Printable View
That's quite a process, and one that I discovered in my journey through Google today. I've heard others with similar solutions. I remember back in college, way tooooo many years ago, where we had to simulate a floating point processor in 8088 Assembly Language. The simulation included operations for adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing.... That was probably the only program that I didn't get working 100%...
I just downloaded it. must say, it is quite nice. Much MUCH simplier to use, has a good look to it and, even though WAY above my knowledge and expertise, a ton of info. CAn not wait to finally, FINALLY print ABS through this puppy and for that matter, other filaments. Thanks buddybu and TommyDee, yet another reason for my wife to be upset with me for spending too much time in the basement!!!
Holy Cow ! What a thread... what a tool ;) I think I get what it is about . but I don't get it at all... but I think my first mistake was to take the download from the first page :rolleyes:
I know, I know - different filaments behave different - still, to use this tool: what is it what you recommend to print PETG? sounds like use the Cube3 Slicer, to produce a ecocycle cube3 file while selecting an ABS material, use your tool to adjust the heat and retraction and give it a try, is this correct?
So it is definitely a tool for those that are knowing what they are doing i suppose :confused:I would kindly ask for a crash course/ guidance what makes most sense to start up with. what does it take to get started. simple to complex... that would be nice...
apart from that are you willing to share your code? I'm an IT guy as well and I would love to see how you managed all this... apart from that I was wondering if a port to apple is possible :cool:
Hey Energyx, welcome to the forum and the kind words.
First, from simple to complex. Well, the Cube3Editor aim was to remove the need to hex-edit CUBE3 files, decode them to BFB, edit the BFB, and reencode the BFB to CUBE3 format.
So, for the simplest use case.
1. Take your favorite STL file and pull it into CubePrint.
2. Print your model, select "Offline Ekocycle" and save to file.
3. Open CUBE3 file in Cube3Editor.
4. From there, change EKOCYCLE to CUBE3 in the Printer Model. This will also change the Firmware and Min Firmware versions.
5. Select the filament type your cartridge is configured as, PLA or ABS.
6. Select any color, or the color that your cartridge is configured as. The side effect is if you don't match the color in the cartridge, you get the extra dialog on the cube3 printer that the color doesn't match the model.
7. In the temperature side, the temps are quite high for the EKOCYCLE. The PLA I use has a temperature range of 190-220. So, I set the highest temperature, usually 265, to 220. I then set the remaining values to less than that:
265 -> 220
250 -> 210
etc. You'll figure out what temps work best for you. When I am printing ABS, I leave the temperatures alone.
8. Select calculate, then update for the cartridge you are adjusting.
9. Select Generate Cube3 -- this will save the updated cube3 file with an _MOD appended to the filename, so BOB.CUBE3 becomes BOB_MOD.CUBE3 and BOB.CUBE3 remains unchanged. (this was a request from TD).
That's the simplest solution. the nice thing about this tool is that you can have a PLA configured cartridge and print ABS through it by adjusting the temperatures. You can get more fine tuned by adjusting the extrusion rates and pressures, or even editing the BFB.
The code is written in C#, and is not the cleanest layout. I have been refactoring as I go along, but there should be no reason why you couldn't cross compile to make a Mac version. Although I use a grid library that may not be available, but since it is all C#, it should be capable.
See https://github.com/buddybu/cube3editor for the source code.
See https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gd...mhQ_f28-DhOI6e for the latest version.
Awesome! I will have a look! Great stuff :o
As to making 3rd party ABS work in the Cube3...
Set the printer to Offline Ekocycle.
Set up your build plate.
Save the file to the library or to disk (export to disk from the library if needed).
Open the saved .cube3 file with the Cube3Editor.exe
Change the Printer Model to 'Cube3'
Change the material type to ABS
Change the color to any color
File>Save Model
Import the newly generated .cube3 file back into the CubePrint app and send it to the printer.
Under edit>preferences I use yes; preserve Original... Do not Create backups... Yes Zero Temp allowed... and Do not minimize Cube3 File Size.
I mention this as it may be troublesome to know which file is the original and which is modified. With these settings, a new file with -MOD is created.
If you only have a PLA chip, just change the material to PLA. This is just a handshake and will not affect the rest of the data.
Temperature changes are a bit tricky in Cube3. You cannot make a huge mess but proper operation depends on extruder temperature sharing.
The retract settings are for the 'overclockers' among us. I use it to globally change Cube3 files to CubePro files. It can also help manage blobs or purposely over or under-extrude.
And if you missed it, Buddy's also included command line options if you find yourself with a common routine that you want to send through a batch file.
Oh, yeah, the command line. A bunch of this stuff can be modified that way. Thanks for the reminder, I need to update the lead post with the current command line usage.
The command line stuff I will check later :) My long run goal at the moment is PETG together with soluble support (PVA?). I only own PLA chips...maybe I should try to get some more 3dsystems materials before they are all sold out (and if it is just for a backup nozzle...). I don't think I have a good surrounding to print ABS (wife already complains on the smell of PLA...)
Also started to look at your code. First think I want to do is break it free to VSC and dotnet core... let's see if I succeed :rolleyes: But some other business first :cool:
Since Ekocycle doesn't support PVA it will be an interesting update to get the slice you want. It will have to be PLA or ABS with PVA as one of the materials. Since this is a two extruder file now, the editor gets a little more complex with heat-sharing. Have you found my earlier report on how that works in the files?
i may have read it but not recognised it as for me important. I do know that there is this Bias thing with both temps for both sides. But first things first ... single material is just fine to start with... so PETG it is I'm looking for. So now I have a simple coin that I have loaded in the program. I now see the grid for left and right which represents the temperatures. so now I can say...well the 3rd party filament (in this case PLA) is most likely happy with less temp ... so i would just for fun reduce by 10. so good...but maybe for the first layer it should be even less...so how do i read this table... and it also has counts...so I guess counts of that particular temp set in the bfb?! so here I just would like to get some input on what this things are about ...
- - - - - - - - - -
So I must say...You two rock...with the B2B Mod, and the adjustments to the cube3 files I just made my best print ever ... no stringing, no clocking sound, superb first layer...I was so close in investing a new printer because i thought they may be better (and they are with things like speed, noise, etc) but the print quality after all is more than ok now on the Cube... especially for a hoppy printer like me. Thank you once more! So cool. the only thing that is left for a perfect print ( and as I understood this almost no way to remove) the "blob"... for me that looks like it gets produced when the printer made the first outer layer, when it is just round "around" it has this super mini delay before it makes the second one... this produces a "scar" all the way up the print...and really sharp tips also get a bit messed up ...