FYI: if you use cura to generate gcode

[bob64]

Put M83 right after G91 in end g-code to prevent your extruder retracting all the way and unloading your filament after your print is done.

[geneb]

This tells the firmware on the RAMBo that the extrude commands will be relative and not absolute values. Regardless of slicer, it's always a good idea to explicitly tell your controller what extrusion method your slicer is using.

Now, the .64 question is, is there any difference in performance or quality between absolute and relative extrusion?

g.

[mhackney]

None whatsoever - I've actually tested this on Slic3r and KISS. The advantage of relative extrusion is that it makes it easier to cut and past layers from multiple gcode files to create hybrid gcode. I do this quite a bit on my fly reels to get special effects or properties.

[Polygonhell]

None whatsoever - I've actually tested this on Slic3r and KISS. The advantage of relative extrusion is that it makes it easier to cut and past layers from multiple gcode files to create hybrid gcode. I do this quite a bit on my fly reels to get special effects or properties.

Been a while since I looked at generated GCode, but, most slicers used to insert a G92 E0 between layers with absolute extrusion, do they not still do that?
It seems that would negate that particular advantage.

The real advantage of relative extrusion (if there is one) is it has consistent accuracy, since the slicer parses the extruder position as a float, accuracy of the value changes based on the size of the number, it would make very little if any difference over a layers worth of extrusion, but might make some marginal difference over a print if it's not reset between layers.
With relative, you can lose cumulative steps, but it's going to be irrelevant.