What's causing this?
The photo shows a hollow tube with 2.5 mm thick walls may e 3/4" in diameter. It was printed with Polymaker Polyterra Cotton White Matte PLA, either .3mm or .2mm layer height, either at the default temp or 5° higher on my mk3s+.
You can see the almost rectangular artifacts on the tube's surface. They appear mostly on one side of the exterior of the tube, almost none on the other half of the exterior surface.
Any ideas on what might be causing these blocky artifacts and how to fix?
RE: What's causing this?
Remote diagnostics are always fun. Looks like an axis has a dead spot when it reverses direction. Something loose or jamming. Causing the short "straight" moves not following the arc.
Make sure X and Y are moving freely the full range of travel.
Check for side slop in a X or Y bearings.
Then make sure Y axis mounts and Y axis belt mounts haven't come loose.
Check X and Y belt tension.
Also make sure that it isn't a low poly model. I generate all .stl files at a tight, precise tolerance.
RE: What's causing this?
Those are great thoughts. Thanks. I will have to learn about how to do the things you suggested.
Meanwhile, another suggestion I received was to try setting the seam position to Aligned. That seemed very easy to do so I thought I would try that first. In the attached photo you can see the difference that made. For the purposes of this print that solution works well enough. You can see the seam in the print on the right but it isn't objectionable for this print. The surface of the tube isn't all that smooth. I didn't know if that might be related to the potential problems you mentioned or possible because the printer was set to .3mm Draft. I may try another test print at .10 or .15mm to see what that looks like.
Thanks again for your ideas!