UltiMaker Cura 5.5.0-beta.1

New features and improvements

Engine Plugins
Introduced infrastructure for Engine Plugins; Plugin developers can now hook into and change the actual slice process using a programming language in which they feel comfortable: C++, Python, C#/.NET, Dart, Go, Java, Kotlin, Node, Objective-C, PHP, Ruby
In this initial version, plugins can hook into the following engine slots:

• Modify generated gcode, postprocessing it per layer
• Generate Infill patterns
• Modify extrusion paths
• Listen to a broadcast of all Settings

Cura plugins can now easily add new Settings and extend existing dropdown Settings. Users are now warned if a previously saved project file depends on a plugin and that plugin isn't installed in the Cura instance that tries to load it.

To showcase this new infrastructure we introduced a Gradual Flow Engine plugin; This plugin prevents sudden drastic changes in flow transitions. You can find it under your bundled plugins and the new gradual flow settings can be found in the material category when all settings are visible
Do you want to participate in the discussion about the potential and possibilities? You can join the discussion on GitHub here.

Introduced the following new settings
Gradual Flow Enabled, Gradual Flow Max Acceleration, Initial Layer Max Flow Acceleration, Gradual Flow discretization step size, are to finetune the Gradual Flow plug-in.

Top Surface Outer Wall Flow, Top Surface Inner Wall Flow, Top Surface Outer Wall Speed, Top Surface Inner Wall Speed, Top Surface Outer Wall Acceleration, Top Surface Inner Wall Acceleration, Top Surface Outer Wall Jerk, and Top Surface Inner Wall Jerk settings can be used to tune the top surface of your models.

Small Top/Bottom Width reduces jerky motions in small top/bottom surfaces, with Small Top/Bottom On Surface you can exclude the setting on the surface

Group Outer Walls will bundle types of walls in the same layer reducing travels, thanks to the contribution by @Arcari55

Enable Fluid Motion, Fluid Motion Shift Distance, Fluid Motions Small Distance, and Fluid Motion Angle are settings for printers with smooth motion planners like Klipper. It's hard to show the changes in preview, but we encourage you to check it out.

Updates in the available supported OSses

• Introduced Max OSX builds for ARM64 (M1 support), next to our existing X64 builds. With major contributions from @TheSin
• Introduced a single Linux build removing the need to have a different modern and regular Linux build.

Setting improvements for Ultimaker Printers

• UltiMaker printers with UltiMaker Materials have faster-predicted printing times as a result of a number of changed printing speeds
• UltiMaker configurations with limited intents in the past like AA 0.8 cores, now have more intents available
• Updated printing temperatures for UltiMaker printers to be more uniform
• Updated Support Interface Settings for UltiMaker printers
• Introduced a support material tag, so support is automatically printed with support material
• Default has been updated to Balanced to reflect the perfect harmony between these visual, engineering, and draft profiles.

Quality of Life Improvements

• Use Tab to navigate between settings in the Per Model Settings window, solves #10967
• Introduced Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V next to the current multiply behavior, solves #8859
• Arrange your models in a grid with the same orientation with Grid Placement
• A message that shows when your Removable Disk is out of space and prevents incomplete gcodes from being saved, solves #14273
• Add Printer and Printer Settings windows are now resizable to fit in more start/end gcode in an orderly way
• Restored the color picker tool when creating custom materials, solves #11899
• You can now scroll through long messages, and can easily close them if you finished reading, solves #12325
• Searching for materials and plugins in the Cura Marketplace has been improved
• "This Setting Is Hidden Because" icons were missing in the settings visibility for Windows and Mac
• Only one file could be loaded and you could not load multiple files if they were mixed STLs and Project Files, solves #15879
• It seemed like models could be multiplied more than 99 times, there is now a limit, solves #14105
• It's now more clear if Cura is syncing materials over the cloud
• It's not possible anymore to send a printjob to a turned off cloud connected UltiMaker printer

More Features

• You can now sponsor the Cura team from the Application Switcher, and Help menu
• Infill behavior close to the skin to prevent jerky motions and visible overextrusion
• The About Dialog includes more build information for Cura developers
• Introduced more hardware info like system, release, version, processor, and CPU cores to the logging to improve troubleshooting.
• Updated supporting certify libraries
• Introduced a new Post Processing Script; Limit XY Accel for bed-slinger printers, contributed by @GregValiant
• Introduced the machine name in the gcode headers, contributed by @smartin015
• Extruder settings are cached to speed up slicing, contributed by @sesse

Bug Fixes

Bug Fixes that improve Printed Part Quality

• The first support layers were printed incorrectly if adhesion was set to None, solves #14983
• The support was printed before the brim when the origin was at the center of the buildplate, solves #14983
• Printers with a high resolution value would incorrectly print embossed features,
• The flow would unexpectedly increase after a bridge was completed.
• Bridging settings would not be applied to the first skin layer if the infill density was set to 0, solves #9056
• The skirt height could collide with some models and could be printed in support, solves #16552
• A brim would be too small if the extruder was not defined, solves #16151
• The Initial Buildplate and Printing Temperature would not be applied correctly when printing One-At-A-Time, solves #11219

Other Bug Fixes

• You could not load some Marketplace materials with intents on the UltiMaker printers like BASF Ultrafuse 17-4PH
• For some Linux versions it was not possible to add a 3D printer, solves #15263
• Fixed the installation screen for DMG installation because it still had the old logo.
• The minimum support area was not working correctly for tree support, contributed by @ThomasRahm
• Support Horizontal Expansion would be hidden but influenced the warning values for Support Interface, solves #15873
• The shadow in One-At-A-Time printing sequence would not correctly resize with the skirt/brim size, solves #14382
• Fixed a bug where it was not possible to select the support structure with basic setting visibility.
• Removed the option to change the Brim Distance in the per object setting until a better solution is available.
• Fixed a slicing crash if the skirt was larger than the buildplate, solves #16002
• Fixed a crash that would be caused when rotating a model only a little
• If there is support interface is disabled, you can no longer change those settings
• Ints would be truncated instead of rounded in the engine, contributed by @onitake
• Fixed a non-raw RegEx pattern string removing a depreciation warning, contributed by @cgobat

Printer definitions, profiles, and materials:

• For MacOS users these printers are supported again: Elegoo, Strateo3D, Uni, ZAV, solves #16007
• Added Anycubic Kobra Plus, contributed by @Jordonbc
• Added Creality Ender-5 S1, contributed @thomaspleasance
• Added Entina Tina 2, contributed by @protosam
• Updated All Goofoo 3D printers to have more nozzles, contributed by @goofoo3d
• Added Pulse XE E444M, contributed by @randyzwitch
• Updated Primetower settings for Sovol 2
• Updated Kingroon KP3S Pro, contributed by @Tachyonn
• Updated Tree Support settings for Elegoo Printers, Contributed by @ThomasRahm
• Updated Voron Trident 250, 300 & 350 Voron to include new nozzles, contributed by @zadi15
• Updated Creality Ender 3 start gcode to prevent bed scratching, Contributed by @PresentMonkey
• Updated nozzle options for Dagoma Pro 430, contributed by @0r31
• Updated start gcode and homing behavior in Creality Ender 3 S1, contributed by @GregValiant.
• Updated faulty disallowed areas for Anycubic Kossel, contributed by @GregValiant

Known Issues

• If you are missing Icons on Linux Mint this can be resolved by going to Menu > Settings > Appearance > Icons > Select "Mint-X"
• We are collecting reports of people who are unable to open any .stl files at all. #16249
• Align to Buildplate doesn’t work for grouped meshes #14237
• In the preview, the inner wall on the topmost surface is shown as red, where it would usually be green (inner wall), this is only visual. We hope to resolve this soon

Do you believe you've found a new issue in the 5.5 Beta?
Please let us know by checking if the issue is already there, and creating a new issue

Join the Halloween Decoration Challenge 2023

There is a chance to win Polymaker filament and even an UltiMaker S3 3D printer by participating in the Halloween Challenge on Thingiverse. Your creations should be originally created by you and contribute to a spooky atmosphere in your room or office. The winners will be announced on Tuesday 31st of October.

You can check out the challenge here

If you want to 3D print this Trick or Treat Cauldron to test out the new Cura settings, you can download it here.