So yesterday, trying to slice a print in PreForm led to a continuos “Error Calculating Print Time”.
To troubleshoot I rebooted PreForm, rebooted my computer, rebooted my internet connection, rebooted the Fuse 1+ (not that this would make any difference slicing) and still was getting a “Error calculating Print Time” when trying to slice a job in PreForm.
Nothing has been changed since June as far as firmware. I was still running PreForm 3.30.0 / released in June with the Nylon 12 GF Beta set and I was running the Fuse 1+ on 1.16.13 / released back in June. This combo with 70% refresh rates has been actually fully dependable with no issues.
Then yesterday I started getting those issues slicing. With nothing changed, I am assuming it had to be something on the servers on Formlabs end to be causing this as PreForm obviously reaches out to them to slice I am assuming…
Next, I broke the golden rule that I have been preaching…NEVER UPDATE FIRMWARE if this system is running…
I figured something on their servers may no longer be compatible with the PreForm version back in June since they have had a few updates since then to both PreForm and the Fuse.
So after updating both… I could slice but started getting these “Error 2 Warnings” and with some more tinkering I was able to start a print then 3 hours into it I got the “Error 8 - Corrupted file” and the job died…ruining the chamber of parts.
Closed up shop for the night, then this morning I rolled everything back to the PreForm version 3.30.0 (From last June) and the Fuse 1.16.13 (From last June) which have been working fine since June.
Now today I was able to slice the job and kick off a print and it is still going so crossing fingers we are back and running.
So to recap…NEVER UPDATE FIRMWARE unless you are willing to be an unpaid beta tester for Formlabs.
It amazes me that they have had a new Fuse release out since Sept 5th and “THREE” PreForm releases since June that are obviously not being tested well prior to release and/or no one has been reporting issues trying to run them.
Or maybe everyone is just doing the smart thing and not updating…if the system is currently working.
Note to self…if something stops working between PreForm and the printer…maybe give Formlabs some time to fix whatever happens to be going on in their servers/system… which I am assuming is pretty intensive as just sharing a PreForm Job to the Printer takes nearly 20 minutes to just share the file…
We’ll see if Formlabs actually responds to the Error reports as they are not listed on their Error sheet…and will let you know what they say, if anything.