Simplify3D User Forum

I wish\request the ability print a solid diaphragm at a given layer. Or more than one layer preferably: A field that allows me to enter any number of layers to do a solid diaphragm in.

This is to help with the chimney\flat roof problem. Which I will exaggerate here, but it will make the point clear. This is also shown in the S3D troubleshooting guide here: https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... or-corners
* Pretend you're printing a house with a flat roof, and a chimney in the middle sticking straight up. Or a big cube, with a little cube on top, both touching.
* You're printing with zero infill.
* When it comes to print the roof of the house, S3D will make a hole under the chimney in the process (because it's a solid volume suitable for 3d printing). But since there is no infill, the roof layer will completely fail in the middle as it doesn't have the ability to create a complete bridge across (due to the hole made for the chimney.
* Chimney falls into the house (figuratively and literally)

Ok, so you can add infill of course. But you'll still encounter this issue on the perimeter of the chimney where it doesn't overlap with the underlying infill. Happens to me all the time: You get these gaps\holes at the corners of the chimney where it touches the roof. The only real solution provided is to both up the infill, and up your 'roof layers' in the software to compensate. Which is wasteful for a number of reasons. It would be nice if the software itself detected for these issues and auto-added the underlying internal supports, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

If you could simply specify that at "layer 239" to have a solid diaphragm printed, it would solve this: It would print a completely solid layer just before the chimney starts, and the whole problem goes away.

I do have a workaround for this: I found (what I would consider) a bug in the software, documented here:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3658
The issue is, whenever you make multiple processes, S3D always inserts a solid diaphragm between them. So, If I start splitting my processes up to start\stop at the chimney line, the software handles this solid diaphragm for me. But this is incredibly clunky.

So again a request, probably in the Layer tab, to specify which layers could be printed completely solid. That'd be awesome!

There's an option on the Infill tab that allows you to "include solid diaphragm every XXX layers"

And as you mentioned, you can also use multiple processes. It only puts solid layers between the processes if you tell it to. For example, you could disable the bottom solid layers of the top process if you didn't want any floors at the intersection. But I find that these solid layers actually help bond the 2 sections together.

There's an option on the Infill tab that allows you to "include solid diaphragm every XXX layers"

I don't want one every 100 layers (for example), I want one on layer 45, 205, 1739, etc, so that option doesn't fill the need.

It only puts solid layers between the processes if you tell it to

Sure, like I already said you can use the mult-process setup. It's just clunky compared to just having a number field letting you fill in the specific layers you want this to happen.

For example, say you're printing some crazy architectural model, that has 50 different flat roofs at different layers that will expose this problem (or say, a the Pyramid of Giza). You'd need to create 50 processes to hack around it. And then when the model changes during iteration, you have to redo all that process work. Or if you decide you want to change a print setting, you're changing it in 50 processes. While it'd still be a pain to have to deduce and enter in 50 numbers (per the request) for the solid diaphragms, it's still far less work than making and modifying 50 layers.

I exaggerate, I'm not sure I'd run into this based on what I print, but this is work the robots should do, not humans.
Thus the 'feature request'

AK_Eric wrote:Or if you decide you want to change a print setting, you're changing it in 50 processes.

That's what grouped processes are for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbQfifnzL4Q

JoeJ wrote: That's what grouped processes are for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbQfifnzL4Q

That's a cool feature I didn't know about, thanks. But it still doesn't save me from making 50 different processes to begin with, would just make editing them all concurrently technically easier.

+1 to this request, would love to have similar "Setpoint" option to print solid layers at specific layer(s).

+1 as well. I would appreciate this option.

v4.0 does not add layers in between processes like it used to. This seems to be a bug which needs to be fixed!
I also vote that we have the option to add a solid diaphragm at x,y,z layers.

Peter Stoneham wrote: ↑Thu Aug 09, 2018 12:20 am v4.0 does not add layers in between processes like it used to. This seems to be a bug which needs to be fixed!
I also vote that we have the option to add a solid diaphragm at x,y,z layers.

Thanks for your additional feedback. The solid layers between two processes which are directly matched up against one another being removed was intentional. You can replicate this older behavior using the variable settings wizard to create a third process for the area where you wish for solid layers and set the solid diaphragm interval to every 1 layer(s). This in-between process will then be printed solid as it was in 3.1.1

You can replicate this older behavior using the variable settings wizard to create a third process for the area where you wish for solid layers and set the solid diaphragm interval to every 1 layer(s).

That's a very, very messy way of getting a solid layer at a defined layer. A half way house between the functionality of versions 3.1.1 and 4.0 would be a much better solution!

What about this as a way forward....whenever the Variable Settings wizard is used to create multiple profiles, the number of top & bottom layers settings for the interface between profiles are zeroed out. And if a solid layer is then needed, the user can add either top or bottom layers back in at will!