How can you find or visualize a particular spot in a print?

[RobH2]

Let me try to explain the subject better. I wasn't quite sure how to word it in a short phrase. Say you want to find a precise coordinate in a print. How would you know what it was. Imagine a 1"x1"x1" cube that you are printing as a solid with no infill (infill doesn't matter but it keeps the visualization simpler). So say that it's 125 layers high. If I wanted to stop the print in an exact location,say .3" up and .25" from each edge, I'd need to find out what the layer height was and the exact coordinate. How can you do that?

If I use Cura I can look at the layers and use the scroll bar go zip up and down and see the print path. But, I get no useful coordinate info. I can find the line, but not the coordinate. As something prints, Cura displays some useless data. I'm printing now and see "Line: 2288/36640 6%" That's not helpful. A simple "6%" would be just as useful here. Do I really care that I have 36640 lines? Not really. It just tells me that out of 36640 individual lines, 2288 of them have been laid down. It tells me nothing about where the print head is.

In Slic3r 1.0 and above you can see the object on the plater in 3D, but again, no useful coordinate data is given.

This is the first time I've considered this so maybe it's obvious to everyone and I was just not told the secret but I can't seem to find a way to identify and view a particular coordinate in a print and see the data associated with it's location.

[beerdart]

Have you tried and g-code viewers? Not sure if it will show the detail you need but worth a shot.

http://gcode.ws/

http://www.3dgeni.us/g-code-visualizer/

[RobH2]

I had not seen those (they are both the same) but they stop just short of giving me the info I'm after.

Say I have this:

21057 G1 F3000 X84.32 Y61.34 E3612.64570

Where is that?

And likewise, say I have this:
gcode.jpg

What's the coordinate of the spot that my yellow arrow points to?

Those viewers are cool and very handy for general info. I wish they had that one next step. There has to be a way to do it.

[atoff]

Say I have this:

21057 G1 F3000 X84.32 Y61.34 E3612.64570

Where is that?

If you have that info, then you have the X and Y coordinate you're looking for. X: 84.32, Y: 61.34. With Repetier I'm able to see my current Z-height from the LCD, I'm not sure which firmware you're using, but I'm sure that info is given as well. Should be, as it's needed to set the initial Z-height.

In fact, I recall Repetier Host showing all three points in the interface at each line. I now print remotely, so I no longer use the interface, but I'm very sure it does.

[RobH2]

Thanks for that atoff. I'm using Merlin/RAMPS on my Makerfarm i3. Maybe I need to look at Repetier more. It might do what I need. I just opened an .stl in it and could not figure out how to see a print path. Interesting that it uses Skeinforge. Many people shy away from Skeinforge because it's so complicated looking on first glance. It's really powerful and can do almost anything. Aside from that, I still can't see how I can know coordinates prior to printing which is real-time. I don't need real-time, I need before-time.

What I want to do is find the coordinates before it goes to print. I have some ideas about encapsulating objects in a print and I need to know ahead of time exactly where a specific spot is from my .stl and or print path to be able to do what I need to. I agree with you that if I have X: 84.32, Y: 61.34 that I know where the head currently is but I need to do it virtually first, before the machine ever sees it.

Any thoughts about how I can do that?

[awerby]

If you can find that spot in your model, which shouldn't be too hard in most CAD programs, then why not put a void there that's the shape of the object you want to embed? Watch the process of printing, and when the void appears, pause the printer and lay the object in it. Without the void, it will likely interfere with the extruder head.


Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[atoff]

Would you be stopping the print at an exact point, or just pausing the print at the specific layer?
Take a look at this example (this is in Repetier):

You can scroll through the layers of the STL until reaching the part of the print you'd like to pause. That'll tell you which layer it is... then, you can scroll through the G-code to find that layer, which is given in the info panel circled / underlined. From there, you see in the G-Code the Z, X, and Y. The Z is given pointed to by the arrow. Then each subsequent values of X and Y are given on each line until is changes layers again, and a new Z is given. Does that make sense?

[RobH2]

If you can find that spot in your model, which shouldn't be too hard in most CAD programs, then why not put a void there that's the shape of the object you want to embed? Watch the process of printing, and when the void appears, pause the printer and lay the object in it. Without the void, it will likely interfere with the extruder head.


Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

Sure Andrew, that makes sense and is the way it's commonly done. I've been a 3d animator for 19-years so I have no trouble building and modifying models, or knowing a coordinate in 3d space. It's getting that same data from a slice that I need. I'm attempting something much more tricky. It isn't a matter of "just" stopping it and inserting it. I need to be able to design around a future print path and need to know exactly where everything is in space, ahead of time. I wish I could say more about my project but I can't.

[RobH2]

Would you be stopping the print at an exact point, or just pausing the print at the specific layer?
Take a look at this example (this is in Repetier):

atoff, yes, that might get me closer. I need to look at this and play with it. I also just opened a file in Repeiter that is using Skeinforge as the slicer and it appears in "Skeinlayer" that I may be able to figure out what I need. It's not easy because it was not set up to function the way I'd like it to, but, I think it might be there. Thanks for reminding me of Repetier. I don't use it much and had forgotten about it.

[RobH2]

I think I have it thanks to atoff reminding me and showing me Repetier. I have a version of Repeiter that is tied to Skeinforge. If you look at the tool path of a model in Skeiniso, you can do exactly what I need to. I have a video below that show it. You can find the layer and click on any part and it reports the gcode. Nice...