Introduction
This article will help users add additional extruders to Cura (v2.0 - 3.3) in order to slice for Palette. To learn how to set up Cura V15.x.x for Palette, please see this tutorial.
Video Overview
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If you already have a printer profile in Cura, open this profile's machine settings (Settings > Printer > Manage Printers > Machine Settings).
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Copy your Start and End GCode to a document for later use if you see any in your settings.
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Add a new printer (Settings > Printer > Add Printer).
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Add a Custom FDM printer even if your printer is on the list. Even if you have an existing printer profile, there is currently no way to copy a machine and add extruders in Cura.
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Fill in your printer's information, including dimensions and settings. Set the number of extruders to 4 and the diameter to 1.75 mm.
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Under the Extruder tab for each extruder, enter your nozzle diameter and ensure that the other fields are empty or 0 (including start and end GCode).
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Click Finish to return to the home screen.
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On Cura's main menu, go to Settings > Extruder 1 > Materials > Manage Materials. On this screen, select the material you would like to print with (ex. PLA) and create a Duplicate. Under the Information tab, update the name and assign different colours. This will help distinguish between extruders and profiles.
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Under the Print Settings tab, set the Standby Temperature to be the same as the Default Printing Temperature. Repeat this steps for 4 different profiles (one for each extruder). Once updated, click Close to return to the home screen.
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At the top of the right banner, you can assign each material profile to an extruder. Please ensure that all 4 profiles are the same for each extruder.
“Please ensure that all 4 profiles are the same for each extruder.” is unclear. What do you mean here?
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Set the Initial Printing Temperature and Final Printing Temperature to be the same as your Printing Temperature.
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This is found on the right side of the home screen under Printer Setup, select Custom, which will expand a menu allowing you to change the profile settings. Hover over the Material tab on the home screen and you'll see a gear symbol appear. Clicking this will further expand the menu of customizable settings.
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Ensure that Standby Temperature and Nozzle Switch Retraction Distance are also selected.
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Back under the Material category, set the Printing Temperature and the Standby Temperature to be equal and set the Nozzle Switch Retraction Distance to 0. Repeat this for all 4 material profiles.
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Now you're set to slice! When you load multiple STL files, you can assign an extruder for each file which will colour-coordinate with the material profile.
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Do this by right-clicking an STL and selecting an extruder for it. Once all files are loaded and assigned, select all parts by holding the "Shift" key and clicking each part of the model, then right-click and select Merge Models.
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Please ensure that all pieces are loaded and assigned to different extruders before merging, as you are unable to assign extruders once the model is merged.
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For more recent versions of Cura (V3.4 on), we've seen issues with temperature changes in the GCode that causes the extruder to pause over prints, causing blobbing and quality issues. This is due to Cura adding a number of M109 commands that causes the extruder to pause as it heats and cools. To eliminate this issue, please follow these steps:
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On your computer, find the path C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Roaming\cura\3.3\definition_changes\ “your printer”_settings.inst.cfg
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Add “machine_nozzle_temp_enabled = False” to the [values] section. This disables Cura from overriding any temperatures changes in the GCode.
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Add “M109 S200” to the startup GCode.
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We've also seen that additional lines are included in the GCode that can cause issues with the nozzle temperature.
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If you're using Cura 3.6 of newer, we would suggest using a program such as Notepad++ to Find and Replace lines that contain 'M104 T0 S0'. You'll need to delete these lines or they will cause your nozzle to cool to 0 degrees.
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You can also check that the last colour to print is assigned to the first extruder, helping to avoid this issue in the GCode.
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Cura versions newer than V3.4 may cause additional issues and may require you to downgrade to previous versions of Cura.
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If you have any questions, please contact us at support@mosaicmfg.com.
If you have any questions, please contact us at support@mosaicmfg.com.
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24 Comments
What should we do next?
It would be nice to do a complete tutorial with a beginning, middle and end.
It is very complicated to search through a multitude of incomplete web pages. So we don't know what equipment does what.
Is it so difficult to allow Cura to send its files directly to the palette?
I'm very very disappointed that I can't use my equipment because of this. :-( :-( :-(
Please try to think of people who are no longer young.
Hi PhilG, you'd be unable to send files directly from Cura to your Palette. Please also note that Cura will only work for Palette 2 and older models. Palette 3 will not work with Cura.
Once you've processed the files in Cura, you will need to post process them on Chroma (mm3d.co/chroma). From there, you'll receive files for printer and Palette.
If you'd like a simpler process, I would recommend using our cloud-based slicer, Canvas (canvas3d.io). You'll be able to process and slice files all in one place, and it will create the proper files for your printer and Palette. We have a full support centre for Canvas here: Canvas
Hi Gents,
I'm new to your system.
I have a Palette 2 and use Cura 5.4 as a slicer.
When importing to Chroma the Cura' generated GCode, I've got this blocking error:
"Bounding box could not be determined
Chroma failed to determined the bounding box of this print"
Any help will be appreciated.
Thx
Hey agif, we tested for versions up to Cura 3.3. We stopped development of Chroma at that point and moved resources to Canvas.
Thx for your response
Could you please tell me the Cura version I should revert to?
Regarding my issue, in fact when importing to Chroma the gcode file generated by Cura 5.4, I have two message boxes
1st Message Box
Tool change settings not zero
Croma detected that your tool change retractations are not set to zero. This can be changed in your slicer settings
2nd Message Box
Bounding box could not be determined
I did check my Cura 5.4 settings and for all my extruders the parameter "Nozzle Switch Retractation Distance" is set to 0 (zero).
I'm looking forard to reading more from you very soon.
Best regards
agif -
Hey agif, we haven't done a lot of testing with Cura V5, would you be able to revert back to an older version of Cura and attempt to use Chroma again? Another option is to use our slicer, Canvas: canvas3d.io
Hello. My printer is an Artillery Sidewinder X1 so in Direct Drive with Cura as a slicer and I try to put into service my Palette 2S Pro... The correct functioning of the profile under Cura requires 2.5mm retraction for good impressions. I created a new profile to be able to do with Chroma, but in one of your tutorials "Cura and Chroma Setup, it is indicated "define the distance of retraction of the nozzle switch on 0 "( to be done 4 times because 4 extruders ) ! So my question is: do I remove this retraction distance or not in Cura because the X1 with my excellent profile needs this retraction ? thank you in advance for your answer (s) which will allow me to move forward because for me it is still laborious.
Hey LECELTE, you would just need to set the Nozzle Switch Retraction Distance to 0, the actual retractions during printing can be set to 2.5mm if that works best for your setup.
Have you updated your software to use 4.11 yet? (Or even 4.10). Not being able to use the latest version, shows that this hardware is NOT ready for prime time.
No, we haven’t been able to test with these versions at this time. If you’re using Palette 2, we would recommend reverting back to a previous version. Palette 3 does not work with Cura at this time.
I am using Ultimate Cura 4.10.0 but i cant find the tool change retraction settings, this is what i get when i upload a gcode from cura in to chroma.
“ Chroma detected that your tool change retractions are not set to zero. This can be changed in your slicer settings.
Chroma will process this file, but printing it may result in unintended behavior. “
If you’re able to use the print file, then you can ignore this message. We haven’t tested with Cura 4.10.0, so this version’s settings may just be causing an error with Chroma, leading it to share this message.
What about cura 4.6 \ 4.7 ? same thing?
Thank you, Alina.
What is the latest version of Cura that Chroma will work with?
Hey @jasonloosearrow, the most stable versions of Cura, in terms of working with Chroma, are 3.2 - 3.3. We recommend reverting back to these versions to have the best experience with Chroma.
Alina -