How do I align Parts?  

RE: How do I align Parts?

Simple answer is not easily.  You can centre a part on the build plater.  You can then centre another part of the build plater.  That then makes the parts aligned centre wise. in X/Y

You can also do the same using the right hand coordinates fields at some other arbitrary location.  That is only really practical though if you want the centre of one object or parts bounding box aligned with the centre of another object or parts bounding box.  If you wanted to align say a part with the side of an object then you are out of luck.  I suppose you would work out the dimensions and do match etc.

There are no alignment tools.  Again this is something better off done in CAD at the moment and then once aligned exported to PS.  

There are many such requests for such tools on the prusa slicer github.  for example
https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/issues/13073
https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/issues/13402 - in which theres a list of 8 other duplicate requests 

RE: How do I align Parts?

Thank you SO MUCH!

Google says you can, but Google also claims to know that the Moon Landings were faked 🙁

So having an expert say "Don't bother looking." is a godsend.

My son did this for me by exporting the 2 pieces as 2 separate .STLs, and when I imported them both at the same time, I choose YES to the question "Single Object having multiple Parts", which worked.  

Thanks to you, I know that there is not really 'any other way', so I won't spend (hours) of frustration looking for it!

THANK YOU.

Henry

RE: How do I align Parts?

Hi again.

I found your explanation of "Objects" vs "Parts"  EXTREMELY helpful.

And I took the time to edit it a bit, and add explanations that a 'dummy' like me finds helpful.

I don't frequent the forums much (I'm a 67 yo retiree whose Mech Eng son got me into this!), but if you ever have reason to help others as you have helped me, may I offer this slightly modified explanation of yours.

TY

Difference between Objects and Parts?

Ok here’s a basic run down.

Each OBJECT is the root of a branch in the right hand window pane.   

Within each OBJECT can be multiple Parts.

OBJECTs are the Assembly, and Parts are the components

Parts appear as branches of its parent OBJECT in the right hand pane

(This is like folders in Explorer; but unlike Explorer there are only these 2 levels in the Slicer). 

Each OBJECT is sliced and processed individually. 

+Do not attempt to overlap  OBJECTs, or bad things happen.  

+ OBJECTs must be placed on the print bed. 

   So trying to lift an OBJECT above the print bed is not allowed, it will just drop to the bed. 

   But as long as some piece of the OBJECT is on the bed (or raft if enabled) then its ok.

You can select Parts only by clicking on them in the tree view, not the Plater view. 

   If you try and grab it in the Plater view, it will just grab the whole parent OBJECT. 

Unlike OBJECTs,  Parts can be moved around and can be floated above the bed. 

(think of it as if the ‘Part’ is resting on the ‘OBJECT, and the OBJECT is resting on the print bed)

Also overlapping Parts are sliced properly and clip each other.

SPLITTING:

Splitting into OBJECT basically is destructive: It turns all pieces into root-level OBJECTs,

(like if you had the number ‘8’ as a cutout, it would create each circle in the ‘8’ as a new OBJECT.)

And as an OBJECT, all the individual pieces will all fall to the bed, since they are now a bunch of disassociated models. 

Unless there is some overriding reason to split to objects then it’s best not to. 

RE: How do I align Parts?

>> You can centre a part on the build plater.  You can then centre another part of the build plater.  That then makes the parts aligned centre wise. in X/Y

How? I couldn't find any  'Center' option, unless you mean doing a Manual Calculation of X/Y location on the lower right Pane.

TY

Henry

RE: How do I align Parts?

Using the XY location in the lower right panel (the Object Manipulation panel) is one way as I mentioned earlier.  Just set the x/y to the same value for each object and then their bounding boxes are centred.

However when you load an object it automatically gets placed in the centre of the bed.  So if you load multiple objects in turn then they are all placed in the middle and so centred. 

RE: How do I align Parts?

Thank you.  It took me a while to realize that  the X/Y/Z coordinates are the CENTER of the object, not it's .Left or .Top value that I'm used to...

also

>>However when you load an object it automatically gets placed in the centre of the bed.  So if you load multiple objects in turn then they are all placed in the middle and so centred. 

Is not true.  Don't know the innards of the .STL file, but I use the free Tinkercad (hey, I'm retired - it's easy 🙂 ) and it does not automatically load it in the center of the bed, as I just verified.  But per above: World Coordinates of 180/180 for the XL will center it in a second!

RE: How do I align Parts?

Stl file doesn't have any external coordinates.  Maybe they are doing something different with the XL but if you have something like a MK3 profile and load an stl it places it the centre of the bed.  If I then load a second, same again, centre of the bed.  And again and again.  Have to either click arrange or manually drag them off centre to stop them over lapping before slicing.

Just installed an XL profile and tried it, first loaded part seems to jump to some other location (either middle back if there's a wipe tower or front left if none) but parts 2+ all seem to go to the centre as they do for other printers.  So prusa is doing something different for the XL.

RE: How do I align Parts?

Yeah, that w/b consistent with my observations...

TY