Printing on top of top layer? (or creating a full top layer from a top layer which isn't the topmost layer)
Hey, I have an embossing from an SVG vector file I'm printing on a disk as background.
Since it's a disk i want the topmost layer of the disk to be simple concentric circles, as it is more aesthetic.
Does Prusa Slicer have an option to create an interface between two layers such that the lower layer prints entirely as a top layer, with the subsequent layer simply printing on top of that?
Right now as long as the two objects are merged into a single entity in the slicer, any interface between them is causing the slicer to see them as a single mesh, which means the interface area is considered an infill area.
The result is such that the top layer of the disk, one layer before the embossing starts looks something like this:
This is a problem due to the change in tool head speed, which causes these 'blooming' lines which hurt the uniformity of the top layer of the disk:
I can probably play around with flowrate and finetune the settings to mitigate this, but this is time consuming and bothersome, especially for complex embossings. It would be much easier to simply create a uniform layer to print on, i realize this might cause adhesion issues, but for decorative elements this is not as big of a consideration.
I did manage to jerry-rig a way to print a second model on top of the first one in the same file, and here's the result. as you can see it is a night and day difference:
Difference between single model mesh (left) and second model printed on top layer of first model (right)
They roundabout way i did this is to create a 'virtual arm' which connects the second model (the embossing) to the build plate, which then disappears in the slicing since it's too thin.
But this is a pretty crooked (and also time consuming) way of doing this for complex embossings. Am i missing something? is there no way to force an intermediate layer to be considered a full top layer?
RE: Printing on top of top layer? (or creating a full top layer from a top layer which isn't the topmost layer)
No there is no easy way to do this. It has been raised and requested on the Prusa Slicer github, several times. It appears this is not high on their list.
For example this one https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/issues/8818 but I think https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/issues/6734 is the earliest one (from 2021)
Some of the other slicer forks like SuSi (Super Slicer) have more settings in which if you know what setting to change can control this to a large extent.
RE: Printing on top of top layer? (or creating a full top layer from a top layer which isn't the topmost layer)
Can you just split it in Prusa Slicer into 2 parts? Then you can control all of the settings for each part.
You can split it at any height you want.
Splitting it would mimic your second example. You may have to go into multiple extruder settings and select interface shells to make sure PS doesn't try to blend them into one another.
RE: Printing on top of top layer? (or creating a full top layer from a top layer which isn't the topmost layer)
If your not sure what I'm talking about upload a 3mf of your file and I'll see what I can do.