fieldofview/cura-sidebarguiplugin

Cura plugin that provides a more settings-centric GUI for those who prefer it

Cura Sidebar GUI Plugin

This plugin replaces collapsible settings panel in Cura 4.x with a sidebar like the previous versions. This results in a more settings-centric UX, for those who prefer it. The sidebar can be closed and even opened in a seperate window. It also adds a legend to the Prepare stage and makes X-Ray view part of this legend. Some of the UX improvements spearheaded in this plugin trickle down to the default Cura interface.

The continued development of this plugin can be sponsored via Github Sponsors or Paypal.

Cura version compatibility

When a new release of Cura is available, the Sidebar GUI plugin always needs to be updated.

In order for the Sidebar GUI plugin to work, it does quite a bit of "nasty" patching of the original interface. These patches may break the interface when the original interface is changed. So, as a security measure, the plugin checks to see if it has been "approved" for the version of Cura you are using it with.

An updated version of the plugin is usually created during the beta period, so when a new stable release of Cura is available, the plugin update is available in the Marketplace. Because updates to plugins need to be checked and approved by Ultimaker developers, there is always a bit of a delay.

cura-sidebarguiplugin's Issues

AttributeError: 'CuraApplication' object has no attribute 'getMaterialManager'

Hi,

I use cura 4.4.1 and get the following error when the plugin is installed:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File ".....\AppData\Roaming\cura\4.4\plugins\SidebarGUIPlugin\SidebarGUIPlugin\SidebarGUIProxy.py", line 26, in getExtruderHasQualityForMaterial
material_manager = application.getMaterialManager()
AttributeError: 'CuraApplication' object has no attribute 'getMaterialManager'

Could you check the problem?

Thx

Nozzle and material choice boxes aren't visible.

When clicking on the arrow to show the Nozzle size and Material selection boxes - the area remains blank.
5.1 on the left and 5.2 on the right.

EDIT:
This is another strange view. The extruder tabs appear twice. I'm using the original package you put together.

Broken by Cura 4.2

Cura (arch community) not loading

I installed Cura from the Arch Community Repository.

Start log: https://paste.kodi.tv/bololujezo.kodi

However, the GUI does not change after the extension is installed.
However, everything works when I use the appimage from the cura git.

plugin 4.0.6: Crash at startup on Cura 4.0.0

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/nvanhooff/.local/share/cura/4.0/plugins/SidebarGUIPlugin/SidebarGUIPlugin/SidebarGUIProxy.py", line 33, in getExtruderHasQualityForMaterial
container_tree = ContainerTree.getInstance()
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'getInstance'

Makes newer versions of Cura hang for multiple seconds.

Since Cura 4.9 this plugin makes it quite unusable.

When the window looses focus or you change the focus in the 3D-View Cura hangs for more than 5 seconds, every time.

Cura 4.8 runs just fine with this plugin.

Sidebar GUI 4.3.0 makes Cure 4.13.1 and 5.0 lag, stop responding, and is unusable.

I haven't used cura in a while - but it was working great - stayed on 4.13.1 for a long time since it was working top notch. Took a few weeks off from dabbling in 3D - few days ago opened cura and it was just a mess to try to load files, scroll menus, etc. Long "not responding" messages and weird stuff happening. Disabled AV, reboot, reinstall, etc. no dice.

Finally disabled plugins one by one until I found Sidebar GUI 4.3.0 was the culprit. I don't know if I had updated it prior to figuring it out that it was the "bad one" in my setup, but for sure now it is the only plugin I have disabled and everything is still top speed - but if I enable Sidebar GUI 4.3.0 - restart cura - the lag monster is back. I installed 5.0 just to see if it was only an update that works with 5.0 and that has the same lag problem too. Just checking in to see if this was common and if there is a work around. I love my sidebar GUI :)

v4.1.2 in Cura v4.10 causes UI to freeze/hang Win10

I drilled down to this causing Cura to become unresponsive and pretty much unusable.

Fairly new to printing and Cura so if there are any logs or anything I need to provide, let me know where I can find those.

The current plugin version does not work with a new Cura release

When a new release of Cura is available, the Sidebar GUI plugin always needs to be updated.

In order for the Sidebar GUI plugin to work, it does quite a bit of "nasty" patching of the original interface. These patches may break the interface when the original interface is changed. So, as a security measure, the plugin checks to see if it has been "approved" for the version of Cura you are using it with.

I normally work hard to have an updated version of the plugin ready during the beta period, so when a new stable release of Cura is available, the plugin update is available in the Marketplace. Because I may not always have time immediately when a Cura beta is released, and because updates to plugins need to be checked and approved by Ultimaker developers, there is always a bit of a delay.

Edit:
Since the beta period of Cura 5, prereleases (and stable versions) can be found here:
https://github.com/fieldOfView/Cura-SidebarGUIPlugin/releases

To install a release from that page, download the .curapackage appropriate for the version of Cura you use, and drop the .curapackage file onto the buildplate in Cura as if you were opening a 3d model. Restart Cura when instructed.

[Feature Request] Floating sidebar !

Hello, and thanks for this plugin.

(and waiting for 4.1 version)

The title could sound strange, as this plugin makes the sidebar not floating ! But maybe you coould add a feature that would allow the sidebar to be displayed out of the Cura window. This would be interresting for those who have multiple screens : Cura on one monitor, the sidebar on another.

Cura 4.1 Mac not working

the plugin doesnt seem to work as before on 4.1 on mac , probably because of the resize windows feature of cura 4.1

Plugin not working with Cura 4.4

Cura 4.4 is crashing on startup with plugin installed, I'm getting following errors in Cura log:

CRITICAL - [MainThread] cura.CrashHandler.__init__ [61]: An uncaught error has occurred!
CRITICAL - [MainThread] cura.CrashHandler.__init__ [64]: Traceback (most recent call last):
CRITICAL - [MainThread] cura.CrashHandler.__init__ [64]:   File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\cura\4.4\plugins\SidebarGUIPlugin\SidebarGUIPlugin\SidebarGUIProxy.py", line 26, in getExtruderHasQualityForMaterial
CRITICAL - [MainThread] cura.CrashHandler.__init__ [64]:     material_manager = application.getMaterialManager()
CRITICAL - [MainThread] cura.CrashHandler.__init__ [64]: AttributeError: 'CuraApplication' object has no attribute 'getMaterialManager'

It's related to (or I believe it is, I'm not a pro programmer, I just made a quick research)
https://github.com/RedSerenityDev/Cura/pull/496
Ultimaker/Cura@9b836d9

Error displaying settings after starting printing

Ultimaker/Cura#6582

@Goodfeat reports:

When I start printing with two extruders, I return to the main menu and prepare a new print.

At this point, the program confuses the settings of the first and second extruder.
It shows that the settings for the first extruder are turned on, but in fact they refer to the second extruder.

The same is about profiles. If you change the profile with two extruders installed to the one where only one extruder is used, the printing will still use two extruders although the program displays only one extruder.
Only forced switching of settings from the first extruder to the second and vice versa helps.
This becomes inconvenient, because the program is very slow while switching.

Windows 10
Cura 4.3
Delta printer
nozzle 0.4
dual extruder (extr 1 + extr.support)

Try

1. enable the settings of the second extruder,
2. go to the "monitor" tab
3. back to extruder settings
   you will see that the extruder number is turned on alone, and the settings remained for the second extruder

I created a video showing a display error.
https://youtu.be/noLZWa5EjTA

Collapse to the right

Please disregard this superfluous post.

Perspective selector floating/collapsable

It would be a nice feature if we could have this window collapsible, hidable and/or floating.

As it is now, it takes up a lot of space with little extra benefit most of the time.

Settings Sidebar stays visible when Gcode file is opened

Cura 4.7, Win10 Home...
This leaves all the settings available as well as the Save options. I played with "Saving" the file and it made a real hash of things when it re-wrote the Gcode file. That might have been do to the plugins I had loaded. In the Zip file -
Saved Gcode Files.zip
"PreSave.Gcode" is the file I opened. "PostSave.gcode" is the result after saving with Cura.

scrollable area does not extend all the way to the right of the window

Hey there Aldo, wanted to get your two cents on the scrollbar behavior / width.

Currently the 'scrollable area' is limited to the rightmost side of the scrollbar itself.
This means that when the pointer is immediately to the right of the scrollbar, it will stop scrolling the sidebar and start zooming the viewframe instead.
Let me give you a visual since I'm QML illiterate and I suck at explaining:

Is this expected behavior?
I find it a bit uncomfortable since I'm so used to slamming the cursor out of view to the right of the screen to scroll (like you do in web pages or MS Word for example).
I think the 'scrollable area' should be extented to the rightmost side of the window.

This is just nitpicking and something I can live without, but wanted to put it out there to see if it had some purpose that i'm missing or if it's a super ez fix.
Thanks for creating and maintaining one of the best suite of plugins there is out there for any piece of software!

Cheers!
~S²

SidebarGuiPlugin v4.6.4 will not load with Cura 4.13.1

Hi @fieldOfView,
FYI.
I had the need to run Cura 4.13.1 and just recognize after updating some plugins that version 4.6.4 do not load and is deactivated after restarting Cura.
I tested the different plugin versions from here and the latest working version was SidebarGUIPlugin_v4.6.2_Cura4.4-4.13.curapackage. All newer versions gave the same information as shown below.

SidebarGUIPlugin_v4.6.4_Cura4.4-4.13.curapackage:

cura.log

Does not work with Cura 4.13.0 Beta

Not compatible with Cura 4.8

Release of Cura limited in the plugin.json file
"minimum_cura_version": "4.0",
"maximum_cura_version": "4.7",
Is it normal ?

[enhancement] Material color in the material dropdownlist

On idea or cool feature will be the possibility to show the Material color in the dropdown material list :

Actual Interface

Visualisation of this material in the material manager of Cura

Proposed new Interface.

Messed positions

Platform
Windows 10 x64

Actual Results
The position of the words and graphics is messed up.

Expected results
Graphics should be kept in order.

Additional Information

Causes lagging UI

Been having issues with cura locking up whenever you add, click, or do pretty much anything. About a 10sec lock-up.
ie click open file...lockup. click quality....lockup. click material...lockup...etc.
I have tried numerous posted fixes on the net regarding cura lock-ups and crashes, but none fixed the issue.
rolled back to 4.10...same issue. removed all previous versions...same issue.
started disabling what few plug-ins I use and narrowed it down to sidebarGUI.
disabled and uninstalled it, problem went away. Cura works as normal.
re-installed it...problem comes back. I can have it installed and disabled with no issues, but once it's enabled again, lock-ups come back.
Cura has been uninstalled numerous times just to be sure.
I also installed the latest cura on my laptop, worked fine. added plug-ins 1 at a time leaving SBGUI till last. No issues at all until I install SBGUI then the lock-ups occur on laptop as well.

Long material names causes text to "break free" from tab

When you select a material with a huge name, the variant gets pushed down to outside the tab.

|

When you try to push that notion to the extreme a bit, the variant is even pushed out to a nice vacation, never to be seen again:

When collapsing the sidebar, the variant does show up again, but floating outside of the box:

Cura 5.3 Beta Missing Icons to access to the Reset and Save Function

In Cura 5.3 the UI have change and Now Reseting or Saving the modification into a project is done via some Icons on the Side of the profil :

And Not in the Drop Down Menu as it was before.

So with the SideBarPlugin we don't have anymore acces to this function , We need to open the Profile Manager to Update Profil settings

SideBarGUI not showing with cura-from-source or Arch repository

Hello,

I'm trying to get SidebarGUIPlugin to work with my Cura setup.
I'm using Debian 10 (buster).

When running official Cura 4.2 from AppImage, and with the plugin manually installed in ~/.local/share/cura/4.2/plugins/SidebarGUIPlugin - it works great.

However, when I build Cura from source (with git version equivalent to 4.2),
and the plugin manually installed in ~/.local/share/cura/master/plugins/SidebarGUIPlugin - the plugin is listed in the "marketplace -> installed" window, but is not working (or not activated?).

The only mentions of the plugin in the logs are:

2019-08-29 20:02:05,309 - INFO - [MainThread] UM.PluginRegistry.loadPlugin [394]: Loaded plugin CuraEngineBackend
2019-08-29 20:02:05,318 - DEBUG - [MainThread] SidebarGUIPlugin.__matchVersion [29]: Running Cura from source, ignoring version of the plugin

Any ideas on how to make it work, or how to troubleshoot this issue ?

Thanks for an awesome plugin!
gordon

Material selection is outside the dialog border and not accessible

Hello A. Hoeben. Nice place ya have here. I was worried you might be getting bored so I brought you something to think about (although it may be that I have an early fix on the plugin and this has been taken care of).

I had my printer set up as a dual extruder and went to change materials on Extruder 2. The drop down was OK. I selected the manufacturer and the secondary selections appeared but the third set was off to the right and I couldn't get to them to actually change material. Undocking the sidebar didn't help. Here are two images with the sidebar docked and undocked.
The third image is from 4.13 where the primary choices went to the left and selecting the material worked.
(I used the Settings menu and successfully changed material.)

Cura Slower/freezing when Sidebar GUI and the FancyZone PowerToy are active

Using Cura 4.9

Working like a charm if Cura-Sidebar is deactivate
If Cura-Sidebar activate then it become really slow, have to wait 10-30s after many action ( getting the waiting mouse icon and/or "not responding" text in windows title) when for exemple:

• getting focus on cura (switching back from another software)
• click on a toolbar menu (to open menu)
• click on an item in toolbar menu (to get setting window for exemple)
• opening market place
• etc.

Attached to this bug report:

Cura log when freezing (extension activate)
Cura 4.9 Log with extension Cure-SideBAr_KO.log

Cura log + conf filles without plugin (work well)
Cura 4.9 Log without extension Cure-SideBAr_OK.zip

Sequence of Action in both record:

• Launch Cura
• Load an STL
• Move the 3D view
• click on toollbar
• oepn parameter window then close it
• open market place then close it
• Mve the 3D view

ps: got OctoPrint Connection extension 3.5.18 and UM3 Network Printing 1.0.1 activate: got WAN access throught WIFI and mounted drive to a NAS (did saw cura crawling them using FileMon from SysInternal to monitot CURA access)(no difference with or without x: drive => used a subst to test this)

ps: done in link to this issue Ultimaker/Cura#1602

Cura 5.1/5.2

Due to high energy prices my 3d printing was a bit on the sideburner (still is) but i'm updating things atm. Just updated to cura 5.2 and tried to reinstall the sidebar GUI. The official released one 4.4.0 still isn't compatible, however i noticed a 4.4.1 DEV version under releases that's dated about a week ago. However its in .curapackage, never used that before. Can you elaborate on how i can update to the dev version?

Cura 5.2.1 Material selection from side bar not working.

Cura 5.2.1 when trying to select material from the side bar, first two levels of the material menu are opening fine (manufacturer and material type), where color selection is no longer opening for neither custom nor default materials. Clicking on material type does not do anything. In my case same story for single and dual extruder machines. Selection is available only from settings menu. Updated version of plug in works fine in version 4.13.0

Thank you

not compatible with Cura 4.9

try to run V 4.0.11-DEV on Cura 4.9 without success

Expand all / collapse all buttons

I wonder if you can add the following features which i have asked the Cura team maybe 3 years ago to no avail and that is to add click buttons on this side bar which when clicked - all sub-settings categories pull-downs collapses and/or expended.
Second toggle will show only my most used settings - like a favorite list of settings within the different categories.
Each time i slice a complex model which takes many hours to print i spend a lost of time expanding and collapsing so many settings and just before printing i, again, open all categories just to make sure all are set as needed.
I have asked many years ago to be able to expand/collapse so going over all settings will be faster and less tedious, and having a favorite category which shows only my most important setting (meaning there will be a need to add a checkbox for each setting within my global custom selections) so it will be like a summery confirmation before sending the gcode to printer.

Forgive my poor Illustration.

A Penny for your thoughts.
Cheers, and keep up your amazing contribution to Cura. much appreciated.

profile selector dropdown overlaps view selection in older Cura's

Plugin version: 4.2.0 (as submitted)
Cura versions: (at least) 4.0.0, 4.1.0

See screenshots:

Version 4.11 incompatibility

Just upgraded to Cura 4.11, and sidebar docking appears to be non-functional:

No hurry, just thought I'd mention it.

Legend box covers top of layer slider

Hi.
In Cura 4.3 preview page the layer slider is covered by the legend box.
Is it possible to correct this?

Multiple extruder rows

Could this view be possible? And have all extruder settings side-by-side?

"The plugin SidebarGUI could not be loaded"

I downloaded the CuraPackage this morning and dragged and dropped it into Cura 5.2beta. It was accepted by Cura and the "Install after restart" message came up.
After restarting Cura the "could not be loaded" warning came up.

Can't edit any fields after switching to Monitor Tab

Just started today after I started a calibration print. Scaled my cube changed some settings in the sidebar then after slicing and hitting print went to the monitor tab to abort because I forgot to change temps. Came back to the sidebar and I can't edit any of the input fields in the SidebarGui at all.

SidebarGUIPlugin v4.6.4 will not load with Cura 5.7.0 Beta1

Hi @fieldOfView,
I hope, you are well.

FYI and if you find a little bit time :)
I give the new 5.7.0beta1 a quick test and took a look in the cura log as two of your plugins will not load with the beta. While loading was an easy manipullation for testing, there are still some warnings in the log for this plug in and for TabbedSettingsPlugin.

I attached my log file for further information. It includes two starts, one for the installation of cura 5.7.0beta1 and one after I manipulate the version compatibility for the two plugins. In addition I also fix my printer def files for metadata setting version so that this don't show up again.

Best regards,
DD

Edit: I delete the log file as not needed any longer

Problems with help/

There is some problem with help popups and the Settings Guide plugin.

Steps to reproduce :

• detach the sidebar
• move it to a secondary monitor
• hover some field with the mouse cursor

The help popup appears over the sidebar, and can hide the field.
If the sidebar is on another monitor, and Settings Guide plugin is activated, sometime the help goes crazy : it shows then disapears every second or so.

No idea if the problem is Cura, SidebarGUI or Settings Guide related.

From the user point of view, if we detach the sidebar, it will probably be draged to a 2nd monitor, and near to Cura main window. Help and popups would be a lot more comfortable if they appear somewhere else on the monitor SideBar is displayed on. For example :

• sidebar on the left monitor :
  left monitor : [help]+[SideBar] , center monitor : [Cura]

• sidebar on the right monitor :
  center monitor : [Cura] , right monitor [Sidebar]+[help]

Please let me know if you need a short video showing the problems.

Cura 5.6 support

Currently, the plugin fails to load in Cura 5.6. Please update and upload to the Marketplace at your convenience.

Support for 5.0 beta?

Plugin refuses to launch on the new 5.0.0 Cura beta release, when can we expect an update / workaround? Thanks!

Floating/Hiding the Settings Sidebar

Cura 4.7, Win10 Home...
I am unable to either hide the bar or slide it out of the way. Sometimes it's helpful to move or hide it so the zooming, panning, rotating can have more on-screen acreage.
Same issue with the smaller bar with the View icons. Not hideable and it's seems fixed in place.

Compatibility with RawMouse plugin

A user of the RawMouse plugin reported an issue (smartavionics/RawMouse#14) which appears to be due to the presence of the SidebarGUI plugin.

While the 3d mouse is being manipulated, RawMouse may use the setActiveView() API function to switch the view from the normal simulated view to a quicker to render "fastview" thus improving the frame rate and making the display smoother. When the mouse becomes inactive, the view is switched back to the simulated view. This functionality appears to break when the SidebarGUI plugin is active.

This issue has been created to explore what is going wrong and provide a place to discuss possible changes to either or both of the plugins.

To give you an idea of what is being done, here's a snippet of code from RawMouse that does the view change while processing mouse movement events...

                if self._auto_fast_view or ctrl_is_active:
                    if self._controller.getActiveStage().getPluginId() == "PreviewStage" and self._controller.getActiveView().getPluginId() != "FastView":
                        self._controller.setActiveView("FastView")
                        self._fast_view = True
                elif self._fast_view:
                    self._controller.setActiveView("SimulationView")
                    self._fast_view = False