Extruder 2 needs Load/Unload - and a few other comments...



  • Hi,

    First off, thanks for the great software in MatterControl. I've used V1.5x for several years now on my Robo3D and became pretty familiar with it. I recently bought a FolgerTech FT-6 with the dual feed (not true dual extruder/hotend) option that I'm trying to get running and was not having very good results with Cura/Slic3r and Repetier (you can see that saga starting here), so thought I'd try seeing if MatterControl could help. I upgraded to 2.19.x and managed to get my Robo3D settings moved over and running. One thing I missed terribly there was an export/import that worked between those versions. The move to XML from INI format meant that even editing the files manually to move my profiles into the printer settings wasn't a very viable option. While I've recreated most of what I've needed I'm sure others would benefit from a better upgrade path.

    I'm managing to find most of what I'm looking for in terms of settings, although I'm sure you're aware that most of the online documentation and tutorials are all still based on the V1.5x user interface, so when things have moved, it's a bit of a pain to find them. While I see the power of the new align tool in the new interface, it works considerably different than previously, so the guidance on dual color prints wasn't much help on aligning the STLs.

    One thing that always bothers me (Microsoft likes to do this a lot, but sometimes I think they take joy in annoying their users) is the addition of two or more steps where only one is (or was) needed. The part load and alignment is considerably different, and having the default be at the corner of the bed and always having to do an auto-align after loading is rather annoying. Since I generally only print single parts, I'd really like them to come up in the center of the bed like it used to. Is there any way to fix that? Similarly, having to hit print twice (print button brings up a menu with a second print button) is annoying. Any chance of getting back to a simpler/cleaner interface for some of those features?

    Finally (for now), on to the original topic of the post. I have a dual feed, single hot-end extruder, but only have a load/unload option for a single extruder. We need that option for both. Also, up to now it's only run the first extruder (0), although for some reason this morning when I went to unload after my dual color test print, it would only run the second extruder (1). I had to manually send G-code to unload the first one. If there's a way to toggle the active extruder drive for the load/unload function, I couldn't find it.

    Thanks for any feedback or fixes.

    Beo


  • MatterHackers

    First things first. We are working on significant new dual extrusion features and load/unload will be in the next build after this months.

    Second, the object position should be fixed in the 2.19.2 build. It is in alpha now and will be release in the next two weeks or so.

    We take all the feedback we receive very seriously, and try and incorporate it into our future designs.

    Thanks


  • MatterHackers

    For the parts to load up in the center of the bed I am able to do this in the current Alpha version but I know I have seen this as an issue before.

    Let us know what else you want to see and we will give it our best shot.



  • Thanks Gents, for the quick and positive responses. I look forward to seeing the updates in the next release. Keep up the good work!

    Thanks,

    Beo


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