What the heck happened in 2.7.1?

Z-SUITE/Firmware General Discussion
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PC user here. Primarily Z-ABS M200s..We design and sell parts so strength and finish are a must. On to the new update....First thing we noticed was the raft is now 3 layers thick instead of the regular 2 layers that was suffice in the last update. Not sure of why, as it just adds more time and wasted filament..Our biggest problem with the new update is with the initial first layer as it has been changed the way it is laid down is some fashion. the last version it was pretty decent and acceptable as it could be quickly hit with quick passes of a small torch to uniform the color and the pattern was consistent....Now with the new update the first layer is no where near the quality from the last, it now looks chopped and de-laminated all at the suggested height.

From comparing older saved models slicer settings, the first layer gap has changed from 0.21 to 0.31 which i suspect is from the added raft layer. Changing this parameter does nothing to help with the look of the first initial layer lines as it still is chopped but just much harder if not impossible to remove if the gap is decreased and much worse if the gap is increased.

As for the infill, seems to look great and hold up the same as before. There is a bit less black marks in the white Z-ABS as well which is a good thing and the nozzle does not seem to collect as much with the way the new infill is laid now. Exterior and interior finish is a tad bit better as well, especially around cutouts and holes which is a big plus.

This first layer thing has made us downgrade back to the latest version which is kind of a bummer as the new options and updates seemed promising.

Can you tell me which layer thickness do you mostly use?

Did you experience the issue with first layer gap and raft on all layer thicknesses?

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Can you tell me which layer thickness do you mostly use?

Did you experience the issue with first layer gap and raft on all layer thicknesses?

We currently only use the 0.19layer height as we do not usually model change layer heights once they have gone into final production, so we stick with the layer height that the original models were sliced with. We also have to keep quality and speed in mind so smaller layers which would add definition, simply add much more time to a single print and larger layers degrade the models exterior definition. So unfortunately we did not test layer heights to see if this effect of the first layer disposition follows the different print layer heights.

As for the first layer gap as described in our original post,the models stay seated to the raft and remove nicely but the bottom finish is terrible compared to the eariler update releases. Even dropping the first layer gap height from the stock setting of 0.31 gap (in 2.7.1) to 0.30, 0.29, 0.28 the finish was the same but just harder now to remove from the raft as expected. Moving it upwards… Well you get the idea lol.

Recap on our problem. Infill and exterior walls are much cleaner then before with same structural standards. New Infill pattern on 2.7.1 is much more efficient as it also helps with black marks and interior blotches but with the first layer gap and layout problem, we unfortunately had to downgrade the software back.

Thanks once again in advance for the help and responding to our comments and concerns.