Different Print Profiles per extruder?
Prusa XL with 5 extruders.
TPU set up on extruder 5 and finally working decently well. Part of the adjustments for TPU was reducing overall speed but, more importantly for this discussion, I also reduced the External Perimeters Speed in the Print Settings. Reducing the speed of just the external perimeters is not an available option in the Filament Profile.
PLA set up on extruder 1 and can have a different profile set for PLA with increased speeds and other things.
I did not see this coming but just realized this is a problem when I want to print PLA and TPU in the same print job. I am unable to find a way to assign one Print Profile to Extruder 5 and another Print Profile to Extruder 1. Am I missing something, or is this true?
If I want to print TPU and PLA in the same print, I can use the PLA print profile with faster speeds, but this will kill my TPU print quality or I could use the TPU print profile, but this will needlessly increase my print time A LOT.
It feels like an oversight in PrusaSlicer when considering multi-material. If printing multi-color (using all the same filament but different colors) this would work just fine since the same print settings would apply to all. However, when you want to use multi-material (not multi-color) you definitely need different print settings per extruder as each material will have differing requirements (for example my TPU vs PLA issue above).
Any insights on profile settings I am missing appreciated. Any insights on workarounds for this oversight appreciated. lol any insights on this at all welcome.
Luke
AIUI the Max volumetric speed setting in the filament profile supplies the base limit for most of the extrusion settings. You do have to compromise on bed temperature.
Cheerio,
RE: Different Print Profiles per extruder?
Thank you for your thoughts. But I think you are not clear about what I am asking and that is likely due to me not articulating myself well.
When I mentioned in my original post that I "....was reducing overall speed but, more importantly for this discussion, I also reduced the External Perimeters Speed in the Print Settings."
Let me clarify like I should have.
The first part of that statement should have been clearer indicating I have already reduced the overall speed for my TPU using the exact setting you suggest, the max volumetric speed in the filament settings. I Have already lowered the MVS in Filament Settings, but this does not accomplish the required mix of actions.
To get specific portions of some models to print correctly, I also needed to slow down the External Perimeters setting in Print Settings. This reduced ONLY the external perimeters to an even slower speed as I needed that for specific features to print well. I could have just reduced the max volumetric speed even lower in the filament settings to accomplish this, BUT the downside would be the entire print would be slower and dramatically increase my TPU print time.
To keep my print time down but still have all features print well, I need a combination of Filament Settings (MVS) and a Print Setting (external Perimeters Speed). If I do this, all in Filament Settings as you suggest via MVS, my print time suffers. If I use the Print Settings to get the desired print, multi-material prints suffer.
What I would like to know, is there a way to use "Different Print Settings" with "Different Extruders" in the "same print job"?
This still feels like an oversight with PrusaSlicer if trying to print with multi-Material. To get the desired outcome, sometimes a specific filament needs settings in BOTH the Filament Settings AND the Print Settings.
Since only one extruder can be operating at any one time, it seems silly to have Print Settings set in a way that it is a global thing instead of a per extruder thing.
Is there some sort of work around to get the desired (correct?) behavior where each extruder can have print settings that accurately reflect the needs of the filament being used in a specified extruder?
Just in case Prusa is "listening", my suggested fix would be to add a few additional settings under Filament Settings > Overrides which would then override the print settings for various speeds.
Thanks for any insights.
RE: Different Print Profiles per extruder?
You are right that the software can use a significant update to really utilize the full potential of a tool changer, but there isnt much we can do besides wait or do your own programming.
If you need super specific workarounds you should post a specific example.
You can use modifiers to change different speeds (including external perimeter ) but that is limited by MVS and whether the machine can accelerate to those speeds. So assuming your geometry isn't the bottleneck, you should set your MVS to the fastest you can successfully print TPU then use modifiers to set speed limits. If your model isn't something that can be simply done with layer height limits or basic shapes then you'll need to split your model into seperate stls of the separate materials and use part-wide modifiers of a multi-part object instead.
Setting a filament's MVS only slows the parts of the print using that specific filament. If half your part is PLA and the other half is TPU, setting TPU's MVS super slow does not slow down the PLA parts whatsoever. But TPU prints super slow to begin with so including at all in a print is going to slow it down regardless.
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RE: Different Print Profiles per extruder?
I like to join this request.
My filament profiles have specific settings for a certain outcome. Now I need to change my way of thinking hoping that I get close with the MVS.
I much rather select a profile per tool. But adding speeds to filament overrides would be a start.