running multiple instnaces of cura simultaneously

[zohar golan]

Hi All,

I am trying to find a way to run multiple instances of Cura simultaneously. lots and lots of times I have both my printers printing in the same time. When I am opening the first instance of Cura, it is reading the configuration file correctly and everything works normally. When I am opening the second instance Cura runs the "first run wizard". Here is what I think happening:

Cura is trying to open the same configuration file for read / write access. Since the file is already open in the previous instance, Cura will not be able to open it, and will run the "first run wizard". In this case I need to configure the printer from scratch. After I am doing that I am printing with both printers simultaneously with no problem. When the prints finish, Cura is trying to write back to the configuration fie, but since its open by the other instance, Cura crashes and locks down.

I tried to install two instances of Cura in different locations, but it didn't help because Cura  uses the User directory which is common for both installations. It would be nice if Cura would use a local configuration directory.

Is there a setting in Cura which will allow using a local configuration file?

Is there any other way to do that?

I was thinking also on virtual machines. Is there a virtual machine that will let me run an application in isolation without installing the whole operating system inside the virtual machine.

Any comment will be appreciated

Zohar

[Elliot]

If you can install multiple versions, they might use different configuration directories (they do on Linux).

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[zohar golan]

Elliot,

I did try it.

The application is using the global windows user environment to hold the configuration. C:\Users\<userName>\.cura\14.12.1. so even if I am installing another instance in a different location, it is still using the same configuration file.

What distribution I need for Linux if I want to run Cura?

 

Zohar

[Elliot]

Zohar,

What I'm suggesting is installing another *version* so that the 14.12.1 in the path above is some other version of cura.  This seems like a kludge, but if it gets you enough...

Elliot

[zohar golan]

Elliot,

I knew you will have an answer for me. Thank you. I will try that.

Kludge or not kludge, it is probably my best bet right now. there is not a lot of difference between 14.9 and 14.12.1 anyway (I think), so it is probably going to work for me. Now the question is how can I run the 3rd printer at the same time?
I think 14.7 didn't have the pronterface interface

Zohar

[Ray Dillinger]

On 02/01/2015 12:24 AM, zohar golan wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I am trying to find a way to run multiple instances of Cura simultaneously.
> lots and lots of times I have both my printers printing in the same time.

The easiest and most reliable way is to run Cura simultaneously under
multiple user logins. Su to root, and run mkuser to create a user
account named 'cura2' or something like that with its own home
directory.

Thereafter whenever you need a second session of Cura open at the
same time, open a term window, use 'su' to log on to the Cura2
user account in that window, and launch Cura from the term window.

You may need to futz with Xwindows permissions a little to get Cura2
to have permission to put up an Xwindows interface in an X session
that's open under your own login.

Bear

[matthew bennett]

Looking back at the original post, it seems like the OS is file locking the .ini file while Cura is open. It sounds like you could have multiple copies of the same .ini file to run multiple copies.

[zohar golan]

hi ray,

Your description is probably going to work in Linux. I am using windows 7 thou

[Ray Dillinger]

On 02/02/2015 10:34 AM, zohar golan wrote:
> hi ray,
>
> Your description is probably going to work in Linux. I am using windows 7
> thou
>

Ah. My condolences.

I don't really know enough about W7 to offer advice; I haven't used
Microsoft products in years, although I hear their quality has
improved somewhat.

Bear

[Alex]

Can't you just just change the working directory in the short cut?

Right click the Shortcut, properties 

See what the working directory is.  If it is pointing to %userprofile%/whatever

Then just copy all those files to another directory

create a shortcut and change the working directory to that new direcotry.

[zohar golan]

The configuration is saves in the global user directory C:\Users\<UserName>\.cura and not in the program directory

[Alex]

Well it looks like it does run multiple instances, it is just preference files that looks to be hardcoded to 

%userprofile%\.cura ...

So just write a batch file that

@echo off

move cura-profile1 %userprofile%\.cura  

rem  give full actual path for cura-profile1

@python\python.exe -m Cura.cura %*

---

Make sure you create each of those profile directs by running them 1 at a time then move them to cura-profileX

[Alex]

I guess a xcopy would be better than a move

xcopy /se .cura\*.* .curaprofile1\*.*

[zohar golan]

Alex,

I dont think it is going to work.

So lets say I start running one instance with profile 1. The config file is copies to the user directory and the applications starts nicely. Now I am starting the second instance. Note the first instance is still running. The new instance will overwrite the config file in the user directory, and now I've corrupted the config file.

No good

[Alex]

Well I thinking you already had your preferences.ini configured and you can set the directory to be ready only

Last option.

cura.py line 42:

profile.loadPreferences(profile.getPreferencePath())

change to:

profile.loadPreferences("C:\my-prefereces\preferences.ini")

Or whatever and where - ever your want

[zohar golan]

Right,

This is was my last resort. Changes in the code. The good thing all the sources are available. I will check this line in the code.
Thank you
Zohar