CubePro Warning - Do not buy!

[ehughes]

I wanted to posted a quick warning to others here who may be considering a CubePro from 3D systems.    We got one for our office to do light duty prints.    All of the reviews online were good and the examples at MakerFaire look good.

Bottom Line...   This printer is simply non-functional

1.)   The dual print head looks attractive as you can do support.  Unfortunately the software to drive the machine is severely crippled.   You have little to no control on how support is created.      The problem is that it will always fill a solid volume with a cross hatch.   The problem comes in that when it starts to lay down a continuous surface on top of the support,  everything gets mangled.     The engineer running the machine has had experience in developing models for many other 3d printers that have come out very nice.   He felt if there was simply a way to tell the software to not use cross hatch support (just do a solid fill),   it would be reasonable (that is what we get when we pay for another local service on a pricer machine).   We tried many iterations to get a model right.  Nothing, worked.   Everything was warped or mangled in some way. 

2.)  Jams....   we have not gotten any model (other than a trivial test piece that takes 20 minutes) to complete without a Jam in the extruder.    Once it stops,  there is no way for the machine to restart without ditching the model.


We had about 60 man hours into the test/debug as well as multiple calls into 3d systems.   The admitted #1 is done on purpose to reduce quality and #2 is "stuff happens".   This printer is simply unusable.


We told purchasing to not pay the invoice and get an RMA. The machine is going back.  There are about 4k in initial cost + the 60 man hours of time in setup test.    It was a very expensive experiment.

If you are considering this printer,   beware!

[electr_peter]

That is appalling, if it is true.

Did you manage to get some good prints out of this printer? Is the quality any good?

It seems that even today most viable way for decent quality prints is not a purchase of 3D printer, but a service from specialised company.
Because other options is either a cheap - semi cheap printer with massive maintenance burden or $$$ printer with simpler (hopefully) maintenance.

[Lunasix]

Have you considered BQ Witbox ?

[jeremy]

I took the plunge and purchased Simplify3D, it was definitely worth it. If your printer can take the files (standard 3d printer gcode), its a great tool for visualising and customising infill patterns, etc. I think it was something like $100 per seat.

Jamming can also be to do with the filament you are using, is it some that came with the printer or is it from elsewhere? I have found that the filament diameter needs to be pretty precise + accurate if your extruder has high tolerances.

Edit: also, the way to solve the bad surface problem is to print several layers with 100% infill at the boundary. Simplify3D does this automatically and lets you choose the number of layers, I think it is called "number of shells" or something like that.

[jeremy]

Jamming can also be to do with the filament you are using, is it some that came with the printer or is it from elsewhere? I have found that the filament diameter needs to be pretty precise + accurate if your extruder has high tolerances.

or you can set filament extrusion multiplier in slic3r to compensate for under/over extrusion inaccuracy.

No, unfortunately I don't think that under/over extrusion is the problem. The problem is that the filament gets stuck, regardless of how much you extrude. Could be temperatures as well.

[ehughes]

Just an update.

from what we can tell,  you have to use there crappy software.     We have been fighting to return the unit as they claim a "no return policy"...

Along the way we ordered 2 extra cartridges.  Both were not recognized by the unit.   The engineer working on it kept calling and didn't get a good one until #10!!!    Along the way they even sent the wrong model.

The only success we have had is when you tell the unit to use straight lines to be used from support.   The other patterns (diamonds, squares) never work.  The machine always fails about 20% in.  Using straight lines often causes the model to warp an break away from the base as alternating layers are not done at a 90 degree offset.


I plan on doing a video review and try to post everywhere I can.  This machine and 3D systems is a waste.   I WILL be at Maker Faire this Fall and WILL do as much negative advertising as possible.

[loffler]

Ive just come accross this post and thought I would add some of my experience with this printer.
I got this printer for work and we went with this one due to the plug and play nature of the reels and software. I wanted the ultimaker 2 but my boss didnt want me spending all my time playing with the settings!

At first I was deeply unhappy with the machine and more prints failed than completed. Parts would not stick to the tray and dual head extrusions just didnt work - either didnt stick to other layers or the tray. Anyway in the 4 months ive had the printer, ive got a bit better at determining what will and wont work on this machine.
Its a nice idea to do ABS prints with PLA support, but bear in mind that you cannot heat the chamber with PLA installed, which means the main part willl likely warp and fail. I tried many times with very little success. Either do ABS only or PLA only for less stress.

I mostly do ABS prints and used to also suffer from warping. The best advise I can give is let the glue try, totally. Give it 5 or 10 mins. Secondly, if printing in ABS, pre-heat the chamber well before printing. You can go into settings and get the heater going 30-60 mins before printing and the tray/chamber will be up to temp.
Basically the time the machine gives for glue and heating is nowhere near long enough to get good prints. I know it adds time but its worth it.

A raft can help the warping but is very hard to remove from the part and ruins the print, so I never use it now. Ive had pretty good results with the sidewalk feature, only introduced in the 1.38 software.
Ive never had an issue with the cartridges. Ive installed and used about 6 so far and only had 2 jams which were easily solved and one was my fault.
Ive used lines and diamond internal patterns and never had an issue. I have never used honeycomb. One thing to note is that the fill spacing is not scaled to the size of the part, so may need manual adjustment.

My biggest bugbear with this machine is the support generation - its simply awful. It skips some areas and adds it to places you dont want it and you have zero control over it. I used to use point contact thinking it would be easier to remove. It really doesnt work so only use line contact now. On bigger parts I remove the borders of the support which makes it much easier to remove, but on smaller parts can make the support disappear altogether.

I am experimenting trying to get kisslsicer to work with the cubepro and there is some activity on the forums with fairly limited success so far due to the closed nature of the system and the build file encryption. For some, the aim is to bypass the proprietry material cartridges, but for me, my only goal is to get better support generation and removal.
The printer is very capable but is let down by the limited software. I would be happy with the machine if I could bypass the poor slicer they use. The good news is that the firmware and software appears to be in active development so things can only get better with new releases every couple months.

[jlmoon]

I plan on doing a video review and try to post everywhere I can.  This machine and 3D systems is a waste.   I WILL be at Maker Faire this Fall and WILL do as much negative advertising as possible.

an old saying:  Piss one customer off with poor quality or service and they will tell 100, please one with great quality & service and they will tell 10.

[kaz911]

None of the big Cube printers have ever been very good. Look on eBay where you can pick them up for next to nothing compared to other high end 3d printers.

ABS - Zortrax M200 /  Afinia / UP 2 Plus
PLA - Ultimaker 2

are the only ones I would consider. I have M200 and Ultimaker 1 (Home assembled) - and I can leave both to print unsupervised. The Zortrax prints almost as nice ABS as the Ultimaker does PLA. And ABS is a lot harder to make nice prints with compared with PLA.

[Corporate666]

Just an update.

from what we can tell,  you have to use there crappy software.     We have been fighting to return the unit as they claim a "no return policy"...

Any company that sells anything with "no return policy" is selling SHIT and doesn't believe in it - they are merely fleecing customers.

That goes for software companies, hardware companies, restaurants, people who sell consumables and so on.

We offer returns up to 30 days - no questions asked - no restocking fees.  I get maybe a 0.1% return rate, because we build a quality product, we support it well and when problems arise, we take care of them. 

The way a company does business flows from the top down, so whoever is running that company just doesn't give a shit about investing the time and money in making a quality product with good support... they have an adversarial customer attitude and don't deserve folks' business.

[AddtvManufct]

I am experimenting trying to get kisslsicer to work with the cubepro and there is some activity on the forums with fairly limited success so far due to the closed nature of the system and the build file encryption. For some, the aim is to bypass the proprietry material cartridges, but for me, my only goal is to get better support generation and removal.

Hi there, at my work I am in charge of making 3D prints and this printer (CubePro Duo) was here before I was hired, so my only option is to work with it. Could you point me in the direction of any sources that are working on getting other slicers to work with it? I agree, the CubePro software is awful.