Need help with some designs

[champsteve778 1]

Lets go one at a time.

 

1st one:

 

The bull wall decorative... (attached)... it came with two stl files.

 

It says...

 

Recommended print settings: This model is most compatible with FDM. Materials: PLA (Most reccomended) Nozzle Size: 0.4-0.6mm Layer height: 0.12 - 0.2mm Line width: 0.45mm Infill: 10% - 20% Supports: yes

 

Now where do I start? I am pretty sure I can do: Nozzle Size: 0.4-0.6mm Layer height: 0.12 - 0.2mm Line width: 0.45mm Infill: 10% - 20% 

 

But the support scares me.

 

Steve

 

 

HornsDecimate.stl skullHeadDecimate.stl

[Slashee_the_Cow 355]

If in doubt... go with the defaults. The default quality profiles are set up so that they should work for most things without having to make changes.

I mean, that'll work, but... it's literally 31% support. It's also got support in internal cavities which is gonna be a pain to remove.

 

So let's try my favourite setting in the support section: set Support > Support Structure to Tree.

Better already. We're saving a significant amount of filament and time (over an hour less).

 

But there's still a forest inside which is going to be annoying to remove:

 

Time for my second favourite (and criminally underutilised) setting in the support section (would be first, but you need trees on for it to work): Set Support > Rest Preference to On buildplate when possible

Now the trees are planted outside the head and grow inside through the holes. It's still going to be a bit of pain to remove the bits on the inside (if you even need to, not sure how visible they'd be) but a lot easier to remove in general.

 

This is the point where I could start tweaking the hell out of it but honestly that would be good enough for me and will definitely be good enough for you.

 

Although as the designated representative of the bovine community I can't officially endorse you printing this.

[champsteve778 1]

so I just load the stl file into cura and then the settings will automatically change to what that stl file says?

 

can you actually change the nozzle size?

Edited Wednesday at 08:39 AM by champsteve778

[champsteve778 1]

3 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

Although as the designated representative of the bovine community I can't officially endorse you printing this.

 

I can respect that

[Slashee_the_Cow 355]

2 hours ago, champsteve778 said:

so I just load the stl file into cura and then the settings will automatically change to what that stl file says?

No. An STL file can only contain a model (unlike a Cura project .3mf). You'll have to go to relevant settings and change them (fortunately there's not many of them). They are:

• Quality > Layer Height: It says 0.12-0.2mm. Shorter layers (so up the 0.12mm end) result in a little more detail at the cost of a longer print. I almost always do 0.2mm and I never end up thinking "I wish it had more detail".
• Quality > Line Width: It says 0.45mm so set it to that.
• Infill > Infill Density: It says 10-20%. I'd do 20% myself, it'll use a bit more filament (and take a bit longer) but it will result in a stronger print.

And one thing it doesn't say but you should probably check:

• Infill > Infill Pattern: The default is cubic. If it's not set to cubic, set it to that. It's a good general purpose pattern and is equally strong in all dimensions.

If you can't see any of those settings, just search for them (the name, don't need to include the section).

 

2 hours ago, champsteve778 said:

can you actually change the nozzle size?

You'd have to change the nozzle on the printer, they're not variable size or something like that, you can get them in different sizes, but 0.4mm is most common and what most printers come with. Since the instructions say you can print with a 0.4mm nozzle, don't worry about that (especially since I'm guessing you don't have nozzles of different sizes laying around unlike a lot of us).

 

Then in Cura you don't have to change it; the flow rate is the same regardless of what size nozzle you have on, but Cura will give you warnings about values like layer height or line width being outside the normal bounds of that size nozzle.

 

Some printer definitions come with "variants" for different size nozzles like this in the material dropdown:

If yours doesn't then you can change it using the "Printer Settings" plugin by @ahoeben, but you don't have to, just potentially ignore Cura's warnings about line width or layer height being too high/low.

[champsteve778 1]

Slashee?

 

How about this one:

 

 saladin-vase-a-3mf.3mf

 

How do I handle the support here?

 

Steve

[Slashee_the_Cow 355]

This is a more difficult one. Your model is slightly broken but not bad enough that Cura can't slice it so I'll ignore that for now.

 

The problem with trying to support it with the settings in the file is that there's a lot of little bits in the crosshatching that Cura thinks need support (highlighted in red):

(The cyan/magenta areas are parts which have no faces on the outside but Cura is just stitching them closed automatically).

 

If we look inside, this is where it all gathers inwards at the top and unlike all the tiny bits might actually need support:

 

It's also going to need support as it expands before the top:

 

Normally the first setting you play with to get the support you want is Support > Support Overhang Angle (higher numbers = less support, 90° = no support, I usually have it 55° for PLA) but even with it set ridiculously high for testing purposes it's still going for little bits in the crosshatching and ignoring parts that are more likely to need it):

 

But if I set it to my favourite support settings to start with (trees on buildplate when possible) it's not doing too bad a job:

It's still sticking support in tiny bits that don't need it, but for the most part it's supporting parts that do need it.

 

Normally the next target in removing bits of small support like that is Support > Minimum Support Area. On this model it's a bit fiddly because each face is so small. There's no real science to setting it with a model like this, you just play with the number and slice it until you get the amount of support you want. Here's it with the Minimum Support Area set to 0.05mm:

Actually a better result than I'd expected. It's gotten rid of the tiny bits of support at the top and the ones going through the holes aren't to support tiny bits of the crosshatching, they're branching inside to support where it narrows:

 

But sometimes you have to turn your thinking on its head... literally:

There's now much less support (about 16g and 2 hours) because it doesn't have to go as high. It's also going to be a lot easier to remove the support on the inside because it can grow straight off the build plate, not have to go through holes:

 

And yeah, it needs a giant tree trunk going straight up through the thing to support the top. But that should be fairly easy to remove because it develops support interface:

 

Eventually you're going to have to learn to experiment for yourself to see what works and what doesn't. But this is a bit of a complicated one, so while I've done the homework for you, please read the process I went through so you know what to look for in the future.

saladin_vase_a_upsidedown_support.3mf

[champsteve778 1]

ok I am going to look everything over

[champsteve778 1]

ok thanks so much

 

I will try and retain as much as possible.

 

do I have to add anything to this project after loading 3mf file in cura?

 

talk soon,

 

Steve

[champsteve778 1]

also I tried slicing the file as is and got one of these:

 

 

See the "model errors"

[Slashee_the_Cow 355]

3 hours ago, champsteve778 said:

also I tried slicing the file as is and got one of these:

 

See the "model errors"

As I said at the top of my long post, it's invalid, but Cura is handling it well enough not to worry about it (it doesn't show any problems in the slices).

[champsteve778 1]

I keep on trying to print it and it keeps failing?? Even at 207

[Slashee_the_Cow 355]

Here's a version with a fixed model, but since the slice looked fine I'm not sure it'll make a difference. Definitely can't shouldn't hurt though.

 

3 hours ago, champsteve778 said:

I keep on trying to print it and it keeps failing??

Woah. Slow down. A little more detail please. What's happening?

 

3 hours ago, champsteve778 said:

Even at 207

207 what?

saladin_vase_a_upsidedown_support.3mf

[champsteve778 1]

Lets start with my oso vase... (attached)... When I printed it the walls are way too thin. (I thought we can't change the walls thickness in vasemode??)

 

oso.stl

[Slashee_the_Cow 355]

5 hours ago, champsteve778 said:

Lets start with my oso vase... (attached)... When I printed it the walls are way too thin. (I thought we can't change the walls thickness in vasemode??)

When spiralising, we can't change the number of walls (always 1) but we can change the line width - the general guideline for line width is 60-150% of nozzle diameter so the widest line you can have with the "standard" 0.4mm nozzle is 0.6mm.

 

If your line width is already set to 0.6mm and that's too weak then you have two options - use a larger nozzle (which has issues of its own, just ask @jaysenodell) or print as a regular print which will allow you to have several wall lines.

[champsteve778 1]

what is a good width with regular print then? (with oso design)

 

is this the same situation as the saladin deisgn that you flipped?