G-Code Filtering/Optimizing
Newbie to 3D Printing. But, 30+ years of CNC manufacturing...
I recently did a print that was a small box to hold some tooling. It had relatively large radii for the box walls. The print came out fine, but the walls were obviously segmented. I went into the G-Code and I see that PrusaSlicer (Marlin 2 flavor) had chopped what should have been a single radius call into many smaller segmented radii moves. I don't expect these stepper motors to perform like the servo's I'm used to but breaking up these moves is not only inefficient in the coding, it is error prone at the output. It seems like it is giving the stepper motors every opportunity to make an ugly print. I guess it makes some sense because the steppers aren't as liable to get "lost" as they are making short moves instead of long moves.
It leads me to wonder if there are any programs that would optimize the G-Code back into the simpler radii. I know in Mastercam(cnc programming software I'm used to) there are many such settings and one can simply supply an allowable error (like ).001" and the radii will be simplified within the allowable error.
RE: G-Code Filtering/Optimizing
Check your STL (if that is what you used) to see if the wall arcs are segmented. (Spoiler alert, they will be because STL files do not support curves.) You may need to modify your mesh output for smaller segments. AFAIR I have FreeCAD set to 10µm decimation when exporting STL files. If you are able, you might want to export from your CAD as STEP. PrusaSlicer (and most likely derivitives) will load the STEP and auto convert to a mesh with a fine enough decimation that shouldn't be visible on a print unless you scale the object up a lot. Also in PrusaSlicer you can enable Arc fitting (Print Settings/Advanced/Slicing/Arc fitting:) to convert lots of short lines that conform to a circular arc into a single arc gcode command. Your printer must support gcode G2 and G3 commands.
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