Transparent wall
Hello everybody,
I recently bought a Prusa Core One printer. Very fresh is the 3d printing...
I'm using the printer to create architectual models. In this case it's a four story house. I'm looking to create a transparent wall on the side of the house, so you can see in the model. I've bought transparent pla from the prusa store but i'm finding out that it's not just about changing the fillament...
My first tries are totaly not transparent :). I've seen a youtube video but i've also seen that you have to tweek a lot of settings in the slicer. Having a hard time to find my way in all the settings...
Does anyone have a kind of 'settingslist for dummies' to help print transparent?
Below the model wich i've printed.
RE: Transparent wall
PolySmooth clear. https://polymaker.com/product/polysmooth/. Check it out.
RE:
PolySmooth clear. https://polymaker.com/product/polysmooth/. Check it out.
Interesting; I had not come across this. Dissolves in ethanol and isopropanol, which can be an issue in some applications, but means it can be smoothed with relatively friendly chemicals. This should indeed help with transparency. Various transparent colours are available.
While Polymaker apparently do not want to tell, their "PolySmooth" is PVB (Polyvinyl Butyral). Various other brands carry this type of filament too, including Prusa: https://prusament.com/materials/prusament-pvb/
RE: Transparent wall
I have used "transparent" PVB. Printing it in a single layer and post-processing with isopropanol does give better results than transparent PLA or PETG, but it is nowhere near glass or acrylic in visual clarity. If you really want people to see the insides of your buildings, including all details, without leaving the model completely open, then I recommend you buy thin (e.g. 0.4mm) transparent acrylic sheets, cut them to size, and glue them to your model.
RE: Transparent wall
PolySmooth clear. https://polymaker.com/product/polysmooth/. Check it out.
Interesting; I had not come across this. Dissolves in ethanol and isopropanol, which can be an issue in some applications, but means it can be smoothed with relatively friendly chemicals. This should indeed help with transparency. Various transparent colours are available.
While Polymaker apparently do not want to tell, their "PolySmooth" is PVB (Polyvinyl Butyral). Various other brands carry this type of filament too, including Prusa: https://prusament.com/materials/prusament-pvb/
I was not trying to promote that brand of filament. I was just trying to help the original poster with this to help him with the issue he was having.
Here is a video of the type of filament:
RE: Transparent wall
While 3d printers are awesome, they aren't always the right solution to every problem. For such a simple shape as that it would be far far easier to just buy a sheet of acrylic and cut to size/shape. Perfectly clear and no faffing around with settings or post processing.
RE: Transparent wall
For such a simple shape as that it would be far far easier to just buy a sheet of acrylic and cut to size/shape.
You probably don't have to explain that to an architect. Cutting cardboard and acrylic (or polycarbonate?) sheets is the old-fashioned way of building architectural models. 😉
But I agree that sheet material is the way to go for transparent walls and windows. Nothing wrong with a hybrid approach! The 3D-printed stackable floors look very nice indeed, and are a great use of 3D printing.
Speaking of hybrid approaches: Is it feasible to print on an acrylic or polycarbonate sheet (which you temporarily attach to the print bed, say with adhesive tape)? The load-cell based height sensing should work nicely. But you can't heat the surface very effectively. If I wanted my print permanently stuck to a transparent sheet, are there established material combinations which work well for the sheet material and filament?
RE: Transparent wall
Thanks for the ideas guys... As a newbe at 3d printing I was hoping for an easy solution for printing glaslike walls...
Maybe a bit to gullble 🙂
Never thought about using alternative methodes though so that is a possible solution. I'm gona 3d print an outer lining wich wil fit the model perfectly where in I can cut a piece of sheet material.
Thanks!
RE:
A quick idea for you to test: you want "single line" printing for transparent filaments. So no infill and if possible, just one perimeter. Vase mode preferred.
With most Prusa (compatible) nozzles, you can go very wide with the width settings. I've printed vases with 0.8 mm extrusion with on the 0.4 HF nozzle that comes with the Core One.
For your "window wall", you could either raise the first layer thickness to something like 0.8 mm, keep the extrusion width at default and print just one layer (select "single perimeter for bottom surfaces" or something similar).
Or you could leave the width and layer thickness at the default 0.2 mm, set extrusion width to 0.8 mm and then either make your model just one perimeter thick (with a seam on one edge, that you could cut away with a big kitchen knife) or make it 2 perimeters thick and use vase mode, so it goes up in a spiral, without a seam. You'll probably need a brim at the bottom though! With two perimeters in vase mode, your small windows are probably rigid enough with the default extrusion width. But keep in mind that you can raise it to even 0.8 mm.
In any case, it won't really become see-through, but at least decently transparent.
Also, print extremely slow! This will result in a shinier surface in general, helping the transparency. And with slow, I mean something like 10-25 mm/s! And use stealth mode, to reduce the acceleration values, so the filament won't "rip to matte" at the corners/edges.