Second Order on 3D Hubs was for a TANK!

Guys like tanks.  Not all guys but a lot of guys.   If I think of the top things that a guy is going to like I think of the following:

• Girls
• Beer
• Cars

Then the list starts to branch out.  Things like boats, motorcycles, and the like come in.   But in the everymans top 10 list I have to bet that Tanks would be in there somewhere...even if they have to be reminded as I was!

So, when someone put an order out onto my 3D Hub to print a sample tank for a local war gaming club I was happy to oblige (it was actually a truck but it goes with tanks).  The idea being that other club members might be interested in getting some tanks printed to augment their collections with vehicles that might otherwise be hard to find.

The source of the tank models is on Thingiverse and they are the creations of a New Zealander (m_bergman) that has done some absolutely stunning work.  He has three collections of tanks.  World War 1 in 1:200 scale, World War 2 in 1:200 scale (Part II, Part III), and a subset of the latter in 1:100 scale.

The club member that met with me had payed me to print a sample vehicle.  I printed a couple extra for him as I, well, I like tanks!   The idea is that club members would find the tank they need, upload an order to me on 3D Hubs, and voila they have a tank that other wise might not be in their army, without investing in their own 3D printer.   What I am not doing is printing and selling tanks as that flies against the non-commercial license for the models.

Obviously if someone has a 3D printer they can print as many of these as they want.   That is, of course, assuming their printer is pretty well calibrated as some of these models are a challenge.

If you don't have a printer you can, in effect, rent some time on one by winging your way to 3DHubs:

If you want a tank but you don't have a printer you can, in effect, rent some time on one by winging your way to 3DHubs:

3D Hubs: Local 3D Printing

Find fast & affordable 3D printing services in your neighborhood. With more than 19337 connected printers worldwide, 3D Hubs is the world leader in 3D printing.

If you are in the UK you can visit my hub:

Wisar's Hub

3D Prints From £5.00 | I am a Maker that enjoys 3D Printing enough to try and help others. Your prints are my challenges. The Wanhao Duplicator 4S will print AB...

Easy Road to Dimensional Accuracy?

I have been fighting some dimensional accuracy issues for quite a while.   There are is all kinds of advice out there as to how to go about doing it and I have only gotten about as far as to make sure that my printers are extruding the right amount of plastic!  Leaving that out as an explanation for parts that I print being out of whack by 2-4% in either direction!

Part of my challenge has been translating the advice from people that use other slicers into stuff that makes sense for Simplify3D which is what I am using.   So I asked for help on the user forum for Simplify3D.   Someone pointed me to an option called "Horizontal Size Compensation".  It takes a number of millimeters (+/-) as an input but frankly I was not sure how to use it...and assume that it would be better if I tried to calibrate things the "right way".

More fool me.  I finally decided to try it and found that it ... works?  Below are a sample of the results that I got on my first couple of tests:

 

The first test was for a spacer that will hold an 8mm nut.   As you can see the print without adjustments was too small.   The print with a -0.1mm compensation was perfect.  So I thought that I would try a bigger and more complex piece and printed a #3DBenchy with the same compensation not really knowing what to expect.  As you can see, I got the same kind of positive result.

Am I missing something?  It seems a little to easy.  This is a feature that has been in Simplify3D since I bought it a couple months ago (not just since the upgrade to 3.0) so I really should have tried it sooner.  If I had I might not even written my mean post about Simplify3D as that feature alone is worth the price of admission!

UPDATE

This setting is not the answer!  At least not for all cases.  I am finding that when I print a large-ish part in ABS, one that requires dimensional accuracy, there is some shrinkage that needs to be accounted for when the part is printed.  I have not measured this on the UM2 but on my D4S it is about 1%?!?!   I know that the printer is moving accurately as I have measured physical movement on the x-y dimensions but my parts are still too small.  I am finding myself doing a test print, measuring it, and then reprinting with an adjustment factor.

Never Has a Message Board Seen Such Truth

There was a question asked on the 3D Hubs Forum from a user thinking of getting into 3D Printing.  The below response has to be one of the truest of things that I have ever read on a message board:

"If you have never used a 3D printer before, then you are in for a shock, because 3D printing is really very, very hard beyond the simplest of things.  .... But I suppose as is the case with every printer, if you want really great results the greatest skill you need is infinite patience and print things really slowly." - Quoted from danilius in this thread from 3D Hubs.

Ultimaker 2 Print Quality - Simplify3D Profile

Finally got my Ultimaker 2 Profile for Simplify3D working to a level that I feel is pretty decent.  This version of the #3DBenchy was done at 150 microns at a slightly faster speed (40mm/s) than the post that showed the results from the Wanhao.  Again, it may not be totally perfect but I am willing to call it close enough, especially given the speed difference...but only for this resolution.  I still want to see this model done at the high level of detail that the Ultimaker is capable of doing.

The same notes as to how I got here apply from the Wanhao post, other of course, than the fan as the UM2 comes with one.

Here is the Simplify3D profile (Version 2.2) and following are screen shots of the relevant parameter pages.  Please see this previous post for some commentary on these pages and their settings. 

Note that THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!  I am still tuning this profile. It is worth a note to say that as you lower your layer height and slow down speed for quality you may need to raise the extrusion temperature.   I think this is especially true at the sub-100 micron resolution that the UM2 is capable of doing.

Sould You Buy Simplify3D as Your Slicer

UPDATE - The below is relevant to Version 2.2 of Simplify3D.   I have just downloaded Version 3 and it does look to address a number of my rants.   In fact, as a new post will attest, there was a feature in Version 2.2 that I had never used until now...and is killer as described here!

UPDATE - As of August, 2015, I continue my love/hate relationship with this software.  The technical foundations of the product are excellent.  The slicer, the support model, the concept of a factory, all wonderful.   Some of the user interface still not so wonderful.  

The thing that irks me the most is the Version 3.0 feature that moves profiles from being stored in a user accessible file to meta-data that, on the Mac at least, is hidden from the user.  What is worse is that this meta data is subject to being lost if you do a reset of their software, or if it crashes and does a reset for you (this has happened to me).  To avoid this you have to remember to export your profiles as you make changes to them.   I have a lot of profiles.   Major pain in the ass.

What makes the above even more of a pain is the lack of attention to detail that is shown in many aspects of the UI for Simplify3D.   For example.   You can not export all profiles with one command and when you do select one for export the software does not carry the name forward to be used as the file name for the save.   This latter example, to me anyway, seems like the developer of Simplify3D is really only interested in the cool bits like the slicing engine and the support model.   All of their time goes into those aspects, and they are good, while the UI, at times, seems sloppy.  Tiny details that make a difference to the overall user experience.  I have complained about this to Simplify3D support but they have chosen to ignore me.

I guess the bottom line is that I would still pay for this software....unless there was an alternative that was as good as the core functions of Simplify3D.   I think there is a market there.
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Some months ago I bought Simplify 3D as the slicer to use with my new Wanhao Duplicator 4S.  I had been using Slic3r for slicing and Printrun to spool stuff to the printer and while I was happy with the combination I did take the opportunity to look at the options.

I came across Simplify3D as it is marketed by Wanhao though I did not buy it with the printer.  I had a little bit of a learning curve with Simplify3D but that was largely due to my wanting to use both extruders of my printer sooner than I probably should have!   The story of my efforts in this regard are a couple posts back in the blog.

So anyway, the good stuff about Simplify3D:

• It is an all in one package and is integrated under a pretty straight forward and understandable user interface.  
• The slicing engine seems to be pretty smart and while I have not time tested it against other slicers I do feel as if it may actually result in a faster print (than Slic3r for example).
• It has a really cool process based model where you can print multiple models at the same time with different settings.   This is useful across a range from calibration, to printing models with different tuning requirements, to using a dual extruder setup for printing in colors.
• The support structures that it prints are really well constructed (and easy to remove) and there is the ability to easily tune where the support is placed.

Unfortunately there are a pretty wide range of negatives some of which are surprising (or maybe just disappointing) for paid software:

• It is almost laughable given the reputation that IT has for "CTRL-ALT-DELETE" being a cure-all that Simplify3D has such a feature built in.  In the case of Simplify3D it is the "Rest All Settings" option under the "Help Menu".  I have had to use it a number of times when the software just seems to get confused.   Once was at the direction of support and most recently when my prints suddenly started to de-laminate at the junction of the solid layers and the first infilled layer.  Reset all Settings to the rescue and things were fine again!
• The system occasionally just crashes. This happens to all software once in a while but it happens with Simplify3D often enough to be irritating.   It usually happens when you have done something to a factory or profile and not save it yet! 
• The user interface needs a huge amount of cleanup.  It feels like an amateur wrote this code in terms of attention to detail and to the standards that one should expect from professionally developed software.   Some examples include, but are not limited to, the following (yes they are minor but I paid for this software and the free stuff that I am used to was, in many cases, less sloppy):
• Don't expect the tab key to take you to the next field on the form.  
• Don't expect a double click on a list to result in an implicit enter.
• Don't expect things to be remembered like the name of the profile that you have just loaded and want to save again.
• There are also features missing that really feel like oversights or flaws as opposed to things that we should have to wait for (again, examples, not a complete list):
• Button or menu item that causes models to be updated without removing and re-adding them (see Cura for an example)
• The processing model is great but it would be really nice if it would maintain order, or allow an option for order to be maintained, as this can be useful when doing dual color prints.  I know this might fly in the face of their optimizer which is why I suggest it as an option.
• Finally, there is functionality that I think should be there for a relatively expensive alternative to the world of free software:
• Explicit handling for multi material prints (not support, that is there).
• A built-in calibration process would be really ground breaking and could be a reason for some people to purchase for no other reason.

So am I happy to have bought Simplify3D?  Yes.  Though it sometimes frustrates me, I would probably still do it again.   Can I unreservedly recommend it?   Nope.   It is close to being really good.   Really great is attainable.   Some investment is needed. 

Duplicator 4S Print Quality - Simplify3D Profile

I am still tuning the Ultimaker 2 for best possible print quality but meanwhile the Wanhao Duplicator 4S is doing quite well.   Better than the Ultimaker 2 (which is close but still not where I want it to be)?  Who would have thunk it? I am sure that I will get there on the Ultimaker but for now thought that I would share these images.

This version of the #3DBenchy was done at 150 microns at a high quality generating speed of 30mm/s.  It may not be totally perfect but I am willing to call it close enough.

Here is a summary of the things that I have done to get the printer to the point of being able to print the above model.

Hardware

 

You may be able to print fine details in ABS without a fan but I am happy to use one as I think it makes things more reliable if nothing else.   The trick is to use a highly directed duct such as the one that I am using and is described elsewhere in this blog.

Slicer Settings

Of course!   The first area to focus on is temperature.   The lowest possible where you can still print reliably.  The second area that I spent a lot of time on was bridging.   I did a lot of tests to come up with the amount of filament to extrude without sagging and the speed at which it makes it from end to end without breaking and with adhesion to the ends.  

Finally, speed kills (quality).   The slower you go the better.   I us Simplify3D and I believe the default profile for the Duplicator 4S has speed set to 3600mm/m (or 60mm/s).  This is too fast even for draft work in my experience (strings).   The above print was done at 1800mm/m (or 24mm/s).  

Simplify3D Profile for Left Extruder - Right Extruder

Two notes on the above.  First, your results will vary!  This is what makes 3D printing so much fun (or frustrating).  Printer to printer and filament to filament and sometimes it seems day to day!  The other note is in regards to the left extruder.  If you are new to a dual extruder setup using Simplify3D see this blog entry.

Here are the profile settings if you don't have Simplify3D and don't want to wade through the FFF files.  There are also some notes below as to when I mess with some of these parameters.

Generally this setup works fine.  I do occasionally find a model were the wipe helps.  On some it hurts.

Some models call for two shells and two is usually enough...but occasionally three shells can look better (for example in hiding infill patterns)!

First layer of plastic goes down at 225 then we start dropping to our ultimate goal of 210.  You don't want to go there directly as the firmware will badly undershoot and leave you with no plastic being extruded.

First layers need heat to stick but after that it can result in a print with an elephant foot  (90 degrees should be enough to stck but hopefully not enough to melt).

The fan that I have on this printer is not hooked up to mother board.  For some reason Wanhao only started shipping their motherboards with the fan enabled.  Mine is not so I wired a fan from the power supply via a switch on the bottom of the printer.  In reality I run it 100% of the time unless I am really paying attention to the startup of a print.   That configuration renders the above page largely useless but for the top right corner where it becomes very important.  If you are doing a small print, or a large one with a pointy top, you want things to slow down.  Maybe even more that what I have here!

Decide on a speed here.  1200 to 3000.  I generally do drafts at 3000 but anything in anger at 1200-1800.  Couple this with thinking about the minimum layer time.

Don't usually mess with this page.

Zebra Stripes