any of the available slicers, you just transfer the resulting gcode file to the printer. After it is sliced on the PC/MAC you never look at the STL file again. If you transfer the STL file to your printer OctoPrint will try to slice it for you. Unfortunately whatever IOT device or rPi is being used in the C2/R2 will just be so slow as to be virtually unusable for slicing anything other than the smallest models and you do not have full control of how it is sliced on the printer. It is a consequence of a good idea with poor implementation and marketing. OctoPrint added it because people were crying for it and marketing loves it because it let's them check off the 'It's Plug & Play' checkbox.

    Slicing anything of size will be exponentially faster and more practical on a PC/Mac. Personally I have used OctoPrint for nearly a year and while Cura_Engine is installed I never use it and ignore the fact that it is there. I never transfer anything other than gcode files to it. I think if you look and ask at the OctoPrint Google+ group you will see that is how the majority of people use it also.
     
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  16. CDitty

    CDitty Member

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    Would you mind going into a little more detail for the slicing? My knowledge on all this is rather new. I am currently using the MatterControl. Would I load the stl file in that and then edit/save it to create the gcode?
     
  17. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    MatterControl is a combination of PC/Mac printer interface and slicer. You have to remember that a 3D printer is not a printer at all. Every manufacturer of 3D printers (so I am not singling out Robo for this) markets their 3D printer as something that is as easy to use as any other printer, that is as far from the truth as you can get. You can't sell into the mass market if it isn't easy, so you sell a dream of ease of use.

    Now to your question.

    Anatomy of a 3D print simplified.
    • First you have to have a model that is created by someone/something. Usually it is a CAD user that creates the model or sometimes a graphics artist. All CAD/Graphics programs have their own way of saving and storing your model. You can't 3D print directly out of most CAD programs. CAD programs produce solid models, and you can export the outer shell of those solid models in the form of an STL file.
    • Next there are slicers, that can take certain output files, usually STL, from your CAD program and literally slice it into thin layers. Where the printer will learn where to move the head and when to squirt out extrude. MatterControl is an example of that. It along with other slicers will take all the slice instructions and convert them to a language that the printer can understand. Since the earliest 3D printers used parts from CNC machines and plotters the easy thing was to use the same language for all the instructions the printer needed. The language most used is based on early process control work done by Allen Bradley and now maintained by NIST, that is g-code.
    • The printer control board will take the g-code instructions one by one and then execute them as quickly as it can to build your 3D print. Sometimes you may use the printer control part of a program like MatterControl to display what the printer is doing or to divy out the g-code instructions to the printer as it needs them. Sometimes you can use other control programs like OctoPrint, Simplify3D, Repetier-Host or others to do exactly the same thing.

    Same scenario extremely simplified:
    1. Make or get a CAD model
    2. Save or Export it to an STL file (Repositories such as Thingiverse can eliminate step 1 as most contain STL files already)
    3. Convert STL to g-code with any slicer (MatterControl contains a slicer)
    4. Print g-code file.
    OctoPrint in general is a control program, but some time ago someone asked if it could slice stuff up too. They wanted to eliminate step 3 listed above. So the creator of OctoPrint, Gina Häußge, said sure we can add that. There are a bunch of prerequisites necessary to make it all work, but most of it is in place in OctoPi (a special build of OctoPrint with all the extras already loaded) and I am pretty sure in the Robo C2 implementation (based on OctoPi). So while the answer to slicing is, you can do it in OctoPrint the real question is, do you really want to? In my case and most other people the answer is no! There is simply not enough control, slicing takes forever on under-powered single board computers, nor are there any ways to tweak the output like you can in an interactive slicer like the MatterControl program you are currently using.
     
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  18. CDitty

    CDitty Member

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    Thanks. How would I get the gcode from MC? I combined 2 stl files in MC and when I saved it, the saved file was a amf file. Is that the gcode?

    Since I'm looking at switching to octoprint, I'm currently looking at other programs. I just downloaded craftware and will look at it tonight. Any recommendations for a good slicer for the mac?
     
  19. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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  20. CDitty

    CDitty Member

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    Thanks. I'll look into those and play with them.
     
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