Beacon set-up

Ratos comes with a fully automated beacon model and temperature offset calibration. For further information click here.
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⚠️The extruder and hot end must be clear of filament. Make sure to remove the filament; otherwise, the machine won't be able to accurately perform this calibration.⚠️
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1. Heat the nozzles to 280ºC and tighten them if you didn't already. Be carefull as the hotend is very hot and you can easily burn yourself. Overtightning the nozzle can result in permanant damage. Phaetus recommends 2.5Nm of torque when hot tightening the Rapido 2 noozle.

2. Install the flex plate.
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3. Run the following command:
BEACON_RATOS_CALIBRATE

Gantry twist (Core XY + hybrid)

Gantry twist significantly reduces V-Core 4 performance by introducing unwanted drag into the system. This results in poor belt tensioning and Input Shaper graphs, ultimately leading to a prolonged and frustrating process of identifying the underlying causes of the machine's suboptimal performance.
In most cases, this issue is too subtle to be detected by the naked eye. Please follow the steps below to ensure your machine is properly prepared for printing.

1. Run the following command in your console:
M18‍
2. Slowly move the toolhead to the center of the machine, then slide the gantry fully to the back until the joiners make contact with the stepper motor cages.

3. Using your hands, squeeze the gantry joiners against the stepper motor cages. There should be no play between them, and the goal is to ensure you cannot squeeze the joiners further. Often, one of the joiners will be tightly compressed, while the other may have some play. Gently press both joiners against the stepper motor cages and feel for any movement. It is important to identify which joiner has play against the stepper motor cage.

(The idlers will make contact before the plates collide, and this is perfectly fine. The idlers provide enough support and accuracy to correctly align the gantry.)

4. Identify the joiner that is not making contact with the stepper motor plate.

5. Loosen the set screw on the tensioner blocks before adjusting the belt tension.
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6. Loosen the belt tensioner slightly until the joiner makes contact. Loosening the tensioner moves the joiner toward the back of the machine. Tightening the tensioner moves the joiner toward the front of the machine.
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7. Make small adjustments until the joiner is properly aligned.

8. This calibration process involves some trial and error. Adjust the belt tension as needed to ensure that both joiners make contact with the stepper motor plates simultaneously.
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9.  Tighten the set screws on the tensioner body once you have finished.

Gantry twist (idex)

Gantry twist significantly reduces V-Core 4 performance by introducing unwanted drag into the system. This results in poor belt tensioning and Input Shaper graphs, ultimately leading to a prolonged and frustrating process of identifying the underlying causes of the machine's suboptimal performance.
In most cases, this issue is too subtle to be detected by the naked eye. Please follow the steps below to ensure your machine is properly prepared for printing.

1. Run the following command in your console:
M18‍
2. Remove the top Y belts. (Yes, it's necessary to achieve optimal performance)
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3. Slowly move the toolheads to the center of the machine, then slide the gantry fully to the back until the joiners make contact with the stepper motor cages.

4. Using your hands, squeeze the gantry joiners against the stepper motor cages. There should be no play between them, and the goal is to ensure you cannot squeeze the joiners further. Often, one of the joiners will be tightly compressed, while the other may have some play. Gently press both joiners against the stepper motor cages and feel for any movement. It is important to identify which joiner has play against the stepper motor cage.

(The idlers will make contact before the plates collide, and this is perfectly fine. The idlers provide enough support and accuracy to correctly align the gantry.)

4. Identify the joiner that is not making contact with the stepper motor plate.

5. Loosen the set screw on the tensioner blocks before adjusting the belt tension.
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6. Loosen the belt tensioner slightly until the joiner makes contact. Loosening the tensioner moves the joiner toward the back of the machine. Tightening the tensioner moves the joiner toward the front of the machine.
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7. Make small adjustments until the joiner is properly aligned.

8. This calibration process involves some trial and error. Adjust the belt tension as needed to ensure that both joiners make contact with the stepper motor plates simultaneously.
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9.  Tighten the set screws on the tensioner body once you have finished.

10. Reinstall the top Y belts and repeat steps 3 to 9, this time ensuring that the top Y belts are properly tensioned to maintain correct gantry alignment. To achieve this, repeat the steps above for the two top Y belt tensioners.

Ressonance analysis

The real-time analysis tool enables real-time resonance analysis of your printer. This functionality allows you to set the printer to resonate at a specific frequency and direction, facilitating a detailed mechanical assessment. With this tool, you can more effectively diagnose potential mechanical issues within the machine. Find more detailed information about this tool here.

The following chapters will cover belt tension calibration and Input Shaper. During these stages, you can utilize the resonance analysis tool to troubleshoot and diagnose any mechanical issues with your machine.

1. Click on the Real-Time Analysis button (1) in the left menu.
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2. Select the Accelerometer (2).
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3. If using an IDEX machine, choose the toolhead (3), either T0 or T1.
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4. Click Start (4) to activate the accelerometer readings.
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5. Select the resonance direction (5):
5.1 "Oscillate X" for debugging an X-axis Input Shaper spike or noise.
5.2 "Oscillate Y" for debugging an Y-axis Input Shaper spike or noise.
5.3 "Oscillate X-Y" for diagnosing resonance in the lower belt line inside the belt graph.
5.4 "Oscillate X+Y" for analyzing resonance in the top belt line inside the belt graph.
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6. Choose the Oscillation Frequency (6) at which you want the machine to resonate.

Belt tension

Please note: At this point the hybrid steppers will be ignored as the top Y belts should only be installed later in the guide.

‍The belt tension graphs are meant to help you troubleshoot your machine assembly, do not look at it as a tunning tool, it's very easy to over-obsess with them. It's impossible to cover every scenario and diagnose every belt graph artefact, this is a very complex and sensitive subject, about which we are still exploring and learning, please feel free to submit your feedback in our Discord community.
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Also check out the amazing work by the klippain shaketune team here!
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Ensure your machine build is finished, all the wirings are clean and there are no loose parts, the machine must be placed on a sturdy surface and there is nothing on top or against the machine. Don't touch the machine during vibration analysis.
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It's important to clarify this procedure focused on relative belt tension, meaning it will show you if both belts have the same tension. This is crucial for a smooth motion system.
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Ideally, the belt graph for a V-Core 4 would have smooth lines with 2 peaks, as shown below:

1. To perform a belt tensions graph, just click on the designated button inside the "SCRIPTS" window.

2. You must now analyse your graph and identify potential issues. This is a very complex and involved process, but here are a few generic most found issues.
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2.1) The two peaks (blue and orange) must be aligned on the same frequency, if they are not vertically aligned, then you need to tension or loosen the belts, and your gantry is most likely twisted. Refer to this guide to help you troubleshoot
2.2) Toolhead vibrations generally cause vibrations on the lines around 100-150 Hz. This can be caused by loose screws, damaged printed parts, loose wires, lack of zip ties to properly constrain the wires, etc...

3) There is an issue with the belt path- If your graph lacks one or two peaks. this most likely indicates your belts are rubbing against something somewhere on their path, this can be an Idler, Motor pulley, frame, etc...
Only one belt path is having issues on this example:

3.1) Both belts path have issues in this example:

4) Lastly, it's important to differentiate between vibrations and swinging.
Vibrations manifest in zig zag alike lines and are mostly caused by loose screws on the toolhead or the gantry. Loose idler stacks or missing shims can cause the same effect. try to locate them and fix the issue.

5) Swinging does show as smooth curves. Many times it's coming from the fact that the printer sits on a shaky table or an uneven floor. Make sure your printer can't shake.

Input ShapER (IS) (CoreXY+Hybrid)

This calibration follows the Klipper documentation steps but they are simplified for the V-Core 4.
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1. Click on the designated button "GENERATE SHAPER GRAPHS" inside the "SCRIPTS" window.

The printer will start moving the gantry in X and Y to determine the ringing frequencies. After this, the input shaper graphs will be available under the “machine” tab (1) , inside the “input_shaper” folder (2).

2. Look at the generated IS graphs, you should have one for the X-axis and one for the Y-axis. The example below highlights the relevant details to look for in an IS graph.

MZV (46.4 Hz, vibr:0.0%, sm~=0.09, accel<=6300)
Notice that this protocol recommends a max acceleration of 6300 mm/s². You will need to compare this value with the one provided on the X graph and choose the lowest value, this value should be used as your external perimeter acceleration inside the slicer profile, to avoid having any visible ghosting. The external perimeter speed and acceleration on the V-Core 4 profiles are somewhat conservative, you can increase them based on your input shaper results to achieve the maximum quality VS performance.

3. Inside the “printer.cfg” go to “user overrides” and paste the following lines:

[input_shaper]
shaper_freq_x: Your_X_Frequency‍
shaper_type_x: mzv
shaper_freq_y: Your_Y_Frequency‍
shaper_type_y: mzv

4. Click "SAVE & RESTART" at the top right of the print.cfg page.

Hybrid Belts

Tuning all belts from the ground up is a nearly impossible job, so Rat Rig recommends that you first tune your CoreXY belts and only then proceed to add and tune the Y belts.The Y belts must be tuned recurring to the Input shaper graphs, slowly tensioning them equally. Starting with a low tension is important to understand that the hybrid core-xy input shaper is much more sensitive than a normal corexy setup, a very small increase of the y tension can change a perfect input shaper to the worst one you have ever seen.

1. Follow the dedicated guide one Dozuki, explaining you how to route the Y belts, Click Here.

2. Tension your Y belts, It's important to tension both belts with the same force, try to rotate both tensioner screws by the same amount. It's easy to ensure you tension both belts by the same amount by verifying if the gantry is straight, the gantry twist method can be used here, but only regulate the top Y tensioners to align the gantry. start with a low tension and run an input shaper graph.

You should be looking at achieving a clean input shaper graph.

3. Gradually increase or decrease the Y belt tension by the same amount, try 1/4 to 1/2 turn increments in the tensioner screw and repeat Step 2. This is a trial and error process so take your time and don't obsess over it, enjoy the incredible BRRR sound the machine provides.

4. You will need to re-do the gantry twist steps above as well as the belt tension calibration and Input shaper, to maximesize the machine performance.

Input ShapER (IS) (idex)

This calibration follows the Klipper documentation steps but they are simplified for the V-Core 4 Idex.
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1. Click on the designated button "GENERATE SHAPER GRAPHS" inside the "SCRIPTS" window.

The printer will start moving the gantry in X and Y to determine the ringing frequencies. After this, the input shaper graphs will be available under the “machine” tab, inside the “input_shaper” folder.

There will be four files, the names should be intuitive, first you can see the toolhead designation, T0 or T1, then you can see the axis designation.
T0_resonances_y_2025-02-17-163419 is a T0 Y axis input shaper graph made at 16:34 and 19seconds at 17 of february 2025.

2. Please open each of the graphs and record the values for the T0 X resonance ,T0 Y resonance and T1 X resonance and T1 Y resonance.
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3. Activate the Copy mode by clicking the "IDEX COPY" option on the "IDEX" window

4. Click on the "GENERATE SHAPER GRAPHS" button, just like Step 1. Now the V-Core 4 will measure the shaper ressonances in Copy mode, for both X and Y, for both toolheads, this process takes a while. Go grab a snack!

5. Activate the Mirror mode by clicking the "IDEX MIRROR" option on the "IDEX" window

6.  Click on the "GENERATE SHAPER GRAPHS" button, just like Step 1. Now the V-Core 4 will measure the shaper ressonances in Copy mode, for both X and Y, for both toolheads, this process takes a while. Go grab a snack!
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7. Inside the Input shapperfolder you will find 12 Graphs, T0X, T0Y, T1X and T1Y, then you will have the copy mode graphs T0X_COPY, T0Y_COPY, T1X_COPY and T1Y_COPY, lastly you will have the Mirror mode graphs T0X_MIRROR, T0Y_MIRROR, T1X_MIRROR and T1Y_MIRROR.

8. All the results must be included in the Input shapper configuration, to do this, you will need to do an average of the T0X_COPY and T1X_COPY, this new value will be the COPY_X_AVERAGE frequency.

[gcode_macro RatOS]
variable_shaper_x_freq: [T0_X, T1_X, COPY_X_AVERAGE, MIRROR_X_AVERAGE]       
variable_shaper_y_freq: [T0_Y, T1_Y, COPY_Y_AVERAGE, MIRROR_Y_AVERAGE]           
variable_shaper_x_type: ["mzv", "mzv", "mzv", "mzv"]   
variable_shaper_y_type: ["mzv", "mzv", "mzv", "mzv"]   

Initial vaoc calibration

🛈 Learn more about the endstop calibration

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Ensdstop calibration

Endstop calibration is essential to ensure the nozzles are aligned as best as the hardware allows, to reduce the necessary software compensation. Poorly adjusted endstop positions can lead to errors when operating the IDEX printer.

It is important to keep in mind that the IDEX machine’s coordinates are highly sensitive. This sensitivity is not due to endstop placement or assembly alignment issues. Unlike single-head machines, which rely solely on endstop positions for location accuracy without concern for alignment between the endstop and nozzle, the IDEX machine bases its positioning on the nozzle itself. This is achieved via VAOC, which introduces a degree of potential misalignment if hotends are not assembled with precision. In the IDEX system, slight assembly variations accumulate, leading to a slight missalignment of the nozzles, a few factor may have impact on it:
1) Frame Squareness – Any deviations in the frame’s structure can affect overall alignment.
2) Gantry X Extrusion Length and Joiner Assembly – Small differences in these components directly impact the positioning of the toolheads.
3) Toolhead Assembly – Variances in toolhead assembly can add up and affect alignment.
4) Z Extrusion Twist – Any twist in the Z extrusion further contributes to positional errors.
5) Uneven belt tension.
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The bed margin also needs to be adjust accordingly to the new  endstop positions. This value represents the space the toolhead has to move outside of the print area.

Parking and Load position calibration

The parking position ensures the unused toolhead doesn’t ooze filament and holds its pressure correctly, staying ready to print at any time. A poorly calibrated parking position will lead to errors in klipper or poor-quality prints. These should be adjust accordingly to the new  endstop positions.
Check here how to adjust the oozeguard position, if needed.

Before we start, never, under any circumstances, use the machine or the console while the VAOC window  is open, this will make RatOS thrown an error to prevent machine damage.
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1. Home the machine and perform a Z-Tilt calibration.
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2. Run the following command:
_VAOC_RESET
followed by:
M84

‍3. Navigate to the VAOC tab, and hit start calibration.

🛈 MOVE OUT OF RANGE - ERROR when using VAOC

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Error when trying to use vaoc - Toolhead can't reach the camera in Y

We are sorry that you are here! Follow these steps to get the machine working:

Increase the Y movement range

Run the following command:
INCREASE_Y_MAX
Copy the output text and paste it at the bottom of your printer.cfg file

If you still get this error after, do it again. This calibration must be done at small increments.

4. T0 is automatically selected as the main toolhead, we advise flipping the camera movement right away, this makes adjustment easier, but it’s a personal preference. Measure the external diameter of your nozzle with a set of calipers, the standard phaetus nozzle is 1 mm, insert the value in the settings window.  Adjust the pixel rate so the nozzle hole matches the crosser size.

5. Adjust the Z position on the right to achieve a clear focus of the nozzle, then drag the nozzle hole to the crosser centre.

6. Click T1 and align the nozzle with the crosser.

7. Change from T0 and T1 a two to three times to perfectly align the nozzles, it's normal if they drift a bit in the first few attempts.

8. Once you are happy with the nozzle alignment, click on the square icon at the top left to end the VAOC.

9. Run the following command:
CALCULATE_DC_ENDSTOP

10. Copy the output text and paste it at the bottom of your printer.cfg file

12. Run the following command:
_VAOC_RESET

13. Make a new VAOC nozzle alignment procedure by repeting steps 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Validate the calibration:
Open the ratos-variables.cfg file inside the machine tab and check the idex_xoffset value, if the value is higher than 1.0mm or lower than -1.0mm then the printer suffers from mechanical issues like a skewed gantry and/or uneven belt tensioning or belt length

Z endstop check and calibration

Both nozzles should be at the same height. This is impossible to achieve in real life, due to machining tolerances and assembly variances. Getting them as close together as possible is mandatory to ensure the best idex experience and allow for the usage of copy and mirror mode.
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1. Home the machine and perform a Z-Tilt calibration.
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2. Open the VAOC

3. Calibrate the XY offsets for T0 and T1 and hit Calibrate Z-Offset.

4. Click on the square at the top left corner to End the VAOC.

5. Navigate to the machine console and observe the Z_offset value between T0 and T1, this value should be smaller than 0.07mm.

Skew Calibration

Skew correction is meant to compensate for a 3D printer assembly which is not perfectly square, the software makes small changes to the toolhead movement, maintaining a perfectly square trajectory. Every detail during the frame assembly may cause a slightly twisted frame, even the screws tightness. Making sure the machine is as square as one can get by hand is very important before advancing to software skew calibration.

The V-Core 4 has a 3-point kinematic bed levelling system that helps to mask XZ and YZ skew problems. If the build was successful and all Z rails are properly aligned, the Z squareness shouldn’t be a problem, otherwise, a skew calibration should be done for all planes. In this guide we’ll only focus on the XY plane, the procedure is the same for the other axis, more information here.
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1. Start by downloading the Skew_correction_tool.stl. Then open it inside your slicer. If this is your first time following this guide, please follow the Slicer installation first, then get back to this step.
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🛈 When slicing the model, make sure the A corner is pointing to the origin of the plane.

2. Guarantee that no skew correction is running on your machine, check that variable_skew_profile is commented out in the macro configuration section. or type the command below in the terminal. For more information, click here.‍
‍SET_SKEW CLEAR=1
The [skew_correcton] module requires 3 measurements; the length from Corner A to Corner C, the length from Corner B to Corner D, and the length from Corner A to Corner D.

Let's take the following measurements as an example:
AC= 141.15mm
BD= 140.9mm
AD= 99.65mm
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3. Go into the printer.cfg and add the following lines:

[gcode_macro RatOS]
variable_skew_profile: "my_skew" 

‍4. Click “save and restart” at the top right of the printer.cfg window, then paste into the console:
⚠️Replace the BOLD text with your values.⚠️
SET_SKEW XY=AC,BD,AD  
With the previous example, we have:
SET_SKEW XY=141.15,140.9,99.65
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Followed by:
SKEW_PROFILE SAVE="my_skew"
‍‍5. Type:
SAVE_CONFIG‍and re-print the test, make sure AC=BD. If not, double check all measurements and start this calibration again.

6. IDEX ONLY If you are commissioning an Idex V-Core 4, you will need to performe the Initial VAOC calibration again, click here.

obtaining a slicer

🛈 Download the New Prusa Slicer profiles (BETA)

New prusa slicer profiles - beta

We’ve been working on new profiles for a while and we believe our release candidates are now ready. Before making these files official by integrating them into the Prusa Slicer database, we’d like to ask our user community to give them a try and let us know if you find any kinks needing to be ironed out.

Select the Machine Size and Variant that you wish to download:

300x300

Core XY

Hybrid

Idex

400x400

Core XY

Hybrid

Idex

500x500

Core XY

Hybrid

Idex

To import the new V-Core 4 Prusa Slicer profiles, follow the instructions below.
Note: You must restart Prusa Slicer after importing the profiles

There are many Slicers free to download, RatRig recommends that you use one of these three, as they have the biggest communities.
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‍Recommended - Prusa Slicer is a free and open-source project. It can be obtained here.
‍SuperSlicer is a free and open-source project. It can be obtained directly from their GitHub repository.
‍OrcaSlicer is a free and open-source project. It can be obtained directly from their GitHub repository.

‍A Slicer takes 3D models (STL, OBJ, 3MF) and converts them into G-code instructions for 3D printers.All Rat Rig profiles available on these slicers are meant to help you get printing as fast as possible, they are not fully tuned profiles to extract the full potential of the V-Core 4, they are a solid platform to build upon!

slicer configuration

Simply choose the appropriate V-Core 4 profile for your machine variant and size. In Prusa Slicer the V-Core 4 is under "other vendors" > "RatRig", In SuperSlicer and OrcaSlicer is under "RatRig".

You can also add filament profiles, RatRig has included pre-tuned Punkfil profiles! Even if you are not using our filament, we recommend using the profiles for the same types of materials, as many factors like cooling, extrusion multiplier, and pressure advance are pre-tuned for you, they won't work as well for different brands but it's a solid starting ground:

Add your machine (Optional)

You can connect your machine directly to the slicer, allowing for a smoother workflow by sending the print job directly from the slicer software.
1) Select your machine and click on the gear next to it.
2) Click "add physical printer"
3) Define a machine name
4) Select "Klipper (via moonraker)" and insert your machine url, created during the RatOS configuration.
5) Click "Test" to ensure your machine is connected to the Slicer, you should see a "Sucess!" window, otherwise check if your machine is connected to the same wifi network as your computer.
6) Click "OK".

how to slice

Rat Rig provides predefined slicer parameters for all V-Core 4 models, which will produce optimal results in most cases. However, due to the inherent variability of 3D printing, certain parts with complex geometries may require adjustments to slicer settings to achieve the best print quality.

1. Open PrusaSlicer and import the selected STL file by dragging it into the slicer (1).
2. Next, select the print settings (2), which define parameters such as part strength, surface finish, resolution, and other relevant factors.
3. Choose the filament type (3), which sets material-specific parameters such as printing temperature and cooling power.
4. Select the machine size, variant, and nozzle size (4). Finally, click "Slice Now" (5) to generate the print file.

5. After slicing, the slicer will generate a layer-by-layer preview of the printed part. You can use the vertical toggle (6) to inspect each layer individually.
This feature helps identify potential geometry constraints that may need adjustments in the print settings. Simply drag the toggle up and down to review the layers. While this step is not required for printing, it is a useful habit as you become more familiar with slicer settings. Once satisfied, click "Export G-code" (7) to generate the print file. Then, upload it to Mainsail, and you're ready to start printing!

After finishing this guide you can print our Punkfil Mascot to see how your machine is performing, this is all the tuning you need to get started with very good results. Further tuning might be required to achieve a specific goal, other settings not approached here are not essential and can worsen the print quality if not done correctly.

How the different IDEX modes work

On the Mainsail dashboard, you will find an IDEX Macros section, this is where the magic is made:

‍1. [IDEX SINGLE] Single toolhead or Dual material
To print with only one toolhead or dual material, just hit the Single IDEX button in the IDEX Macros section, this mode is selected by default when you turn on the machine. We advice to always run a VAOC calibration before each print.

2. [IDEX COPY]
To print in copy mode, just hit the COPY button in the IDEX Macro section, the toolheads will do a copy mode move to show you the machine is ready.

3. [IDEX MIRROR]
To print in mirror mode, just hit the MIRROR button in the IDEX Macro section, the toolheads will do a mirror mode move to show you the machine is ready.

4. [TOOLSHIFT CONFIG]
The toolshift configuration has all the settings you may need to tune for multi material printing. It’s mostly meant for advanced users who are interested in fine tunning toolshifts, this can be useful for all sorts of different materials, as many parameters like speed, acceleration, Z-hop, restactions, purge length, purge time can be tuned to suit your specific needs.

5. [REMAP TOOLHEADS]
Toolhead remap allows you to change the designation of the toolhead, meaning you can tell klipper T1 is T0 or T0 is T1, this can be useful if you incorrectly set the colors/material in the slicer for a dual material print, instead of re slicing the object you can just remap the toolheads. Or imagine you need to print the same g-code with the inverted colors, just remap the toolheads, no need to tinker in the slicer.

Slice dual material

As of today, the only officially supported slicer for the V-Core 4 IDEX is PrusaSlicer, we are working on supporting other slicers. Printing a dual material part is coposed of two stages, 1) VAOC preparation, 2) Slicer

First, let's prepare the machine.
The VAOC system is designed to facilitate quick and easy alignment of both nozzles. While, in theory, the nozzle offset for an IDEX machine only needs to be calibrated once, various factors can affect the offset over time. These factors include differences in hotend temperatures, nozzle types, chamber temperatures, and more.
Given its convenience, Rat Rig recommends performing an VAOC calibration before every multi-material print to ensure the highest level of accuracy and reliability.
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1. Always perform VAOC calibrations under the same conditions you plan to use for printing. For example, if you intend to print in an enclosed environment, ensure the machine has fully heat-soaked before starting the VAOC calibration process.

2. Click on the VAOC option on the right.

3. Click on the "Start Calibration" button

4. T0 is always selected by defuault, drag the nozzle to the crosser center. Once aligned, select tool T1 (by clicking on the square at the top left corner) and repeat the process. If necessary, adjust the Z position for optimal focus using the "Z Focus" option located on the right.

5. Switch between tools T0 and T1 2-3 times, fine-tuning the alignment position during each change. It is normal for the nozzles to deviate slightly when swapping toolheads initially. After 2–3 iterations of switching and aligning, the nozzles should maintain their positions consistently.

6. Click on the square at the top left corner of the VAOC menu to end the calibration.

7. The machine is ready to print dual color parts accurately! Let's slice the part.

Now, prepare the slicer.
8. To print a dual material part, open the model in the slicer along with the respectives parts. Please note that the slicers needs to know how to distinguish the part sections, where to use one toolhead and the other, for this reason, mostly multi part files are used for the idex, import them to the slicer as shown below. Click here to download a dual color benchy and try for yourself.

In this example we will use a charmander model off printables, it comes in two STL files, open one of them. Click here to download and try yourself.

9. Right click on top ofthe model and select "Add part" -> "Load..." then select the other STL. The two models should align perfectly.

10. On the right menu, you can select the two materials you want to print with. Then, on the lower right, you can select which body is printed with which material.

11. Click "Slice Now" to process the model, then export the G-code file. Once exported, upload it to the machine and start printing!

copy + mirror mode

1. To use copy or mirror mode, place the parts in the slicer and center them on the build plate, ensure to stay in the midle of the print area. Hit slice and upload to the machine. The machine will automaticly duplicate the sliced g-code.

2. Although you have only sliced a single part, the Mirror Mode will automatically duplicate the G-code as described above.

3. Ensure that you select the desired Mirror or Copy mode before printing. This setting can be found in the "IDEX" window within Mainsail.