Thank you. If I couldn't change colors based on region, that was my original idea. Print in white then just paint the outside in black. I bought these acrylic paint pens from Amazon when I first bought the printer, being a noob (still am), I didn't even know you could do filament changes. This may be the route since it doesn't need to look beautiful or professional.
I do also like the idea of designing the outside shell in black and then the inside the white/red and combine the parts.
Even easier still, just print in white and use the acrylic pens to paint the black and red sections. 😉
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Slashee_the_Cow 479
Recommended solution: As all of your features are at different heights, you can just get away with changing filament at layers. You do white until the inner area finishes, then switch to black until the outline is finished, then switch to red for the text. You'll be able to see the banding if you look from the side, but whether that's a problem is up to you.
Recommended solution for no banding: Print two separate parts. First you do the outer section except make it cover all of the back, say 1mm thick, so there's a hollow for the inner piece. Then print the inner part (except 1mm thinner) in white and switch colour to red when you get to the text. Glue the inner part into the cavity in the outer part - if you're using PLA then regular old superglue (cyanoacrylate) works wonders.
Single print with no banding but major hassle solution: Import each part as a different model. Put them all in place in Cura and slice it. Open the gcode file and whenever it changes model, insert code to park the head and pause the print. This will probably require you to change filament twice a layer, hence the "major hassle" disclaimer. I think @GregValiant might have a post-processing script that can help with the gcode changes required but even with that I can pretty much guarantee you that it's far too much hassle changing the filament constantly at the printer to be worth it.
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GregValiant 1,408
I agree that Slashee's "Recommended Solution" is best for this model. It only requires two filament changes, and nobody but you will notice the side "banding" (which you could paint with a black magic marker if you were really picky). Another plus is that the model doesn't require any changes to do it that way. The areas to print in different colors are already at different heights.
To avoid the banding, this would probably need to be two models (black frame with a mortice on the back, and the inside white part with the lettering that would fit into the mortice like a picture in a frame). A plus to that is the letters could be flush with the top of the black frame. The white base with the red letters would still require a filament change.
You will want to have retractions when the nozzle moves from letter-to-letter. Make sure the "Retraction Minimum Travel" is set to 1.5. It needs to be less than the distance between the letters. Also...consider enabling Z-hops.
Both of those suggestions can help minimize stringing between the letters.
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Slashee_the_Cow 479
I'm pretty sure that was my "recommended solution for no banding" 😕
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