Am I expecting too much?
I have printed the tree frogs and was amazed at how wonderful they turned out. I have done a couple other larger designs of my own and liked what I got. This one though is a smaller piece for a logo. It is 40mm across. I designed it in Fusion 360 which I am trying to learn but not very good at and used PrusaSlicer. Prusa i3 MK3s with PLA @0.05mm setting. Most of it is ok but lacking some finer details, no big deal as I can adjust the design to make up for that but the lettering is just a mess. My first attempt was with raised lettering and the slicer seemed to just delete it all together. This one is with inset lettering that just looks like a long glob. Am I expecting too much or is there a setting or technique I am missing?
Best Answer by bobstro:
The letters are formed from external perimeters, and it looks like you're using 3 perimeters. Each of those perimeters is the width specified in your external perimeters setting. The width of the external perimeter will be affected by your nozzle size. A smaller nozzle can produce finer external perimeter widths, so will allow for more details. You may be able to see some of this at work in the slicer if you select different nozzle sizes.
RE: Am I expecting too much?
Hi old_hippie,
Could you post a picture of the fusion 360 model? That way it'll be easier to see what you're trying to achieve because it's a bit tricky to figure out what the picture above is supposed to look like.
RE: Am I expecting too much?
@julien_ni Sorry the photo of the disk in my original post is sideways
RE: Am I expecting too much?
It would appear that the text is failing and, from a fair amount of experience, I can say printing text can be really tricky.
The quick fix may be to turn on thin wall detection in the slicer as the lines on fonts are typically very small. Also the larger the font the better they tend to print as the parts are larger.
If you are designing the model, picking a different font may also help.
Jerry
RE: Am I expecting too much?
The letters are formed from external perimeters, and it looks like you're using 3 perimeters. Each of those perimeters is the width specified in your external perimeters setting. The width of the external perimeter will be affected by your nozzle size. A smaller nozzle can produce finer external perimeter widths, so will allow for more details. You may be able to see some of this at work in the slicer if you select different nozzle sizes.
RE: Am I expecting too much?
@jerry-v2
Thanks
I did turn on the thin wall detect and ran a test. It did improve the larger text a bit but is still unreadable in the smaller. I think between that and what @bobstro has suggested might be the answer.
RE: Am I expecting too much?
@bobstro
Thanks I think you got it. When I first got my CNC the learning curve was steep as well until I learned which tools were for what job and their limitations. I will see about getting different nozzles and testing them out. Many more rookie questions to come until I have that eureka moment when it all comes together for me and I can actually answer some.
RE: Am I expecting too much?
I've attached some test prints that might be helpful. They're a combination of varying thickness thin walls atop solid bases, with embossed text at the top of each base. Play around with these in the slicer and experiment with varying the number of perimeters and nozzle size. You can always adjust the font to use thicker lettering, perhaps going with a sans-serif style to eliminate a lot of the fine features. You can cut off the thin walls in PrusaSlicer to focus on the text.
Here's a sample with a 0.6mm nozzle:
Here's the same part with a 0.25mm nozzle:
Notice that the nozzle size limits how small a detail can be picked out, but the external perimeters also affect quality. Adding a hole through a part is a good way to increase strength. External perimeters add more strength than any infill pattern. Lots of fun stuff to get familiar with!
RE: Am I expecting too much?
@bobstro
Thanks. There is a lot to learn here. I will be spending some time testing out different settings. I did find a wonderful blog covering the subject here: https://blog.prusaprinters.org/everything-about-nozzles-with-a-different-diameter/ . Now I have a starting point. Knowing what you don't know is always the first step.