Avoid traveling over blank bed on first layer

[Gerrardh 1]

Hi all,

 

I've spent the last day or so trying to figure out how I could use print a multi material part on a single extruder by adding a filament change line where it would have changed filaments with a multi extruder printer... my aim is to print a client's colour logo into the first layer of a part...

I figured it out with a combination of setting multiple extruders then replacing gcode with the M600 code. 

Anyway... it was to no avail. Because while printing one color the print head travels across the blank bed and leaves a trail of colored filament... so my logo would end up looking great except for these travel artifacts...

What I'd like to see is that the print head only travels over printed regions on the first layer...

 

Any idea how this might be achieved? 

 

Thanks in advance. 

[SandervG 1,520]

Hi @Gerrardh, welcome to the community! 

As an alternative, have you seen this thread already? If you want to include the logo in the first layer, perhaps you can split your model up in 2 models, print lets say the logo first in white, and then print another second first layer with the background material and finish like that. 

 

As for the feature you are looking for, have you looked into 'combing'? 

[Gerrardh 1]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

I had done a bunch of research but hadn't found that thread... nevertheless I think it's a slightly different workflow. It looks like they're printing with distinct prints, one for each colour. I want one print with multiple filament changes...

I was mostly worried about clashing the nozzle into the presiously printed parts, that's why I took this approach, however it doesn't look like it affected them. 

I've already split my model into multiple parts and just edited the code to replace extruder changes with filament changes. 

I had briefly looked at combing but I understood it to be something different... I've currently got it set to "all" I think I'll try "No skin". Thanks for the advice! 

[SandervG 1,520]

No problem, with so many threads you can not find them all right

You could also try to turn it off. When the material retracts you should not have any oozing, regardless of the path it takes.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!