Hey gang! Tim here from Core Electronics and today we're checking out some more hidden features in Ultimaker Cura to inspire your creativity, it's a new jumper so it's time for a new video.

So, for those who first stumbled across Cura, Cura is a software to turn your computer CAD files into a recipe for your 3D printer to follow. As I have said in the previous video I have crawled through all the hidden features in Cura and found the ones that most impressed me, this has been a multi-part series just because there's over 400 unique settings within Cura and quite a number of them get my creative energies bubbling. So, I'm going to talk about each feature, demonstrate examples of the prints using these features and then show and explain how to set it up in Cura.

I'm going to jump over here, go into the top toolbar, click on settings, click on configure setting visibility, type in which ever particular setting you want and then make sure you click on its tick box. Once you do this you'll be able to show up on the custom print settings over here under its own particular heading so in the pursuit of beautiful surface finishes with 3D printing, ironing is   technique up there with the best of them, this is where the nozzle travels over the topmost layer after printing to literally iron the top layers to a smooth surface. So, I have brought to the table, two Z-test cubes so that you can compare exactly what ironing will do to your model. This model over here as ironing done to the top layers and this model over here does not both, these models were printed on an Ultimaker S5 using tough PLA, using a fast print setting so thankfully the default parameters function quite well and it will work consistently with common filament types, ironing has a huge potential and I see no reason not to use this feature in almost all 3d print where aesthetics and excellent surface finishes are required.

Over here is the print profile that I used to print off both of these models, so on the left is the one that used ironing and on the right is the one that didn't use ironing you can find ironing underneath the shell option here, which you can click on here or if you want to do ironing to just one specific model in your print, come over here click on this guy over here. Duper model settings jump down here select the setting that you want to see in this case, I've done ironing and all its related options, click on this guy and once you slice it you'll be able to preview it, so you actually be able to see exactly how the path prints this model. So the model on the right, final layer printed boom boom boom done, model on the left here comes the final layer, it's printed just the same as the first one before but now it comes across for another path and this is the ironing undergoing, this is how you end up with such a smooth final surface.

A really cool feature particularly for aesthetics, these lights and cameras are very good at showing any kind of flaws in a model and you can obviously see where the lines are on the model on the left the not ironed, compared to the one on the right. So in the next feature also in the pursuit of better aesthetics in 3D printing can be achieved simply by altering the first and top layer pattern that the nozzle travels, changing the top/bottom pattern is a relatively unknown hidden feature in Cura but it is an excellent fail proof change, it won't take any longer to print nor will it weaken the final model, selecting concentric is a particularly simple change, which yields great results particularly when printing cylindrical components.

So, on the desk I have brought three models printed using concentric zigzag and lines, I brought this piece of paper to demonstrate exactly with the difference between the two. Zigzags, the nozzle will go along as this, this is clearly an exaggeration whereas lines stop and starts. If you're having issues with blobs and blurs popping up on the edges of your model using zig zag could possibly help solve that, as getting blobs and blemishes on your model has to do often with the retraction and also with the coasting settings of your 3D printer. I'll give you a closer look at these three models so you can see exactly the kind of surface finish you’ll end up with, so you can see the concentric one goes around in circles. Now these three models were all printed using an Ultimaker S5 and fast settings with PLA tough. These models clearly show the differences and finishes that these different settings do, those with a keen eye will be able to see that a line was laid down initially on the bottom of these models this could have been prevented by altering another setting called combing.

So jumping into Cura you can now see the settings of the models that I printed, so the top and bottom pattern setting is located here, because I printed all of these differently I use this technique over here, using per model settings jumped on to a normal mode, selected the setting in this case the top/bottom pattern and selected lines and for this one over here I selected concentric and for this one over here I selected zig zag, normally if you're printing just one model you'll need to show this setting, there's a hidden setting and then it will pop up over here, under shell in the print settings custom.

So, the next feature that really got me thinking was tree supports and Cura. Tree supports to basically exactly what they sound like and are an excellent material saving method to sustain overhangs, instead of printing support in straight lines, up from the build plate we can use a tree like structure to support models, so jumping into Cura I'll show you exactly what they look like. When this setting is selected they will automatically be generated by Ultimaker Cura when the model is sliced now make sure that your model is positioned properly as it will take Cura a longer time to process tree supports, so as you can see these supports start from a couple of trunks near the bottom of your print and branch out like a tree to support overhangs in your model as the height increases these supports are hollow and they can be designed to follow different angles you can save both on material and print time by 3D printing with these supports, this setting is a hidden setting which can be found under custom print settings under experimental.

Here is a Mini Schnauzer model, which I printed using just these supports you can see the supports in blue and the model in red. Since tree type supports comparatively don't touch the model as much, they offer a much better surface finish to traditional methods, tree supports are great when 3d printing organic shapes such as the human or animals as the branches will arch around the model, furthermore for overhangs that are small or not very steep, less than 70 degrees from the horizontal this is an excellent choice, for big roof sections I wouldn't recommend in the support structure as they only touch the model and a few points.

The last interesting hidden feature we'll talk about in Cura is adaptive layers, adaptive layers is   method of retaining quality whilst increasing the speed of the print when properly setup the 3D printer will take more time in certain sections to print at a higher resolution and will print faster in other areas where this is not quiet, it does this by analysing the geometry of the CAD model, areas with major curvatures of changes will be printed with thinner layers whereas areas with minor variation will be printed with thicker layers so let's jump into Ultimaker Cura and I’ll  demonstrate to you why this feature is so useful.

Over here I have a chest piece a queen in fact about to be printed at the moment I'm using an extra fine print setting which means this print will take 11 hours and 32 minutes which is a very long time. You can see that by the colour all the layers are exactly the same, which in this case is 0.06 millimetres, so once you've unhidden adaptive layers which you do through the process I showed you at the beginning you can find it under the experimental heading in the custom print settings. So, by clicking on adaptive layers and selecting appropriate adaptive layer variation, adaptive layer variation step size and adaptive layer topography size which takes a bit of refining to do you can now slice using adaptive layers.

Now you can see in this model that used to all be a single layer size has now suddenly become multiple different layer sizes, dark blue is smallest layer size, green is slightly larger layer size whereas the yellow is the largest size, now most importantly if you come down here you can see that this print now takes 9 hours and 2 minutes so that's a huge saving of time at least 2 hours so just by this you can see the improvement that adaptive layers will give improving speed whilst retaining the quality of your models, now this is part 2 there is a part 1 video on hidden pages in Cura on our website talking more about other interesting features there is also write-up on this topic on our Core Electronics website with some extra exciting features inside it, hopefully this has been helpful and inspired your creative juices until next time stay cosy!