huge amount processes needed to print ONE part

[Paul Green]

Because I need a 3D-printed prototype for my graduation work I bought a Prusa i3 MK2S and Simplify3D in october this year. I have no time to play around so I bought a printer that was recommended by many people and software that everybody told me is the best you can buy.
After two months I have no problems with printing PLA, PETG and even Woodfill. After reading the SF3D troubleshooting guide and making some adjustments I have no printing issues at all. No clogging, nothing. So that is I think things should work. But they do not when it comes to software.

I have never ever used such an ill-conceived and buggy software and I really don't get how anybody can recommend Simplify3D. It's absolutely ridiculous! Does anybody who wants his prints to be durable and doesn't want to spend hours of creating an enormous amount of layers really use SF3D?!

If yes, it could be the case that I am to dumb to use it. So let's find out.
I just want to print a pole like this:

It is important, that the first and last three layers of every "spacer" is not interrupted. This increases the strength and avoids some trouble with printing in the air. As you can see in the next picture this is exactly what is happening, although "Include solid diaphragm every... layers" is checked. Support was turned off to get a better look...

To avoid this you have to create a new process. So I have to create four processes to print this part, right?! So because you have to start and stop the process at a certain hight instead of a certain layer (which would make more sense but this is characteristic for SF3D, I guess) it is a lot of clicking to find out the correct hight, even if you cut the part with the cross section tool.

I have the .factory attached so it would be great if any professional SF3D user or recommender could tell me how he/she would solve this problem and how long it took to get this file ready for printing. Thank you.

simple pole.factory

(24.36 KiB) Downloaded 178 times

P.S.: Yes I am pretty upset. I always donate some money when I use free software. If this kind of software is buggy it's absolutely no problem, because it is free. But when I have to pay 150$ and get something like SF3D, I am really pissed.

[brian442]

Ok, so you want to print part of the model with a completely solid layer that goes across the entire part, but for other parts of the model you don't want that? In that case, you'll need to use multiple processes to tell the software you want it to behave differently (thankfully S3D has this option, other programs do not).

To set it up, go to Tools > Variable Settings Wizard, then drag the slider so the red plane is located wherever you need to make the changes (in your case, on either side of the spacers) and click "Add Location". When you're done, hit OK and it will create all of the separate processes that are needed. Then just open the spacer processes and set those print a solid diaphragm every 1 layer. That will make sure every layer in that process is completely solid.

PS - the reason you were also seeing a yellow region in your earlier screenshot is because you have bridging enabled (yellow represents bridging). By default it should use bridging settings when it prints the first layer of the spacer. If you don't want that, then just set the bridging area threshold to 999 to disable it.

[dkightley]

P.S.: Yes I am pretty upset. I always donate some money when I use free software. If this kind of software is buggy it's absolutely no problem, because it is free. But when I have to pay 150$ and get something like SF3D, I am really pissed.

I would normally take up this sort of challenge and help out.......but with this "attitude" you have....no way! Sorry.

[wirlybird]

I agree Doug ... also looks like he is trying to print in thin air. Are there any supports for the "disks" that are on the pole?

[Paul Green]

@wirlybird
"Support was turned off to get a better look..."

@dkightley
Well, different people behave differently because they are different. You might be absolutely fine if you pay 150$ for software at version 4.0 which still has some bugs and one of them even crashes the software from time to time. I am one of those people who complain about things like that. And in case of this simple it took me 40 minutes to get it ready for printing while building it with Fusion360 took only 2-3 minutes. So when I tell you that printing time was only about 45 minutes you might be able to understand why I was so upset.
Just one button in the software like "do not split layers" would solve the problem of having to create an enormous amount of layers. That is how rapid prototyping works and how expensive software like SF3D should work. So that is my opinion, yours may differ.

So you might ask yourself why it took me about 40 minutes to get those processes together. Well I forgot that there is the "Variable Settings Wizard". Please read on...

@brian442
Thank you for ignoring my bad mood and helping me out!
Before buying SF3D it read those "Simplify3D Support Articles" but after several weeks it did not remember the "Variable Settings Wizard". I was using the "Cross Section Tool" to find out what I have to type in at "start printing height" and "stop printing height". Then I pushed "Prepare to print" and checked if those layers where at the point where I wanted them to be. And I did this for every new process I had to create. And this took a loooooot of time.

#####

So I guess you guys have a sixpack caused by your laughter right now.
I have and I want to apologize! Not for your sixpacks but for being just stupid.
And thanks again, brian442!