Questions about Slic3r?

[Fastest1]

A few in my case is an understatement. Btw what kind of bridging speeds are you running? I changed my kernel speed to 45. I can only seem to obtain about v2800/a300-450 without stalling. Same at either kernel setting. Anyway doesnt that make my maximum print speed only 46.66mm/sec?

[Leeway]

I think that does limit your speed to whatever your motor tuning settings are. In reality though, it rarely achieves the top speeds during a print or cut depending on the machine.
I run my bridges at 90 so far. Still increasing that a bit when I get a chance. That is with ABS. I haven't ran PLA for a couple weeks and don't recall what they were, but they were lower than that and looked better than ABS so far.

[Fastest1]

What kind of printer are you running? An H1? I wonder if computers themselves have some say within Mach. How are you getting 90 without stalling or is that just the setting and it is never realized? What is your velocity setting for your x & y axis"

[Leeway]

This is a Prusa. The setting certainly effect how fast these are printing the bridges, just not sure if they actually get up to that speed. I am using Pronterface for this machine. I have three other cnc machines that run on Mach. The printer I am designing will run on Mach as well. Just so much more you can currently do with Mach over Pronterface. That isn't to say it doesn't work well. It does. I just miss DRO's and jogging with keys and motor tuning etc. etc. etc....

The computer will absolutely have an effect on Mach, but if you run a driver test and it is fairly smooth, No tall spikes, then it should do well enough. Also insure that the computer is optimized for Mach.
There is a list at the Mach website for that.

[Fastest1]

It passed the driver test fine and yes I did do all of the optimization steps. I too have a few machines running Mach. I thought I had some idea of how it worked but I seem just as confused as ever. This very machine (in a milling configuration on the old PC) was running much faster before it died which is what prompted the new (er) computer. I just didnt think that a different PC might have a different effect on maximum speeds or stalling. I am still not sure. Is that what you are saying? It is an Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz with a gig of RAM running Xp SP3. Dell Optiplex GX280. My old PC was a PowerSpec but I dont remember the specs. It did have a gig of RAM but that is all I remember.

[Leeway]

There were some issues with some of the older model Dell computers and Mach, but I think yours may be newer than those. It is plenty big enough to run Mach. Also if it is running all the motors smoothly, then it is doing all it can. I know that backlash comp has some odd quirks and really messes with speed settings. Other oddities I recall too, just don't recall precisely what they were. I haven't ever tried Backlash comp. Never needed it on my other machines. Those all use either precision ground or double nut rolled ball screws, so are good enough without BLC.

This Prusa I have has spring loaded nuts on Z, so is pretty good there. I have store bought timing pulleys on the X and Y belts, and they show little backlash as well. Good thing, because Pronterface has no BLC.

[Fastest1]

Lee, I ran some back to back tests with and without backlash comp with a few different prints. I see no differrence in the operation and very little if any in the results. Most of my mediocre results seem to caused by speed. Btw I did have an issue with skewing when I originally used BC on the printer. Now that I look back, my tuning was loosing steps (quickly). I have mills and lathes that do have some backlash and Mach does a great job dealing with it. There are varied opinions on its operation but it works. All my screws on this printer are spring loaded Kerks. I am only getting like a .02mm. I have some videos of my machine at incredible speeds with its milling head on and I am amazed the printer has issues with speed or lost steps. I just cant help but wonder would the PC itself have an effect on lost steps? I was under the impression that changing the kernel speed within Mach was really to be used if more step pulses per second was needed. Hence why I was reluctant to change it for the printer. This mill/printer when set in inches at 1/8th step was like 8000 steps per unit however my Dyna lathe takes 101000 steps for the same distance traveled. I can see why kernel speed would need to be changed for the lathe but not the mill/printer (if you needed more speed). Does this make sense? Does the kernel speed selected have any bearing on stalling or missed steps? How about the step and direction pulse length? Mine are presently set on 2. Would a longer signal lessen the loss? I had just bought 3 of these old Dell's to replace the broken PC and to have an extra or 2. They were cheap.

[Leeway]

I know that increased kernel speed will allow you to set your overall speed higher, but whether the motors can actually go higher is up to the machine.
If you can set the motors to stall now with a lower kernel freq., then higher likely won't help.
Pulse strength can vary between drives I think. My Gecko's like 2 as well.
Short of some tweaking and adding voltage or current to bring your motors closer to max they can use, stalling will still occur even with higher kernels.
You might be able to tweak the axes as well to get higher speeds.

I'll also say that my ABS speeds are quite a bit lower than my PLA speeds. Another issue that makes Pronterface collide with my Mach 3 knowledge is that it's only in MM. All my Mach machines are in inches. While it is easy to figure some things out in MM, translating the speeds from IPM to MM/ sec in my head just ain't viable yet.

[Fastest1]

You were the one who made speeds painfully obvious to me! I was under the impression (maybe false) that the printers were to be set up in mm but I see a few now setting them up in inches. I really see no difference more than personal familiarity. I do know I make mistakes during the conversions! Anyway for some reason (maybe my gibs are too tight or tighter than they were as I did a tune up last week) my loss of steps keeps me from obtaining a theoretical max of 43mm/sec. Hopefully it will be fast enough for decent bridging. I did build a cooling fan duct to help cool the print. We will see later today how that works. The duct itself came out fair. Injection molders dont need to worry about their job security just yet.

[timothysvec]

Greatings,

I'm just starting out. I'm doing my drawing's in solidworks. When I drag them into slicer they need to be rotated. But I can only get them to rotate on the x y plane. How can I get my drawing to rotate on the z. Or maybe, to better explain myself. Slicer is showing the top view and i see how to rotate from there. But how do I rotate from the front view. And how can I view a front view in slicer?

Also, I am getting a warning. "the imput file is not manifold near edge 0.000000-1.0000000 You might want to check the resulting g-code before printing."

[timothysvec]

ok, I just did a doughnut in solidworks in the front plane and it went into slicer great. But does slicer have like x form rotate like in mastercam x?

also, I'm using the latest version of slice3r.

[BuffaloTree]

Im running slic3r, trying to print a case for my friends phone however, it does not generate code for the bottom layer any suggestions on how i might have set it up wrong.
what Im trying to print: http://www.thingiverse.com/t[attachment ... hing:40479