Easy Multicolored Prints: Mid-print Pausing in Cura

Recently I designed some coasters based on the Warning Signs in Portal. But when it came to printing them I really wanted to use a mixture of black and white filaments to match the original design. Whilst I could just watch it print and pause it manually, I knew there would be a better way!

Telling Cura to pause at certain layers is actually an extremely simple process which doesn’t require you to install anything extra! The first thing you’ll want to do is figure out what layer you’re wanting Cura to pause at. To find this:

• Slice your design, then navigate to the preview tab.
• From here you can use the right-hand slider to slice through your model and determine which layer you want to pause at.

NOTE: It will pause at the END of this layer.

Next, you can add the pause function into Cura, whilst this setting does exist natively, it is slightly buried in the menus:

• On the top menu open the Extensions Tab.
• Select Post Processing, then Modify G-Code.
• A Post Processing Plugin window will appear, press the ‘Add a Script‘ button.
• From the dropdown select ‘Pause at height‘.

This will show a variety of options you can adjust and tweak. The main thing that you will want to set is the ‘Pause at‘ option from ‘Height‘ to ‘Layer No.‘ then set the pause value appropriately.

These are the general settings that I have selected that work well. When I’m doing prints involving filament changes, I’m semi-actively watching the print, so don’t mind leaving the ‘Standby Temperature‘ at printing heat.

One important thing to take note of is the new icon that’s appeared next to the Slice button. This shows that you have active G-Code modifications, so keep an eye for it, as otherwise, your print will always pause at that layer.

Important: In some versions of Cura there is a bug with this plugin where it will not reset back to the correct layer, instead 1mm higher.

This was just a short post, it took me a few minutes of Googling to find out how to do this, so thought I’d document the process as you guys might find it useful too! If you have any questions about the above process, drop a comment below and I’ll happily answer them!

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by Sam Brooks

Sam is the founder and editor for Tech Trail. With a background in Broadcast Engineering, and great enthusiasm for smart home and emerging technologies.

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