MC on Mac not slicing as expected. Help.



  • Ok. New to owning my own printer here, so bare with me. Micromake Delta D1 if it matters. Have been running test prints for a few days now, and some seem to work just fine and others not so much. I think Ive got the setting dialed in pretty good so not sure what I'm doing wrong. Example. As a test, I really wanted to print something solid to see what it would look like. Cant seem to do it no matter how hard I try. Doesn't seem to matter what stl file I pick, it always wants to print the thing hollow. As a test, I drew a 1 inch cube in Sketchup and exported as STL. It didn't seem to matter how much infill I used or the thickness of the walls. The view generated by Matter Slicer would go up about 1/4 of the way and then all of a sudden its back to printing a single extrusion as the wall thickness again, and then it gets to the top, and there's no top. Just a hollow square box with a really thick bottom and really thin walls.

    Next up was the same cube, but with .25" walls on all 6 sides, yielding a hollow cube of 1/2" square inside. Same basic results as before. Thick base, thin walls, and this time no hollow cube inside OR a top. What gives? I've been doing 3d stuff in Sketchup and sending it off to places like Shapeways and iMaterilaize for a few years now and things like this just never cropped up. What I drew was what I got back. Granted, the hollow cube would have had to have been modified to let the extra powder escape out, but that seem moot at this time. Is there some basic tenet of 3d printing I have just been overlooking and these other companies have just gone ahead and printed/ fixed the error? I really don't get it.

    If I draw something solid, I want it printed solid. If I wanted a 2mm thick shell, thats the way I would have drawn it. How do I get around this? Can I?

    I'd love to upload the two stl files for others to try, but I don't see where I can do that here. Pics or videos, yes, but not files in general.

    Somebody help me wrap my head around this, please. Thanks.


    -Mark



  • We'd have to see the STL file(s) to which you're referring to make a call. The issues you describe could be due to any number of possible causes and I'd prefer not to speculate.

    In addition to the STL(s), you might also share your slice settings so we can try to recreate the problem: http://wiki.mattercontrol.com/Send_Debugging_Information#Other_Useful_Files

    I suggest you use Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar file-sharing service to share the files.



  • Ok. Thanks. Here ya go.

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70302345/cube%...


    Not sure if the .slice files are what you were referring to, but they are there as well. I welcome any input.

    As an addendum, after all this happened, I tried one more time with a different file, dl'd from Thingiverse, and the print head proceeded as normal for about about 5 seconds and then crashed into the bed. no warning, no nothing. Happened so fast I didn't have a chance to cancel the print. Reset everything and homed the head and then all of MC crashed. no error message, no log report, nothing. Running a mac with os X Mavericks, btw.


    -Mark



  • The crash sounds like an unrelated issue, but you can possibly generate an error report if you run the program using the method outlined in this article and it crashes again.

    The .slice files were indeed what I was asking for, and based on those and your previous post I think you're just a little confused about the process of modeling for 3D printing.

    You don't model infill or thickness of walls in Sketchup, at least with any regard to how MatterControl will slice the model; that's done by the slicer in MatterControl. In Sketchup all you're doing is shaping the actual model you want. MatterControl takes the complete model and generates the infill and everything else to make the printed object look like the model you made in Sketchup.

    For a solid model (100% infill), you'll set the Fill Density setting to 100%: http://wiki.mattercontrol.com/Settings/General/Infill/Infill/Fill_Density

    I suggest you take some time to look through the slice settings information pages to get a better idea of what you have control over in MatterControl: http://wiki.mattercontrol.com/Settings



  • I'm well aware of not modeling infill but what do you mean by not modeling thickness? Say I have a dome shape, or upside down bowl. Its 6 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick, yielding effectively an inner dome that is 5 1/2 inches in diameter. I most certainly have to draw that inner dome shape in any other 3d printing application other than FDM, otherwise I have a completely solid shape with no bowl like structure inside. Am I misunderstanding you?

    Attached is a drawing. Assume they are revolved into completely 3d bowls. If the wall thickness is less than 1/8" on the left piece, and there is no infill, there will be an air gap in-between the inner and outer shell. Correct? If I make it over 1/8" wall thickness, and no infill, essentially it is solid, right? Would this be the same result of having a .4mm wall thickness (nozzle diameter) and 100% infill?

    For the image on the right. What would you make the settings to have it be solid? Minimal wall and 100% infill?


    -Mark




  • What I mean by not modeling thickness refers to perimeters (also known as shells) which you mentioned in your original post and confused me. I realize now that you were describing the actual model thickness, not the perimeters.

    Looking back again at the settings you sent over, it looks like I missed before that you had Spiral Vase switched on, which explains the hollow cubes and is the reason only the sides of the model were being generated. You'll want to turn that off.

    In addition, your Perimeters was set to 4mm which is unnecessary-- I use a value of 2 or 3 (not 2mm, just 2). Not critical for success, but it stood out to me as odd.

    Sorry these didn't surface the first time I responded to the post; I skipped over much of the settings review thinking your design played a bigger part than it ultimately did.

    http://wiki.mattercontrol.com/Settings/General/Layers-Surface/Outer_Surface_-_Perimeters/Spiral_Vase

    http://wiki.mattercontrol.com/Settings/General/Layers-Surface/Outer_Surface_-_Perimeters/Perimeters



  • SON OF A .................. 🙂 Forgot I had that turned on from a previous test print. Cant believe something that simple could cause so much angst. Thanks. Ill adjust and get back to you.




  • Believe me, as daily users of the software here we all know what you mean. 🙂 I'm just disappointed in myself that I didn't see it the first time around.

    The next version will have Spiral Vase in a separate category along with Bottom Clip as one-time print options. Once the part is sliced and printed both of these settings will toggle back to off before the next print.



  • Sounds like a good idea. Went back to a PC setup temporarily. Had to get something done. Back to the Mac tomorrow and trying the Linux version after that. Anything to be on the lookout for?

    I really like the software and hope it performs as well as it looks in all guises.

    As an aside, and generally speaking, are there any settings in firmware that you know of, that may cause a printer to not work on one system over another?



Looks like your connection to MatterHackers Community was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.