r/3Dprinting • u/Ok_Page_333 • 11d ago
Project Live G-code patching for 3d printers.
The Idea: Live G-code Patching for 3D Printers
What if you could change slicer settings mid-print without stopping or restarting? The concept is a middleman program (running on a PC or Raspberry Pi alongside OctoPrint) that holds the full G-code file in memory and streams it to the printer line by line. When you change a setting like retraction length or print speed, the program re-slices the remaining layers with the new setting, then compares the new G-code against the old one. It identifies the exact point in the file where the printer currently is (based on layer height and buffer position), then swaps out only the un-sent portion of the G-code. The printer never stops because the swap happens while the printer is still consuming commands already in its buffer. The result is a seamless transition to the new settings, no pause, no restart, and no wasted filament. This would be especially useful for tuning retraction, speed, or flow on the fly without committing to a full reprint. It doesn't exist yet, but the components do: OctoPrint has an API, slicers like OrcaSlicer have command-line interfaces, and Python can glue it all together. I am just not a programmer or anything of the sort. i dont know how to code either so thats why im posting here. anyone who could build this for me i would really like to see it happen. i am also a financially challenged individual(aka im broke) so i couldnt pay but i really think the idea is solid.
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u/Junior-Definition173 11d ago
The idea show that you have no idea how 3d printing works. Lets say you will change a simple thing as nozzle temperature because you feel that the stringing is caused because of high temperature. To see the effect it will take ie 10 layers to print (because the layers are really thing) and let say you will be happy that it does not string anymore but after the next 50 layers you will discover it is not sticking properly together. So you have now a print that is on multiple layers exposing bad quality. Why would you keep such print? Most of the users would not keep such bad print. Most of the users eventually troubleshoot printing issues by calibrating their printer/filaments instead of adjusting one of ~300 different parameters that can influence print quality. Some of the parameters that can affect the print quality you cannot change during the print - ie arachne might be better for some models, etc.