Does anyone using the Cura slicer know if it’s possible to print with both a skirt and a brim?
Skirt and brim are the same thing. Brim is just a skirt with 0 gap.
Well, yes, but I know that with slic3r, for example, they are actually treated as two different structures so you can have both. I was having flow problems that messed with my bed adhesion, and having the printer start extrusion on the brim rather than the skirt was occasionally dislodging the whole thing. Increasing my nozzle temp on the first layer a bit solved this though. Problem solved!
Why would you want both? That doesn’t really make sense.
Well this isn’t happening anymore, but my problem was that the first bit of extruded material was dislodging from the bed regardless of whether it was the skirt or brim. If the skirt was dislodged, it didn’t cause any major issues because it was such a small piece of plastic. If the start of a brim disconnected, however, the entire brim came loose and was messing with the rest of the print.
I print several hundred parts a week using both. Some slicers poorly implement both features. I use the skirt to prime the extruder and get a consistent flow. I use the brim to anchor the part and prevent corner warping or lifting. Using those I can print on glass with no adhesive and mild heat (or even no heat) with PLA. Using no adhesive allows the parts to separate more quickly and easily from the bed more quickly and speeds production for me. What Cameron says about the brim being compromised is good insurance when using a skirt and a brim. If I’m up and going doing batch after batch it’s less or even not an issue but when starting the machine or coming back after the hot end has cooled it helps me quite a bit.
IMHO, it should really be the start-code job to get the flow going and wipe the nozzle. The main reason why I have the skirt enabled by default is to get the pressure stabilized.
When I print with nylon I use a large [5] skirt with 0 gap to the brim to control warp/lift. Being able to adjust both is a useful feature in Slic3r.