Difficulty: Noob
Objective: Learn the very basic 3D printing tricks
Rafts help stabilize and keep a model flat from warping. Rafts are extra plastic that comes off the model. The following are examples of when it may be good to or not to use a raft.
Each material melts at a different temperature, therefore you need to set the printer to the right temperature. Also make sure that you have enough material to be printed. Most 3D printers will continue without material. So if you have a large object to be printed and the material runs out the printer continues leavin you with an unfinished object with no way to continue it.
These are often over looked when they are quite powerful. Often these include things such as shells, speed, infill, etc. It would definitely be worth looking into and figuring out what each setting does. Changing a setting can often fix a print.
Objective: Learn the very basic 3D printing tricks
1.) Painter's Tape on Print Bed
If you find that you are having a hard time getting your 3D prints off the bedplate, or if you are having a hard time getting your print to stay on the bed plate. Then try putting on Painter's tape. I recommend that you choose the thickest painters tape as the line between the tape will show up on the printed object. I also recommend pulling the tape not only on the top of the bed plate, but around the edge and even on to the bottom.
You can also use pins to pop the air bubbles that form while printing and taking objects off the bed plate to smooth it out.
You can also use pins to pop the air bubbles that form while printing and taking objects off the bed plate to smooth it out.
2.) Printer Settings
Supports
Ideally I make all my own supports so I set the automatic supports setting to off. However id it is on then you can change the angle which is where the supports will be automatically added. The following are where rafts would be needed.
Raft
Rafts help stabilize and keep a model flat from warping. Rafts are extra plastic that comes off the model. The following are examples of when it may be good to or not to use a raft.
Material
Custom settings
These are often over looked when they are quite powerful. Often these include things such as shells, speed, infill, etc. It would definitely be worth looking into and figuring out what each setting does. Changing a setting can often fix a print.
3.) G-code
It sucks to print something for 8 hours to come and find a mess. This can be avoided by checking your model before sending it to the printer. There are many ways such as checking for non-manifolds on the software you used to make the model, using additional software such as Autodesk Meahmixer to find non-manifolds, but the best is to look at the G-code. This can be done at ws.gcode.com where you can upload your model and look at how it will print later by layer.
Difficulty: Noob
Objective: The gcode is the easiest and most accurate way to predict how your part will print. Learn how to make gcodes, inspect them, and make them be one of your best 3D Printing Friends.
Just like google maps creates a path for a person to follow, a slicer software also creates a path to be printed upon. This is essentially what a gcode is. It tells the printer where to move, how fast to move, layer by by layer. The g-code is the most accurate prediction of what will be printed.
This happens most often at the first and last layers. In the picture shown below, you can see how the rough layer on the feet and between the legs of this cougar. It would look identical in the gcode 2D view.
Please leave a comment.
And as always, thanks for visiting,
3D Printing Ninja
3DNinjaneer@gmail.com
Just like google maps creates a path for a person to follow, a slicer software also creates a path to be printed upon. This is essentially what a gcode is. It tells the printer where to move, how fast to move, layer by by layer. The g-code is the most accurate prediction of what will be printed.
Creating a gcode
There are many options for a software to slice your model to be printed, such as Slic3r, Cura, or as I am using in the pictures, Makerware. These programs are free to download and take your model and convert it into a file that can be printed. To create the gcode of your file, import your model and export it as a gcode.
Inspecting the gcode
Next we take our gcode file that we just created and import it into a gcode viewer. There are multiple viewers, however I enjoy the free online viewer found at: gcode.ws
Drag and drop your newly created gcode file into the site. Loading bars should appear.
This is what it looks like:
3D Mode
Will display a 3D model constructed of the paths of each layer. It looks a little odd at first, but you'll get used to it soon. The most important thing is to rotate and zoom to get every angle so that you can spot the errors. Below are examples of what you are trying to spot.
Giant Holes / Missing Layers
This is the most common problem that you can see usually due to non-manifolds. Rotate your model until you see something as shown in the picture below. This means that nothing will be printing where the missing material is lacking. So don't print the file because it will look exactly like this.
Random Extra Material
This is rare and usually has little effect on the print and I have no idea what causes this. My best advice is to reorient the model and pick the least of the worst reoriented gcodes. Luckily most of the extra material is on the outside and can be broken off after printing.
Inner Material
Usually this is due to the software you used to make the gcode will want to add automatic supports inside the model.
Odd object
Some objects usually small or thin often have a hard time generating a good gcode. Here was a project that I was working on for a Math student. As seen below most there were obvious errors that were going to happen.
One way to fix this is to change the orientation of the model before you create the gcode. For example try rotating it 45 degrees about the x axis, try flipping it upside down, etc. Try a few orientations and then pick the best one.
2D Mode
This mode lets you look at each individual layer and the path the printer will take. You can also check the speeds of each layer, and if need be change the speed in advanced settings when you print it.
Also you may find it useful to look into the "2D Render Options" on the right hand side to make the view more clear.
Odd Layer
When a person mows a lawn they usually follow a pattern or some logic order. But imagine a person who decides to mow the lawn with a random pattern. This happens in 3D printing and to me it is hilarious and annoying. I just want to ask the software if they are drunk or on drugs because the path is so bad.
This happens most often at the first and last layers. In the picture shown below, you can see how the rough layer on the feet and between the legs of this cougar. It would look identical in the gcode 2D view.Gcodes do take a little more time, but in my opinion are worth it so that you do waste time and material printing something that you could have know would have not printed out well.
Please leave a comment.
And as always, thanks for visiting,
3D Printing Ninja
3DNinjaneer@gmail.com
Difficulty: Noob
Objective: This post is for those of you who have just started 3D Printing and Computer modeling. There are a few things that I have found absolutely essential to know and would be what I would want to know if I was just starting. Search this blog to find a more in depth post about a certain topic...
Think of the size and amount of the faces that make up the model as high definition. If you want your model to look like an 8-bit video game then use large and few faces. But if you want your model to look 1080p high def then you will need lots of faces that are small. As a rule of thumb all of your faces should look similar to each other in size and shape. The main exception is if certain areas of your model have more detail. For example if you were modeling an arm, the knuckles you need more faces than the rest of the model in order to get the detail of the wrinkles.
The sphere above for example, has bad uniform geometry. Notice how the faces near the equator are compared to those at the poles. They go from squares to rectangles to triangles. This is why I almost never start with a sphere, but rather use a cube and evolve the cube to a sphere by subdividing it.
Only subdivide the geometry when you have no other choice. Subdividing is a way that makes 1 face become 4 faces giving the model more geometry to work with and making better detail. Life would be great if you could subdivide a million times, however the computer can't process that. When you start it will be tempting to simply subdivide the model to acheive what you want. But you will run into a dead end when your computer can't handle it. Therefore if you can make good topology, then you won't need to subdivide the model as much and your computer will love you and you won't be yelling at your computer. It's very easy to go from low definition to high. To see this in action subdivide the square or Suzanne the monkey, to see how easy it is to get better definition. So don't worry if your model looks too blocky it will smooth out in a blink of an eye. Definitely learn to use the multistage tool.
Your geometry can be composed of many shapes, the best is geometry made of all squares. The reason is because squares make editing a model easy. For example you can add or deleted an edge loop like a boss. Other shapes won't. The other common way is to use triangles which is mostly used in video games because less geometry is needed speeding up the processing of the game. But for 3D printing we aren't concerned about how many faces there are, as long as we can model it. Also if you cut a square diagonally in half it becomes two triangles, so if you have to convert it, it is easy. I almost always start my model from a square and almost always only use square faces.
There is usually a tool to find non-manifolds on a model, which are problems the printer has with the model. When you design, often check the model for non manifolds. On Blender this can easily be done in edit mode--}select non-manifolds or hotkey (shift+alt+ctrl+M). A simple way to accidentally create a non-manifold is to duplicate geometry. This can be done by extruding geometry but not actual translating it to a new location. Even more so often when you undo an action make sure you undo enough times. Very often the non-manifolds I find in my models are due not pushing undo enough.
The 3D Printing Ninja
3DNinjaneer@gmail.com
Objective: This post is for those of you who have just started 3D Printing and Computer modeling. There are a few things that I have found absolutely essential to know and would be what I would want to know if I was just starting. Search this blog to find a more in depth post about a certain topic...
To learn how to use Blender see this post: Blender Curriculum: Video Tutorials
1.) Topology
When you design a model for 3D printing, (especially Blender) there a thing called topology which is the geometry that makes the model. If you are like me, at first you won't care about the topology, but eventually you will realize that good topology makes your life so much easier in the long run. Bad topology greatly limits the ability to modify the model, increases the risk of non-manifold problems, and just doesn't look pretty. Just remeber this: If you start with bad topology it's a snowball effect where one little problem becomes thousands quickly. So take your time at the beginning because good topology stays better, bad gets worse. Good topology takes practice to get into good habits while modeling. The following are some of those good habits.
Uniform Geometry
Think of the size and amount of the faces that make up the model as high definition. If you want your model to look like an 8-bit video game then use large and few faces. But if you want your model to look 1080p high def then you will need lots of faces that are small. As a rule of thumb all of your faces should look similar to each other in size and shape. The main exception is if certain areas of your model have more detail. For example if you were modeling an arm, the knuckles you need more faces than the rest of the model in order to get the detail of the wrinkles.
The sphere above for example, has bad uniform geometry. Notice how the faces near the equator are compared to those at the poles. They go from squares to rectangles to triangles. This is why I almost never start with a sphere, but rather use a cube and evolve the cube to a sphere by subdividing it.
Subdivide
Only subdivide the geometry when you have no other choice. Subdividing is a way that makes 1 face become 4 faces giving the model more geometry to work with and making better detail. Life would be great if you could subdivide a million times, however the computer can't process that. When you start it will be tempting to simply subdivide the model to acheive what you want. But you will run into a dead end when your computer can't handle it. Therefore if you can make good topology, then you won't need to subdivide the model as much and your computer will love you and you won't be yelling at your computer. It's very easy to go from low definition to high. To see this in action subdivide the square or Suzanne the monkey, to see how easy it is to get better definition. So don't worry if your model looks too blocky it will smooth out in a blink of an eye. Definitely learn to use the multistage tool.
Triangles, Squares, or Polygons?
Your geometry can be composed of many shapes, the best is geometry made of all squares. The reason is because squares make editing a model easy. For example you can add or deleted an edge loop like a boss. Other shapes won't. The other common way is to use triangles which is mostly used in video games because less geometry is needed speeding up the processing of the game. But for 3D printing we aren't concerned about how many faces there are, as long as we can model it. Also if you cut a square diagonally in half it becomes two triangles, so if you have to convert it, it is easy. I almost always start my model from a square and almost always only use square faces.
Non-manifolds
There is usually a tool to find non-manifolds on a model, which are problems the printer has with the model. When you design, often check the model for non manifolds. On Blender this can easily be done in edit mode--}select non-manifolds or hotkey (shift+alt+ctrl+M). A simple way to accidentally create a non-manifold is to duplicate geometry. This can be done by extruding geometry but not actual translating it to a new location. Even more so often when you undo an action make sure you undo enough times. Very often the non-manifolds I find in my models are due not pushing undo enough.
To learn more about non-manifolds see this post: Non-manifolds: Your Worst 3D Printing Nightmare
Overhangs
Because many 3D printers cannot print mid-air there is a limit to how steep an object can be before it will not print. If you object exceeds this limit then it will need supports. Supports can be messy, so ideally you want to orient and design your model to use no or as few supports as possible.
Please leave your comments.
and as always thanks for visiting,The 3D Printing Ninja
3DNinjaneer@gmail.com
