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Solidwork's Compatibility For Printing Model Files?

rhoward

Hot Rolled
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Location
Everett, WA, USA
Well I am getting closer to taking the plunge to buy a decent desktop printer. I will be designing my virtual models using Solid Works or possibly Rhino software but know nothing about compatibility between the design model files and what the printer needs to see. I think that the design models are "sliced" using another software that the printer recognizes but know little about that either. So can someone please tell me what questions to ask the printer manufacturer before I buy so that I get something that is usable for me? Thanks.

BTY, this is the printer I am considering:
https://www.matterhackers.com/store/printer-kits/seemecnc-rostock-max-v2-3d-printer-kit-complete-kit

Randy
 
Well I am getting closer to taking the plunge to buy a decent desktop printer. I will be designing my virtual models using Solid Works or possibly Rhino software but know nothing about compatibility between the design model files and what the printer needs to see. I think that the design models are "sliced" using another software that the printer recognizes but know little about that either. So can someone please tell me what questions to ask the printer manufacturer before I buy so that I get something that is usable for me? Thanks.

BTY, this is the printer I am considering:
https://www.matterhackers.com/store/printer-kits/seemecnc-rostock-max-v2-3d-printer-kit-complete-kit

Randy

Your CAD software will need to export a .STL file. Most any software can/will. It's a very old file type in general. Most complete prints will come with software for slicing the model - others may suggest getting your own. Slic3r is popular. There are others out there but I've never tried. My little toy 3d Printer came with it's own software (XYZPrinting daVinci Jr [el-cheapo]) and it was as easy as can be. It's just limited to PLA for material, and to approx 6" cube print volume. Quality, though, has been on par with what I've seen in expensive FFF/FDM printers, so that's neat.

Your slicing software will be important in tuning your programs. That's what actually makes the "g-code program" based on the model. Fancier software will have settings to dwell between layers, to let the plastic cool before laying the next layer - to print the first layer thicker/thinner for better bed adhesion, and other random things I've only read about.

I'd check out some forums and see what current discussion there is about your printer. Try Reddit /r/3dPrinting and such subs, as well as discussion forums on any 3dprinting websites. I learned a lot that way. Part of the reason I bought a $275 printer, though, was to "learn by doing" and if I decide to buy a $3,000 printer later, I'll know have a much more educated background. So that's the only reason I've learned what I have about FFF machines in the last 6 months. Before this, I mostly only had education/experience as a consumer of 3dprint services from others - mostly SLS/SLM/DMLS. Other than a couple old Z-corp inkjet, powder bed 3d printers, anyways.
 
FWIW the higher-class your printer, the bigger the filesize it will slice and execute. Solid Works will convert a model to .stl format in the resolution of your choice, so the bigger the file your printer can handle the more accurate and detailed your output will be, and the smoother its surface. That is ultimately subject to the limitation of deposited layer thickness, which is the important "rating" of the printer.

The Stratasys Objet30 we bought in December requires a host computer to "drip-feed" the data to the printer's computer. So the investment is ultimately a good deal more than just buying the printer. In fact, there's a check list you have to sign off before they will do your installation--including a phone in the room, individual UPSs for printer and host computer, and a Halatron fire extinguisher, if you can believe that. But it has been printing merrily away making the masters for foundry patterns and coreboxes and I am very pleased with the results. It's depositing 30-micron (abt .0013) layers, which is fine enough that hand finishing is about one-tenth the amount of work involved in finishing a model with .005 layers (like a filament deposit). Max filesize is supposed to be 150MB. I have yet to run anything bigger than 15MB and that took 30+ hours to print. Theoretically it will run until it runs out of polymer, at which point it will prompt you to replace the cartridge and you can resume printing. Also it will monitor the polymer stock and predict very accurately the amount needed for the job and how long it will take. Other options the software gives you are the choice of manual or automatic model positioning, and the ability to "shell" the model to save material (although that function seems to be limited to simple geometry; if you are doing a complex shape it is more efficient to hollow it out in SW before creating your .stl file). Don't know how much of that would be available with a budget machine.
 
Solidworks will do just fine, and that printer kit is excellent- I have two myself and once you get them calibrated (The hardest part) they're rock solid. I think I have 4000 printing hours on each as of last time checking.
Your basic workflow is going to be drawing your model in solidworks, exporting it to .stl format which converts it from a solid to a mesh that the slicer software can interpret, loading it into the slicer software, setting up your print, preheating and loading the printer, and then pressing go.

I would recommend Mattercontrol for the slicer if you want to stick with a free one, or Simplify3D if you want a kickass slicer that will noticably improve your prints and don't mind paying a bit for it. Feel free to ask me any questions about that printer and 3d printing/software in general. I've been doing this a while (I have actually built up a decent business around my machines- Now running 8 of them 24/7/365) and should be able to help you out with just about anything.
 
FWIW the higher-class your printer, the bigger the filesize it will slice and execute. Solid Works will convert a model to .stl format in the resolution of your choice, so the bigger the file your printer can handle the more accurate and detailed your output will be, and the smoother its surface. That is ultimately subject to the limitation of deposited layer thickness, which is the important "rating" of the printer.

The Stratasys Objet30 we bought in December requires a host computer to "drip-feed" the data to the printer's computer. So the investment is ultimately a good deal more than just buying the printer. In fact, there's a check list you have to sign off before they will do your installation--including a phone in the room, individual UPSs for printer and host computer, and a Halatron fire extinguisher, if you can believe that. But it has been printing merrily away making the masters for foundry patterns and coreboxes and I am very pleased with the results. It's depositing 30-micron (abt .0013) layers, which is fine enough that hand finishing is about one-tenth the amount of work involved in finishing a model with .005 layers (like a filament deposit). Max filesize is supposed to be 150MB. I have yet to run anything bigger than 15MB and that took 30+ hours to print. Theoretically it will run until it runs out of polymer, at which point it will prompt you to replace the cartridge and you can resume printing. Also it will monitor the polymer stock and predict very accurately the amount needed for the job and how long it will take. Other options the software gives you are the choice of manual or automatic model positioning, and the ability to "shell" the model to save material (although that function seems to be limited to simple geometry; if you are doing a complex shape it is more efficient to hollow it out in SW before creating your .stl file). Don't know how much of that would be available with a budget machine.

It's a far different world with the pro-grade printer you're running and the consumer/hobby-grade machine rhoward is looking at buying. No max filesize on his machine, different material deposition technology, the one he is looking at is a DIY kit, an order of magnitude of price, etc.
So while for the Statasys you have your information is sound, it is not at all applicable to the machine the OP is looking at.

Of course, I'm still jealous of the stratasys :)
 
Yeah, true, mine ain't a hobby but as to the information I offered, an .stl file is still an .stl file and the more triangles the better the model--up to the printer's executable limit. Yes, it is universally true that anything you make in SW can be output in .stl format but by itself that means nothing. If you're depositing weedwacker string a vertical wall will look like a log cabin no matter what the file resolution is.
 
It's worth mentioning that weedwacker string prints quite well once you get it dialed in ;)It's a nice durable nylon and comes in lots of colors.

For the most part, the file resolution/polycount isn't a limiting factor on hobby/prosumer printers (I've fed CRAZY files into my slicer with no complaints), it's usually the motion and extrusion accuracy/calibration combined with the settings used in the slicing software and the whole thermodynamic situation that cause the quality problems. Your stratasys pretty much has that covered with a solid motion platform and a meticulously tuned slicer, along with print material of known mechanical properties. It costs far more to purchase and run, but the prints you get are likely many times better than I could ever dream of achieving with my machines. CNC-converted harbor freight mini mill vs a VMC if you will. Or apples and oranges, but fruits are lame.
 
It's worth mentioning that weedwacker string prints quite well once you get it dialed in ;)It's a nice durable nylon and comes in lots of colors.

"Weedwacker string" is just slang for the filament deposition process, I didn't mean it literally, although I suppose you could use it.

Although I get that this particular forum is inevitably going to be dominated by hobbyists building their own machines and/or proudly claiming dimensional accuracy of freeform fruit bowls and busts of Yoda, PM is at least nominally about industrial applications. An important use of 3D printing is the creation of masters for foundry patterns and coreboxes, which happens to be what I use it for. The reason I got a fine-layer polymer-jet machine is because all my previous masters were output by a Stratasys filament machine and I had to spend weeks working my fingers to the bone filling and sanding. The reason vertical or near-vertical walls have to be free of horizontal discontinuities is simply that they will catch sand and wreck the mold. If the master is to be, per common practice, reproduced in a very tough material like urethane for actual use in making sand molds, and the master is not perfectly slick, then somebody will have to smooth out the urethane working pattern, and will have to do it every time the working pattern is reproduced--either for replacement due to wear, or for multiple patterns on one board. I have no idea what the OP's ultimate plans are, but your comments are a lot like telling somebody who's looking at machine tools that he'll never need anything better than a Grizzly.

Just because you can gas-weld with coat hangers and paint a car with a brush doesn't make those methods commercially viable.
 
Hello

There seems to be two groups on this forum.
Those that want a 3D printer to learn on, and those that have got past that phase and have invested in an expensive and capable industrial grade printer.

At the moment, I am in the 1st group.
 








 
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