Retraction
covers how the slicer “retracts” the filament during travel operations where
it's not actually laying down plastic. Good
retraction settings help keep your part free of
little strings and blobs during printing.
Length on Move
specifies how much
filament will be backed out of the hot end during
a non-printing move.
Length on Tool Change
is specific to
multi-extruder systems. If the slicer is changing
to a new extruder, it will retract the material out of
the current hot end by this much. This works in
conjunction with wipe towers and wipe shields.
Speed
dictates how fast the extruder drive will pull the filament out of the hot end. Higher
speeds can assist in preventing already-melted plastic from oozing or leaving strings on the part
being printed. It also controls how fast the filament will be returned to the hot end when the
non-printing move has completed.
Z-Lift
is used to lift the nozzle off of the part as each retract finishes. This can help
prevent blobbing.
Minimum Travel Requiring Retraction
is used to prevent retractions during very short
moves when retraction isn't really necessary. When executing a non-printing move, the nozzle
will have to travel at least this distance in order to trigger a retraction action.
Finally,
Minimum Extrusion Requiring Retraction
specifies how much filament must
be extruded before a retraction operation is permitted. This helps prevent instances where a
retraction operation would occur before the hot end had the opportunity to actually extrude
material.
The
Cooling
page covers parameters relating to layer cooling.
Enable Extruder Lift
if set, will cause the hot end to
lift up from the part to allow cooling.
The
Fan Speed
section controls how
and when the cooling layer fan is used.
Minimum
and
Maximum Fan Speed
controls the lower and upper limits of how fast
you want the fan to go when it's enabled. If you
specify a minimum speed, the slicing engine
will automatically vary the speed of the fan
between the min & max values, depending on
the location being printed. For larger parts, the
slicing engine may run the fan more slowly than it would for smaller parts.
82
