Missing a "section" of a layer

[jaysenodell 13]

Attached are the S3M, GCode and pic of the "problem child". the STL is too big. I know these files are big, but ... you have all the resolution you need 🙂

 

Cura 5.6

Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro

OS X 14.1.2

Object designed in FreeCAD 0.21

STL shows no mesh errors in any tools I loaded it in.

Print media is Creality Ender series PLA

 

The intent is to print the main disk in white and the letter ring with central TG in blue. As you can see, I have made significant progress. Except it now appears that Cura has decided that it can just float the TG without printing layers 26-28 (28 is the color switch layer). I expected Cura to print a couple of white layers of TG as a base for the blue. As you can imagine the PLA isn't adhering as it is printing 2 layers above the surface. I've verified that there is no gap in the model. I can see nothing in the mesh that shows the TG floating. When I examine the solids in FreeCAD I actually have the letter 0.1mm below the surface of the disk.

 

Does anyone see anything obvious I'm missing? 

 

ThatGuy Coin V3.3mf ThatGuy Coin V3 - 2 color HQ.gcode

Edited January 10 by jaysenodell

[Slashee_the_Cow 267]

Microsoft 3D Builder says file has errors and to repair it.

It shows a gap below the TG (and seems to be stuck trying to repair the model):

 

If you could share the FreeCAD file (just put it in a zip file and you can attach it to a post) I can have a look at it... I've been spending far more time wrestling with it lately than I care to admit.

[jaysenodell 13]

WFT. That has to be how cura is seeing the STL. I wonder The FreeCAD file is not large, but the scale of it is as this was built from an SVG. All those letters are joined paths. Your RAM and CPU will be ... unhappy. 

 

As I'm thinking about this, I wonder if the method of building the shape is the problem. The ring is not an extrusion from the surface of the "coin" disk. The center is a hole. Then the TG is placed in the hole. I'm wondering if somehow the STL is still showing the coin as solid but transparent under the TG. My guess is all the OSX STL tools use a library different from QT/Cura and there's my issue. Hmmm. Let me run some test shapes.

 

ThatGuy Coin V3.FCStd.zip

[Slashee_the_Cow 267]

Are ALL the parts of this just extruded SVG files? I won't say FreeCAD is the worst tool ever for such a job (because I'm not sure you could do it at all in Microsoft Word), but I've learned from experience it's pretty F%#*ing terrible at it.

 

But for a printout like this?

OpenSCAD is perfect. I just made the layers, separated each into its own file, and then put them together like this:

$fn = 1024;

background_height = 2;
sky_height = background_height + 0.8;
ground_height = sky_height + 0.8;
pink_height = ground_height + 0.8;
grey_height = pink_height + 0.8;
white_height = grey_height + 0.8;
black_height = white_height + 0.4;
letter_height = black_height + 0.8;
letter_outline_height = letter_height + 0.4;

union(){
linear_extrude(background_height, center = false)
    import("sliced_background_ink.svg");
translate([4.072, 73.202,0])
    linear_extrude(sky_height, center = false)
        import("sliced_sky_ink.svg");
translate([5.764,4.072,0])
    linear_extrude(ground_height, center = false)
        import("sliced_ground_ink.svg");
translate([89.271,77.533,0])
    linear_extrude(pink_height, center = false)
        import("sliced_slashee pink_ink.svg");
translate([61.488, 54.381, 0])
    linear_extrude(grey_height, center = false)
        import("sliced_slashee grey_ink.svg");
translate([61.488, 59.011,0])
    linear_extrude(white_height, center = false)
        import("sliced_slashee white_ink.svg");
translate([38.336,49.750,0])
    linear_extrude(black_height, center = false)
        offset(delta = 0.01){
            import("sliced_slashee black_ink.svg");
        }
translate([9.368, 8.788,0])
    linear_extrude(letter_height, center = false)
        import("sliced_letters_ink.svg");    
translate([9.380,8.787,0])
    linear_extrude(letter_outline_height, center = false)
        import("sliced_letter outlines_ink.svg");
}

and then just pressed the render button and out pops a perfect STL! (Well, you press the render button then the export button, but close enough).

 

So please don't take this the wrong way, but while I could work on your FreeCAD file, I could probably pull the whole thing off in less time and with less pain by translating vectors of the layers in your STL file into SVG files and extruding them in OpenSCAD. While chewing on gravel.

[jaysenodell 13]

This was all done from an SVG as an exercise for me. I don't always do things the smart way as much as "the way I can". That said, OpenSCAD is still a learning tool for me. 

 

I did create a new STL using the same workbench (part, not part builder) and using primitive objects and boolean functions. The part slices fine. It has to be a problem with my STL based on the FreeCAD objects. I'll have to start over with my coin. Maybe I'll try OpenSCAD for that. 

 

Thanks for the help.

Unnamed-Fusion.stl

[jaysenodell 13]

11 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

OpenSCAD is perfect. I just made the layers, separated each into its own file, and then put them together like this

My Mrs is mumbling about rabbit holes and “cows should be steak”. 
 

I’m struggling with the svg being created “good enough” for OpenSCAD. Because this is a branded logo I’m trying to keep it to the graphic artists files without me messing it up. Inkscape just seems to be struggling with it a bit. 

[jaysenodell 13]

Well... I figured out how to beat the model into submission on OpenSCAD. Looks like that fixed it. this does change the overall model a bit but it was what I acually wanted so that's a win. I'll have to print it tomorrow. Attached 3mf for reference. 

ThatGuy Coin v4 .3mf

[Slashee_the_Cow 267]

2 hours ago, jaysenodell said:

Inkscape just seems to be struggling with it a bit. 

The ironic part here is that programs like OpenSCAD like SVGs exported out of Inkscape and FreeCAD basically hates any SVG which doesn't come from Inkscape.

 

Depending on what program your graphic designer used, it could have left a bunch of its own special features in there which will display fine but be easy to go back and edit in the original program. I use Affinity Designer (I can name several orifices into which Adobe can shove their subscriptions) but for this sort of thing I still usually open it in Inkscape, get it to "clean up" the file (File > Clean Up Document), set it to the correct size (so it appears in OpenSCAD or FreeCAD at the right size, File > Document Properties) and then batch export all the layers individually.

 

Well, except that I've done a couple of this sort of print which are just the cow. I just use OpenSCAD for that because I made a file with functions which use manually defined polygons - easy if a little time consuming with pixel art - and extrudes them to the heights you specify.

[jaysenodell 13]

I’m just working from PNG that were delivered for web/print media. Inkscape is creating the svg from tracing. I’m sure that’s the problem. If I start using this formal product, I’ll have her design something directly in SVG and make it a “her problem”. This little thing is for a tournament I’m sponsoring. Will get displayed on the corner of my booth and then be glued to my “things I did” rack. 
 

That said, I am going to looking at how I can use OpenSCAD as a part of my workflow. There are definitely things it does easier than FreeCAD. 

[Slashee_the_Cow 267]

6 minutes ago, jaysenodell said:

I’m just working from PNG that were delivered for web/print media. Inkscape is creating the svg from tracing. I’m sure that’s the problem. If I start using this formal product, I’ll have her design something directly in SVG

Any decent designer will be working in a vector format from the start and should have that available. Ask her if she can provide it for this one.

 

If you want, if you provide the PNG (either upload it in this thread or message me if you'd rather not do that for whatever reason, and make sure it's the highest res you've got) I'll have a crack at it myself. Wouldn't be the first time (either that I've traced a raster image in Inkscape to turn into a layered SVG or gone out of my way to help someone on this forum - one time I spent about two days wrestling with FreeCAD to create a parametric honeycomb generator which didn't quite tessellate, and for at least one person I've written a post-processing script for a particular need they had).

[jaysenodell 13]

Thanks Slashee. I really do appreciate that, but for that type of thing I would just reach out and trade dollars with the graphics lady. I'm sure she is working in rastors and would provide them. She was very clear with the terms of our very budget arrangement and what I was allowed to do. She graciously allowed me to play with the PNG to make this coin which is not in our agreement to use the artwork only for web or printed media. She earns her pay and I wil gladly pay her for the expanded work. 

 

I do need to chat with you about how you are managing all those colors. I'm still fighting with just 2 at a layer change and you seem to be changing inside the layer. 

 

I now have this thing printing. The "time to completion" estimates are all whack. Cura says 7h. Octo has one field at 7h, one at 16h, one at 48h, and one at 24h. The printer is all "I don't know what I'm doing because YOU WON'T LET ME DRIVE ANYMORE" which is as it should be. This should be educational. 

[jaysenodell 13]

Well, it’s finished up a while ago. This is no post processing. 

 

I’ll take it!

 

Print time was 6:49:41. So all the fields are wrong!

 

as you can see there are still small snotty spots but I think a hot exacto will make those vanish fast.