MakerGear Forum

I broke down and bought S3D and printed a couple of simple things successfully, but last night tried to print the stretchlet bracelet from Thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13505) file http://www.thingiverse.com/download:44025. Using the preset settings for Makergear M2 24V V3B when I look at the gcode preview instead of the zigzag pattern I see a ring - the entire shape is wrong.

This forum wouldn't let me post a factory file. Can someone try downloading that shape and slicing it with S3D and see if they get the same obviously wrong result?

yes, it is because the model has walls that are thinner than the extrusion width. the circle you are seeing isnt even the model, its the skirt. just to test this i had to set the width to manual and drop the width to .18 which would never print with a .35 nozzle. you really cant print this model as it is and after looking at the comments on it it seems alot of slicers have trouble. ones that dont probably ignore width and are set to print features smaller than the nozzle by ignoring dimensions.

This model is meant to be printed as a single outline. In S3D that corresponds to "Vase Mode", which is something you can set in the Layer tab of the Process dialog.

As Jim said the model is too thin to be printed as a normal model, though you can slice it with low extrusion width parameters. Below is the gcode preview in Vase mode with the nozzle diameter set to 0.15. I think that might print ok but I haven't tried it.

Simple answer is use Stretchlet1.stl and print with one perimeter, no infill, no top and bottom layers, vase mode, don't mess with extrusion width settings. Also turn off retract at every layer, which does not seem to be overridden by vase mode.

Nice, Jim! Simplify3D + M2: 1, Funky models: 0

ahh the top and bottom layers is whats screwing this up. i had tried the vase mode and s3d went nuts on it but i hadnt noticed there were 2 top and bottoms on it.

I wasn't very explicit in my previous reply: Stretchlet1.stl is a solid model intended to be printed as a vase. Stretchlet.stl is a 0.4mm wall object, which because of corners and other geometry issues needs extrusion width less than 0.4.

oops I got confused. jim, jin, jsc jimc.... you guys it's hard to tell you apart.

nice answer and print, jin

Thanks for the help, I was able to print the Stretchlet1.stl perfectly. I was surprised that it took about a half hour to print, but the results were great.