Another Post on 3D Print Quality

Here are some more examples of the relationship between layer height (resolution) and visual print quality:

0.4 - 17 Minutes to Print

0.3 - 30 Minutes to Print

0.25 - 37 Minutes to Print

0.20 - 46 Minutes to Print

0.15 - 1 Hour to Print

0.10 - 1 Hour and 20 Minutes to Print

And here is the entire assembly printed at with a layer height of 0.25 and then the difference at 0.15:

0.25 - 2:50 to Print

0.15 - 5:21 to Print

And finally, the difference that speed can make.  In general slower is always better.  On some prints this will be very obvious and on others less so.  I consider speeds of above 35mm/sec as acceptable and below that as very good.  While a printer may be able to achieve 50mm/sec or better there will be challenges with material feed and other quality issues.   If you don't understand something that looks weird with a print...try slowing down.

Here are some examples of a speed artifact using the same model as above:

At 1500mm/min (25mm/sec)

At 3000mm/min (50mm/sec)

This is called "Ringing" and there is a good description of it here on the Visual Ultimaker 2 Troubleshooting Guide.   As you can see, speed was the problem, and the solution.