Not sure about the cura setting, I’ll have to check. As far as installing the BL Touch goes, I felt I needed it to get a better print. I would try to level the bed, and the corners were not level with the center. I plan on printing something that is roughly 200mm², and I figured I needed it after watching Mr Shapiro’s BL Touch video, not out of laziness.
Is “z-hopping” called something else? That didn’t come up in the search.
I think I ran into this a while back. You have to make Z hopping visible before you can do anything with it. Let me have a quick look:
Yes, click the Settings menu and select the 3rd option, Configure Setting Visibility. In there you can opt to make all settings visible.
That is not required. You can just type in “z-hop”, “at retract” or “on retract” into the search field above settings and it will show up temporarily. They activated “z-hop on retract” by default it seems. I am using the German translation here, so I just guess what it is. Just “Retract” should bring that option up to front for sure.
Ah. I was assuming, since he couldn’t find it by searching, that it had to be made visible.
Thanks, I’ll look for it.
Found it, no dash, “z hop when retracted”. Not Enabled.
There are other options related to z-hop. At least one global enable and a z-hop on travel AFAIR.
Anyway it would be strange if the z movement all comes from the bed levelling.
As @Geit said, there are other Z options; quite a few in fact. In the Configure Setting Visibility, try just searching for Z alone.
I found the z hop options, they aren’t enabled.
To enable, all you have to do is click the check boxes beside the options. This doesn’t really enable them; it simply makes them visible, but you get the idea.
I think this conversation is going to the twilight zone.
How do you figure?
Someone said I shouldn’t need it,
I said I could see it working on a print.
Someone said it was probably z-hop and not the BL Touch, since it was probably enabled by default.
I said I couldn’t find “z-hop”.
A discussion on the setting probably hidden.
I checked again, and found the setting under “z hop”, instead of “z-hop”. Not a big deal, and it was not enabled.
Then, someone tells me how to enable it, but I was only looking to see if it was enabled to see if it was this setting that was adjusting the z, and not compensation from the BL Touch.
Twilight Zone.
I look at it as just 2 aspects of the same issue. Someone posted a while back that, in order to see & use the Z Hop feature in the Print Settings, you need to make it visible by checking its boxes in Settings/Configure Setting Visibility. I did that and then I could find the settings in Print Settings. @Geit has posted that you don’t actually have to make the settings visible in order to use them in Print Settings. For me, that’s nowhere near Twilight Zone. 'Course, I’ve seen some pretty weird shit in my time, so maybe that biases my view.
In any case, Retraction & Z Hop are 2 settings that can really affect print quality.
Ok, instead of twilight zone, we were talking past each other.
I just hope the settings can help you get the results you want.
Just to clear things up. In Cura you can stick with the default beginner options and still be able to modify advanced settings.
BUT you should know what you are doing, since this way just shows the options temporarily and if you modify them and forget about your modification Cura will continue to use your messed up settings and the user starts to wonder why strange things happen, even just using “beginners”-profile.
Keep that in mind.
Above the settings there is a search field. It is a powerful tool, that just got enhanced in recent versions. It not only searches for option names, but also search within the help bubbles that appear, when you hover with the mouse over an option. If you enter “support” it will show any option related to support in any way below the search field. When you clear the search field all those options will disappear again, but if you change any of the options regardless of turning an option on or changing a value, this value stays changed, even if the option is no longer visible in the future. It stays enabled for any future objects you print until you search again for that option and undo your modification.
This option is nice to play with advanced features, without getting lost in a pile of 500 options, but when you are finished “playing”, you should undo those settings unless you plan to use them forever. You can change the visibility of that option, so it will be there by default, or you can hide it again.
I use it for options I never change like “brim around support” is a feature I like and have enabled anytime. Since it gets overridden by the “enable brim” option anyway, I don´t need it to be in my general settings, so I turned it on and disabled visibility. When ever I now turn on a brim, I get brim around supports touching the build plate, too. Same I do with the line type of the top and bottom layer pattern and the support type since my functional parts do not need have these changed every time. This way I know they are set properly without having additional options to worry about when preparing a print. When I want a print I search for them and change them, slice the model, change them back and hide them again.
I find this concept of cura amazing. You start with a limited amount of options as a beginner and while you get more and more confident in 3D printing you enable/make visible more and more options. Cura kind of grows with the user.
A friend of mine uses Simplify3D and it just gives you multiple windows with tons of options each. You kind of feel like a noop avoiding to do something wrong there, because it all looks logical for someone with years of experience, but is looking over complicated for beginners. I also cannot recommend Simplify3D, because it needs an internet connection and a server on the other side working, or you cannot use it, which is a no go for an 150 Euro payed program.
I agree about Simplify3D. I’ve only been 3D printing since the beginning of June, so I can’t be sure, but I’ve seen this kind of thing with software before, and I bet the makers of S3D had big issues with people cracking their licence key system and using the software without paying for it. So, in response, they eventually moved to an online licence verification system, leading to the limitation @Geit outlined.
I haven’t changed any settings