Better slicer?

[GamerDarling]

Still totally in budget for the near future.

How much manipulation can you do? For example, it's driving me nuts that on smaller prints I can't just duplicate the mesh so that I can print multiple pieces at once. On another print the original file I found doesn't have a flat bottom, and that's causing printing issues.

Would I be able to do those things with this software?

[beerdart]

http://www.forum.simplify3d.com/

[GamerDarling]

Thanks for the link to their forum? I've reviewed their site, and only asked those specific questions because I couldn't find a for sure answer, and these guys clearly know the software. The feature list says manipulate geometry and repair a mesh but that could mean a lot of different things.

[RobH2]

For example, it's driving me nuts that on smaller prints I can't just duplicate the mesh so that I can print multiple pieces at once. On another print the original file I found doesn't have a flat bottom, and that's causing printing issues.

Would I be able to do those things with this software?

It's easy to duplicate a part. It asks "how many" you click and it places them and arranges them. You can also easily scale, rotate and move the part or individual parts. If you move a part just a tiny bit below the grid, that portion gets removed and only what's above the grid gets sliced, so, you have a flat bottom.

Check this out. You can print parts inside and under other parts. I've never seen any other slicer do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHqR...ature=youtu.be

[curious aardvark]

Still totally in budget for the near future.

How much manipulation can you do? For example, it's driving me nuts that on smaller prints I can't just duplicate the mesh so that I can print multiple pieces at once. On another print the original file I found doesn't have a flat bottom, and that's causing printing issues.

Would I be able to do those things with this software?

You can duplicate and print multiples on ALL the slicers I've seen and used. S3d will (it says) optimise the parts for faster printing. I usually do them by hand as I can put them closer together :-)
But yeah duplicating parts is a doddle. (but then it is with makerware, cura and slic3r as well)

The flat bottom thing, yeah sort of. With s3d you can move the model so the base is below the print bed.
You can do that with makerware as will, but makerware still prints the whole mode (weird but true) S3D ONLY prints the part above the printbed.
That's useful.

It all depends what printer you have. If you're printer is normal gcode compatible then cura or slic3r are probably just as good as s3d for 90% of printing requirements.

The biggest issue I have with s3d is the fact that it only prints alternate layers in it's infill. This creates really weak models that snap sideways very easily.
For strength I use makerware, the infill is contiguous. Ie it builds a solid honeycomb within the shell. This is really really strong.
Why s3d can't add in that feature - I don't know. It's the single worst thing about it.

[beerdart]

http://www.forum.simplify3d.com/view...php?f=8&t=1953

[RobH2]

The biggest issue I have with s3d is the fact that it only prints alternate layers in it's infill. This creates really weak models that snap sideways very easily.
For strength I use makerware, the infill is contiguous. Ie it builds a solid honeycomb within the shell. This is really really strong.
Why s3d can't add in that feature - I don't know. It's the single worst thing about it.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with that. It's possible that you have the 'Print Sparse Infill Every' setting set improperly. If it's at '1' then it prints the infill on every layer. If it's set on '2' it will print infill on every other layer and so on. You can really make a mess if you set it to '4' or something. What's nice is that you can also print a solid layer or diaphragm every 'x' layers. So if you wanted a stronger part and didn't want to use 100% solid infill, you could print a solid internal layer every 5 layers if you wanted to and in-between those would be the normal infill.

My parts are as strong as with any slicer I've used. It doesn't have a half-dozen infill algorithms available that others might, but for most parts under 8", I think it's way stronger than is necessary. You'd need NASA to run some tests to see which of the internal infill shapes are functionally stronger at a small scale. I'd bet the variation between them, even if extreme looking to a test bench score, are nominal in everyday practice. You can manually set the infill to print in any angle between 0 and 360 degrees and you set them individually. I can set the infill to 45 and -45 as well as 30, 15, 0, 90, 14, -12 (I think you see my point) and it will build lines of fill at all of those angles. At some point it gets absurd. But, I do not share the feeling that S3D creates weak parts that snap sideways. What allows parts to snap sideways is poor layer adhesion and improper settings can cause that with any slicer.

[curious aardvark]

If it's at '1' then it prints the infill on every layer.

no it doesn't. It's on 1, it won't let me set it to '0' :-)
It still leaves gaps between the plastic strands. There is no setting where it forms a solid infill matrix.
Yes it prints infill on every layer, but it prints alternate squares, hell it's not even much good for compression.

If I print a part at 10% infill with s3d i can easily snap off any protruding parts with my fingers. I print the same part with the same settings in makerware I need pliers and a hammer. And that's because makerware forms a solid mesh within the shell.
s3d just won't.

I don't understand why it won't. But trust me - it won't.

[Bassna]

As beerdart had said, I switched my infill option's to "Infill extrusion width" to 200%, and "Outline overlap" to 30% and I have had great strong infill since then. This is not my picture, but It show's you what I mean better.

[RobH2]

Yea, it's a little different approach but it works well for me and I find it efficient. It does in fact, in totality, have infill on every layer but it does it by creating a weave sort like cloth, or a matrix, but without the thread going under one then over one. It lays down infill lines in, say, the 45 degree direction. Then the next infill is at, say, the -45 degree direction. There is a separation between the threads of layer 1 and 3 that are both running in the 45 degree direction but those are overlaid by layers 2 and 4 in the opposite direction, -45. At every one of those crossings is a meld point. It's fast and I find it satisfactory. It's just a different way to do it.

I feel like it's a better way to infill as sideways (sheer) forces are distributed along the infill of the layers above and below a particular shear plane. With a typical (slic3r) infill stack, you still have discrete planes of material. Everything for layer 1 is on layer 1. All the perimeters and all of the infill are on layer 1. Same for layer 2 and subsequent layers. If your were very careful, you could pick any layer and separate the print into two perfect parts by splitting between two layers. With S3D you can't do that because the layers above and below that plane where you have your hypothetical slice are woven into each other. If you cut it through that hypothetical plane, you'd see that you are cutting through filament for layers above and below also. The infill creates a matrix thought the whole interior. Standard infill from sli3er does not create that matrix.

It's also not apples to apples when you apply infill percentages. If slic3r prints structurally sufficient infill at 15%, you may need to use 30% infill for S3D. Since the infills are calculated in different manners, you can't apply one to the other and have a fair comparison. You could print the part in slic3r at 15% that has the part sticking out that you need pliers to snap off. Then, print the same part in S3D at say 15%, 20%, 30% and 40%. Test to see where parts exhibit the same structural integrity. You may find that S3D equals the slic3r part at 30%. But remember, the method/algorithm S3D employs, utilizes 1/2 of the material for infill because of that weaving-like algorithm. So if S3D has the structural integrity at 35% infill, it's only used the same amount of filament as slic3r at 15%. So it's about equal.

I don't think you can hold S3D up against other slicers side by side and just replace settings and make comparisons. It's a little bit of a different creature but once you get your settings right, it makes beautiful prints that are super strong. I've tested mine with pliers too and I've never been disappointed if I've sufficiently designed the infill parameters.

Here's a microscopic shot of the infill. I know it's not the best shot as I rushed it but you can see how the layers interlace and weave.