User:Tonyarm/Repetier

Repetier Tutorial

Repetier is a program that is used to control 3D printers, position parts on a 3D printer, runs G-Code, and uses an outside program called Slic3r. This program alone could replace commonly used programs such as Replicator G.

Downloading

This first thing to do is down load the program, which can be done on this link here. There are a few things to know before downloading the program. First of all, the program is made for three operating systems, Linux, Windows, and Mac. Windows and Mac require installation, which is simple enough to complete. If you can't install the program on the computer you are using, you can download the Linux version which is a folder of the files. In this folder, there is an executable file that at the very least can be run on windows. You must follow these steps however in order for this to work:

    1. Download the file.
    2. Open the Slic3r folder inside of the Repetier folder
    3. If you have Slic3r, open that folder now 
    4. Delete everything in the Slic3r folder inside of Repetier
    5. Copy all the files from the Slic3r

Now you may use the program.

Getting started

When you open up Repetier, there are a few things you should know. There is a button on the right hand side above the four tabs called "Printer Settings". Hit this button to open up the settings menu. There are a afew things you need to change before you get started. First of all, you need to change the COM port to the one your computer recognizes as your printer. Second, you must change the Baud Rate to 115200, which is the communication speed that your computer communicates with your printer. The third thing that must be changed is the "Reset On Connect". Change this setting from whatever it originally is to "Disabled".

The next part, which you must do every time you connect your printer to the computer with the "Connect" button on the top left corner is go to the Manual Control tab on the right hand side and hit the home button. If you notice, the program shows the X, Y, & Z coordinates in red initially. This means the program does not know where the nozzle is on the printer in respect to the origin. When you hit the home button, the program then finds the origin and the position arrows change colors. Now the printer knows exactly where the nozzle is.

The Tabs

3D View

This tab is located on the left hand side. It shows the user a variety of forms of the to-be-printed STL files based on what tab on the right hand side you are on. When on the Object Placement Tab, the user can see the STL's to be positioned. On the Slicer and G-Code tab, the user can see the STL in the form of positions of the nozzle over the course of the print. The dark blue lines represent the position of the nozzle when it's extruding. The light blue lines represent the position of the nozzle when it is not extruding. On the Manual Control tab, the program shows the position of the nozzle as the print is printing. So if you hadn't loaded a file yet, you wont see anything until it starts printing. Once it starts, the filament appears red initially on the computer showing that the filament is hot. As the printer moves along in the print, the lines fade into a purple then a dark blue showing that it has cooled off. The light blue lines are still positions of the nozzle when it is not extruding.

The space that is seen represents the space of the 3D printable area. The boundary lines represent the edges of the printable area, which can be adjusted somewhere in the settings. The black dot in the corner represents the origin. The commands on the right hand side are as follows: the left click command for rotating the area, the left click command for moving the area translationally, the left click command for zooming, the preset orthogonal orientation of the area, the preset front face of the area, and the preset top face of the area. The reason why the term "left click" was used repeatably in the last sentence is because when one of those commands are selected, such as the left click rotational command, the middle click and right clicks can be used for the other command, such as translational movement. The other two commands are not totally known yet. (Wiki Edit *Hint *Hint)

Temperature Curve

This tab is also on the left hand side, next to the 3D view. It shows the temperatures of the extruder, the bed, the target temp, and the average temps. It also shows the electrical output signal of the program to either the heating element of the extruder and the bed. Every single one of these graphs can be turned off.

Object Placement

This is the tab on the left hand side where you place your STL files. There are several buttons on the top of the of this menu:

    1. Export: Where orientations of the STL file can be exported out of the program
    2. Add: Add an STL file to the area
    3. Subract/ Remove: Get rid of currently selected STL files in list/area
    4. Copy Object: Copy the object
    5. Autoposition: have the program automatically position multiple objects in the area
    6. Center: Center a single object in the area
    7. Drop: Make the object flush with the XY plane
    8. Split Objects: <unknown>
    9. Fix Normals: fix normals
    10. Information: Get information about the part such as size, shell numbers, points, volume, dimensions, etc...

When the user places an STL into the area, the user can orient the part any which way. They can rotate it, move it, and scale it. A selected object is shown as pink while an unselected object will show up as gold. When the user places a second object on, the program selects the new object AND the previously selected object, which stops the user from modifying the new part. Simply unselect the undesired part and everything will be ok. Whenever the object is rotated, it will appear that it is not on the plane, but under it, or over it, or even through it. When this happens, the object will turn into a light green-blue color. To fix this, hit the Drop button. This will send the object to once again become flush with the XY-plane. If objects cross each other, both will appear as the same light blue-green color. The objects can be moved by either hitting the Autoposition button or move it manually.

Slicer

This is the second of the right hand tabs. This is where the program allows the user to run Slic3r to generate the G-code with the click of a single button. Repetier actually calls on the real Slic3r that comes with the download, so if any advanced changes need to be made, they can be done by hitting the "Configure" button, which opens up Slic3r. Note that it can be slow to open, so if it doesn't open in 5 seconds, don't panic. If it takes up to 30 seconds, then you have my permission to panic. What's nice about having Slic3r as a called upon program is that if you have Slic3r already on your computer, your setting are already there. It would be a pain, however, if the user has to keep opening up Slic3r to change commonly changed settings between every print. Thankfully, There are override settings that allow the user to change the density, the infill pattern, the solid infill pattern, the infill angle, and the option for support material to be turned on and off. Every time the settings are changed, however, the user has to re-slice the STL files by hitting the big "Slice with Slic3r" button.

G-Code Editor

This is where the user can modify the G-code. The program does not actually save the G-code after it is Sliced, though it does have a button to save the G-code. IT does not, however, have a button under the tab that allows the user to load previous G-code. To load G-code, hit the Load button in the top left corner.

Manual Control

This is the final tab of the tabs on the right. This tab allows the user to:

    1. Apply manual g-code commands
    2. Move the extruder, bed, etc...
    3. Control feedrate and flowrate of the material
    4. Heat hte extruder and bed to whatever desired temperatures
    5. Control the fan speed
    6. Turn off the motors
    7. Extrude and Retract (which are the up and down arrows under the "Heat Extruder button")
    8. Control the speed and amount of extrusion and retraction
    9. And more options that have not been explored.

When the user hits the buttons, there is a circle on some that will turn into a light blue when on, and a grey when off.

Fun Things About the Program

1. This program allows the user to pause a print, then resume where the print left off 2. When paused, the program allows full control of all the other functions. So one could theoretically print a little bit, pause, move the extruder head away, replace the filament with another material, the continue on printing. 3. The Predicted time is correct on every layer and will not say it will take a day on the first few layers. The time you see is the time it will take for a print to finish.

Warnings and Solutions

1. The program does actually allow the user to keep components turned on such as the heating elements and fan even when closing out of the program or disconnecting the printer. A warning message pops up warning you of this and gives you the option to turn everything off before exiting. 2. In the case that the program becomes unresponsive or stops communicating with the printer, just close out of the program. 3. If the program stops communicating with the printer (you will see in the top of the Manual Control Tab that # Commands are Waiting), and heating elements are still on, just close out of the program and just unplug the printer, then wait a few seconds, then plug the printer back in and restart the program. 4. If you disconnect the printer and the program does not know it yet and it thinks the heating elements are still on, close out of the program and hit the button on the pop-up window that will allow you to keep the heating elements on. If you hit the other button, the program will just try to communicate with the printer before it closes.