Slicing Best Practices: Generating Gcode
First make sure you have the right profile for your material.
This tutorial goes through the main points to achieve successful prints quickly and easily. It’s best practice to evaluate the 3D model for the following features and enable slicer settings as follows when necessary.
Besides this, there are tens or more than a hundred slicer settings that are adjustable. However, we recommend using the default settings in general. The settings provided by us work in 99% of cases.
Infill
The infill of an object impacts the length of printing time and the strength of the material. On one hand, a higher infill percentage increases the strength of the part, while on the other hand, a lower infill percentage decreases the length of printing time. You can increase or decrease the infill percentage by using the slider. It is important to note how the infill affects the print time.
Part Orientation
The printing time length is affected by the following points:
- Orientation of the object.
- As in examples [1] & [2], only by rotating the object, does printing time reduces drastically.
- Remove unnecessary support. [3]
- Infill percentage. [5] & [4]
- In big parts, decreasing the infill percentage reduces printing time significantly.
Support Type
Supports are created to support parts that have large overhangs. There are two types of support:
- Support Type: From Build plate only [1]
- This type of support is created only from the bed to the supported area.
- Support Type: Normal [2]
- In the normal support type, support is created both from the bed plate and from the part itself to the supported area.
- Support leaves marks on the part after removing it.
- If possible, it is best to minimize the supported area.
- By changing the orientation of the object. If by changing the orientation, the overhang angle can be reduced to under 55 degrees, there is no need to generate support.
- On the right side of the page icon, you can generate support manually and remove unnecessary supports. [3]
- As shown in Figure [4], it’s not necessary to have support if the overhang angle is not bigger than 55 degrees.
Supports - Sharp Corners Facing the Print Bed
Make sure the part is oriented so that there is a stable point to start printing. Usually, it is the largest straight surface area of the 3D model. If no flat spots are available in the model, it is possible to drop the model inside the plate to create such a spot or modify the model in CAD software to include flat spots. Generally, it is problematic to start a print from a sharp corner because the slicing software may not recognize them properly as a starting layer. By adjusting the Z offset (double
Raft
It is recommended to use a raft on parts. It highly helps to remove the part from the bed easily. The crucial point of the raft is the separation distances of the part from the raft. The default value for XPLA is 0.08mm, and it is readily set in the printing profiles. Lowering the value makes the part stick more to the raft, and increasing the value makes the part less stick to the raft.
Thin Walls and Complex Parts
In cases of thin wall models, you need to inspect the model in the preview of Simplify3D. As shown in Figure 1, gaps may form between the walls. Gaps are formed when there are not enough spaces to draw another line. The software doesn’t detect the missing material. Most of the time, decreasing the perimeter amount will fill the gaps [2].
Seam-line
Retraction at the start and end points creates a seam line. It is possible to make a visually less impact by placing it on the sharpest corner or unfocused side of the object. Put the value of X and Y coordinate where it is most suitable places for the seam. Printing one object at a time helps to reduce the number of retractions and as a result, makes a less visible seam-line.
Key Points
- If you make changes to settings, save it as a new profile. Do not update default settings.
- You can always re-import the original .fff profiles if there is some mistake in settings.