[Solved] Prusaslicer can do amazing things  

Prusaslicer can do amazing things

I like to experiment with a software application to see what it is capable of. Prusaslicer is not an exception, but it is a prime example of what software is capable of doing beyond what is documented or supported. Like colour changes while doing spiral vase mode prints, colour changes while doing sequential spiral vase mode prints, surface change(change to fuzzy skin) while doing vase mode print. These are things that can be done WITHOUT editing g-code, but just with the features built into Prusaslicer. If you find adding tree support for FDM printing laborious then none of the above is for you.

Off the soapbox and on to the real purpose of this post - EXPERIMENTING!

A couple of years ago, I printed a small bowl(pumpkin of my own design) and through use we found it to be too brittle. Good thing I didn't publish it. We needed a replacement. Good time to try something different.

I have a model of a pumpkin from a scan that was a good place to start. The steps were all done in Prusaslicer:

Print settings were 0.20mm Quality, Filament was Generic PETG

Printer is MK3S+ with .4m nozzle

sliced some off the top as it was going to be a bowl

scaled to to print volume

sliced 20mm off the top because it was too tall

set it to print in vase spiral vase mode

So far everything is BAU. I could not find a preset for what I wanted to do in Prusaslicer 2.4.0 Alpha. <bad word>, now I can't do what I want to do, Or can I? Should I ask for help in the forum first, or try something(s) first and then ask? No brainer!

What I did

set layer height to .3mm (I have gone much lower than .2mm, but never higher)

set layer width to.8mm (I have never gone above .45mm and didn't know what to expect)

set first layer width to .7mm (.42mm seemed a bit narrow)

set elephant foot compensation to zero

turned fuzzy skin on

set fuzzy skin thickness to .1mm (I have never modified this before in my tests)

set fuzzy skin point distance to .1mm (I have never modified this before in my tests)

Sliced without error and printed.

I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if Prusaslicer would change other things, or if the printer would fail to complete a garbage piece of g-code. About 11.5 hours later - WOW! I couldn't have asked for a nicer print. By changing the fuzzy skin settings to .1mm, the surface has a nice look(like fine peach fuzz), huge reduction in the visibility layer lines and nice light reflections off the surface. When I pick it up, it feels 'soft'.

WARNING!

Because of the fuzzy skin settings, for most of those 11.5 hours it sounded like my printer was trying to destroy itself due to the constant rapid direction changes of the extruder and the print bed.

I went in to this without high medium low expectations and Prusaslicer came through either because it is capable of making changes when a user does unexpected things, or there is large amount of room in the settings. Either way, the developers do a great job when they are not forced to include items like  a tape measure or other things that ARE in a CAD/CAD program but allowed to focus on slicing.

This was my experience with one version of Prusaslicer when I tried a different combination of settings that I wasn't sure would work.

Kenn