Losing Details

I'm trying to print this object [www.thingiverse.com], which has its own removable supports (i believe they are 0.5mm wide). However, when sliced (I'm using 1.2.9), the supports disappear. I've tried changing Print Settings -> Advanced -> Resolution without any effect (it was set to 0). I also tried reducing the nozzle diameter, which had no effect. Any suggestions?

The post so good it had to be made twice!

I have a two comments about this:

1) No photos of the printed parts probably means the "designer" has never printed or tested it.

2) No CAD file, so you don't know how the design was produced- I'm guessing Sketchup because of the slicing problems you're having.

Thingiverse is like the internet at large- it's a dumping ground- anyone can put anything there that they want, requiring the consumer to apply some critical thinking. Look for a design with photos so you know that at least one person, the designer, was able to make it work.

If you have no CAD skillz, upgrading your printer is a good reason to start acquiring them. Just avoid SketchUp. Try one of the AutoDesk freebies, or OnShape, or DesignSpark Mechanical.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Thank you for your response. While full of generally useful advice, it does fail to address why exactly the supports are disappearing. If you look closer at the specific thingiverse listing and applied some critical thinking of your own, you might have noticed it has 20 makes, 11 remixes and 100 comments. None of which include people having issues with the inbuilt supports disappearing. So while there may be issues with the model, or how it was produced, it seems I am the only one having this trouble slicing it.

You're right. It looks like others have successfully printed it.

I loaded one of the idler parts and sliced in Slic3r 1.2.9 and it looks fine- the support is there. Slic3r pukes once in a while, and the solution is often to wipe out the .ini files and recreate them or even reinstall Slic3r. Welcome to the world of FOSS.



I keep Cura on my slicing computer for cases where Slic3r pukes. I find that Cura generates more sensible tool paths and support material than Slic3r, but lacks some of the control I get with Slic3r. If I'm going to print a part that requires a lot of support, I usually slice in Cura. In this case, the support is built into the STL files, so it shouldn't matter which slicer you use.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2016 01:46AM by the_digital_dentist.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

I'm familiar with the joys that come with using open source software. Slic3r doesn't die, the output code prints (badly towards the end, without support). Everything else I have printed sliced fine, it's just this object giving me issues. I want to know why, so I can either fix it or avoid similar issue in the future, but if I don't know WHY I am doomed to endlessly repeating the situation. Since I am the only one having this issue, it's probably something to do with my configuration, but I haven't had any luck finding the issue with random tweaking.

Found it. It seems my XY Size Compensation settings is at fault here.

The support material in the STL file is a bunch of very tiny islands stacked on each other. If just one island fails to print properly, all support above it will also fail. The taller they get, the more likely they are to tilt a little, causing the next island to shift or even miss entirely, turning into a blob at the next extrusion point, maybe knocking over the next support tower. Even without the risk of tilting, printing those tiny islands requires that your extruder be extremely well calibrated. The designer should have left support generation up to the slicer. That way the user could choose a much more reliable pattern such as a rectilinear grid that would be easier to print reliably.

Like I said, anyone can post anything to Thingiverse... and they do.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]