Am I only dreaming or may this work somehow?

[lord-devil 1]

Hey everyone

First off, I have ZERO 3d printing experience as of yet and while waiting for the next 8+ weeks for my UM2 to arrive, I thought I would get familiar with Cura and some of the software suites.

So do you think it would be somehow possible to print this 3D figure with standard PLA on a normal FDM printer or am I only dreaming?

What I was trying to do is using the support structure from Cura (but to my eye it didn't give any useful result). So I tried to create the support structure via meshmixer (3mm thick) and that is what I came up so far .

I know printing is the only way to find out, but I am pretty sure there are some experinced UM gurus out there who will already see all kind of problems with this and tell me thats not gonna work - and that is exactly why I post it here as I want to get as much knowledge beforehand as possible.

So is this even possible? What problems will I face printing this and why? Is the support structure anything useful at all? Will this even stick on the glass? Well you see I am a complete newb

 

Thanks in advance for taking your time,

Oliver

 

[yellowshark 123]

No reason why not. It might be worth trying the Spiralize option and setting the wall width to .6mm. I have only tried it with .4mm on the Venus de Milo and in two areas it left a small gap. Try it without Spiralize too.

If you try it with Spiralize the boobs should come out fine. Without Spriralise they may or may not require support to get a really good finish

 

[IRobertI 428]

Spiralize is made for vases, not intricate prints like this with lots of islands. The whole reason for spiralize is that it will print a single continuous line without stopping while continuously turning the z-screw. This means there will be no z-scar on the vase.

Those supports will likely break before serving their purpose. Branch off more supports to support the support. Use lots of brim and/or make the bases for the supports wider to make sure they have a stable base and don't come off.

For the chin I would consider rooting the support on her upper chest instead of the ground. It will leave a small mark on the chest but it will be easy to buff out (I'm assuming there will be some sanding and painting involved here regardless).

The fingers will be tricky. They're very very thin. I think I would cut out a section and test print that to see how it goes before printing the whole model. Don't section off just the hand though, it will be too small and heat will become an issue. (sinking the model into the platform in cura could do the trick)

It looks like you have a support beam for her private parts. You could probably get away with not having that as it looks like a short gap to cross and bridging will likely take care of that.

The bangs over her face might become a little messy. It's hard to say how much that will matter depending on how much post processing you will do.

 

[lord-devil 1]

Thanks for the replies... actually I am very happy to hear that it would be possible!

I was like... okay you guys will be busting this anyway^^. As far as theorycrafting can go, everything makes sense to me, except the spiralize option. I wonder how it would help to print this figure by going with one line straight up the z-axis...

Now all I need to know is whome could I bribe to get my printer faster? :oops:

Thanks again,

Oliver

 

[IRobertI 428]

It wouldn't help with this model IMO. Like I said, spiralize is for vases or vase-like objects. Say you have a cylinder. If you activate spiralize it will remove the top of said cylinder, print a solid bottom and then it will print a single line thickness wall in a continuous spiral (hence the name).

It could work for something like a bust perhaps.

 

[gr5 900]

I would also get rid of the single support between her legs - you don't need it there. And increase the diameter of the supports because these are a bit thin and week. And add some cross beams to connect the supports together a little more so they are less likely to fall over.

Look at the model in XRAY mode - any area that is red is a potential problem. Then look in LAYER mode and check each layer - go up and down many times looking at any possible problem areas. Make sure the printer is doing what you expected.

Also like Roberts said, make sure brim is turned on. It's important for this particular model.

 

[lord-devil 1]

Thanks for all the tips. Hmm I thought 3mm should be enough for support structure - will it bend or break, or what may happen?

Oh and why don't you need any support between her legs? Actually I have no clue what will happen on areas which exist in the "empty space"... I mean the printer will forward material but there is nothing to lay it on - so he will probably put a little bit more on the next step where he lands with the nozzle - is this correct?

Regarding the X-Ray mode... everything is blue there - nothing red?

In layer mode the only strange thing i discovered is that only her feets get filled...above her ankle everything is hollow up to her head and does not get ANY infill (doesnt matter if I increase fill percentage) - I guess I need to change the model so that everything is not hollow?

Oh and does anyone know what the different colors in layer mode mean (red, yellow, green... and the blue line must be the toolpath - is there also a way to see exactly on how the head will be moving?).

Actually is brim helping that the pieces stay on the glass and don't fall apart? I heard with PLA you don't need a heated plate as it sticks anyway - is this correct?

Kind regards,

Oliver

 

[skint 61]

3mm should be more than enough for support. Depending on the gap between her legs, if its only say 4-5mm, it may print OK with small amount of droop. The printer will print the legs upto that layer and then will go straight across from leg to leg.. the pla may droop a little on the first layer then improve after that.. I did some prints today with a 5mm flat gap, and they printed pretty well.

 

[gr5 900]

It will bridge a lot more than 5mm (post #17):

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=25304

She is hollow? Did you turn on spiralize? DONT USE SPIRALIZE UNLESS YOU ARE PRINTING A CUP! I think this was mentioned twice in posts above but I'll mention it a 3rd time just in case someone missed it. Spiralize is very very specialty. If you print two legs of a human - spiralize will mess it up and it will be crap. Plus spiralize turns off infill. If you print supports, spiralize will wreck that also. Spiralize is only for cups. Not people. Cups. It will not work for coffee mugs with a handle. It will not work for almost anything other than cups. It might work for some vases but only certain vases. They must not have holes or handles or inner walls, or... just don't use spiralize okay?

 

[lord-devil 1]

Nono I wont do spiralize, I know that doesn't make sense... but I guess the model itself seems to be hollow above her ankle... so I need to fix the model first to make her "full" ? I just saw that she is hollow when looking at the layers view

 

[gr5 900]

Layers view is confusing. It only shows the infill for the layer you are currently on in the slider and 5 or so layers below. Could that be confusing you maybe? Maybe it is time you posted the stl file for this model.

 

[braddock 1]

In my experience, these supports typically break at the base, or somewhere in between due to movement of the head, and the skinny supports supporting the weight of the suspended part until it joins the larger body of the print. I'm keen to see how you go, but print it small and low res as a test so you dont come back to it 10 hours later to find a mess of spaghetti.

I'd suggest cutting the model up, approach it as you would if parts needed to be cast and molded. Print the torso, arms and legs separately.

 

 

[braddock 1]

I dont like the new version of Cura at all, the layer view was buggy and it's much slower to slice models. I've rolled back to the previous version.

 

 

Layers view is confusing. It only shows the infill for the layer you are currently on in the slider and 5 or so layers below. Could that be confusing you maybe? Maybe it is time you posted the stl file for this model.