THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 11 TIPS, TRICKS, Q&A

[Stefania Dinea 101]

I am Stefania Dinea, an architect who mixes 3D printing, VR, parametric design and blogging daily and I will share some of my 3D printing tips & tricks with you. This series is my overview about the process and my work-around. Please feel free to comment and add. 

 

PREVIOUS POST:

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 01 TOPOGRAPHY

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 02 MASSING

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 03 TOLERANCES AND SNUG FIT

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 04 ENTOURAGE

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 05 HIGH RESOLUTION BUILDING FACADES

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 06 INTERIOR DESIGN

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 07 STL EXPORT FROM REVIT

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 08 OPTIMIZE BUILD VOLUMETHE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 09 MATERIAL PROFILES

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 3D PRINTING - 10 ARCHICAD

 

Hello, as this series comes to an end I would like to thank you all for the involvement and comments. I will continue to post and comment on the community but not under the umbrella of Architecture for 3d printing. So expect more fun and not so serious posts from me in the future. Here are some topics I have neglected before but not because of their lack of importance but because they never really represented any kind of hassle for me, so I decided to include them in my last post alongside some questions I have received from you.

 

 

Speed

Every filament has their speed recommendations but at the end of the day it's about what you are printing and which quality you want it to be at. Lower speed = higher quality. However when I am printing masses I also go up to 100mm/s considering the outcome quality doesn’t have to be pristine this also applies for when I do test models. If you are not doing an expo model, there is no need to take it at a slow pace. Sometimes you are in a hurry and you do not have time for high quality considering time is of the essence. I have to admit though, I have never altered the standard settings of the PVA. 

 

Different nozzles

An Ultimaker printer comes with a 0.4 nozzle as standard, however in addition to that you can purchase a 0.25 and a 0.8 nozzle. I recommend that for a better printing you have all of these as AA cores. I used them as follow - the 0.25 for printing small scale such as entourage, 0.4 for generally everything and 0.8 for printing volumes without any details, or 1:1 details, mostly when I am in a hurry. 

I usually use just the 0.4 nozzle, I find it to be the nozzle to handle it all. The ruby nozzle available for the UM 2 is a wonderful invention for those who use abrasive materials but I have rarely seen it used in our profession except for details in 1:1 scale.

 

 

Post processing

For post processing I have bought a fish tank which acts as a PVA remover, also a mushroom drier to dry the water out of the washed models. I generally don't enjoy using brim just skirt as a setting mostly because I do not enjoy post cleaning the model, which takes about 30 min. Making sure the models come as clean as possible out of the printer is my first priority. One thing I do occasionally is to sand them with some sanding paper and use a lighter to burn off the strings. 

 

If you want custom colors I generally recommend spray painting after rather than going through settings and hassle of changing materials. For me that helps.

 

PVA is the greatest invention!! And it works 99% of the cases - some errors do occur as well but I love being able to use that technique so I don’t have to remove supports.

 

 

Q&A

Do you (often) post process your 3D prints, or are they often good to use straight out of the Ultimaker? If you do, what is it that you most often do? 

 

I usually use them as they come out of the printer. However sometimes some extra attention is needed. See previous comments.

 

And question-inception, is there perhaps a post-processing technique you would like to apply but are not familiar with yet? 

 

A sanding machine ?! I heard there are gadgets that you can lay a model in for sanding. I am not sure for which techniques of printing they are used  for but they sound awesome. 

 

I just started a new job and we want to exhibit our Revit models as 3D printed models. What do you think we should invest in? Ultimaker 3 or 3Extension? Or do you feel Ultimaker S5 is better suited? Maybe some other suppliers of 3D-printers should be considered?

 

Well, I have personally tested all low end brands and I can tell you for sure cheap comes with the included headaches. 

The Ultimaker brand usually stands that their products will last a very long time and it never loses the intended purpose. The UM2 is a very reliable and usefull printer. However the biggest complaint in architecture was size, that is why the UM S5 came out in a different format than what we are used to. When you buy a printer for your company then I suggest the latest version available on the market, however if it’s for personal use, then whatever fits your budget. 

 

 

 

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I look forward to reading your other posts ?

 

[sonali31 3]

Thank you for explaining 3D printing in Architecture with tips and tricks .

Edited January 17, 2019 by sonali31