Cura is an excellent tool for printing 3D files. It has many customizable options to get the exact print you want. Here are some settings and skills we found helpful along the way.
Cura Custom Print Setup:
Travel -> Combing Mode -> No Skin = Prevents unwanted strings from forming in hollow parts of the print
Experimental -> Coasting = Fixes “zits” or “oozing”
After coasting was enable.
Special Modes -> Spiralize Outer Contour = Excellent for circular or vase-like objects, cannot handle points only rings.
Special Modes -> Surface Mode = Ignorals all thickness, the fill is very thin. (Try using thicker nossel with this mode.)
Other Cura Changes:
Modify the shell thickness to get a less solid object.
Printing half of an object to be glued together after can be done by placing the object lower on the platform in cura. Only the part of the object that is above the platform will print. This changes based on the version of cura. Newer versions allow this.
Always check layer view in Cura before printing. If something is wrong with the model it will show you exactly what it is going to print. Here is half of a parametric shape that looked perfect in stl format but in layer view you could tell something was off and it shows.
If the model looked perfect in Cura but the print did not turn out, try printing it one more time without changes. Surprisingly this method can be worthwhile.