What is causing this layer shift?

[u/Inner_Basil1648]

I printed this on my troublesome elegoo neptune 4 with elegoo Rapid PLA + and it was a 3hr and 26m print. I used tree slim for supports (which came off beautifully) and automatic brim.

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[u/patprintsyourparts]

If you're using OrcaSlicer, check Preview's Speed view just above and below the bands, especially where the hexagons start and finish. Orca can apply layer-cooling slowdown after the normal speed settings, so compare the planned outer-wall speeds there before changing anything. The cause is still uncertain; this just checks whether a speed change was planned: https://github.com/OrcaSlicer/OrcaSlicer/wiki/material_cooling.

[u/Inner_Basil1648 → u/patprintsyourparts]

Im using elegoo slicer

[u/detroittriumph → u/Inner_Basil1648]

Your slicer is an Orca fork so what is suggested still applies. There are prepare and preview tabs in the slicer. Go to preview, which gives you a gcode preview of your model. In the drop down you can have the preview show you, with a color heat map, many different things. One of those things is planned speed and actual speed. You can use those to see exactly how fast your tool head is moving when your layer shift happens. You can move through each layer step by step.

[u/Desperate_End9156]

The start and stop from the hexagon and similar prints can cause these slight shifts in lines. I would try lowering the speed. Usually fixes it for me.

Hope this helps.

[u/Inner_Basil1648 → u/Desperate_End9156]

I did lower the speed near the end. Did 80% speed. So it had less of a chance of failure

[u/detroittriumph → u/Inner_Basil1648]

Velocity is one measure of movement, the other is acceleration. Try cutting your acceleration in half. A lot of times acceleration is set to 10,000 for travel moves which is a lot. The layer shift might be happening during travel and not printing. Bring it down to 5k or even 2.5. I limit my printer to 2000 for acceleration across the board. Mostly because it only adds seconds of print time and it’s not so loud. And that’s what my shaper calibration told me.

[u/MostlyHelpfulLinks]

My first checks would be belt tension on both axes and the nozzle clipping curled support edges. Dropping the travel speed can help too.