Being new to 3D printers and learning about Gcode.
In watching my printer print, I see many times where it wastes time making silly moves.
Things like printing in lower left, then jumps to top right only to come right back to the lower left again.
Is there some software that looks at the Gcode file, and makes it more efficient for print moves ?
Or am i looking at this all wrong and its a weakness on the slicer part.
Do you have Octolapse installed?
It seems to me it takes an image and goes back to work again.
No I do not.
So can you share the systeminfo bundle?
Also the gcode file.
octoprint-systeminfo-20220117021636.zip (523.1 KB)
Gcode is 4MB and this forum wont let me upload it.
You can zip it.
You also may try safe mode.
What slicer do you use?
I'm going to venture a guess that this is slicer related, and you didn't tell us what slicer you are using. There are numerous different slicers available, some free, some not.
Gcode will compress quite nicely using zip. You can also edit a copy and delete all the layers after the first one that exhibits the behavior.
I use the gcode viewer in either CraftWare (Pro) or ideaMaker to look at the output of whatever slicer I use. Both of these slicers are free and can probably be configured to generate gcode for your printer.
Design2_6h41m_0.2mm_220C_PLA_ENDER3V2_01_17_2022_102531.zip (3.5 MB)
I have been using PrusaSlicer.
BlockquoteYou can also edit a copy and delete all the layers after the first one that exhibits the behavior.
thanks for the tip, but it is not just certain layers that are a issue. It's in each layer in the file.
Just to be clear, there is not a " problem " as everything prints just fine. I just see many times in everything I print where there is allot of wasted time when the print head is jogging around to different areas then coming back.
Have you already tried safe mode?
I have not. I am sure its not an OctoPrint issue. I have seen this happen on every print, even before I used Octoprint.
I am going to give CraftWare as @b-morgan suggested, and see if things change. Either way that is one grate slicer. So thanks for the suggestion!
If it runs fine in safe mode, it's still no OctoPrint issue. It's then an issue with one of the 3rd party plugins.
This is definitely the internal slicer algorithms and will vary depending on which slicer you use. It can even change when using different settings within a single slicer.
I wasn't suggesting that the problem was confined to a single layer, I was suggesting that you could upload a truncated gcode file by deleting all the layers above the first one to exhibit the problem so that we could look at it. It appears you were successful in uploading the entire file, so this is a moot point now.
Thanks people for your help and suggestions.
Now I know what to focus on.
Slicer takes into account the amount of time between layers, it can skip to different areas to allow cooling before adding another layer too soon
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Honestly, I haven't seen such a behaviour before.
Cura (whatever the newest version is now) has an option, I think under experimental, to do the optimisations you say (and describing as undesirable), it also mentions the downsides to optimising for travel.
You'll have to set it to show all options and then search for it.
You can then look at each layer by layer to see how it would now print.
Since you're new, give other slicers a go.
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No slicer is going to command a printer to do all of the printing in one area. It's going to do all the printing on one layer.
Thats not what I am talking about.
Say I made a 4"x4"x1" solid box.
It could be printing in say the lower left corner for 10 minutes. Then it will jump up to the top right corner and start working there for a while then come back to the lower left. There are many times it just hops around which wastes time. Im just asking what's the deal with the wasted movements.
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I don't see how that could even work unless printhead stops goes up with Z axis (or down) because at some point the printhead assembly would crash in to print. I don't know much about gcode but I know that it sees the printhead as a point, there is no accommodation for fans, shrouds. Firmware doesn't know they exist. Certainly the printhead will make some moves that might be puzzling but they are on a layer by layer basis.
In Octoprint you can follow the build process and/or fast forward each layer using slider bar on right side of tab whose name eludes me now but the view is straight down the z axis. You see z axis move by the layer count. only motion you see is x and y