"Minimum Extrusion Length" setting issue



  • Hi, I am testing MatterControl 1.5 for the first time (it looks great!). I am configuring the settings to work with my printer, but I am having a strange issue with the "Minimum Extrusion Length" setting of the "Skirt and Raft" section. I have configured it with the value of 250mm, also I have configured the Skirt "Loops" to the value 2. With this values, if I go to the "Layer view" (I have the test cube loaded) and I click "Generate", it shows a very very long Skirt (it fills the 80% of the bed). If I put the "Minimum Extrusion Length" to 0 and let the "Loops" to 2, then it shows the correct skirt in the "Layer view" section. Could be there is an error in the software with the "Minimum Extrusion Length"? or maybe I am doing something wrong?

    Regards,
    Fran


  • MatterHackers

    Minimum Extrusion Length is the minimum amount of filament that should be extruded to make the skirt. The value 250mm makes it think it needs to extrude at least 250mm of filament(I believe it does complete loops so it may be more).

    Skirt loops is similarly the minimum amount of loops that should be done before finishing the skirt.

    These two combined mean that on a large part you will get the behavior of the minimum loops where as on a small part you will more likely get the behavior of the minimum value.



  • Yes, I understand how it works. But if you make the test I am explaining, using these settings, Mattercontrol is doing a skirt much more longer than 250mm, it creates a skirt that fills the 80% of the bed area, you can check it in the layer view.



  • And of course more than 2 loops.



  • The length is not the length of the skirt. Its the length of the filament that will be extruded. For instance, if you have a 3 mm filament and a 0.4 mm nozzle, then extruding 250 mm of filament will result in a skirt line that is 14062.5 mm long. I'm not surprised it fills the whole bed. Usually you only need to extrude 5 or 10 mm to ensure that the hot end is primed.



  • Ah ok, I understand. It was my mistake. The keyword is "extrusion". I was confusing with the "Minimum Length" of the skirt, that is used in other slicing programs as Cura. Sorry for my mistake and thank you to both for clarify this.


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