V0.4 Request A New Feature

Octolapse has a ton of features, but there is always room for improvement. If you have a great idea for a new feature, let me know by creating a new feature request.

Let's pretend that you just got a brand new Acme Mark 2 printer, but you can't figure out how to get it configured (you did read all of the help and troubleshooting guides first, right?). You might consider asking to have this profile added to the list of printers that are supported out of the box.

Make Sure Your Feature Doesn't Already Exist

This one seems pretty obvious, but Octolapse is a big program with a lot of features. Make sure you search through the documentation and the existing profiles before submitting a feature request. I also recommend reading the release notes to make sure that the feature you're looking for doesn't exist in a beta version. Finally, search through the issues to see if something similar exists.

If your feature does exist and you create a request for this feature, don't sweat it too much. I'll just let you know and close the issue out.

Create An Issue For Your Feature Request

You can submit a feature request by creating a new issue within the Github repository. When you name the issue add the prefix [Request] in the title. Adding this will let users know at a glance that the issue is a feature request.

The title of your issue is very important. Users often search issues by title, so try to think of a title you'd be able to find with a simple search.

This would be a Bad request title: [Request] Create a profile for my printer

Someone would have to open up the issue to see what the request really is. Here is an example of a good feature request title: [Request] Create an Acme Mark 2 Printer Profile

You can create a new issue here.

Create A Good Description

When creating a feature request, it is very important that you completely and accurately describe exactly what feature you'd like to see. Make sure you include all of the information you have that might make implementing the feature easier. The following would be a good description for our hypothetical feature request:

I would like a new printer profile profile added to Octolapse for the Acme Mark 2 printer.  
I have followed all of the guides, but I'm having trouble getting my printer to work.  
Specifically I'm unable to figure out the extruder offsets, since it is a dual extruder 
printer.  I'm also having some trouble with the firmware settings.

Here is the official manufacturer page for this printer:  
http://acme3dprinters.com/mark2

The source code for the latest firmware can be found here:  
http://github.com/acme3dprinters/mark2/

The printer area is 200x200x200mm.  

Here is the start and end Gcode for the printer that is recommended by the MFG:

; Start Gcode
G90; set to absolute xyz
M83; set to relative e
G28; home xyz
... (more gcode here)
; End Gcode
... (more gcode here)

Here is a gist containing working Gcode for a small calibration cube that I sliced 
in Cura with the recommended profile for this printer:
http://gist.github.com/{the rest of the url here}

I have uploaded the profile I'm working on to gist.github.com, which can be 
found here:  
http://gist.github.com/{the rest of the url here}

Let me know if you need help testing the new profile!

If this were a real feature request, I'd be pretty happy. It contains a lot of information that I would need to create a new profile, including links to the manufacturer's official page for the printer, a link to the firmware source page, start and end Gcode, as well as a link to a sliced Gcode file and a partially created (though incorrect) printer profile. It probably wouldn't take me much time at all to fulfill this request. Additionally, the user (me!) offers to help test the profile, which will be 100% necessary before it is added to the repository.

I cannot implement every request, but I will definitely read and consider all thoughtful and complete feature requests.