Dremel Digilab 3D Slicer Questions

[Moggy]

Apologies if this is answered somewhere else but a forum search didn't bring anything up.

I've just acquired a Dremel 3D45 which arrives on Monday. In preparation for its arrival, I've been busy modelling away in TurboCAD. I've downloaded the Slicer and have been importing and tweaking and have a few questions I'm hoping someone here may be able to answer:

I've been saving my 3D model as STL for import into the Slicer. The only other format compatible with both software seems to be 3MF. Is one preferred over the other?

I'm modeling in inches. When I import the STL into the Slicer, it's using mm. So the first thing I have to do is scale by 2540%. Then if I import another model, it automatically scales by 10000%, which I then have to rescale to 2540%. Is there anyway I can change my units of measure in the Slicer to be inches? I'd rather not switch to mm in TurboCAD as my printed plans (and 2D DXF) files assume material of varying Imperial thicknesses - 1/8", 1/4" etc

Thanks!!

Martin

[curious aardvark]

well the first thing is to STOP modelling in inches and switch the the far more sensible millimetres :-)

It really does make a lot more sense than going in the other direction.
Most slicers only do millimetres, just sooo much easier for calculations than the bizarre and archaic inches in base 8.
When you're dealing in movements measured in 100th's of a millimetre - having the software convert back and forth between base 8 and base 10 - just makes no sense.

As far as your material thickness goes - 0.25 inches = 6.25 millimetres

I mean it's even difficult to represent measurements in inches in a decimal format.
what on earth is the decimilisation for 3/36ths of an inch ?

If you really can't change your working habits - simply convert your design to mm in turbocad, then save it as a new file with the prefix/suffix: in millimetres.
And use That file to generate your stl's

No clue what slicer dremel use - but given the machines are mostly made by flashforge under licence, it might well be a variant of flashprint.

[Moggy]

Thanks for the reply. Not entirely what I was looking for, though

Most slicers only do millimetres,

this is useful to know.

You then wander off into bizarro-land

just sooo much easier for calculations than the bizarre and archaic inches in base 8.
When you're dealing in movements measured in 100th's of a millimetre - having the software convert back and forth between base 8 and base 10 - just makes no sense.

As far as your material thickness goes - 0.25 inches = 6.25 millimetres

I mean it's even difficult to represent measurements in inches in a decimal format.
what on earth is the decimilisation for 3/36ths of an inch ?

Base 8? Can't use decimals with inches? Let's just quietly draw a curtain and pretend it never happened... :-)

If you really can't change your working habits - simply convert your design to mm in turbocad, then save it as a new file with the prefix/suffix: in millimetres.
And use That file to generate your stl's

Worth a shot. I thought I did that once, but it didn't work. User error with TurboCAD, I'm sure. I am surprised that STL files don't seem to have a UOM embedded in them, only the units themselves.

No clue what slicer dremel use - but given the machines are mostly made by flashforge under licence, it might well be a variant of flashprint.

It's based on Cura(?)

[curious aardvark]

well if it's cura based - it will be mm only.
It's dutch - they don't do inches.
Nobody in their right minds still does inches.

And if you ask a question that does not have the answer you want - offering sensible alternatives, is what's left :-)

[Axl_Myk]

You really ought to get used to metric measurements. Especially if you intend to make any kind of presence in the world.

[11Xray]

"what on earth is the decimilisation for 3/36ths of an inch ?" - 3/36" is 1/12", you can't figure a decimal for that? Sheesh.

[curious aardvark]

lol - yeah, on actually thinking about it.
But to be fair nobody who still uses imperial measurememnts EVER uses decimals.
They always use fractions.

It's just a totally redundant system.