Fill Pattern
I am trying my hand at printing a stone pattern for a wall.
I've designed this:
But when I load the STL in Simplify3d, many of the stones turn out as line shapes that are NOT filled in (especially in the smaller left-hand version):
Note: The right hand pattern is just a slightly larger version of the left hand. I thought maybe the size of the stones (about 2mm x 1mm) might matter.
I am assuming I can control filling in the squares and rectangles with settings in S3D but I can't find the right combination.
-Dave
Re: Fill Pattern
If you are using a 0.4mm nozzle, then your extruded trace width is probably defaulting to around 0.45. That doesn't give you room for more than a total of 2 traces across a block that's 1mm. So on the preview it's going to look like that. And you can't specify a trace width less than your nozzle width.
But if you allow the slicing program to select the trace width automatically, it may be that it will fatten up the traces enough to make the blocks look fairly good on the print. The preview may not look great, but the actual print may look a lot better. Have you tried making a print yet?
It's all about scale. To print something with such small features you might want to try using a smaller nozzle. Or scale up your print to a larger size.
Re: Fill Pattern
I actually created another version with a slightly larger 3rd swatch.
I then printed this out to see what the final results look like and they perfectly match the preview in Simplify3d - which is a shame since I was hoping these would get filled in when printed (they do not).
So, what I get are basically rectangular outlines with no center area (in about half the cases). The other half of the time they will in fill and look fine (just like you see above in the images).
Can anyone recommend settings in S3D that would ensure the center of these squares and rectangles get filled in?
Re: Fill Pattern
Can you provide a link to the STL? I recall there being "fill thin gaps" option in S3D, but I'd have to load it up to test. Having the actual target model would make it much easier.
[...] Can anyone recommend settings in S3D that would ensure the center of these squares and rectangles get filled in?
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He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
Re: Fill Pattern
Change your default print width to a smaller setting. You will need to work out the size of the brick vs the trace the filament will take and the width you will need. You may be able to increase the % of the overlap of the filament to help But remember you will be putting more filament ontop of another one and it could be too much. Trial and error process