Software combinations and other problems

Hi guys,

So, after sitting unused at my University for 18 months, they've let me borrow a Flashforge Dreamer 3D printer.

Needless to say, there are some problems.

I initially was using Sketchup, but found it impossible to create anything smaller than a few mm, so had to abandon that, and start using Designspark Mechanical 2.0. All good. Managed to create the model I wanted. Then came actually trying to print it.

Firstly, I can't connect the printer to my PC, at all. Neither wifi nor USB will connect, and the Flashprint software just tells me "Printer not found". This is annoying, but given you can just print off an SD card, that's what I've been doing.

When I load the STL file from DSM 2.0 into Flashprint it says "Object has errors, do you want to delete?" to which I say "No", and I tell it to center on the platform, no problem. It then allows me to save it as a .g or .gx file, which I put on the SD card, and it prints off, no problem. The quality isn't amazing, but it works.

Reading the internet, nobody seems to have anything nice to say about Flashprint as a slicing software tool, so I looked for an alternative, and found slic3r. This opens up the STL, fine, and then rather than just telling me "We found errors" then it *automatically repairs* the errors, and gives me a much prettier looking object - the curves are much smoother than the Flashprint model, which looks obviously "stepped" and, in many places, artifacted.

I have a choice of what type of file to save it as, and it saves as a .gcode file. No problem. I slot the SD into the printer, and it recognises the file, but when I tell it to print, then it seems to have real problems actually doing so - it doesn't seem able to control the temperature of the bed or extruders.

So then I read up on the internet some more and it seems that Makerware is another slicing program that could be used, so I download that, and it looks exactly like a reskin of Flashprint (or vice versa). This time it doesn't tell me that it has found any errors, it simply asks me (just like Flashprint) if I want to move it to the platform, and I say yes. Now with this software I can save it as .x3g or .s3g or .gcode. I save it once as all three, and put it onto the SD card, but the only file my printer firmware can see is the .gcode file, so I start printing that. Immediately the bed moves straight to the bottom of the printer and makes a grinding noise like it's trying to smash through the bottom, and the extruder tries to drop the filament onto it from a height of about 30cm. I can't find any kind of way to fix this using the Makerware software apart from possibly messing with the z-axis, but I have no idea how far to offset it to fool it into putting itself into the correct height.

So although I am able to build an STL file using DSM 2.0, no problem; I cannot update my firmware, connect the printer to my PC, or use either slic3r or Makerware to actually print anything. I'm concerned that the "errors" Flashprint finds when I import the STL are affecting the build quality of the item. Can anyone offer solutions to these problems? Many thanks in advance.

As far as connecting to the printer it either needs the port driver installed on or you will need to tell the software what port the printer is on. If you haven't already go to Flashforge website and download the latest software - driver etc.

Also in the software setup you probably need to tell it what kind of printer so it knows the basic settings.

Your better off printing with an SD card anyway so don't worry about the connection issues.

As far as what you're experiencing:

All slicer software will create a header portion of your GCode file (If you open the gcode file in notepad, you will notice that there's a bunch of commands prior to the motion commands (X, Y, etc.).
The header portion is there to tell exactly what's going to happen prior to printing (heating up extruder, heating up bed, homing the printer, etc.).
The header portion that Flashprint will create, will be the correct one for your printer.
If you generate the gcode with any other software, the header will either not be there, or be generic, and thus not compatible with your printer.
So what you have to do is take a g code file generated in Flashprint, open it in notepad, and copy the header portion into the new slicer program *most have an area where you can input custom headers*, that's where you would put that data, and then all your newly generated gcode files will have the correct header.

Don't forget to input all of your printer settings into whatever slicing program you use (extruder size, filament diameter, bed size, etc. etc.)
Hope that helps to answer your question.