Anet A8

[thuffner3]

Hello New Here
Ive been trying to figure out Cura 14.07 it came with the A8.
Picked up a file from thingiverse (ANET_A8_OCTAFAN_2.0.stl) and the first print looked great on fist inspection, pulled it off the build plated and it didnt have a bottom.
The second print looked like it might have had a bottom, but it sure looked like it was the initial attachment layer and this print didnt have a top.
Other files going thru Cura look like they might be missing a finish top layer.
Ideas ?
TIA
Neil

[TommyDee]

Welcome to the forum Neil.

Your preview should show what you should be getting. Seems a setting of 'zero top or bottom layer' is set somewhere.
Cura has a lot of options. It may take a while to get use to them.

[thuffner3]

Thanks for the quick reply Tom,
I've been round and round with cura today,
I uninstalled it hoping that the default settings once reinstalled would make it work.
I used Rhine 3D to create a 1" cube and the same thing happens to both the top and bottoms.
They show up for the cube itself in the preview window, but the toolpath shows no top or bottom.

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Tom,
Here is a screen shot of the current settings for the cube.

[TommyDee]

I think Cura is getting bigger than their britches. You shouldn't have to tell a slicer to make a skin on top and bottom, only how many layers you want for that skin.

Most of these programs now have a cache of settings somewhere that even reloading doesn't clear. They reside in user settings in hidden folders. Is this Cura for ANET or Cura generic? I'm trying to figure out if you ask this kind of question in Cura discussions or ANET discussions. This should be an easy one in a Cura discussion board.

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Initial layer thickness "10"mm? try 0.2mm. Yes, you should get traces for a top and bottom in the preview if they are going to print.

[thuffner3]

cura setting 3.jpg
The first picture with a setting of 10 had been exagerated to see if a higher setting would work.
I'm going to dig into the Cura folder and see if there are files that can be deleted or modified

[TommyDee]

When you slice "marvin", does he have closed feet?

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Looking at Cura 3.6, I see an entry of Top/Bottom Thickness, Bottom Thickness, and Bottom Layers all under Shell in basic setup. There's a few more options on how the layers should lay.

[thuffner3]

robot1.jpgrobot2.jpgrobot3.jpg
Same problem with this file as well.
I tried to run a cube file thru Repetier with no better results.
Slicr seemed to run it fine so I'm trying a test print now
I would rather use Cura though

[TommyDee]

It looks like your top layers are working but you have a bigger problem on the bottom. Something is voiding the area inside the robot if you look at the start of the infill. It only starts at some distance up, 10mm? Would it do this if you sliced 2 items? Okay, you see me reaching now. Email to Cura and ANET support with the print file and the original STL is called for.

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I see that "cut off object bottom" and it is bugging me. Looked it up and such but seems there could be a bug there. What if you gave that a positive value, say 5mm. The slicer should present a bottom layer up at 5mm. If that were the case, there is an offset in zet somewhere.

[thuffner3]

I was wrong. Repetier did the code correctly

[TommyDee]

Cura's known for quirks.