Unintended gaps in sliced text (and skin hanging in the air)

[threepoint 0]

I'm trying to slice an .stl (for which I do not have the original design files) that contains extruded text at the top of the model. I'm having two problems with slicing:

 

1. Several of the letters ('a', 'n', 'u') slice to have horizontal gaps where there should not be.
2. The tops of many of the letters slice to have a final top layer which – incorrectly – sits offset from the underlying shell, and in a few cases overhangs in mid-air with nothing under it.

 

See screenshots. When I printed this model (using 0.06mm layer resolution), everything came out perfectly except, predictably, the text, which was messy and partly illegible.

 

I've spent a couple of hours fiddling with every setting in Cura (both 4.6.2 and 4.7 beta) that sounded remotely relevant, along with another hour of scouring the forums, and I finally give up: I can't figure out how to make the text print with high fidelity.

 

The only clue I have is that if I change Special Modes > Surface Mode from "Normal" to "Surface", all of the text slices perfectly. (Unfortunately I can't print the rest of the model like that; I was surprised that "Both" wouldn't work for me.)

 

Could anyone offer me any insight on why this happens and what I can do to fix it? Model is attached.

 

Thanks!

PersonalSpaceShipFinal8mmDice.stl

[threepoint 0]

I'd love some help on this from any Cura experts or UM staff, if someone would be willing to take a look. (Or maybe this is a possible bug that I could report?) Thanks in advance!

[obewan 37]

I think the lines on the lettering may be a bit too thin

Try with horizontal expansion=0.15

 

[threepoint 0]

Brilliant, thank you so much @obewan! That is EXACTLY what I needed. The preview is near perfect now. I had been wracking my brains for nearly two weeks! I played with Horizontal Expansion previously but I was putting in much larger numbers than 0.15 and it made the model look bloated so I thought that it was the wrong thing to be tweaking 🙈 Thanks for hitting the nail on the head for me.

 

Now to see how it looks in print. (But need to figure out https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/33750-how-do-i-load-a-new-material-from-cura-into-a-um3/ first 😄)