Locally increasing wall thickness
Hi all, I want to be able to increase the number of perimeters or layers around bolt hole and similar features, without increasing the number of layers or perimeters on the rest of the print, can advise if this is possible?
II'm using an old version of Solid works to design the parts, but they are just solid .STL files
Cheers
Les
RE: Locally increasing wall thickness
You can use a modifier within slicer. Be aware though that you will get more than the number of perimeters than you expect as it treats modifiers with different perimeters as different objects. SO say your base object is set for 2 perimeters and you add a modifier around a bolt hole and set it to 3 perimeters then what you will get is 5 perimeters. 2 from the base mesh and 3 from the modifier mesh. Set both to 2 and it equates them as the same and so you get 2 perimeters.
Basically the way modifier meshes are implemented have some undesirable consequences in some situations.
RE: Locally increasing wall thickness
Great, thanks - looks like I'll have to mug up on modifiers
Ultimately it's just local strengthening on a mechanical part so I'm not worried about aesthetics, as long as it works.
Cheers
Les
RE: Locally increasing wall thickness
Ok, had a play with the modifier, definitely in the ball park of what I want to do. I find it a bit haphazard, possibly because I am not very good at using it, but I was surprised that there is no option to select a feature. I sort of expected it to say choose a face / surface / bore / edge etc which would have been a more logical way (at least in my mind) way to apply it. When I apply a cylinder to bound the hole I want to reinforce, unless I get it exactly right it simply puts another set of perimeters at the periphery of the cylindrical selection area that don't touch the hole I want to modify
Is it just that I am not understanding how to use it or is that what this is?
Cheers
Les
RE: Locally increasing wall thickness
The behaviour of modifiers for changing "number of perimeters" is so confusing that i personally gave up with this technique.
It would be nice if you would support my github feature request:
"Control the number of perimeters and solid layers by a Paint-On Tool"
RE: Locally increasing wall thickness
Clicked on 'like', what else do I need to do?
Les
RE: Locally increasing wall thickness
As I said, its not easy to use and not very logical. Its why regular long time users tend to do stuff in CAD rather than the slicer. For example you can create voids inside a model and slicer will put perimeters around the void. So putting a cylindrical volume of say 0.01 thickness around your hole (but not reaching the surface by your desired top/bottom layers count) you can control where perimeters go much more precisely. The thickness of the void will need tweaking also depending on your extrusion widths etc too.
You do have to have your slicing parameters and software in mind while designing your parts though so its very situation specific. It's ok when you are doing something purely for yourself and its not going to be released to a wider audience.
This is the general problem with many of the new tools in slicer. They have limited functionality and in many use cases not suitable, requiring much more work to make them useful. The new Cut function for example. The 'new new' cut promo-ed on social media looks to be a significant update on actual usability but we shall have to see when it finally gets released into the next alpha/beta.