simplify3d v3.0

[jsc]

Jules, have you tried the Official MakerGear Bed Leveling method?

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2332&start=20#p12832

[Jules]

Dangit! There it is! I knew i'd seen that somewhere, but i couldn't find it again since it's hidden inside another topic. So no, I unfortunately did it the hard way for the better part of a day before i wound up doing something very similar to that out of sheer desperation. Jin you need to post that under it's own "Bed-Leveling a la MakerGear" Tips post.

[Tim]

Wait......what???....You mean you don't necessarily have to level it perfectly at the outer corners of the plate???

It depends. If your print is going out to the edge of the plate then yes, you want it level across as much of the plate as you can get. Any difference between the level at those three contact points gets multiplied by the distance away from the center. I have this method in which I shove an index card between the nozzle and the glass. I no longer check the distance; I can just feel how easy or difficult it is to push the index card between the two. If all three contact points require about the same force on the card, the bed is just about as level as I can possibly get it. So the method is a lot more accurate than it might sound like (although there are some caveats like making sure there isn't any solid plastic under the nozzle). But if I have a print that covers the glass plate, I definitely check the nozzle height out near the edges.

The problem is that very few glass plates are perfectly level across their entire surface, so mostly I've just learned not to do an entire print covering the whole plate all at once. It's better just to do it in two or three separate runs.

[Bratag]

The problem is that very few glass plates are perfectly level across their entire surface, so mostly I've just learned not to do an entire print covering the whole plate all at once. It's better just to do it in two or three separate runs.

This is why I love my cast aluminium bed. That sucker is really uniform and thick enough that it doesn't warp at all when heat is applied.

[jprochnow]

no, can you zip up the factory file and post it here? only time i see this is when the one part is not sitting completely on bed due to the bottom not being flat.

How do I go about zipping the factory file? Do you mean the g-code?

[jimc]

in s3d goto file/save factory file as

save it to your desktop then compress it into a zip file and post it here.

[sprior]

Tried out the dual extruder enhancements just now with a keychain ruler I designed. I selected ooze shield, but not wipe tower. The black printed with the left extruder and the white the right. The startup sequence primed both nozzles which was new and good. But the ooze shield didn't print until AFTER the first layer of black went down so it was contaminated with wiped in white plastic - not correct. Fortunately it mostly sorted itself out in the end - the contamination was only a little visible on the outside edges. I also noticed that both nozzles were powered off at the end - previously the second nozzle was left hot - very bad. The version on the left is my previous version, the dual is much better because you can see the lines - I made the lines 1/32" recessed and raised above the surface of the black.

[Jules]

Holeeeee Cow! Okay, how much of a gap do you think you can bridge with PLA?.....Take a wild guess.

The answer is five inches on a diagonal! That's 120 mm folks! I'd be tremendously impressed if I had wanted the rim that I was printing to be bridged.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'll post a pic of this thing when it's done.
(It's bridging again.....this is amazing!!!)

I said that if i saw another weird slice I would try to capture it, so here it is - I'm including the factory file and the fff file below if anyone else wants to take a shot at this thing, along with the original Rhino .stl file.

My first step is always to check for design issues, but Rhino shows no naked edges or non-manifold edges anywhere. What I discovered about how S3D v3 sliced it:

Pre-sliced stl.JPG

(475.36 KiB) Downloaded 107 times

First few layers are okay and in keeping with the design. At Layers 5 and 6, part of a wall line is omitted, leaving a break in the wall. (I would have thought that maybe the wall had gotten too thin at that point, BUT it started printing the line again on Layer 7, just the way it was supposed to, so it's not that.)

Layer 5-6 wall missing.jpg

(489.42 KiB) Downloaded 107 times

At Layer 9, S3D Bridged the entire span with a layer one filament thick.

Layer 9.JPG

(697.32 KiB) Downloaded 107 times

Subsequent layers printed correctly, until Layer 29 or 30, when it bridged again in the other direction.

Then it finished the print correctly.

Here's what it did. (I am absolutely floored by the fact that the M2 could handle that unbelievable slice job!):

bridging record.jpg (969.81 KiB) Viewed 11064 times

I'm going to try rebuilding that file - I can't get S3D to slice it any other way. If someone else who has S3D v3 installed wouldn't mind loading the stl to see how their version slices it, it will at least prove that this version is corrupted, and I can change it out.

Bridging.zip

(427.36 KiB) Downloaded 455 times

[jimc]

lower your layer height to .2mm

every once in a blue moon you will see some weirdness like this. not exactly sure but it usually has something to do with the model. even though i checked your model and nothing appeared to be wrong with it s3d has been known to pick up on strange things that cause odd slicing. this has always been an odd thing with s3d and seems to be more sensitive than other slicers. when you change the layer height or first layer height it will change where that troublesome layer lands on the model so it doesnt pickup the error.

[Jules]

lower your layer height to .2mm

every once in a blue moon you will see some weirdness like this. not exactly sure but it usually has something to do with the model. even though i checked your model and nothing appeared to be wrong with it s3d has been known to pick up on strange things that cause odd slicing. this has always been an odd thing with s3d and seems to be more sensitive than other slicers. when you change the layer height or first layer height it will change where that troublesome layer lands on the model so it doesnt pickup the error.

I lowered the layer height to .2 mm during the next attempt to slice it, and it still put those bridges in, although it did repair the wall gap at layers 5 & 6. Closed the file, opened it again, and once again, it sliced it exactly the same.

Since by that time I thought it might actually be something wrong with the model, even though rhino said it was okay, I literally rebuilt it from the curves. Tried to slice it again in v3, and I swear, it looked even worse. This time it filled the center of the model and had no fill at all in the rim area where I wanted it. (And it was still bridging.)

So I finally had enough. De-activated the product and uninstalled. I re-installed version 2.2.2, imported the file, sliced it, and it's printing now. No bridges, no gaps. Perfect.

So, I'm guessing that I probably installed a corrupted version of 3. Don't know how that happened, except that I downloaded the installation file, saved it, and installed it the next day, while offline. Maybe they had a bad version up when I downloaded it - I did snag it early on. Or maybe installing it while offline introduces problems.

Whatever caused it - I'll have to try again later. For now, 2.2.2 is working, and I have to get a new comp installed, networked and up to speed. (Oh joy! )