j_b

Hi there, I'm several months in my 3D printing adventure and I came to realize quite a lot of published STL files are of bad quality. :-( I tried to print http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:350229 Cura and Repetier Host (Slic3r) slice it, but it doesn't print well as some parts are printed "in the air". Even with support it doesn't go very well as the STLs have several issues. Netfabb Studio detects the errors, but is unable to fix them all and even after these fixes, printing is quite impossible. The only tool that was able to fix the STL, was the netfabb in-the-cloud: cloud.netfabb.com I think this tool has the same capabilities as Netfabb Pro, but I'm not sure. After this, the object printed fine. The author of the mentioned object did print it rather well, but I don't know wht tools he uses. So, now my question. :-) I could fix most issues in STLs with the free Netfabb Studio, but not this issue. What tools are you using to fix broken STLs? I'd like to know if there are other tools available I didn't find yet as I don't know if the cloud tool will be still there tomorrow... Best regards, Johan.

Besides correct bed leveling and Z-offset, you can try the following to make the bottom layer smooth: Make the first layer thicker (I believe 0.3 is default in Cura) Print it very slowly (20-25 mm/s) Use a higher temperature for the bottom layer Use a higher flowrate for the bottom layer (105%) Some of these can be set in the normal settings, other can be set with the "Tweak at Z" plugin in Cura.