Slic3r Prusa Edition, Parameter Output, Material Flow Calculations
Hello All,
I had some questions about Slic3r Prusa Edition, and some of the background calculations being made within the software.
First, I plan to modify parameters heavily... Does anyone know of a way to export the parameter settings so that they can easily be loaded into an excel sheet or something similar? This would be ideal to track changes.
Second, I have questions regarding material flow, extrusion width, etc. Note that all of these questions will refer to 100% SOLID INFILL ONLY. And will ignore all other types of printing, eg perimeters, bridging, supports, etc. We can also assume rectilinear as well in order to make things simple.
On the slic3r website, path spacing is defined as: extrusion width - layer height * (1 - pi/4)
Since layer height is easily defined, my questions revolve around extrusion width.
There is an option in Slic3r where the user can define extrusion width, but this is not intuitive, nor controllable, as extrusion width is an output of the printing process, not an input. It must therefore be used in a calculation to adjust what the printer can control, e.g. speed and extrusion rate.
Extrusion width might therefore be a function of the following: feedrate, nozzle diameter, head speed, and layer thickness.
My question is this: What is the governing equation that determines the extrusion width, thus the path spacing? One can determine this empirically, by adjusting the parameters and measuring the widths, but it would be helpful to understand what the underlying equation might be. Then, I think it would be easier to make calculations.
Also, I have seen that once the extrusion width is adjusted, the path spacing auto adjusts and the speed remains constant. That would mean that the material feedrate would be the only adjustable parameter. E.g. if extrusion width is increased, the material flow rate would have to be increased.
The volumetric flow rate can then be calculated from the equation speed times extrusion width times layer thickness (or something similar). This logic also conforms to the setting that the software has a max volumetric flow rate setting, i.e. It will never extrude material faster than this value.
Thanks!!