|
leo_r posted:What software do people recommend? The RepRap wiki tutorial I was following for assembly talks about Pronterface and Skeinforge, but Slic3r seems like a much nicer piece of software. Pronterface and slic3r. Anyone recommending skeinforge is living is the dark ages, unless you need it for a very specific feature not supported elsewhere. Cura and KISSlicer are two alternate slicers if slic3r is acting up. Be aware though, if you're using a gcode visualizer, random starts from slic3r seem to mess them up. Even the one I got working with the latest Blender is kind of broken. Still trying to catch slic3r's dev on IRC to find out if he can explain what it is exactly. I haven't had time to dig into it.
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2013 00:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 06:49 |
|
|
Obsurveyor posted:Pronterface and slic3r. Anyone recommending skeinforge is living is the dark ages, unless you need it for a very specific feature not supported elsewhere. Cura and KISSlicer are two alternate slicers if slic3r is acting up. I love slic3r. I just want it to do rafts. I wrote my own postprocessor to generate a raft under slic3r's skirt, but "raft" has been in the feature request since 0.7 or so. I know the reason is "I don't need a raft and don't know anyone that's needed a raft in a year, so w/e," but there are CONSTANT upvotes for that feature. It took me about two hours to write one, it shouldn't take him much longer to implement.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2013 01:56
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:I love slic3r. I just want it to do rafts. I wrote my own postprocessor to generate a raft under slic3r's skirt, but "raft" has been in the feature request since 0.7 or so. I know the reason is "I don't need a raft and don't know anyone that's needed a raft in a year, so w/e," but there are CONSTANT upvotes for that feature. It took me about two hours to write one, it shouldn't take him much longer to implement. What do you need a raft for, except ruining the bottom of your print and being lazy about calibration? Aren't brims supposed to be the latest hotness?
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2013 02:29
|
|
|
Squibbles posted:Latest video from the Makibox beta units is out. I've never seen a 3d printer that sounded like a 60's scifi movie computer before... When my Ultimaker starts printing, it sounds just like this. It's loving weird.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2013 02:41
|
|
|
Obsurveyor posted:What do you need a raft for, except ruining the bottom of your print and being lazy about calibration? Aren't brims supposed to be the latest hotness? Like I said a few posts up, my bed is not flat. I need a raft to generate the flat surface. It's calibrated to the nth degree, but the fact that the whole sheet of glass has dips and wobbles on the order of .05mm makes getting good adhesion tricky. A simple two-layer raft with lines 2mm apart under the print works like a champ for this.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2013 03:14
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:Like I said a few posts up, my bed is not flat. I need a raft to generate the flat surface. It's calibrated to the nth degree, but the fact that the whole sheet of glass has dips and wobbles on the order of .05mm makes getting good adhesion tricky. A simple two-layer raft with lines 2mm apart under the print works like a champ for this. What's wrong with just squashing the first layer?
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2013 03:22
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:Like I said a few posts up, my bed is not flat. I need a raft to generate the flat surface. It's calibrated to the nth degree, but the fact that the whole sheet of glass has dips and wobbles on the order of .05mm makes getting good adhesion tricky. A simple two-layer raft with lines 2mm apart under the print works like a champ for this. Cura and potentially other slicers supports a thicker first layer which helps address unevenness in your bed. edit: oh and I derped. I didn't realize that HI-PLA is not the same thing as soft/flexible PLA 
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2013 05:52
|
|
|
RepRapPro just announced a tricolor Mendel today: http://reprappro.com/Tricolour_Mendel They've posted some items on Thingiverse showing what it can do: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:50332 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:49976 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:49702
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2013 19:24
|
|
|
This is slightly old news, but I don't recall seeing it mentioned in this thread yet. Mendelmax has a version 2.0 in "Beta" now. It looks a bit more simplified than previous iterations. The frame layout has changed, moving away from old mendel "A-frame" arrangment to a more right angle like setup. Uses some fancy linear rails, aluminum plate parts (optionally printable)  http://www.mendelmax.com/ You can purchase kits here: http://store.makerstoolworks.com/printer-kits/mendelmax-2-0-beta-kit/ http://store.makerstoolworks.com/printer-kits/mendelmax-2-0-beta-hardware-kit/
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2013 22:43
|
|
|
peepsalot posted:This is slightly old news, but I don't recall seeing it mentioned in this thread yet. Too bad he hasn't released the design yet. It looks similar to the Open Beam 1.4 printer http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:41967 which Hoss is making except the MendelMax is a lot larger and is probably more rigid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPLCTO7B58
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 00:32
|
|
|
Kabong posted:RepRapPro just announced a tricolor Mendel today: Thats pretty cool! I wonder if being able to do three colours is three times the messed up prints... wait for version 2? Hehe.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 02:48
|
|
|
I'm having lots of fun with my printer. It probably took about 3 weeks to assemble completely. Calibration seems to be quite good out the box, but I haven't dared to go right to the edge of the print bed yet. I have a feeling extremities will be more of an issue. Everything arrived neatly packed away in a box:  It prints!  The huxley isn't the most beautiful of printers...  I printed out the rocket shot glass as a test. My housemate suggested I finish it off, so I dived into Solidworks and produced my first truly original 3D print:  The spike on the top distorted a bit because it hadn't really cooled by the time the next layer was being put down. I think some fans or some more careful slicing might help with that - I'm going to grab some and see if I can print out a bracket. I used 0.5mm layer height for speed, which means it's all a bit messy. Currently I'm working on some OpenSCAD stuff, although I'm constantly cursing it. Programming geometry is OK as long as you don't start rotating the frames of reference. Unfortunately I didn't realise that when I started and spent quite a while making different components separately and then rotating and translating them into my main model, leading to really confusing coordinate systems. I still prefer Solidworks! It certainly is an interesting approach to modelling though, and once I've got a design more or less complete the customisable aspects of it will really shine. I think for most modelling though, normal CAD is a better bet. leo_r fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Feb 16, 2013 |
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 18:08
|
|
|
That's pretty cool, that thing sure looks the part. I'm really liking openSCAD, I've made some things with autodesk 123D and it can be a real pain when you realize you need to change some minor measurement. With openSCAD, if you've done it right, you just change a variable.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 20:33
|
|
|
OpenSCAD drives me insane with its lovely scripting language. I really wish it wasn't the defacto standard for SCAD hobby printing stuff.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 20:55
|
|
|
peepsalot posted:OpenSCAD drives me insane with its lovely scripting language. I really wish it wasn't the defacto standard for parametric scripting/hobby printing. Have you given http://www.implicitcad.org/ a try? It has actual variables and other nice things.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 20:56
|
|
|
peepsalot posted:OpenSCAD drives me insane with its lovely scripting language. I really wish it wasn't the defacto standard for SCAD hobby printing stuff. Have you tried RapCAD or CoffeeSCAD? What do you think? Are there others that are any good?
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 21:00
|
|
|
ImplicitCAD and RapCAD look like they have identical syntax to OpenSCAD. I'm fine with OpenSCAD since it's kind of like POVray and that was one of the first things I ever messed with in computer graphics.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2013 21:18
|
|
|
Hmm, ImplicitCAD is looking really good. Is there any way to run it locally, or is it online-only?
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2013 01:42
|
|
|
leo_r posted:Currently I'm working on some OpenSCAD stuff, although I'm constantly cursing it. Programming geometry is OK as long as you don't start rotating the frames of reference. Unfortunately I didn't realise that when I started and spent quite a while making different components separately and then rotating and translating them into my main model, leading to really confusing coordinate systems. I still prefer Solidworks! It certainly is an interesting approach to modelling though, and once I've got a design more or less complete the customisable aspects of it will really shine. I think for most modelling though, normal CAD is a better bet. I've been spoiled by multi-thousand dollar CAD programs 
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2013 01:56
|
|
|
I started out with Alias and Solidworks back in the late 90s, and I can tell you that the best general-purpose CAD modeling program out there today is Rhino. I personally switch back and forth between SW and Rhino these days depending on what I'm building, but I think Rhino is a better starting point for most people -- and if you're a student, you can get a full, unlimited license of just the modeler for like a hundred bucks. 400 or so for the modeler plus a bunch of renderers. There are always some things that some CAD apps do better, but these days McNeel has really knocked it out of the park.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2013 08:35
|
|
|
DarkHorse posted:This is pretty much the only reason I haven't gone out and bought a 3D printer by now. I'm an absolute whiz at parametric CAD modeling using SolidWorks, Pro/E, or CATIA, but my last foray into free CAD options made me tear my hair out. Things that should take seconds took forever, and the whole experience was terribly unintuitive. I've not used it for any major projects, but I think Alibre takes a similar approach to the major CAD packages in terms of design process. PTC (of Pro/E fame) seem to have moved away from Pro/E towards "Creo", and for a while were offering Pro/E Wildfire for free (at least for students, but I don't think they checked). I can't find that, but I did find Creo Elements for free. I'm downloading it now - I'll report back if it's at all useful. Altogether the state of open source CAD is fairly poor. I think the home 3D printer developments of the last few years have created a lot of pressure for better tools, but unfortunately these things take time. To some extent I think the problem is that there's a lot of ways to do 3D modelling, and the design paradigm that the market leading 3D CAD packages use isn't necessarily the one that the developers of open CAD software decide to adopt. Things like FreeCAD have had a lot of development time invested in them, but in my opinion are simply approaching from the wrong direction. A lot of the open and free CAD packages let you place 3D shapes like cubes or spheres. It looks good - 1 mouse click and there's a 3D model - but it isn't a particularly useful approach for more complex designs. The sketch driven parametric CAD model is far more maintainable than additive/subtractive 3D modelling, but that might not be obvious to someone without significant 3D CAD experience. What really needs to happen for open 3D CAD to take off is for a project to be founded and developed to a functional level by someone with a good vision.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2013 23:10
|
|
|
Anta posted:Hmm, ImplicitCAD is looking really good. Is there any way to run it locally, or is it online-only? That particular GUI is online-only as far as I understand... You can download the code on Github and compile any script locally though. Also, I was in the newspaper today describing 3D printing at my work with Objet printers. There's a little video, too.  http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2013/02/15/will_3d_printing_revolutionize_the_way_we_live.html
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2013 23:20
|
|
|
Poking back a few pages through this thread, it sounds like the Solidoodle and the Printrbot are both the front runners at the under $800, fully assembled 3D printer price point. It's tax return time, and I've been wanting an entry level 3D printer for a few years, since first seeing the Reprap and early Makerbots. The Printrbot seems to have more recommendations over the last few pages, but a few people have mentioned having Solidoodles. I hadn't even heard of the Solidoodle until I saw that was what a user in the Mechwarrior Online clubhouse was using to do some prints. The Solidoodle has the better price, at $600 with the heated build platform. The Printrbot LC is $50 more than that, and the Printrbot PLUS is another $150 on top of that. I guess what I'm wondering is what does that $50 - $200 extra get me over the Solidoodle? It looks like the PLUS has a larger build platform than the LC or the Solidoodle.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2013 04:33
|
|
|
There's also the Solidoodle 3 for $800 which has the same size build platform as the Printrbot Plus (8" cubed). One major difference between the two is the way they're built, the Solidoodle is basically an enclosed machine while the Printrbot is more open to the air. I didn't get a case for my Solidoodle and was finding that at lower bed temperatures (80C or so), the ABS wasn't sticking that well to the bed. I tried getting it up to 95 or so, but it couldn't quite get there, so I just cut up some cardboard and made a lovely case for it. It takes a few minutes, but now the bed will easily go up to 100, and I haven't seen how much higher it could go. The Printrbot, I imagine, would be more difficult to make a lovely case for. There's also a pretty big lead time for the Solidoodle. I ordered it on December 3rd and it shipped on January 15th, so almost a month and a half. It's been getting faster, but it's still a decent wait.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2013 10:56
|
|
|
3Doodler: The World's First 3D Printing Pen This looks pretty cool. You could potentially use it to fix small mistakes in prints or weld thin stuff together. For $75, it would be a useful tool to me just for turning Nerf guns into laser tag guns.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2013 19:15
|
|
|
Sooooo it's a fine-tip glue gun that feeds ABS filament, basically. Seems like you might have some problems with interlayer bonding.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2013 22:30
|
|
|
Sagebrush posted:Sooooo it's a fine-tip glue gun that feeds ABS filament, basically. Seems like you might have some problems with interlayer bonding. There might also be some problems with battery life; I don't see a cable coming out of there, and heating elements tend to not like running on battery to get to 220C. Also someone's going to burn their hand off... just wait for it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2013 23:15
|
|
|
The makibox people demoed a concept like that a few months ago. I wonder if that's where the 3Doodler people got their inspiration?
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2013 23:27
|
|
|
Squibbles posted:The makibox people demoed a concept like that a few months ago. I wonder if that's where the 3Doodler people got their inspiration? They say they have been working on it for over a year so they may pre-date it although it's a pretty common sense extension to current 3d printing processes. Sagebrush posted:Sooooo it's a fine-tip glue gun that feeds ABS filament, basically. Seems like you might have some problems with interlayer bonding. I've printed on top of cold plastic and adhesion was just fine.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2013 23:33
|
|
|
kafkasgoldfish posted:I've printed on top of cold plastic and adhesion was just fine. I can vouch for this. I still stand by the fact that someone is going to hurt themselves on it. Nozzles tend to stay hot once they're hot, unless they have something like the cold heat soldering irons.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2013 00:32
|
|
|
UberVexer posted:I can vouch for this. I still stand by the fact that someone is going to hurt themselves on it. Nozzles tend to stay hot once they're hot, unless they have something like the cold heat soldering irons. Hot glue guns get pretty hot tips and people generally avoid burning themselves too badly with those though. I guess those don't generally get as hot as this would though?
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2013 00:35
|
|
|
UberVexer posted:I can vouch for this. I still stand by the fact that someone is going to hurt themselves on it. Nozzles tend to stay hot once they're hot, unless they have something like the cold heat soldering irons. My soldering station is hotter than this thing when I use it at it's normal temp. Even hotter if I need to solder something with a lot of surface area. I've never burned myself with it either. It's probably still a little reckless to put it in a 12 year old's hands without some education though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2013 01:09
|
|
|
To me the video that they showed looked like it was something that would be geared towards children; It felt like a commercial for something like Crayola airbrush markers or something. Related https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsm3cBpyfUQ
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2013 02:44
|
|
|
Man, I had a toy like that as a kid decades ago, it was cool as heck but the markers were specially-shaped and expensive. Guess the patent ran out, I wish I could remember the name. E: COLORBLASTER! Haha so many memories, that thing was 
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2013 19:21
|
|
|
For those older, professional sets, Copic has something called the Copic Air Brush System. You can snap Copic markers straight to the gun and it uses compressed air from a can or a compressor.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2013 19:39
|
|
|
UberVexer posted:There might also be some problems with battery life; I don't see a cable coming out of there, and heating elements tend to not like running on battery to get to 220C. You can see one cable coming off of it in the first 15 seconds of the video and two (one red one black) at the :50 mark. The pen part barely sticks out of the thick handle; I think it's going to be much harder to burn yourself than with a hot glue gun. I think this thing is going to be huge as a toy and as something that adults will just want to fart around with.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2013 18:09
|
|
|
Oh man, I really want this thing. I'm already making things with it in my head :V
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2013 00:05
|
|
|
Maybe I should just mount one of those on a Cartesian robot.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2013 00:13
|
|
|
Sun Dog posted:Oh man, I really want this thing. I'm already making things with it in my head :V They're all dickbutts aren't they
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2013 01:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 06:49 |
|
|
peepsalot posted:They're all dickbutts aren't they No, they're robotic kittens and carnivorous pitcher plants. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2013 01:15
|
|