Posted by: @rainer

I've been working on creating a printer profile for the MK3, that allows to print in "real" multi-color without a MMU or any other Hardware modification.
This will allow to change the color in the middle of the layer, (not like the "ColorPrint" method where one layer was always limited to only one color)

(every print in this pic was done with only 2-5 filament changes (2 for 2 colors, 5 for 3 colors.. The colored part goes over just 2 layers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj_c2t9fxdM

This profile has 5 "virtual" extruders and the filament changes will be implemented via M600 as part of the "tool change".

You can actually print anything a MMU could print as well, but obviously it works best where you have only a small amount of filament changes. Everything in the above picture was printed with a 3-5 filament changes which can easily be handled manually.

I wrote full instruction for this and you can find all info + the required download on my Blog:
https://schlosshan.eu/blog/2019/03/02/prusa-i3-mk3-real-multicolour-prints-without-mmu/

it is actually quite easy to do, so go and try it out.
If you have any questions or feedback, let me know.

Rainer

;CUSTOM_GCODE

M117 Change to Red gold

M600

G1 E0.3 F1500 ; prime after color change

You then save it as a .gcode file the file type will say .*txt this is ok as long as your file name says .gcode at the end of it

any idea where the Gcode is wrong !!

In your article under Advanced: Printing with more than 2 colors you write that you can enter/change the filament color in the information.

Unfortunately I can't find such information in my Gcode, why is that?

• M117 change to 1 red
• M117 change to 2 black
• M117 change to 0 yellow
• M117 change to 1 red

Posted by: @rainer

I've been working on creating a printer profile for the MK3, that allows to print in "real" multi-color without a MMU or any other Hardware modification.
This will allow to change the color in the middle of the layer, (not like the "ColorPrint" method where one layer was always limited to only one color)

(every print in this pic was done with only 2-5 filament changes (2 for 2 colors, 5 for 3 colors.. The colored part goes over just 2 layers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj_c2t9fxdM

This profile has 5 "virtual" extruders and the filament changes will be implemented via M600 as part of the "tool change".

You can actually print anything a MMU could print as well, but obviously it works best where you have only a small amount of filament changes. Everything in the above picture was printed with a 3-5 filament changes which can easily be handled manually.

I wrote full instruction for this and you can find all info + the required download on my Blog:
https://schlosshan.eu/blog/2019/03/02/prusa-i3-mk3-real-multicolour-prints-without-mmu/

it is actually quite easy to do, so go and try it out.
If you have any questions or feedback, let me know.

Rainer

Looking at some videos on YouTube helped me to fully understand the process, so please ignore my request.

Posted by: @rui-guerra

Hi all,

I'm new to 3D printing but I need to print two colors in the same layer, as per the subject of this thread.

With 10 pages of posts, Gcodes modifications and other 3rd party softwares, I become lost.

Can anyone help in posting here in a succinct and clear way, a step by step guide about what one needs to do to successfully print two colors in one layer with just one extruder?

I use only FreeCad, Prusa Slicer and MK4 printer for all my projects.

Thank you very much in advance.

I'm new to 3D printing but I need to print two colors in the same layer, as per the subject of this thread.

With 10 pages of posts, Gcodes modifications and other 3rd party softwares, I become lost.

Can anyone help in posting here in a succinct and clear way, a step by step guide about what one needs to do to successfully print two colors in one layer with just one extruder?

I use only FreeCad, Prusa Slicer and MK4 printer for all my projects.

Thank you very much in advance.

Posted by: @oliver-andre

As I described, just add as many skirtlines as you have virtual extruders (or a multiple) and hight of skirt up to the highest layer you do a filament change. This way the nozzle is primed on printing the skirt after every filament change.

If you want to optimize the result, open gcode in notepad++ and search for M600. Remove the first (and following T0), as you start your print with first colour inserted anyway. On next and all following M600, remove M600 (and following T...), go a few lines down and insert a line with "M600" after the first line with G1 X... (it is the first segment of the following skirt). So any ooze you miss to remove falls into the skirt, not the object.

You might add more distance between object and skirt in print settings.

Example for editing g-code:

M600 ;                              <== REMOVE !!!
T1 ;                                <== REMOVE !!!
M104 S230 ; set temperature         <== Edit temperature if needed
M900 K0.08 ; Filament gcode LA 1.5
M900 K45 ; Filament gcode LA 1.0
G1 E-1 F2100
G1 X159.205 Y59.709 F10800
G1 Z.2 F720
G1 E1 F2100
M204 S800
;TYPE:Skirt/Brim
;WIDTH:0.42
G1 F1200
G1 X172.958 Y59.711 E.43122
M600  ;                             <== INSERT M600 here !!!
G1 X173.631 Y59.815 E.02133
G1 X174.32 Y60.065 E.023

As you also can see, there is an M104 nozzle temperature command after the toolchange (here "T1"). First colour is T0, second T1 and so on. If nozzle temperature is not set correctly for the filament, you can change nozzle temp here directly (or add a line with M104 S... if it is missing).

A bit of gcode editing is no magic ;-)

That's an awesome trick, thanks a lot! I tried to copy the purge line commands from the beginning right behind the M600 command, but wasn't able to get it right. After the filament change, the extruder always went right into the middle of the print, bumped one time onto the first layer, left some debris there and then went to the purge spot.

Has anyone else experienced this, and is there a fix?

I figured it out late last night though... Hopefully posting here will help someone else at some point. Adding "M600" to the "Tool change G-Code" resolved the issue and it's mostly working properly. Only challenge left is there is a little bit of extra PLA that leaks out between the filament change and resumption of printing. I think I saw a fix for that somewhere, but am going to have to back and find that solution again...

Without seeing 3mf-file I am just guessing here 🤔 
After loading stl you must assign filament to your different parts....

Save, Zip (<- Important), and upload 3mf-file