3D Printing Forum

Okay, here's what my settings are...let me know what you think?

One thing I spotted was the retraction distance was 0.70 Perhaps up that to 1.0 ?

And you suggested unchecking the "Only retract when crossing open spaces", correct?

The more you raise that, less retractions will occur.

Yea, disable that, but mind that will increase the retraction amount (bad feeders can grind).

I'll leave the distance alone
I will do a test print with the 'Only retract when crossing open spaces' disabled

That being unchecked made a difference

New print on left

As neotko pointed out several times...extruding plastics is a delicate process...with many variables.

nilrog wrote:I played with this a bit and I could reduce the size of those blobs...but I could not get rid of them completely...and there was a limit when increasing the value didn't improve anything. So to completely get rid of those blobs takes some experimenting and fiddling with more settings

I mentioned here that I had great success reducing blobs with "Coast at end" by increasing it slightly from the setting in the S3D profile I started with. But...on some prints...mainly those with little to no retractions...fiddling with this setting reveals another problem...the opposite of blobs...tiny holes in the surface

Right now my printer is down due to a change to the #gudoZGE but once it's up and running again with a working S3D profile I will be playing more with this...and neotko's negative retract distance tip is a top candidate

But as with so much else...I don't expect to find A profile that fits all kinds of prints...there will always be compromises...

I agree, and to Simplify 3D's credit, the clean menu layout of options is WORLDS easier than Cura's "search search and search" method

Once you've seen the light you don't want to turn to the dark side again

Well in fairness, there are some prints Cura tromps all over Simplify 3D on. Case in point, those simple circles. Cura nailed it the first time. No crazy setting changes chasing down why blobs occurred. It. Just. Worked.

And then there are some where S3D wins.

I'm not saying that Cura is bad...for its price point...but if it had a similar prize to S3D...I would not buy it.

Also with 2.x it lost its ease-of-use in favor of a gazillion settings, with "hidden" settings, and obscure connections between them. And Cura 2.x is a fast moving target so what you "understand" today might change in the next version etc.

The only Cura I still use now is 15.04...but that's me

The 2.x series has been rough

I really hate digging for the options the way they currently have it set up.

I have to agree here with nilrog. While I am still learning things about the new Cura (thanks for keeping it open source btw) and other tools, my fall back when I just want to print is 15.04.

Yeah that was a really good version

I really prefer that menu layout for changing settings. The new Cura is a bit overwhelming for additional settings!

I've left "Only retract when crossing open spaces" unchecked and done the same with Coast at End (Off) I need to do some more test prints and see how it works...a few weeks with the Ultimaker 3 spoiled me