Cura: Can't set two extruders

[mark-hahn]

Application Version
3.2.1

Platform
Ubuntu 16.0.4 unity

Steps to Reproduce
set up machine settings for flashforge creator dual

Actual Results
The drop-down for number of extruders only has one extruder with no other option

Here are my machine settings. It shows one extruder and I cannot select two.

[Kinglyboiz]

which printer are you using? I am using Tevo Tarantula with dual extruder and have the same issue. I am able to select the customer FDM printer and chose a second extruder, but I'm creating another issue where I cannot print with the second extruder. Cura seems to lock up.

Running 3.2.1 on MAC OS

[ChrisTerBeke]

That's because the printer definition for the Tevo Tarantual has no extruders defined, meaning it will fall back the default: 1 FDM extruder. They (or the person who's maintaining the Cura profiles for Tevo) should update the definition (or you can make a PR to fix it). We usually don't maintain 3rd party machines as we can't test with them.

Details: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/blob/master/resources/definitions/tevo_tarantula.def.json.

[Ghostkeeper]

To prevent confusion, I've now hidden this drop-down for printers where no more than 1 extruder is defined: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/commit/aae8a31f00cf9db2b6190a43dbf1658db64311cf

[Ghostkeeper]

We've been assuming that if you are technical enough to modify your printer to add additional extruders that it normally doesn't have, you'd also be technical enough to modify the JSON files of your printer definition in Cura's installation.

That's not always the case of course. But you could use Custom FDM Printer as an alternative.

[Festivejelly]

This isnt very user friendly. Also assuming that someone knows their way around a printer should also know their way around JSON and how the formatting works is a bit ignorant tbh. I feel you should be able to add this through the UI.

[paalex]

For those that decide to tweak Cura on their own, you can find the printer configuration file here (macOS):
/Contents/Resources/resources/definitions/tevo_tarantula.def.json inside Ultimaker Cura app package

Replace tevo_tarantula.def.json with your printer's config filename.

Edit this part to add additional extruders:

"metadata":
    {
        ...
        {
            "0": "tevo_tarantula_extruder_0",
            "1": "tevo_tarantula_extruder_1"
        }
    }

EDIT: additionally, you would have to create a new extruder config file in /Contents/Resources/resources/extruders/ named tevo_tarantula_extruder_1.def.json

And edit it to contain:

{
    "version": 2,
    "name": "Extruder 2",
    "inherits": "fdmextruder",
    "metadata": {
        "machine": "tevo_tarantula",
        "position": "1"
    },

    "overrides": {
        "extruder_nr": { "default_value": 1 },
        "machine_nozzle_size": { "default_value": 0.4 },
        "material_diameter": { "default_value": 1.75 }
    }
}