Tinkercad designed round objects always printed with a unnessecary ridge on the side
Hey there.
I got an strange issue with prints made on my (stock) Mini+ - every round object created in Tinkercad has a constant ridge. My printer works fine, stock kit, latest Firmware, 0.4 nozzle, PrusaSlicer 2.8.1, solid PLA/PETG,... No matter on what amount of infill I print every round object has this ridge of about 0.5mm height. But not with square prints. I create round objects in TinkerCad with sides and segments to max, for maximum roundness...
Any idea? I'm literally running circles with my troubleshooting.
Thank you in advance
RE: Tinkercad designed round objects always printed with a unnessecary ridge on the side
That's called a seam. Its where a extrusion perimeter starts and ends. Normally the slicer tries to hide them in corners (with default settings) but on round objects there are no corners to hide them in. You should research the term if you want a better understanding of why they exist and what you can do about them.
You cant remove a seam completely unless printing in vase mode (which only works for certain shapes within very narrow parameters). You can tune your printer and filaments which can minimise a seam. It still wont remove it completely and only goes so far. Change your filament and you often have to retune/accurize for each filament.
You can choose where a seam goes using the different seam options such as rear/aligned/nearest/random or you can paint a seam position using the seam painting tool when you want to control where the slicer puts them.
Also the latest alpha version of Prusa Slicer now has a new technique called Scarf seams. Scarf seams use the same technique as a woodworking scarf seam, where the ends are sloped into each other. In effect you get a seam that is spread out and so smaller and theoretically less noticeable. Some people report they make a big difference to their prints. Personally my seams are minimal as my settings and printer are tuned and so they havent made any difference to me. YMMV.
Of course to try them you have to install the alpha release of Prusa Slicer from github. Which means using a potentially bug riddles version of the software. So you might be best waiting for the full release and in the meantime learn about them and try and tune them to minimise the size.
A tuned set of settings can get seams like this (pic of test comparing the new scarf seam to normal seam on small 15mm diameter cylinders)
RE: Tinkercad designed round objects always printed with a unnessecary ridge on the side
Hey Neophyl.
That helps a lot. Thank you for your help. Guess I now have to put more time into optimization and can at least be sure not having a defective printer...
All the best!
Steffen