Estimated vs Actual time

[adamfilip]

Last night i sent a started a print
in simplify3d it estimated the time would be 4 hours 5 min
when it was done the printer said it took 7 hours 20 min
printer is running at 100%
im wondering if there is anything that can be done to make the estimate accurate

[printbus]

Of course, the issue is there are things about your printer that any slicer estimate doesn't or can't factor. Bed and hot end heat up, homing, retractions/Z-lift, and time spent in acceleration/deceleration come to mind.

With Simplify3D, I periodically glance at the estimated time remaining shown in the machine control panel to get an updated feel on how long something is going to take. Repetier-Host/Cura has a provision for a fudge factor, but I don't think Simplify3D does.

Another approach is to think about this another way and make your printer more like the estimate. Preheat the nozzle and bed before starting the print. Increase acceleration and jerk motion settings to the maximum you can tolerate for the print quality you want. Think twice about enabling Z-lift on retractions. Reduce the number of retractions and the retraction lengths involved. Increase the homing feed rates, and reduce the time spent in Z home by starting the print with the x-carriage already close to the bed. And oh, don't sample the bed for ABL as part of the starting gcode.