yellowshark

I have been told that cuffs we made for attaching a motion sensor to the wrist are to be used by the British elite swimming squad. This was not a target sport discussed when we produced them and I am wondering if there is any potential impact on the PLA construction with continued use in water. Does anyone have any ideas/knowledge on this?

If flexible filament is really important to you then from what I have read, the only way to seriously manage it is to buy a printer with a direct drive so that the Bowden tube is taken out of the equation. Having said that people are reporting good improvements from Robert's feeder design. Maybe Ultimaker will design a complementary add-on to the drive system if flex filament really takes off. Note that is complementary with an E not an I

Hmn well I tried a print once, where I had been playing with retraction settings, and it retracted multiple times a second and I got the same result as you. I suspect this may be what you are suffering from. If you do it again you can monitor the frequency of retraction. I guess there must be a frequency above which it starts to chew the filament but no idea what its is. I know Illuminarti has posted that has has printed models with lots of retraction without any issue.

Ok it is the model. I downloaded it into Cura then copied the Gcode across to Repetier Host and looked at the inside (you do not have the fidelity in Cura to do this). The blobs are on the interior of the external indentations and the surface is a mess. I have just tried to load it direct into Repetier Host so I can slice it with Slic3r but the model is taking a millennium to load (I scaled it down to 25%) to see if the result is the same but it clearly is a duff model unless Cura has screwed it but given the load time, it is still only half way through after 15 mins, I am sure it is the model.

Well I am looking at a piece where the inside surface is as perfectly smooth as the outside surface. Using a Faberdashery filament run at 200 microns, 30mm/s, 210 extruder temp. I will admit that my piece is vertical whereas a vase has probably got an incline in the geometry, which could I suppose have an impact depending on the angle. But I have not experienced the problem you describe - I wonder if you arejust printing too fast. It would be helpful if you could post your settings, total width of outer shell to inner shell, how many walls you defined, plus a picture of the poor result.

Hi all, sorry I have off line for a few days. Well I had some good success at the weekend. Importing the OBJ and PLY files into SW did not work, I got some sort of file error; I need to go back I guess and try to ascertain why that was. But I got 100% success using InStep which is just a great result for me so thanks for the recommendation. Using the free version, the model had less than 3000 facets, I just imported the STL file and exported the STP file. First run gave me a result out of scale but that was because the STL was using mm and the InStep units configuration was set to inches. A quick change and the 2nd result was perfect with all dimensions spot on, OK a couple were 1/10,000 mm out. The result is so important for me that I am definitely going to buy one of the paid for versions from the guys. I need to read up on the menu of additional tools to try and judge what would be useful and what would not. Rhino looks very good too but having invested in SW I cannot justify another 1,000eu which for me would just be file conversion. Thanks for all your help guys – it is good that we know about a lot more than just Ultimaker J

Thanks Nick, ah Nurbs, a term I have seen before. Is that an internal Rhino name for a solid/surface model, or is it a generic name for something different? So far I have only worked with STL files exported from Solidworks (apart from a few downloads) and they are always manifold and work 100%. Do you know if STL files from scanning are likely to be more problematical?

Hi 3dmaker4u, thanks for that. I cannot quite get my head around it but am I right in assuming that the Boolean difference is what moulds the shoe/sole to the contours of the foot? As soon as I get a scan of a foot I will be able to try it

Thanks for the comments guys. To answer the questions. 3Dmaker4U/Woofy: I now have a .obj file and .ply file from Meshmixer and a .stp file from InStep, all of which I will import into SW tomorrow and let you know the results. Kolia: The subject matter is orthoses, i.e. medical in-soles to re-align the foot into proper posture. One method to get these is for the foot to be scanned and input to specialised medical modelling software which provides the design of the in-sole. I received a . stl file from this software to 3D print but we wanted to make some modifications to it first. On learning that importing a .stl file into SW was useless we just redrew it in SW from scratch, took about 20 minutes but it would not have been highly accurate as we had no dimensions and the work I think would not allow for spending a lot of 3D design time for each file. I have no idea but could check I guess to see if the file was a mesh or a point cloud. The 2nd method and maybe the more likely is for us to receive the scan of the foot. I am awaiting confirmation but at the moment I am assuming also that the scan will be a .stl file; it may well be done with an Xbox (although iPhone software has also been mentioned). This may be a game changer – it came up today after I made my post. A foot is organic and maybe trying to use SW as the method may not be a good choice but at this point that is where our skills are. Will Meshmixer let me design an in-sole that will “interface” to the foot? I guess I am assuming that would be difficult. Jameshs:. Well yes SW has a tool known as ScanTo3D which looking at the documentation I suspect is really what would suite us best. But unfortunately it is only available in the Premium edition which would need us to upgrade for probably about 2,000-2,500 gbp which is just not viable at the moment. Titus: ah the “detect feature” is not something I am aware of. We only have the basic version so maybe it is not there, I will check tomorrow. If you pm me your email address I will happily send you an STL file

I have a project where my input will be scanned data. I am assuming that this will come in the guise of an STL file. But before printing I need to get the file/data into Solidworks so I can modify the design of the scanned part. The difficulty is that Solidworks (and most other modellers I am guessing) does what it says on the tin – it works with solids not with mesh files. Solidworks will import the STL file but in reality you cannot do anything with it. You cannot detect any edges or planes and so cannot get at any dimensions. You need to do things manually by doing it visually. Now this may be OK for a figurine but it is no good for engineering work or, in this case, medical work. My research so far leads me to think that Meshmixer or Meshlab may be my saviour. I understand 2D drafting and 3D solid modelling but I really do not understand anything about these mesh formats and the software that manipulates them. I have had a little play with Meshmixer for creating supports but have not gone any further as I find the interface difficult and the help (that I have looked at) is non-existent – e.g. tool help for the Measure/Dimension tool is “Measure dimensions in the scene”. I really cannot get motivated to learn software when it has no documentation. I have not looked at Meshlab yet maybe that is better. I have just used the Make solid tool – help text for that said “tool help text” so I have no idea what that does really/what I have done to the model by using it, apart from hopefully the obvious. Now checking Meshmixer I see it will not export a STEP file so I am still at a bit of a loss as how I get this new dimensioned solid model (if it is solid) into Solidworks, the only options seem to be .obj and .ply which at the moment mean nothing to me. As you can no doubt see I am well out of my depth here at the moment but am hoping that some of you may have needed to go through a similar exercise and might be able to offer me some wisdom and guidance on the process I need to undertake.

Glad to hear you are getting good results James. I have checked and see that there have been several releases since I last looked so it may well be that S3D is lot more stable now.

Functional for me Sander, mainly engineering and architecture; although right now I am working on some in-soles for a sports/musculoskeletal Podiatrist and recently did some embossing plates for a digital printing company - if it earns money we will do it!

Thanks for that for that EldRick. I guess I am just lazy and like to do things in one place ; like you do in Cura or in Repetier Host that has an auto link to Slic3r and Kisslicer. I will admit that if you are just doing this occasionally then it would be no big deal to jump across to something like Netfabb.

Solidworks! Have you seen how much it costs? :shock: Can DSM do threads yet? LOL that is why it is so good. Sure for simple 3D models for printing it is OTT but if you need to take Solidworks part or assembly files from customers to work on then going down the STL or even STEP file route will not work, you have to have Solidworks.

Correct Sander - although did 2D drafting previously

Sorry the above should read (... you can only rotate around the Z-axis)

Ok got it now. The Slic3r layer height function is contained within the Plater tab. Unfortunately I have never used this as it is useless; you cannot rotate around the z-axis and you do not get a 3D view of the model. I always load and position my model with Repetier Host if using Slic3r or direct in Cura if using Cura. I am guessing I might be able to orientate my model as I want it in Meshmixer and then export the STL file to Slic3r but that is a bit of a pain. Also just being able to change the layer height, without changing print speed and/or extruder temp. is not ideal, if not calamitous. That is what is nice in principle about Simplify3d - you can just about assign any setting to a layer range. Of course you should be able to change your print speed and extruder temp via the printer controls and indeed using the pause button too would enable the extruder temp to change and stabilise. Cannot recall if you can do this in Cura, you can in Slic3r, but if you print infill before perimeters this should allow the extruder pressure to stabilise before printing the perimeter walls.

Hi Caml I am in a similar position to you I think and have the same requirement, i.e. different layer resolutions during a print. Until reading this thread, I only knew of one Slicer that did this and that is Simplify3D. S3D costs USD150 – but you cannot easily get a trial download. This is further compromised for me by the fact that I have heard good and bad reports on it, basically too many bugs. I would dearly love to use it but a 3D guy I know very well and respect highly has warned me off it. I am just now trying to get a particular job and would dearly love to use different layer resolution to get my pricing down – and I am now very tempted to risk buying the software. In essence it may be a product to consider after a new released is provided, it that release is primarily fixing bugs – a bit like waiting for Windows SP1. Now EldRick above says Slic3r will give different layer resolutions. I was a Slic3r user for some time but swapped to Cura several months ago and I was not aware that you could get different layer resolutions with Slic3r – maybe a new release has added this? So that is something to check out. I have found on most things I do that Slicr will give a much faster printing time than Cura – but I have always found its retraction to be poor compared with Cura. I am now starting to go back to Slicr for large items with simple geometry (i.e. where retraction is less of an issue) because my pricing can be reduced by 30-40% using Slic3r. And I will be checking their website once I have posted this !!

Solidworks 2014. Originally compared with Inventor but preferred the SW interface and general process - you seem to be able to achieve most things with less clicks. Broadly speaking I am sure they pretty much deliver the same functions. Like the SW collision detection and stress analysis functions.

If you do a bit of net research on modelling glues you will find a glue type which works by melting both pieces of plastic and thus fuses them together. So it is kind of welding. Regret that I cannot remember the product name of the glue.

Hi Hcel, I cannot access the pictures but if the blobs are around the embossed lettering then I would slow the print down to 30mm/s max., even try 20mm/s. It may also help to have the fans on 100%, although not sure on that without seeing the pics. I have embossed letters successfully in a vertical orientation but was using a layer height of .100. I do not want to suggest that .250 is a poorer choice, just making an observation.

Hi guys, I wish someone could come on the forum and say this how you do it, never seen it and have never been able to figure out how to crack this one. I do not think the problem is layers, although they might contribute. My mind sees it as the nozzle width, i.e. your first layer will always be at least 0.4mm wide (assuming that is your nozzle width). Also the first few layers will have a serious overhang. The problem with support/raft is that unless you can dual extrude a soluble support material, you will need a lot of post print sanding etc. to get back a perfect finish. If you really have to do this then I would suggest – go slow i.e. 20mm/s max; turn on cooling 100% after layer 1. This may help but after my first attempt I have subsequently only printed cylinders vertically, so cannot be sure. Maybe you can break the part into subparts, print the cylinder vertically and then stick the subparts together?

Hi I had a play with T-glasse blue a couple of months ago but was unsuccessful in terms of getting it to stick to the bed. I did crack their 645 nylon though, using their suggested extruder temp. range. So I would suggest that you start with using their extruder temp range, 212 to somewhere in the 220s I think – it will be quoted in the link Jonny gave you. T-glasse was specifically designed to work with lower temp. Then play around with bed temp. and adhesive, or not, as things progress. In my research I saw figures ranging from 40c to 100+c so who knows!! If you are successful it would be good if you could post your setup. I am hoping to get back to it in 2-3 week’s time.

Give me a break Nick, first of all you call me a prick, now you do not have the courtesy to read my post properly. Just who is the prick. I stated two problems. If you cannot read English nor grasp the fundamental point, I certainly do not have time to waste telling you again

OK the plot thickens. I went to my 14.01 laptop attached to the printer and loaded a cube and then multiplied it, multiple mode was print all at once. I went to tools and changed the mode to print one at a time, nothing happened confirming my point in the previous post that you have to set the mode before multiplying the object. Then I swapped from normal view to layer view and blow me it redrew the bed layout to print one at a time. So I deleted them all, reloaded with mode print all at once and then changed the mode to print one at a time. I printed them and as expected they did not print one at a time, they printed all at once. I then went back to Cura and to layer view, expecting them to be redrawn and nothing happened. Over the next 10-15 minutes I could not replicate the redraw.