simplify 3d v2.2.0 just released

[jimc]

guys, the new s3d update just got released first thing this morning. download it and try it out. lots of cool new features.

download here:
http://www.simplify3d.com/downloads/


here is a breakdown of the new features and there is a changelog at the bottom of the page.

http://www.simplify3d.com/simplify3d-v2-2-release/

[jsc]

Some nice stuff. Thin wall fills! And the variable density support is great, now you can get clean underhangs without printing a solid block of support the whole way up. I'll test out the dual extrusion stuff when I can.

[jimc]

Yeah ive been running the beta for a little less than a week. So far everything seems to work great. I found a few bugs in it which were fixed before this final release. The only thing i havent tried is any if the dual extrusion stuff so some if your feedback on that would be great. The other stuff you mentioned is awesome and the other thing i found great was increasing the infill width. It really makes the infill much mire solid and bonded 100% to the line under it.

[Tim]

Yeah ive been running the beta for a little less than a week.

I can't imagine a better person to be a beta tester. But. . . how did you get that deal? I wanna be a beta tester too!

[Tim]

Improved support for a wider range of OBJ file formats

Finally they fixed something that I have complained about. Whether or not they have fixed some of the other weirdnesses, I will have to plug in some of my known-problematic meshes (all of which were manifold!) and see what happens.

[jimc]

uhhhh i dont know. this was the first time. i guess since i do alot of posting on their forum and since jann did the blog post on my bomb and we already had some emails going back and forth she decided to have me do some testing this version.

[Tim]

I just ran a lithophane through version 2.2.0, one that had always had an issue with S3D not being able to determine where certain boundaries were. It would fill outside the intended area in places, which not only screws up that layer but causes the layer above it to print over the missing layer, resulting in delamination. . . that really kills the lithophane effect! But in 2.2.0, it worked just fine. But I have changed numerous parameters since I last sliced the lithophane, so it's not absolutely definitive, but it looks like they got rid of that problem, which was a particularly bad one. This is the same error that would tend to fill in the middle of hollow cylinders on random slices, so if anybody has a print with any of those issues, give it a shot with 2.2.0.

Another error I had with supports not reaching all the way down, but being placed unsupported in mid-air, is still present. It tends to show up when overhangs are above other parts of the object, and is especially bad when the parts of the object underneath the support have dense geometry.

I threw some .obj files with quadrangle polygons at version 2.2.0, and it loaded them without any problem (previously it would refuse to load a .obj file that had anything other than triangles, even though the .obj format is supposed to support both triangles and quadrangles). It's really nice to see this error fixed (although I don't think they ever acknowledged it as an error, per se). The .obj file has its flaws but is a heck of a lot better than .stl, which has to be among the world's worst file formats.

Anyway, the bottom line, in my opinion, is that v2.2.0 is definitely worth having (unlike v2.1.2, with such critical new features such as "filament cost calculations are now compatible with a wider range of currencies."!).

[jimc]

that support issue sounds interesting. i cant say i have ever seen this. do you have a screen shot or something you can share?

[Tim]

that support issue sounds interesting. i cant say i have ever seen this. do you have a screen shot or something you can share?

Sure. I've seen this happen most often with the chess sets that I've posted on Thingiverse. Just about any of the pieces in the original glChess set and the new OpenSCAD chess set that I posted today, all of which have overhangs requiring support that has to sit on top of the piece's base and extend up to the overhanging part, will show this effect. With the original glChess set, the problem could be reduced by reducing the support structure size. But the problem appears to get worse when the printed piece's geometry gets denser; so the newer OpenSCAD chess set, with may more segments making a more smooth and circular base, shows the worst effect.

The pawn shown here is a relatively simple bit of geometry, and you can easily see the support structure hanging in mid-air. The supports extend down to the upper part of the base, but the support structure generator is unable to figure out that the upper part of the base drops away. There is another support structure under the round head of the pawn where the sphere just exceeds the 45 degree limit, and once again the generator just doesn't detect that the base surface it's supposed to rest on is dropping away. The resulting support structure is utterly useless (that one can be gotten rid of by increasing the angle for making supports, but that's a hack solution that works only on a case-by-case basis).

(By the way, I sent basically the same picture to the S3D guys, and they wrote back with some suggestions like reducing the support structure size value, which only made the condition a little bit better. They never actually admitted that it was an error.)

[jsc]

I've seen that support thing. I didn't realize it was a bug. The first time I printed one, I was surprised it turned out fine. The first layers were a mess, but it managed to cling to a wall and sort itself out by the time it was needed.