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Introduction
This guide will show you a set of common tools we use in the Slicer to streamline the process and to effectively maximize part and print performance.
Part Orientation
The part orientation tool, also called “lay on face” (Hotkey F) lets you select a face of the part to be on the print surface. It will highlight all the available faces, one you click the desired face, it will orientate that face to the bed.
There exists an Auto Orient tool, which typically places the largest face on the part on the bed (not always optimal). This tool can help speed things up when you have many parts.
Before auto Orient
After auto Orient
Supports
Support can be generated in several ways; the support settings can be found under the Support tab under the Process settings.
1 - Normal(auto)
Auto generates grid-like support based on profile settings.
2 - tree(auto)
Auto generates organic supports based on profile settings.
3 - normal(manual)
Manually apply grid supports
4 - tree(manual)
Manually apply organic supports
Support Recommendations
We generally recommend manual or automatic tree supports; normal (grid) supports can sometimes reduce print time on low aspect ratio parts, but tree supports are easier to remove and are more structurally sound when reaching tall, supported areas.
Automatic tree supports work in most applications, but manual tree supports can be the right solution for parts you are trying to optimize for production or parts with small overhangs (embossed/debossed text) that you want the slicer to ignore.
Support Settings
In the support tab, settings we often use are the type of support, and to have the supports restricted to be on the build-plate only.
Manual means you have to pick the faces to support, while auto will attempt to support any face over the default (30° in this case).
Snug and grid support structures are favorable when print time is a concern. Snug supports are useful as they do not protrude past the extent of the part.
Tree or organic supports use less filament but take longer to print.
Forcing the supports to be restricted to the build-plate means it will not try to generate support structures beginning on the part which can lead to blemishes.
How to use Tree(manual) supports
The Support Painting (Hotkey L) tool lets you highlight areas of the part that you want to support. You can add supporters or support blockers from using this tool.
In the tool window, we typically use the fill tool with “On overhangs only” selected and the smart fill angle set to 40. This lets you quickly highlight faces to support that are over 40° that may be prone to drooping.
When smart fill angle and highlighting overhang areas are equal, it becomes easy to select the faces you want to support.
In the example below, the green highlighted faces are selected to receive supports, the red faces will not be supported, and the off-blue face is the face on the bed.
Make sure you select Tree(manual) Process → Support → type → Tree(manual) before slicing
After Slicing we can confirm the support structure looks adequate. By default we have tree or organic supports.
Part Arrangement
When importing many parts onto a bed, a useful tool to arrange the parts is using the Arrange All Objects tool (Auto Arrange) (Hotkey A).
It has a few setting settings you can manipulate to effectively arrange the parts effectively. Default spacing is typically 10mm which is fine for most prints. When filling the bed with parts and maximizing on the build volume, you can reduce this down to around 1mm with no issues.
Part Clone and New Instance
When creating copies of part it is important to distinguish between a clone/copy and a new instance of the part. We tend to use new instance instead of a clone or copy as the modifications to the parent part are transferred to each instance.
In the Process tab, if set to “Objects”, you can see which are clones or copies, and which are new instances. In the picture below, the bed has three parts, two instances and one copy. Any modifications you make to Instance 1 will be replicated on Instance 2 but not on the clone/copy, and vise versa.
We highly recommend using instances of parts rather than clones/copies.
Process Modifications
The print process is what defines the result of the slicer. This is where you fine-tune the slicer to maximize the performance of your parts. We have tuned the default settings to be effectively for most applications. If changes are required to fit your needs, the defaults will be an effective starting point.
It is also important to understand that changes to the process can be performed on a part-to-part basis if you toggle to “Objects” from “Global”
Quality Settings
There are not many settings in the Quality Tab that we change from the default.
Strength Settings
Settings in this tab that we tend to adjust often adjust are the wall loops (perimeters), top shell layers, bottom shell layers, infill density, and infill pattern. Increase to get heavier and stronger parts, decrease to get lighter and weaker parts. To get stronger parts, it is more effective to increase then the number of walls/top/bottom layers than infill density. Diminishing returns for infill after 40%.
Its generally a good idea to increase or decrease these settings in proportion with each other.
Speed Settings
There are not many settings in the Speed Tab that we change from the default.
Support Settings
In the support tab, settings we tend to use often are the type of support, and to have to supports restricted to be on the build-plate only.
Manual means you have to pick the faces to support, while auto will attempt to support any face over the default (30° in this case).
Snug and grid support structures are favorable when print time is a concern. Snug supports are useful as they do not protrude past the extent of the part.
Tree or organic supports use less filament but take longer to print.
Forcing the supports to be restricted to the build-plate means it will not try to generate support structures beginning on the part which can lead to blemishes.
Other Settings
In the “Others” tab, generally the only setting we use is the Brim for tall parts with low contact with the bed. The mouse ear brim type is typically the most favorable.
Cut Tool
The Cut tool can be helpful for parts that are too large for the build volume and need to be broken up into multiple parts. In general we would design these parts in CAD to fit the build volume or perform the split in CAD.
Material Settings
The default material settings we have pre-configured are optimized to balance strength, accuracy and reliability, with a large emphasis on reliability.
CF-PETG
CF-PETG settings are the most mature; there's really is nothing you can play with here that will yield meaningful gains.
CF-Nylon and GF-Nylon
Reducing the max cooling (Max fan speed threshold in material settings) from the default of 30% to 20% - 10% will improve the Z-bonding at the expense of worse overhang, small feature detail, and support removal.
Increasing the print temperature can also increase part strength but at the expense of increasing the likelihood of nozzle clogging.
At elevated temperatures, the nozzle can clog after as short as 10hrs, we do not recommend playing with this to much, but bumping the first layer and print temp from [300,305]. to [305,310] can make parts stronger at the expense of reliability. Please have some spare nozzles on hand if you’re going to play with this.
Our new hot end has a longer effective melt zone and offers better nylon bonding with no clogging at the same hot end temps.