Surface finish on flat figure has pits

[lledden]

I have a MakerGear M2 and recently got a roll of MatterHackers Tough PLA. This material is surprisingly tough. I originally printed this small 'squid' figure upright with 3D body using supports and I couldn't even sand off the rough texture where I broke off the supports. Now I'm printing it flattened (approximately 3"x3", 1/4" thick) with a flat upper surface and I'm having difficulty getting the quality of finish that I've seen in the past. The print itself seems fine, bed adhesion, not stringy, etc. but I see small pits in different places on the the top flat surface near the vertical edges. In the photo these are visible especially around the mouth, eyes and the upraised tentacle 'hand'. My slicer is Simplify3D 5.1.1. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Squid.jpg

[airscapes]

I never use PLA, so can not comment on the filament. Also don't use the new version of S3d so could be that buggy software as it has many problems if you look at their forum. I will assume you are using the default .35 MG nozzle. Now what is your layer height, how many outlines, how many top layers and what it the infill rate, what is our infill outline overlap, your allowed perimeter overlap and single extrusion encpoint extension distance. Also if you are using any extra restart coasting or wiping turn it all off. Retraction should be about .8 to 1.0
Also have you done a 2 wall calibration square to verify starting height and extrusion multiplier is correct? Lots of thing to look at, and top layer will never look like bottom layer and always required post processing. I have had my M2 since 2018 and for PLA and top layer that is not that bad..

[airscapes]

I have attached a cal square. set your extrusion width to .4 if you are using .35 nozzle and print this with the same settings you are using on your model. Using a digital caliper measure the height of the finished walls, should be 2.98 to 3.12 mm tall. Measure the width they should be .8 +- .03.
Height checks your starting height, the model is 3 mm tall and should be that when done. The wall thickness checks extrusion multiplier and is also affected by starting height.. i.e. if the model is only 2.89 tall then the walls will be fatter than then they should be.. Good luck!

[airscapes]

I have attached 3 more models one for .2mm layer .25 and 3mm layer height. These are single layers to check starting height and extrusion multiplier. Once you get a good 2 walled square print the corresponding single layer square. all thread should be well attached to each other and thickness measured with caliper should be that of a single layer assuming you have first layer set to 100% and S3D did not mess up that setting totally..

[airscapes]

There is a makergear facebook group, you may want to join that as it is way more active than this forum or MGs forum https://www.facebook.com/groups/makergear