GCODE does not match STL

[FluffyPuppy123 0]

I have NO idea what's going on here. The STL looks good in Blender and Cura, but the preview mode looks horrible, and it does print it this way.

I've looked at other blades, by a different person, and they don't have these defects as seen in the screenshot. It's not flush against the blue line.

I've changed printers, quality of print, etc.

 

The items are found here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6194724

and here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6252692

Any thoughts?

untitled-blade_1_.stl untitled-Blade.stl

Edited October 20, 2023 by FluffyPuppy123
Adding link to original STL

[Slashee_the_Cow 409]

Could you please provide the gcode generated so that we can compare it to the STL files?

[FluffyPuppy123 0]

So this is the blade, not blade(1). Both show the errors.

Long_103H09M_Blade.gcode

[Slashee_the_Cow 409]

Just looking at blade (not 1), it seems to be a pretty shoddy quality STL file - it doesn't have a scale set (so every program thinks it's a different size) and there's some obvious errors (like here there's a couple of polys with their normals facing the wrong way)

 

And it just doesn't have enough geometry for a blade that's curved like this - it gets really rough at places like the hilt:

 

And it basically comes to (literally) a knife's edge at the side of the blade - you'd need to have a pretty good 3D printer to pull off details this fine:

 

Even scaling it to the max size my printer can do (250mm Z) and using ideal settings (inclusive slicing, print thin walls, thinnest layers and narrowest lines I can pull off with a 0.4mm nozzle) it can't manage it:

Slicing it for other printers I have profiles for installed doesn't really fare any better:

I'm actually surprised they manage to curve the top of the blade like they do, considering it looks like this:

 

I'm not sure if you know much about 3D modelling, but that sword only has 1,504 vertices - that's not a lot for something which is supposed to be curved in pretty much every way possible - for comparison, here's my squishy die (printed it with TPU - lets you play games AND relieve stress):

That has 10,020 vertices. Not necessarily the most fair comparison, given every side has rounded pips. Let's throw it in the rubbish:

The rubbish bin with 6,862 vertices, to be exact. Okay, let's just close the lid on this:

That lid - and yes it does fit on top of that bin - has 7,196 vertices.

 

I think I've made my point: the STL files you have are not great for printing. You could try improving them in Meshlab or Meshmixer but I'm not sure you could do enough without having the source file for the model, exporting with a lot more detail, and blunting sharp edges that your everyday printer simply can't print.

[Slashee_the_Cow 409]

Looking at blade_1: same deal. Between the two blades there's only 2,437 verts. Also no measurement units provided. The one on the right doesn't even sit on the build plate (its base is higher than the left one).

 

The right one comes to a sharp point you're never going to get for the whole length of its blade.

The left one is only marginally better in that regard.

 

I mean, just look at this. You can see the individual triangles (right blade)

At first I thought that little bit at the bottom was a messed up normal, but for whatever reason it's a cut in the model:

 

Comparison: yes, this one is probably completely overkill (I treat $fn in OpenSCAD like a toy) but here's a letter I printed at 19.6 x 24 x 5mm:

How much does it take to get an overly smooth twisted J? 1,515,975 verts. As I said, complete overkill. At least by the time I got to the I, I'd turned things down a notch:

...that notch still has 4,100 verts.

 

But what about my lovely bovine avatar (which I actually use in a bunch of other places and have had merch custom made)?

Fewer verts. Only 357. But that's for a 30x30 pixelated cow avatar (completely flat on the back) with absolutely zero curves. Two swords need a hell of a lot more than 6.8x the verts required to make this cow.

 

I think I've made my point. But let's flip a coin, to be sure:

Finally, a fair comparison! 1,700 verts for a coin. And if anyone's curious, yes, I am enough of a smartarse that the other side is a tail: