Built-in Calibration Tools  

RE: Built-in Calibration Tools

Is it really that hard to add useful tools??

Don't know but I'm sure their software dev focus right now is on the Core ONE firmware and whatever is needed in Prusaslicer to support it.

Not saying it wouldn't be nice to have this stuff built into PS, I'm sure I would use it. But as long as I can download temp towers and other calibration models easily, I'm okay and I'd rather they focus on fixing the issues reported on Github (such as the many first layer issues that at least in my hands make the "always perfect" promise a bad joke). IMHO, they've overdone adding features in lieu of getting the basics stabilized. After so many years still no way to draw straight seam lines, for example...

RE:

There are always new products. There's little excuse to let these sort of basics in the slicer be ignored.  Like PA as well.

I don't want to run someone else's gcode for temp towers. I want to be using my own EM, PA, etc values when I run a part. It should not be necessary to download pieces of towers, stack them on top of each other with the printed temp values in the right order,  then set gcode values for the temps at the top of each segment.   I just had to do this on my MK3s and it was frustrating to have to go backwards with PS.  I'm not looking forward to using PS for my upcoming RatRig build.

It takes 5 seconds in Orca to do a Temp Tower, or Pressure Advance, or Extrusion Multiplier (Flow Ratio), or a serpentine Max Flow Rate test.  I don't especially care for Orca's interface, but the calibration features are light years ahead of PS, which has zero.  QIDI Slicer is PS offshoot, and it has some of these calibration tools.

If it weren't for Bambu and other CoreXY machines, it feels like Prusa would right now be announcing a MK5 that's a teeny bit faster than the MK4. I just don't see the aggression to keep up and get back to being in the lead.

RE: Built-in Calibration Tools

All these calibration tools were originally added in Super Slicer, the original slicer offshoot, they have since been added to Bambu and then Orca as they ported them from SuSi.  

Not sure what your problem doing it manually is, add stl of tower, slice, scroll to desired layer and add custom gcode at layer for temp or whatever gcode you want.  Takes a few minutes at most.

Alternatively use SuSi or Orca to do your calibration and then port the settings back into your PS profiles.  

There is no getting back into the lead.  Everything Prusa does slicer software wise is immediately ported to other slicers anyway so all these downstream ones get the benefit of anything Prusa does as well as their own changes.  Also Prusa has a lot more to lose if they fail to test properly and screw something up, something that doesn't seem to worry others as much.  So they are always conservative.

While I agree that Prusa's speed is glacial at times, they have ALWAYS been that way and have not addressed long standing slicing issues.  We have been waiting years for some basics to be fixed.   Always the new and shiny it seems.  Cant see that changing - ever.

RE: Built-in Calibration Tools

I don't want to run someone else's gcode for temp towers. I want to be using my own EM, PA, etc values when I run a part. It should not be necessary to download pieces of towers, stack them on top of each other with the printed temp values in the right order,  then set gcode values for the temps at the top of each segment. 

Not to toot my own horn too loudly but in my popular temp tower download https://www.printables.com/model/39810 I include preconfigured 3mf files with the necessary temp changes so you don't have to print gcode files. I have also uploaded an OpenSCAD script https://www.printables.com/model/216967 that allows you to generate temp towers with your own temperature range and stepchanges and it generates the necessary custom gcode for simple copy-paste configuration. Not as simple as having it in PS but certainly lets you run a temp tower with little effort.

RE:

Too many Prusa Slicer apologists. Within Prusa and without.

My problem with lack of temp towers and max flow rate is that I have to waste time doing something manually that's been proven to be unnecessary.  It's 5 minutes instead of 5 seconds of clicking one button.  I run a LOT of different materials and do testing and printing of a wide variety that I optimize.  PrusaSlicer just slows everything down.  Hunt for a model, build it, pick settings at each layer.  Just a waste of time.  If your life consists of printing PLA, great.  I don't.

Why did fast printers nearly kill Prusa? Because they were fast and people prefer 2 hrs to print a part rather than 7 hrs. Speed and ease matter.

I'm more concerned about when I complete my RatRig IDEX.  PS is unfortunately the preferred slicer and the only one officially supported.  I'll have to build custom profiles for every material and I currently have 166 different spools of filament from PLA up to PPS and everything in between that I run on my CoreXY with active heating.

I'd 100% move to Orca for calibrations for my aging but reliable Mk3s, except temp towers from Orca repeatedly generate M112 emergency stop failures a few layers in.  It incorrectly reports a failed thermistor. Which, of course, there isn't. I guess I'll try SuperSlicer with my Mk3S, even though the temp towers in SS are narrow and less useful.

As for pressure advance, max flow rate, extrusion multiplier...they are simply not there.  I have learned more in the past year tweaking filaments on my CoreXY, using QIDI Slicer and Orca, for best results, than I did in the prior 5 yrs on PS with my Mk3s.  It's only recently I discovered that my limitations were caused by missing features in PS that enable me to dial in Voron Cubes and complex functional printer parts. Some of my filaments are far to expensive to waste printing part after part by trial and error because PS lacks these things.

Oh joy - I'll get to add gcode just to run Klipper pressure advance. As opposed to clicking a button to run a PA tower or grid.

RE: Built-in Calibration Tools

I am going to play devil's advocate for a moment. I have been printing for almost a decade now, started in 2016. I still have my tevo tornado printer and that it. Never upgraded and never got a new one. I still use it almost everyday. 

In my entire career of printing, i have used all slicers from kiss, yo ideamaker, to davinci by xyz printing and not once have i ever used a temp tower or other calibration tools except a simple 150x150x150 cube with no top or infil. 

People get this strange idea that thermoplastics are picky and hard to work with... They are not, especially pla+, abs, and petg. Others possibly. But even cf and nylon are not to bad.

I print all my pla+ at 220 because any lower, and based on my speeds, yhe extruder clicks. There are to many settings that i change on a daily basis to rely on temp towers etc. the one setting i dont mess with is my retraction. 

The reason i dont mess with temp towers or tools is because they only work for certain types of prints. I print anything from Aerospace engineering prototypes to minis and for minis, its all about retraction and cooling settings than anything. My minis print perfect at 0.08mm layer height and 0.25 or 0.3 extrusion width on a stock 0.4 nozzle. 

In a way, i used the first mini test print as a temp tower since he was holding a sword and the first one came out rough, but fixable and once i adjusted cooling and temp, we were golden. 

RE:

Congrats. Glad what you do works for you.  I have 4 printers, including some high end DIY machines, printing for both myself and others.

I have been 3D printing for >20 years at work, and at home for 8 years.  I run everything from PLA to PPS-CF.  Each filament is optimized, for each printer, for extrusion multiplier, temp, PA, etc, bed temp, chamber temp, linear speed, volumetric speed, cooling by layer, nozzle type (diamond, bi-metal, brass, etc.) Using someone else's off-the-shelf profiles for these things is simply not a good way to dial in perfect parts.  It's merely a starting point. I have dialed in over 100 filament profiles and have presently just under 200 rolls of filament.  I am a beta tester of both hardware and filament for a number of manufacturers. My parts come out pretty nice.

Temp towers are used for more than bridge and stringing testing. They are useful for optimizing cooling, along with may other tests we can use. They are especially useful for breaking, as all materials have weaker layer adhesion at certain temps. Sure one CAN print all PLA's at one temp, but it's hardly the best idea.  But they are not a total test by any means. Just one example of PS shortcomings.

I use PLA only for draft functional parts, dialing in a new machine, or for kid's toys.  Mostly I print engineering grade parts. But looking at PLA by itself - there are dozens of PLA variants, with different strength and layer adhesion, depending upon the additions and alloys used, as well as the base resin.  I've had some PLA's break apart at anything below 230C, and others that are tough down to 190C.

The lack of PS automating temp towers, max flow rate, extrusion multiplier, pressure advance, retraction calibrations just indicates that PS simply fell behind and has no interest in being a great slicer any longer.

Apparently, we will need to rely  pon the PS forks to do the work that Prusa should be doing.  Honestly, I have likely bought my last Prusa.

The frustrating part of this dialog is that it's one way.  Don't know why I bothered to type this far. Nobody from Prusa Research has entered the conversation.  Apparently Prusa no longer gives a dang about customer questions or feedback.  If it were not for the Chinese knocking off the Voron Trident and similar CoreXY open source Klipper projects, we'd all be looking at the next, slow, MK5s right about now.