Filament Diameter for Each Extruder

[guitartoys]

Hi,

I would have sworn I posted this, but can't find it. Anyhow...

I'm brandy new, and think I have most things sorted out.

However, I've got one question, with respect to defining filament diameter. In Makerbot, it allows you to define the measured diameter of each extruder (I've got a dual head FFCP), to allow you to tune up the flow for each head by adjusting the diameter accordningly.

In looking at S3D, it looks like there is only one place to define the diameter, and you use the extruder multiplier for this. However, it seems to me that in defining each filament diameter for each head, it gives me a better starting point.

But is the extrusion multiplier the way to be working with this in S3D?

Thanks.

Michael

[KeyboardWarrior]

Using the extrusion multipliers is one way to do this since it's already set for each extruder.
For extrusion multipliers; lets say you filament diameter was set to 1.75 mm, but your second nozzle used 3 mm filament. To change the extrusion multiplier for the second nozzle, I would calculate by doing the following.

Since area is pi*radius^2, pi would cancel and the extrusion multiplier needed would be scaled to be proportional to the radius's squared.

(filament diameter Other Nozzle/2)^2 / ((filament diameter Nozzle Used/2)^2)

(1.75/2)^2 / ((3/2)^2) = .340277 extrusion multiplier for your 3 mm filament nozzle.




You could also do this using two processes I believe.

[dennisjm]

I mentioned this quite some time ago as well. Filament size/cost etc is really extruder specific, not process specific.

This fits in exactly with what I was talking about here:

http://forum.simplify3d.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1820

[laird]

Using both extruders in one dual-extruder process really only works well if the two are used for nearly-identical materials (e.g. both ABS).

For different materials, I'd recommend using two processes, one for each extruder. That way you can control all of the settings for each extruder separately. I use this for printing ABS and NinjaFlex, for example, to create a part with both hard and flexible components in a single, dual-extruder print. They can even have different filament sizes, nozzles, layer heights, etc.

You use "multiple processes, continuous printing" as described in this tutorial: http://www.simplify3d.com/support/tutor ... -printing/ .

[dennisjm]

Using two processes only works ideally if you're printing different parts of the same part with different materials. If you want to instead print the support material or infill with one material and the perimeters with the other it's much more intuitive to just use one process. I can be done with two but that is a lot more work and pain in the settings than if you can just select the other extruder on the feature you want printed with the other material.

[laird]

I'm not sure how to have one process generate an object and another process generate support for that same object in S3D. How would you tackle it?

[dennisjm]

You would need to choose 0 layer permitters, 0 top layers, 0 bottom layers and 0 infill in the support process. Does support actually generate if you do that? Much easier to just choose the 2nd extruder for the support extruder in the 1st process and now that they have the settings for top support layers it's even better.

As long as your filaments are close enough, you can just modify the extruder multiplier. It is annoying when you tune a certain filament for diameter and the multiplier and then go to use it as support for another filament and they are different to have to return one or the other though to get a new multiplier. More and more I'm just setting the filament diameter to whatever the nominal diameter the manufacturer says it is (1.75 or 2.85 or 2.95 whatever) and not even measuring it with calipers, and then just tuning the multiplier until it's right. Also still waiting for the process hierarchy to get some attention though.