Learning Gcode?

My knowledge of gcode is poor and that's not good when working with printers.

What's the best way to learn the gcode most relevant to printing?


If you have a link please post it.


Many Thanks. Aamcle

You don't really need to understand much GCode to run your printer. The slicer does the vast majority of the work.

Some things that you will need, is the stuff that the slicer needs to configure it, or the configuration instructions if you're using RepRap Firmware.

For the slicer things, you'll need stuff like homing, turning off heaters and fans, maybe a little bit of information for homing axes to move the print head away from the completed part, and let it cool.

For the RepRap Firmware stuff, the automatic configuration tool will probably do 95% of it for you, and help on the forum will deal with the rest fairly easily. There are also lots of setup guides that will let you understand which commands you need to adjust. Once you get the printer set up to your liking, you'll probably never look at those commands again, so the FAQs for setup of certain parts and configurations is all you'll need.

There are, as you've probably discovered a ton of commands. Many of these really only need to happen once, and most will never need to happen at all, depending on your printer. The actual code that prints the object will almost certainly be generated by your slicer of choice.

Most of the time, you'll need a command that does ... something. You'll need it when you need it, and then probably never need it again, so it's not worth memorizing, so long as you know where you can find it. The RepRap wiki has a reasonable reference for GCode that will do for lookups. I use it less often now than I did when I was setting up stuff. There's also a pretty good one on the Duet3D site.

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MBot3D Printer
MakerBot clone Kit from Amazon
Added heated bed.

Leadscrew self-built printer (in progress)
Duet Wifi, Precision Piezo parts

Slice something

open the resulting gcode in a text viewer

decode each line from [reprap.org]

Or just skim read through the page

NB there is a lot of stuff for specific firmware's on this page

Another option is to read through the comments in marlin_main [github.com]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2019 07:21PM by Dust.

gcode is the hidden back end. A true user of 3d printing will always need to know some gcode to make some changes
faster and easier or to switch code or calibration for a large group of machines. but todays lines of codes are quite complex in some situations, so knowing what to look for is important.

there are several books out about gcode, but you could learn from reading the code previewer of a slicer program. the best viewer i have seen is from repetier host software,

G0 & G1: Move
G0 is a fast move,

G1 is a normal move and needs a feedrate with it.

these are what i would learn next depending on machine. info is from gcode reprap link is from previous comment

10.63 M101: Turn extruder 1 on (Forward), Undo Retraction
10.64 M102: Turn extruder 1 on (Reverse)
10.65 M103: Turn all extruders off, Extruder Retraction
10.66 M104: Set Extruder Temperature
10.66.1 M104 in Teacup Firmware
10.67 M105: Get Extruder Temperature
10.68 M106: Fan On
10.68.1 M106 in RepRapFirmware
10.68.2 M106 in Teacup Firmware
10.69 M107: Fan Off
10.70 M108: Cancel Heating (Marlin)
10.71 M108: Set Extruder Speed (BF
10.72 M109: Set Extruder Temperature and Wait
10.72.1 M109 in Teacup
10.72.2 M109 in Marlin, MK4duo, Sprinter (ATmega port), RepRapFirmware
10.72.3 M109 in Sprinter (4pi port)
10.72.4 M109 in MakerBot

gcode is common for the cnc groups of people, in fact i think that reprap went this way of using standard gcode to help spawn a creation of users and software that spoke the same language.

ask any cnc operator that has been around a while. they know what gcode is.

my personal preference is learn cnc equipment, and how gcode is used on those machines, but these days other than custom m commands 3d printers move with much the same control as cnc machines do.

you can download repetier host for free [www.repetier.com]

i'm not affiliated with them at all, i just like the interface.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2019 02:50AM by jamesdanielv.

Thanks All, I'm especially grateful for the thoughtful answers.


Atb. Aamcle