"Nophead" (Chris Palmer) uses ABS in all the printed parts kits he sells for his Mendel90 machines (which he designed). My original parts set was printed in PLA by someone else, and I am in the process of printing replacement parts in ABS for the sake of temperature resistance (I plan to put my machine in a heated chamber eventually). I tend to make more mechanical parts than models anyway, so I mainly use ABS myself (yes, I know PLA is harder, but I prefer the overall qualities of ABS).
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gr5 2,295
http://software.ultimaker.com/old/
cura 13.04 was the final version with the older slicer. Fortunately you can have as many cura versions installed as you want as the installer tells windows that they are all completely different programs.
I would be very surprised if skeinforge is any better. The problem is only for *vertical* nut traps and holes. It has to do with the material properties of liquid PLA. Does your friend print with ABS or some other material?
Anyway there are 3 reasons holes are too small but the biggest reason is the nature of liquid PLA where it acts like snot or a liquid rubber band as it is being laid down and stretches towards the nozzle which is inward for holes. It wouldn't happen if the layer below supported it better but that layer also stretched inwards. There is no good fix for this and different types of material and color additives and other additives can change this property although ABS hardens much sooner so doesn't have as much distance to pull on as you "draw the circle" (lay out a round trace) so it isn't pulling inward quite as much.
Now of course some slicer could compensate for all this. Outer corners also. I'm not sure if the error is consistent enough between printers, printing speeds, fan speeds and so on. Most people who use CAD will just design all their holes and such a bit bigger. I like to add .4mm to my vertical holes so 3.4mm holes for M3 screws. Smaller if you want M3 screws to "self tap".
More information here and great ideas for designing parts:
http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/38-designing-for-3d-printing
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