Printing engraved text in different color

I was commenting recently in a different thread about how I thought I had wasted money on my FF dual extruder because I'd never found a use for printing two colors in the same model. But now an idea has dawned on me where dual extrusion could be particularly useful. I'd like to figure out how to make engraved text (not raised) on my models in a different color than the model itself. Has anyone figured out a way to do this? I can see how easy it would be to do with raised text, but that option won't work with my application.

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Originally Posted by roykirk

I was commenting recently in a different thread about how I thought I had wasted money on my FF dual extruder because I'd never found a use for printing two colors in the same model. But now an idea has dawned on me where dual extrusion could be particularly useful. I'd like to figure out how to make engraved text (not raised) on my models in a different color than the model itself. Has anyone figured out a way to do this? I can see how easy it would be to do with raised text, but that option won't work with my application.

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You make 2 seperate models and have them intersect, look at my thingiverse things, ive done tonnes of extruded dual text.

Dual extrusion is good for alot more than mixing colours :)

I didn't bother replying before because dual extruders isn't a waste of money and I couldn't be bothered trying to convince people otherwise. :o

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Originally Posted by Geoff

You make 2 seperate models and have them intersect, look at my thingiverse things, ive done tonnes of extruded dual text.

Dual extrusion is good for alot more than mixing colours :)

I didn't bother replying before because dual extruders isn't a waste of money and I couldn't be bothered trying to convince people otherwise. :o

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Thanks for the tip, Geoff. I went and created a 3D text model in Sketchup and then went to Replicator to combine the files. Seems easy enough, but there doesn't appear to be a way to orient one file within a specific location in the other file. It just says it's combined them for dual extrusion and then it spits out gcode. Have no way of knowing what it's going to look like so right now I'm not going to waste the filament trying it until I figure out more.

Disregard, Geoff, I think I figured it out on my own. Replicator doesn't seem to handle it well, but when I used Makerware I found I had the ability to position one file "within" the other. Seems to work great on the preview anyway. Can't wait to try it!

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Originally Posted by roykirk

Disregard, Geoff, I think I figured it out on my own. Replicator doesn't seem to handle it well, but when I used Makerware I found I had the ability to position one file "within" the other. Seems to work great on the preview anyway. Can't wait to try it!

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Dual Extrusion is a bit of a pain in Repg, it requires combining STL's, where as Makerware takes all the pain out of it and even gives you a nice preview.

When you are making a dual extrusion object, say you have the two as you want them printed in your modelling program.

when you export them to STL (1, then the other) do not reposition them, when you import them import them AS IS then select all THEN move to platform, that way it will keep your original positions and move the two to the platform without changing the secondary STL's position.

it's actually really simple in openscad.

You just isolate the text (write.scad) section and export as seperate stl. Likewise with the thing the text is written on/on/around etc.

Can't imagine how hard it would be to create a dual extrusion modekl in anything else - so I doubt I'll ever try. getting pretty good at openscad these days.
Haven't failed to make the thign I wanted to make yet - so that's good. Had a few 'how the hell do I get that shape' moments. But not been stymied for long.

I will be trying out some dual colour things soon. :-)

maybe sooner than expected if the handle I'm making in abs keeps breaking. Might have to do the plug in nylon. Which as it would be printing directly onto/into hot abs - shouldn't give me any sticking to bed or warping issues (it's a small part) we'll see ;-)

ps. Last handle was perfect ! No nylon needed :-)

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

it's actually really simple in openscad.

You just isolate the text (write.scad) section and export as seperate stl. Likewise with the thing the text is written on/on/around etc.

Can't imagine how hard it would be to create a dual extrusion modekl in anything else - so I doubt I'll ever try. getting pretty good at openscad these days.
Haven't failed to make the thign I wanted to make yet - so that's good. Had a few 'how the hell do I get that shape' moments. But not been stymied for long.

I will be trying out some dual colour things soon. :-)

maybe sooner than expected if the handle I'm making in abs keeps breaking. Might have to do the plug in nylon. Which as it would be printing directly onto/into hot abs - shouldn't give me any sticking to bed or warping issues (it's a small part) we'll see ;-)

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It's actually quite easy in Makerware. For my usage I open both models (one model being 3D text created in Sketchup). I position the 3D text exactly where I want it, tell Makerware what color to print each model, then export to g-code or x3g. The preview option is especially nice with Makerware. Unfortunately I've never been impressed with Makerware's g-coding. Early on when learning 3D printing, I noticed Replicator G would create better quality models than Makerware, even with the exact same STL file, so I've always stuck with it. Makerware creates a dual extrusion model so easily, however, I may stick with it and give it another chance. It sure slices a heck of a lot faster than Rep G. I've looked at openscad before but I got glassy eyed pretty quickly. I do much better with point and click GUI programs. Less brain power required. ;)

yeah I'm the opposite. I really like the precison and super quick model alteration you get with openscad.

I also find it much much easier to tell the computer what shape I want and where I want it than to fight a gui cad package. Anything that can't accurately move a model 1/100th of a milimetre (and yes you'd be surprised how often I've needed that) isn't going to cut it. twitch your wrist in a gui package and it's buggered.

Each to their own.

Hadn't realised that you just add a seperate text file to a model in makerware.

That would definitely make life very easy :-)