HQ for mould face only
Hi hive mind......
I am using my MK3 to print mould shells for casting silicone products in. These moulds are just 120 x 40 x 60 mm and they are taking 36 hours to print at highest resolution. Obviously I just need the mould face to be High Quality (HQ) i dont care about the build block around it. Is there a way to only make the mould face HQ and all the rest of the mould block draft quality? I feel i could save a huge amount of time and failure risk in doing so?
RE: HQ for mould face only
Hi @decotopian,
I can't believe nobody replied to this. There is a feature in PrusaSlicer for variable layer height that might save you some print time. The problem is, it is not variable within a layer, so when you reduce the the layer height for your mould face, you will be reducing it for all the geometries in that layer. That being said, it may not be necessary to reduce all the layers for the whole mould face. Let me explain.
Generally, you only need to reduce layer height for features that are sloped &/or curved at nearly horizontal angles. That is where layer lines become most prevalent. On features that are vertical or nearly vertical, thicker layers are sufficient. Even faces at or near 45 degrees could benefit from slightly thicker layers. Of course it depends on the features of your molded part & the way you layout your mould. I recommend you try out variable layer height & see how it works for you. It previews very well in PrusaSlicer so you can get a good idea of how it works & how much printing time it could save. Good luck.
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