Basic Questions on 3D Printing

[aks_anoop]

Hi Members,I am a newbie in 3D printing Technology. I am reading the various stages of 3D printing and I have some confusions. Please clarify.1. I read g-code doesn't have the support (command) for color, texture and material. All formats .stl, .amf, .3mf needs to be converted into g-code format for printing. My question is if g-code doesn't have support for those information then what is the advantage of keeping these info in .amf or .3mf file?2. .amf, .3mf support color, texture and material information and that is why they are called better than stl but what is the use if these information can not be utilized in final printing (using g-code). 3. How can be G-code modified to support multi color and material in 3D printing?4. Can we convert .3mf into g-code directly? Is there any code or algorithm available?Please help.Thanks Anoop.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

In order to switch colors you have to *do* something mechanically to the printer. Rather than passing a "high level" command to switch colors you feed it the mechanical instructions instead. Simply put -- you tell it "feed from extruder 5" rather than "switch from pink to orange". The slicer is what converts the color information to mechanical information.

Bob

[Mjolinor]

G-code supports those things because a proper commercial CNC machine will support full Gcode whereas the 3dprinters only support a small set of the full Gcode instructions.

I don't know of any 3d printer that supports conditional branches, loops or increments all of which should be supported if the Gcode interpreters were implemented correctly and completely.

[aks_anoop]

HiIn order to switch colors you have to *do* something mechanically to the printer. Rather than passing a "high level" command to switch colors you feed it the mechanical instructions instead. Simply put -- you tell it "feed from extruder 5" rather than "switch from pink to orange". The slicer is what converts the color information to mechanical information.Bob

Thanks Bob for the clarification.With regards,Anoop.

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