Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Greetings! I have my MMU2 setup and running smoothly and have been having a lot of fun printing some of the existing models that various folks have shared. I want to take the next step and update some of my designs to take advantage of the MMU. However, none of my old design tricks seem want to play nice with 3MF (or MMU support in-general). I know that PrusaSlicer can allow for fairly simple filament changes based on Z-axis position, but my designs require the change to be based on more complex geometries. I was able to get by with TinkerCAD and MeshMixer in the past, but neither seem up to the task. I also tried using MeshMagic to add the color properties to facets semi-manually, but also without any success.
So what design software have all you designers out there in MMU2 world had success with?
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Face painting is not supported in PrusaSlicer (yet). The way to create a multicolor model now is to design separate bodies for each color and load them as "parts" of your model in PrusaSlicer. Then assign the correct extruder/color for each part.
No special design software needed. Will work in all of them.
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
depending on how and what you design its pretty easy by just splitting up the object in the program you use.
you can export it as a single STL as long as the individual parts are fully enclosed in itself prusaslicer can detect them if you right click and select split into parts.
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Face painting is not supported in PrusaSlicer (yet). The way to create a multicolor model now is to design separate bodies for each color and load them as "parts" of your model in PrusaSlicer. Then assign the correct extruder/color for each part.
No special design software needed. Will work in all of them.
This seems like the ideal catch-all solution! Canvas appears to make it very simple, but looks geared towards a specific competing product. I'll give it a shot and see if it'll let me export usable models. Thanks!
As for separate bodies, that might be difficult in my use-case, but I'll try to come up with something. More detail in my next reply 🙂
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
depending on how and what you design its pretty easy by just splitting up the object in the program you use.
you can export it as a single STL as long as the individual parts are fully enclosed in itself prusaslicer can detect them if you right click and select split into parts.
Thanks, that's great insight! My main use-case is currently adding some detail to topography prints -- think google maps-like coloring over a topo with black roads, green parks, blue landmarks, etc. If fully enclosed parts are needed, I might try starting with a simple topo STL and importing that into python using trimesh or openscad , then combining that data with with a 2D SVG graphic containing a low-color image graphic with the same X/Y GPS coords. Then I could building the color parts on top of the topo. Ie, find the top Z coord for each x/y pair, then enclose a new model on top for each color in the SVG map. This won't be trivial, but I'll start on it and see what happens!
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
@yinzer
You can take an existing STL and convert it over to multiparts using Meshmixer. Check Youtube for Meshmixer and MMU. Here's one such guides on how to do it.
- 1st "printer" TIKO 3D
- 2nd PRUSA i3 MK2S with MMU v1
- 3rd PRUSA i3 MK2S
- 4th PRUSA i3 MK3 with MMU v2- 5th PRUSA i3 MK4 (upgraded from MK3) with MMU v3 (upgraded from…
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
I haven't had any success trying to split models with MeshMixer, but I am trying on rather small and detailed objects.
I stumbled across Wings 3D which allows similar functions to MeshMixer using the Loop Cut function. It seems to be working much better for me, but it is exceptionally tedious as you have to select each vertices surrounding the area you want to separate. Camera movement isn't as intuitive either so it's easy to miss things if you can't get your view just right. Given those drawbacks I have separated a few test parts that MM gave me fits over and they look good in a slice preview, but I haven't dedicated the time (probably measured in days) to go through an entire model yet.
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
@yinzer
You can take an existing STL and convert it over to multiparts using Meshmixer. Check Youtube for Meshmixer and MMU. Here's one such guides on how to do it.
This is a really great video, thanks for sharing! I tried using the same techniques and it looked like all was going well, but when I loaded my resulting models into PrusaSlicer, it would only slice in one color, despite actually loading all the various parts correctly. I'm pretty sure that this is because I essentially 'face painted' the surface of the model in MeshMixer, which created such a thin layered object that the slicer just tossed it out. I'll keep toying around and see if I can get my 'painted' to have some depth.
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
I am absolutely loving Autodesk Fusion 360. It took a little learning, but now it is very intuitive. And FREE for personal use.
You create separate bodies in F360 and export as an OBJ file. In PrusaSlicer you break the object to parts and assign an extruder to each part.
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
This is a really great video, thanks for sharing! I tried using the same techniques and it looked like all was going well, but when I loaded my resulting models into PrusaSlicer, it would only slice in one color, despite actually loading all the various parts correctly. I'm pretty sure that this is because I essentially 'face painted' the surface of the model in MeshMixer, which created such a thin layered object that the slicer just tossed it out. I'll keep toying around and see if I can get my 'painted' to have some depth.
Yinzer,
Yea it takes some practice to do it correctly and then save the components properly... once you get the hang of it, its not that bad... just time consuming. There is another program I recently heard about called prepr3d or something like that. I'm at work right now and the link is on my home computer.
- 1st "printer" TIKO 3D
- 2nd PRUSA i3 MK2S with MMU v1
- 3rd PRUSA i3 MK2S
- 4th PRUSA i3 MK3 with MMU v2- 5th PRUSA i3 MK4 (upgraded from MK3) with MMU v3 (upgraded from…
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Yinzer,
Here is the link to the github for the program I was thinking about above. Its called Pepr3d... I installed it, but haven't played around with it yet so I can't say how well it works... give it a try.
https://github.com/tomasiser/pepr3d/wiki
- 1st "printer" TIKO 3D
- 2nd PRUSA i3 MK2S with MMU v1
- 3rd PRUSA i3 MK2S
- 4th PRUSA i3 MK3 with MMU v2- 5th PRUSA i3 MK4 (upgraded from MK3) with MMU v3 (upgraded from…
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
I am absolutely loving Autodesk Fusion 360. It took a little learning, but now it is very intuitive. And FREE for personal use.
You create separate bodies in F360 and export as an OBJ file. In PrusaSlicer you break the object to parts and assign an extruder to each part.
This is what I've settled on, as well. I didn't realize that Fusion was free for non-commercial use at first, and they do a good job at making that less-than-obvious, but it was worth the hassle! My MMU technique is a bit different: I separate the various colors by into parts and export each part as an STL. Then import the collection of STL's into PrusaSlicer and it handles the division nicely. I'm still working on a good 'face painting' technique that translates to good prints.
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Yinzer,
Here is the link to the github for the program I was thinking about above. Its called Pepr3d... I installed it, but haven't played around with it yet so I can't say how well it works... give it a try.
This looks great! I'll spend a bit of time this weekend trying to get it up and running. The description seems to offer the simple solution I was originally asking for. I'm glad I first went the hard-mode route, as it's forced me to learn a lot of other handy skills. But an easy-to-use face painter for MMU prep is obviously a great addition to our toolset! The remeshing brush feature is a really great feature that has me very excited 😀 Thanks for sharing!
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Argh... Why did they the implementation for Windows platform only. It's a University+Prusa Research development and not some commercial stuff where I would understand that.
Often linked posts:
Going small with MMU2
Real Multi Material
My prints on Instagram
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Argh... Why did they the implementation for Windows platform only. It's a University+Prusa Research development and not some commercial stuff where I would understand that.
Right?
I just tried it on my Ubuntu laptop and can't get it to run under Wine or a Win10 virtual machine 😣
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Well, its still a work in progress and they probably figured it would be easier to do on a single platform (biggest user installed base).
In addition, it is open source and the source code is listed... maybe try to compile for *NIX or if you don't have the tools/no how try to find someone that does.
My hope is that once they get things to a certain stage it can be rolled into PrusaSlicer so there is one tool to use.
- 1st "printer" TIKO 3D
- 2nd PRUSA i3 MK2S with MMU v1
- 3rd PRUSA i3 MK2S
- 4th PRUSA i3 MK3 with MMU v2- 5th PRUSA i3 MK4 (upgraded from MK3) with MMU v3 (upgraded from…
RE: Multi-Material 3MF Design Software?
Well, its still a work in progress and they probably figured it would be easier to do on a single platform (biggest user installed base).
In addition, it is open source and the source code is listed... maybe try to compile for *NIX or if you don't have the tools/no how try to find someone that does.
My hope is that once they get things to a certain stage it can be rolled into PrusaSlicer so there is one tool to use.
It hasn't been touched in about a year so I don't know how "in progress" it still is.
As far as compiling it for a different platform, it's not that simple. It is written for Windows and thus not portable. It would need a major overhaul to use something like Qt so that it could potentially be used on multiple platforms.