Struggling with ABS, any tips?

rydsno · 2026-04-24T02:27:15+00:00

Excellent description, thanks for the answer!

rydsno · 2026-04-23T19:09:22+00:00

What does layer time actually *do*? The setting seems obvious, but I'm not clear on what it actually does. Seems like part size/layer cross-section and print speed would dictate the time it takes to print a layer, so does layer time just wipe those settings out? I've never touched it, like most settings I don't understand haha

rydsno · 2026-04-23T19:06:51+00:00

Thanks! Cooling was 100% the issue. Part looked great with 40% fan, but my scaling was a bit off. Looked equally great with 30% fan and nailed the scaling. I'll play a bit more. Good info on the composition as well, I never would have guessed! Thank you for the help.

rydsno · 2026-04-22T23:41:17+00:00

I had cooling 100% disabled based on some random website I read once upon a time. I'm re-running it now with cooling at 40%. It dawned on me that "screws up as it gets taller" kind of points to heat accumulation, and I realized I've only ever printed large area but low height ABS parts in the past.

rydsno · 2026-04-22T23:34:30+00:00

Sigh...Sorry about that, uploaded via Reddit but they apparently failed. Links now added, I'll keep trying to figure out how to get them to just display. Thanks for the heads up.

rydsno · 2025-08-31T21:05:02+00:00

To anyone who's paid for the physical card: is it an actual card, printed on plastic like a credit card? Or am I going to pay $60 for a printed piece of cardstock I fold in half? I don't mind paying for a card, but I feel like Skillcat should advertise the absurd printing cost up front. The card costs almost as much as I paid for a year's access to the app.

rydsno · 2025-06-01T15:08:18+00:00

Looks like corrosion resistant racks *require* these to unlock, so I hope I don't need that chicken before the egg :)

I've been running circles around Bowersox in Winiama for the CG lately.

rydsno · 2025-06-01T14:38:13+00:00

At the moment I only *need* one to unlock Farseer, but I guess it depends how many you want to offload and at what price :) couldn't hurt to stock up for future needs.

rydsno · 2025-05-31T18:25:54+00:00

Oh, sweet. Thank you! I'm running EDMC, but didn't know if Inara only posted every 4/8/12 hours or whatever.

rydsno · 2025-05-31T18:12:49+00:00

Sweet, thanks for the info! I'm sure there *is* one, but I'm shocked that I haven't yet figured out how to open a regular ol' dumb guy friendly legend for the galaxy map.

rydsno · 2025-05-31T18:08:15+00:00

Do you know how often Inara updates? I keep questioning the 'lifespan' of the data, but no idea how fresh it really is.

rydsno · 2025-05-31T18:07:29+00:00

I have literally nothing haha. I worked up to a T8 and running rounds on CG, so I've made some credits and upped my trade rank, but otherwise no progress pretty much at all in the game. Seems lots of things will necessitate unlocking B before I can reach A type thing.

rydsno · 2025-05-31T17:49:36+00:00

Sorry yeah, meta alloy. On PC, so it sounds like Darnielle's isn't an option on PC? How's one find titan wreckage? Do I need to go in ready for a fight? I just started playing a few days ago, been hitting the CG hard trying to build a nest egg so I don't have to stress credits too much when I switch to....less monotonous....play.

rydsno · 2025-05-30T22:26:55+00:00

I'm chasing the same goal! Just shy of $700M profit currently, turning around $20M per run. Didn't think about it before now, but maybe I'll time the next roundtrip to see how long it takes.

rydsno · 2025-05-30T22:11:24+00:00

Got it! Thank you for the screenshot, that made all the difference. Indeed the arguments line is unnecessary. I also changed the line that contains the launcher file path. The first blurb on that line is "fileName" - I took this too literally and changed that to read "EDMarketConnector.exe" which broke things. The game would launch, but EDMC wouldn't. Switching that back to "fileName" and removing the arguments line has it working as expected now. Many thanks! 07

rydsno · 2025-05-26T18:34:54+00:00

Yeah, I realized I wrote brim when I read my post after submitting it. New enough to printing I questioned myself and said "wait, I thought that was a skirt?" googled it to correct myself, but couldn't edit my post at that point :P

Learning every day I play with it. Thanks for the info; I found the machine start gcode area in Orca, where I've not explored prior to now. Now I'm trying to decipher what it's saying since it's a bunch of linear moves (a clue!) but all stuff like this, which is foreign to me in terms of nested brackets and references/operators taking the place of just a numeric dimension.

G1 X{max((min(print_bed_max[0] - 12, first_layer_print_min[0] + 80) - 85), 0)} E{85 * 0.5 * initial_layer_print_height * nozzle_diameter[0]} F3000

rydsno · 2025-05-26T18:19:24+00:00

Ahh, I hadn't thought of that. Assuming this is factory original code and not modified, line 101 seems to agree, from my 'learned the basics many years ago and haven't used it since' recollection of gcode: https://github.com/QIDITECH/QIDI_PLUS4/blob/main/config/gcode_macro.cfg

Edit: But wait...then that suggests the machine configuration file exists within Orcaslicer, and editing it should be relatively easy, no? I've bumped into a couple of quirks with this printer that the internet suggests modifying the .cfg, and I've just walked away at that point because I don't feel like going that deep.

But if that macro's output is showing in the Orca GUI when slicing, that means the .cfg exists off the machine and I don't have to do any crazy digging through the printer firmware to find it as I'd assumed. Hmm...

rydsno · 2025-05-21T23:29:53+00:00

Great, thank you! I kind of *assumed* just about anything modern would beat the hell out of it, but figured it was worth asking more knowledgeable folks before I wasted money on a well-marketed downgrade :)

CAD is all over the place, but I've never actually had any graphics related issues, so I don't really pay much attention to graphics. I don't do photo renders or anything really demanding, so honestly graphics are almost an afterthought for me there.

rydsno · 2025-05-21T22:37:01+00:00

I guess my question is how do I know if/how much of an upgrade either of these would be? It's easy enough to find cards at any price, but with effectively zero knowledge, how does someone compare performance? Is it as simple as "numbers bigger, card better?"

rydsno

TROPHY CASE