New to printing

[Silentdoom]

Hey everyone! Just got my Orion yesterday and boy is it awesome! Printed out a test print then started using some of my own designs. I have a question though. When I went to print the test vase, the nozzle seemed to be touching the bed when printing the skirt. No abs could be extruded and some of the glue stick glue started building on the nozzle. Does this mean I need to adjust the screws to adjust the z-height? I'm kind of scared to do this, so I would really appreciate any help!

I also noticed: when heating, a little abs is extruded and if not removed, will be eventually added to the design. Should I just make sure I remove this before the print starts?

Thanks guys and like the title says, I'm new! I'm learning new stuff everyday and I am loving this new hobby!

I would like to buy solidworks, but don't have $3,000 to spend. Any suggestions for a Mac user?

Thanks again everyone

[johnoly99]

Congrats Silentdoom! That's a great looking first print for you!

As for the z height, there are two ways to adjust that. The first is, if the nozzle is starting too low, turn ALL 3 screws in (down) equally on the carriages. Reverse the direction for a too-high nozzle condition.

The second way is, connect to the machine with repetier host per the quick start guide, and click on the home button in manual control tab. After the machine homes (you can also type G28 and then enter), jog the nozzle down to the table until it JUST BARELY touches the table. Then in the g code box type M251 S2 and press enter. This stores the new Z height to the board as well

ENjoy your new machine, and show us what you design with it!!!

[Nylocke]

I use Autodesk Inventor Fusion, you can get it for free in the Mac Store. Or if you prefer programming, you can use OpenSCAD, which is programming based where you describe an object and the positions of its components in code.

[Silentdoom]

Thanks for the replies! Going to my Orion now to hook it up to the Macbook. I have a few successful prints so far. I was blown away with how great the test print looked. Can't wait to learn more about all these new-to-me softwares and thanks for making such a great machine!

[cope413]

You can find solidworks in the torrent world without much searching if you're so inclined.

[brbubba]

All of the Autodesk products are free for students, so Inventor is a very good option. Pretty sure the only requirement is a .edu email address. Solidworks also has a student edition, but it if I recall it costs ~$100. I highly recommend either of these solutions over something like Sketchup, which I find almost unusable coming from using Inventor for 4 years.

[dpmacri]

You can find solidworks in the torrent world without much searching if you're so inclined.

That would be "stealing" Just because something is easily available to be stolen doesn't make it right to do so.


Back to the original question, I've found FreeCAD to be nice to work with when designing parts. It doesn't behave nicely on the Mac (modifier keys (CTRL, CMD, ALT) for mouse movements don't seem to work), but if you're entering data that may need tweaking, as a parametric modeler it's been fairly functional for me. Things could certainly be improved, but the price is right

[geneb]

It's actually copyright infringement, not theft. (according to the supreme court anyway, but what do they know...)

g.

[dpmacri]

It's actually copyright infringement, not theft. (according to the supreme court anyway, but what do they know...)

g.

Yes, technically you're correct. So "morally" it's equivalent to stealing, and "legally" it's copyright infringement which is still against the law and could cost you dearly

[geneb]

Agreed. I just object to the term "theft" as it's not only incorrect, but used as an emotional lever by copyright maximalists to push people's buttons.

g.

[Silentdoom]

I'm liking these forums! More action than I expected lol

Ok, so I connected to repetier host last night and couldn't figure out how to move the extruder down in the software. Anyone who uses a Mac and Windows know if the Mac version is missing features? Or was I supposed to manually jig it down?

Woke up today with a very nice print. I had some layers fall that we're horizontal without support beneath. Just kind of messing with all kinds of stuff to test out the limitations. Had the same problem, where the skirt couldn't extrude and the first layer of the print was missing(tried to make, but nothing was coming out). I'm guessing that will be fixed with z-height adjustments.

[dpmacri]

I use a Mac, but haven't used the Windows version. However, just based on the pictures in Gene's manual, I believe the GUI in the Mac version isn't as fancy for moving the print head around. The Windows version appears to have graphical arrows. The Mac version just has the number buttons next to the X/Y/Z axis that you click to get the same effect. Per my understanding the Windows GUI looks like this (Gene, I screen captured this from your manual. Hopefully that's not "Theft" or "Copyright Infringement" per the Creative Commons License ):

Windows movement GUI

The Mac GUI for the same operations looks like this:

Mac movement GUI

[Nylocke]

You can get Inventor Pro free for 3 years with the student license, and there's no need for this ".edu" email address, I just used my gmail one, of course I am a student though

[lordbinky]

EGADS, that barely counts as a GUI. I guess just be happy they ported it to MAC, but it looks like they did it under protest or at the least very grudgingly.

[Eaglezsoar]

EGADS, that barely counts as a GUI. I guess just be happy they ported it to MAC, but it looks like they did it under protest or at the least very grudgingly.

I agree with you, to call that a GUI screen is laughable. I am not a programmer but to me it seems like they could just redo the same Gui from the Windoze version. Makes me glad
(for once) that I am using windows.

[Durandal]

I'll also beat a dead horse and add Solid Edge, from Siemens. The student version is free, not sure if you need a .edu email or not. It does need the license updated yearly, but hey, it's free.

I'm not sure if it's still going on, but Dassault (academy.3ds.com) was offeriing Catia student for free till sometime this month, usually it's $99. You need a scan of a proof of school registration (tution bill, student ID, etc...) but you do get what you pay for.

Frankly though, for the average user, who likes to build in GUI with parametric tools, FreeCAD should be their first choice. It's completely open so you can export to neutral CAD formats and create blueprints without "STUDENT" watermarks, for free. If you're not going to be making a living with it it is the logical choice.

[Silentdoom]

Thanks Durandal!
I do have an .edu address so I'm going to try those out tonight! Still haven't downloaded freeCAd and that seems to be most common? Lol

Got my z-height all working with slic3r, so now I'm just trying to figure out which setting work best with different things. I was connecting to the virtual printer before, which was dumb...

[Silentdoom]

Hopefully this doesn't upload sideways. I think it's looking pretty great! I've been trying to print small yoda heads to use as a monopoly piece, but I'm having problems with warping. Any suggestions for small pieces? I thought maybe I should place a couple on the build surface, so each layer could have time to cool? Might try that now!