Retraction Settings

#1 · 2021-09-21, 21:04

Hello,

I'm having some difficulty getting retraction to work. I see under Settings>Filament there are two settings: Retract Need and Z Hop Need. I assume they mean:

Retract Need: Distance the extruder retracts the filament, currently set at 1.00 or 1mm

Z Hop Need: Distance in the Z direction that the bed moves during retraction, currently set at 1.00 or 1mm

I'm expecting to find other settings along the lines of Travel Distance before Retraction occurs, and a Retraction Speed.

I am just trying to figure this software out, the videos are from the first version and out of date, most settings do not have a tool help when cursor over it, and no user manual. Now, I am sure a lot of things are changing and these things will eventually be updated so I am not being divisive.

A detailed explanation on getting retraction to work would be appreciated.

Thanks Craftware Pro Team for any help.

#2 · 2021-09-24, 07:58

Hi Rick,

i haven't found a "Travel Distance before Retraction" either.

The Retraction Speed can be found in Topic Extruder.

The allocation of the Settings to the Topics is in my opinion not always logical or helpfull.

This is one Example, the retraction Speed maybe needs to be changed with the Material, not with the Extruder.

#3 · 2021-12-14, 14:10

Quote from Norbert Fekete on 2021-12-14, 14:10
Hi,

Retraction is a tricky question, because the filament has a physical value, a "need" for it, and the extruder has a maximum amount it allows.
The slicer engine is trying to use the best value based on the physical properties of the printer components and filaments.

Z-hop is also kind-of similar to this, affected by multiple entities.

Retraction Speed is also a physical property, but it is mainly the property of the extruder, as it knows the speed it can do the retraction at. The filament mostly doesn't care, except for flexible filaments, but that will be affected by other physical values, as it is a bit complex question. For example the speed for flexible filaments using an "ordinary" extruder should be really low, but using more advanced extruders can allow higher speeds. We are working on adding the proper values and calculations for these, so any combination could work out of the box.
Also there are other filaments which would require an overall slower speed because they don't stick well, so as this does not concern the extruder in use, these are represented as Overrides of the filament itself.

For example at a point in time during slicing, the strategy would request 60mm/s, but that is too much for the filament, so there is a percentage binding for it in the filaments' Override list saying for example "Feed Rate should be 30% of the current Feed Rate", this all resulting in 18mm/s.

We are trying our best to separate physical parameters from slicing parameters, also trying to put the physical parameters where they belong.

Getting to "Travel Distance before Retraction", that is a slicing parameter, and can be altered using Overrides in the strategy.

In CraftWare Pro it is called "Far Travel Threshold Distance" which means a minimal distance under where retraction and Z-hop won't happen.
By default it is set to 3mm, but you can change it if you click on the "chain in a black circle" icon right to the "Base Parameters" and there type in the filter "Threshold". There you will see two types of this, one "Crossing" and one "Non Crossing" version. For simplicity you can set them both to the same value.
"Crossing" means the travel is crossing the perimeter of the object.

There are several different parameters for Travel/Retraction/Z-Hop that you can change in the Binding Manager, but it is a bit too complicated, so we will add a separate "Travel Manager" where you will be able to setup the travel behavior as you'd like in a way more user-friendly way.

Regards,
Norbert

Hi,

Retraction is a tricky question, because the filament has a physical value, a "need" for it, and the extruder has a maximum amount it allows.
The slicer engine is trying to use the best value based on the physical properties of the printer components and filaments.

Z-hop is also kind-of similar to this, affected by multiple entities.

Retraction Speed is also a physical property, but it is mainly the property of the extruder, as it knows the speed it can do the retraction at. The filament mostly doesn't care, except for flexible filaments, but that will be affected by other physical values, as it is a bit complex question. For example the speed for flexible filaments using an "ordinary" extruder should be really low, but using more advanced extruders can allow higher speeds. We are working on adding the proper values and calculations for these, so any combination could work out of the box.
Also there are other filaments which would require an overall slower speed because they don't stick well, so as this does not concern the extruder in use, these are represented as Overrides of the filament itself.

For example at a point in time during slicing, the strategy would request 60mm/s, but that is too much for the filament, so there is a percentage binding for it in the filaments' Override list saying for example "Feed Rate should be 30% of the current Feed Rate", this all resulting in 18mm/s.

We are trying our best to separate physical parameters from slicing parameters, also trying to put the physical parameters where they belong.

Getting to "Travel Distance before Retraction", that is a slicing parameter, and can be altered using Overrides in the strategy.

In CraftWare Pro it is called "Far Travel Threshold Distance" which means a minimal distance under where retraction and Z-hop won't happen.
By default it is set to 3mm, but you can change it if you click on the "chain in a black circle" icon right to the "Base Parameters" and there type in the filter "Threshold". There you will see two types of this, one "Crossing" and one "Non Crossing" version. For simplicity you can set them both to the same value.
"Crossing" means the travel is crossing the perimeter of the object.

There are several different parameters for Travel/Retraction/Z-Hop that you can change in the Binding Manager, but it is a bit too complicated, so we will add a separate "Travel Manager" where you will be able to setup the travel behavior as you'd like in a way more user-friendly way.

Regards,
Norbert