Slicer Filling in Cursive Letters

[hackurs 0]

Morning gents and ladies. Having a bit of an issue with Cura and slicing a cursive lower case 'j' from an .stl file. A bit new at using a 3D printer, but tried enough to get the gist of what I'm doing. I've tried different cursive fonts of the letter 'j' as well (all with different .stl files, just in case the file had an issue), but the result is always the same. Am I missing a setting somewhere that could cause this? The print size is on the order of about 9 cm, and thus far I've had no problems with any of the other letters with loops. Thanks for the help!

[hackurs 0]

Apologies, here are the files in question.

output-12.gcode output-12.stl

[burtoogle 513]

Hello @hackurs, according to the Cura mesh tools plugin, this model has a problem...

 

 

[hackurs 0]

2 hours ago, burtoogle said:

Hello @hackurs, according to the Cura mesh tools plugin, this model has a problem...

 

 

 

Suggestions on how to proceed then? It's saying the same for all of these different .stl files?

output-17.stl output-16.stl output-15.stl

[johnse 31]

To just make these printable, you can use service.netfabb.com (free with registration).

 

What program are you using to generate the letter models? To understand how to create better models in the first place, we need to know how you made them.

Edited October 16, 2019 by johnse
Fix spelling

[hackurs 0]

Gotcha! Appreciate the help. I was using a web pack from thingiverse. I've posted the link below. Let me know what I can/should do. Thanks for the help!

 

http://www.mxs.de/textstl/

[hackurs 0]

9 minutes ago, johnse said:

To just make these printable, you can use service.netfabb.com (free with registration).

 

What program are you using to generate the letter models? To understand how to create better models in the first place, we need to know how you made them.

Tried the netfabb, worked like a charm. Thank you for the help sir! You are a rock star

[johnse 31]

Glad to help.

[johnse 31]

56 minutes ago, hackurs said:

I was using a web pack from thingiverse

Depending on how that web site constructs the geometry, I’m not surprised with there being problems. Fonts are designed primarily for rendering on a 2D surface where overlapping shapes do not matter. So the loops likely are defined by curves that cross through the stem. Naively extruding that shape into 3D leaves an area that intersects with itself, causing internal geometry which causes the slicer to confuse what is inside vs outside the solid.

[hackurs 0]

2 minutes ago, johnse said:

Depending on how that web site constructs the geometry, I’m not surprised with there being problems. Fonts are designed primarily for rendering on a 2D surface where overlapping shapes do not matter. So the loops likely are defined by curves that cross through the stem. Naively extruding that shape into 3D leaves an area that intersects with itself, causing internal geometry which causes the slicer to confuse what is inside vs outside the solid.

That makes a lot of sense. I learned something new today! Would you recommend using netfab regularly to clean up prints then?

[johnse 31]

If you are using other people’s designs, that is a good way of getting around problems. You can install the Mesh Tools Cura plug-in from the Cura marketplace and it will warn you of these kinds of errors.

 

if you start making your own designs, I would recommend Fusion 360. The personal use license is free and it is a good CAD program with lots of tutorials and a good community.

 

Some other programs, like Sketchup and Blender, make it very easy to get problematic designs.

[gr5 2,168]

@hackurs - did you look at your part in layer view to see what will happen when it prints?