Unable To Inlay a Design Into a Surface  

Hmmm... attached is a zip containing two files.  Unzip and import both together as parts, assign a different extruder to each and slice - if this works then your slicer is probably OK, if not it might be corrupted,

Cheerio,

RE: Unable To Inlay a Design Into a Surface

Thanks for the file, I will check it. If I face any issue, I will ask. 

I am sorry if I did something wrong by posting comment here.

RE: Unable To Inlay a Design Into a Surface

Posted by: @work-n-hard-not-hardly-workin

Thank you! It appears my slicer is just fine, I've tinkered with it a bit more and it looks like my problem lies with the top most surface being a different material. The fix is a bit weird, you have to make your inlay the same thickness as your part and only paint the top surface the color you want. this generates your inlay like normal and doesn't make it happen through the whole part.

Your description is a bit confusing. What do you mean the top most surface is a "different material"? The slicer only cares about which tool/filament is assigned to what part/painted area.

If you only want the top layer a different color you need to have the inlay part one layer thick and top surface coincident with the top surface of the base part. This is where it can get difficult in Prusa Slicer because of the lack of object snap. This is because the position coordinates is referenced to the center of the bounding box of the selected part (or object). So, the Z coordinate of your inlay must be <z-height of surface to inlay> minus half the <z-thickness of inlay>. Unfortunately the coordinate text boxes don't seem to accept formulas so you must do your calculations separately and enter the answer into the coordinate field.

My first instinct for attempting an easy way would only work if the surface of the inlay is the very top surface of my base part. In that case I would make sure that the inlay and base parts are both children of the same object. Then use the "place on face" tool to put the surface where I want the inlay against the bed. Then use the "Drop to bed" button next to the XYZ position coordinates to make sure that both the base part and the inlay part are against the bed. Then use the "place on face" tool to return the full object to the intended printing orientation. Then to get the inlay where you want it, make sure you only change the x/y coordinates (and/or rotation around Z) of the inlay to maintain the top surface coincidence between the base part and the inlay. If the inlay isn't in the top surface of the intended print orientation (like a side), get the relative positions of the two dialed in while the inlay surface is against the bed and then return the full object to the intended print orientation.

Also, remember that the order of parts within the object tree matters. Parts lower down in the tree will cut parts higher in the tree. (You can drag and drop parts within the object tree to reorganize their priority.)

RE: Unable To Inlay a Design Into a Surface

I'll add some pictures here to explain (I've also have restarted Prusaslicer and redid the method to ensure it works). I was trying to print a part with some TPU and PETG, I wanted the top most layer to be PETG and the bottom be the squishy TPU. In the PETG layer I wanted there to be a design made from either text or SVG file. To show the difference I made two parts same filaments same text, size same text, I just made them different ways, the top one was made text first, part second, multi-material last, with the text being the same thickness as the part and the top surface of each colored what it should be. The bottom one made as @sembazuru said above, imported the part, added the text, changed the material of the text, dropped the text to the bed, oriented the part and then painted the top most layer.

I've also attached a 3mf of my buildplate.

RE: Unable To Inlay a Design Into a Surface

Unfortunately this forum isn't configured right for sharing PrusaSlicer (or any other slicer) projects. It will look like you attached a .3mf file, but as soon as you click "post" it'll silently protect the world from the dangers of .3mf files by removing the link from your post. The common work-around here is to zip it up and attach the resulting .zip file to your post.

The ironic thing is a .3mf file is actually a .zip file with the extension changed. For fun, change the extension of a copy of any .3mf file on your computer to .zip. Then open it in your favorite zip archive program and see what makes up a .3mf file. This technique isn't unique. Many other files are simply zip files of another name, see this Wikipedia page. Given this knowledge, simply changing the extension to .zip would work here, but the convention on this forum is to zip the zip-by-another-name file.

Please zip your 3mf project file an try re-posting.

RE: Unable To Inlay a Design Into a Surface

If the white lettering is only one layer in height, this may not be enough; then try to have at least 2 layers. The issue could as well be caused by a font which in itself or in its size is not well-designed or not entirely suitable for printing.

RE: Unable To Inlay a Design Into a Surface

If the white lettering is only one layer in height, this may not be enough; then try to have at least 2 layers. The issue could as well be caused by a font which in itself or in its size is not well-designed or not entirely suitable for printing.