Orca Slicer preset for foam TPU + tips for cosplay application

Orca Slicer preset for Varioshore TPU and other active foam TPU, for 0.4mm nozzle and 0.6mm nozzle.
Types of active foam TPU:
Colorfabb Varioshore TPU (smoothest results, but highest price per kg)
SirayaTech TPU Air (slightly grainy texture, better value per kg, lower flowrates possible)
Esun TPU-LW (similar to sirayatech, similar price if US only, smaller roll)

The slicer preset is a zip file as the file format is not supported by my website, you need to extract it first before importing the model. Use winzip or 7zip to do that.
Tuned for Sirayatech TPU air specifically.
Made with Orca Slicer version 2.2.4
Drop the 3mf file suitable for your nozzle size into the slicer.
Change the selected machine to your own.
The exact settings can differ per machine or filament brand. Print the test model then adjust the temperature, flow rate and print speed of the filament until your machine has a decent result.

Critical (Orca) settings for active foam TPU:

Start with a base TPU print profile.
Filament settings: (all varies based on printer and filament brand, make some tests)
0.4 to 0.7 flow rate
Max volumetric speed: 5 to 9 mm^3/s
Retraction off (retraction 0)
240C-255C temperature
Bed temperature off

Printer profile settings (start with a standard profile):
Seam position: Nearest
Seam gap: 100% to 150%
Top surface flow ratio: 1.1
Avoid crossing walls: on
Max detour length: 0
Wall overlap: 50%
Ensure vertical shell thickness: critical only
Speeds: 20mm/s to 60mm/s (pick one the same speed for each role)
Travel speed: 400mm/s (or as high as your printer supports)
Support pattern: Concentric/honeycomb etc, prefer no support

Highly recommended for best results:
If you must print multiple objects, see if you can print them per object (sequential), not by layer. This reduces stringing when the printer moves between objects. You may have to manually adjust the gantry height setting of the machine and predict if the gantry collides with your objects (so dont place them side to side, place them front to back).

Preview your sliced gcode and check "travel" moves in the preview so you can view if theres any travel moves (blue lines).
You want to see to reduce these travel moves to almost nothing based on your design/orientation/settings.
Put your roll on a smooth filament holder/roller directly above the 3dprinter and feed directly into your extruder.
Do not feed filament through any filament insert tubes or filament sensors. Stick a piece of filament in the sensor if your printer wont start with the sensor empty or unplug the sensor if possible.

Test print: Load a sphere shape and drop it below the plate a little bit to create a flat bottom surface layer. Best shape to try your settings with this as it has a bit of overhang and sloped areas.

Retraction tips:
If you do want retraction (not recommended, as it can easily clog), i recommend a long wipe distance, fairly fast retract speed, and a slow deretract speed, and spiral z-hop movement. Do 100% retraction before wipe move.
Extra prime amount recommended as you lose quite a bit of pressure and filament along the way.
Lower your overall print speed and extruder jerk/acceleration.
Run some tests to see how well it performs.
You can 'cheat' enable z-hop travel moves by setting retraction to 0.01mm and enable z-hop.

This filament is recommended for direct drive printers only (the filament extruder motor is directly attached to the hotend carriage).
There is no need for an enclosure, heated bed or specific fan requirements.
Optimize your design to have little to no overhangs, maximum ~50 degrees overhang.
Optimize your design to have an "eiffel tower" orientation (cone): widest flat area on the bottom, ending in a smaller area towards the top.
Details are best printed vertically, try to avoid overhang, flat and near-flat sloped areas that would create stepping layers.
If your part is thin, redesign the part to have a fatter shape either by using extra walls in the 3d design or using an additional cylinder in the slicer to merge with the design to stabilize the print, then print that cylinder hollow no infill.
Steep cone-like shapes have the best quality results.

You can cut away this material easily with sturdy scissors, take advantage of this by merging modifier structures with the actual design itself to remove any difficult curves and negative spaces.
See example below of how I redesigned this piece to have the supreme best surface quality with vertical wall details and stable cone shape (zero infill, zero bottom or top layers):

Tips for post-processing Foam TPU for cosplay painting:

Foam TPU can be cut with sturdy scissors or sharp knives.
Foam TPU is very similar to eva foam, as such you can use almost all eva foam techniques cosplayers often use such as dremel sanding, flexible fillers and flexible primers/paints.
Recommended approach:
Glue: this stuff glues poorly, ive tested a few glues and none of them are super strong, though rubber contact cement, rubber superglue (for things like model car tires) are somewhat successful. Recommend using a small torch, cheap soldering iron or hot knife etc to melt pieces together or make sure your parts have some kind of slotted connection.
The best glue ive found is bob smith industries IC-2000. Do not use accelerant spray.
Also highly recommend considering leather hardware to join pieces. This material connects very well with things like leather rivets.
Sand rough areas and visible layer lines: Dremel with sanding drum and/or abrasive polishing wheel
Filling holes/large gaps: flexible modeling paste (liquitex), acrylic caulk (such as kwikseal), a 3dpen loaded with varioshore
Flexible eva foam primers: plastidip (spray or liquid), flexbond, woodglue/white glue/elmers glue, modpodge, folkart clear primer, also recently tested krylon triple glaze spray with great success.
Best primer ive found is flex paint base from Brick in the Yard.
Flexible paints: high quality acrylics such as liquitex, cosplay paints like plaidfx, flexipaint, hexflex paint, acrylic spraypaints (NO automotive or lacquer spray paints)
You can also tint raw foam TPU (lighter colors to darker only) with stains, pot dyes and leather dyes, as the color will penetrate and stain the foam very easily.

3dprinter colorfabb cura orca orcaslicer preset profile settings slicer tpu varioshore