Comprehensive Guide for Improved Print Quality

[bananaman]

New in the support area, this very good . Thanks Simplify, it has increased my understanding of the program's many features even more, what is really good is seeing how to apply them to real examples.
I've been struggling with a strange localised underextrusion problem that after a kg of plastic I've nailed a fix. I have many beautifully formed and accurate test pieces laying around, but it didn't fix the issue. A combination of inceremental changes to extrusion speed, retract distance and extra restart has fixed it. I got around to doing that last, if the guide had been out a few weeks ago it may have helped get to the solution faster.

[reddadsteve]

+1
Great guide. Over time, we all seem to slowly learn by trial and error and scanning forums looking for answers. This puts a lot of troubleshooting in one place. Well written.

One item I'd like to highlight (slightly covered in the guide). I use ABS exclusively and had issues on various occasions that were solved by turning on my extruder fan for cooling. Typically we are told that ABS needs to cool slowly for better bonding. For smaller pieces, thin overhangs and some curves I've found that enabling the cooling fan is a tremendous help.

Keep up the good work S3D!

Steve

[erniehatt]

where can I find this guide.

[Sovereign]

where can I find this guide.

Here it is.

Here's an addition I can recommend from personal experience for the "Print not sticking to bed" section.

"Hovering" model
Make sure your model's base is actually flat. The larger the contact area with the bed, the more important this is! It is possible for Simplify3D to create files that have part of a print a very small distance above the print surface (0.1-0.2mm) due to the model's shape. It will not attempt to generate supports in these cases, nor will adding manual supports fix the problem.

Visual demonstration of issue described.

Imagine the distance between the yellow (flat) and black (slightly angled) is 0.1mm--or less! The only way to make this print without one side failing to stick and turning into spaghetti is either to rotate the model to rest flat (S3D tries to do this on its own) or create some extension/extrusion from the model to a mathematically-known flat surface (some complex shapes do not have a single flat surface, requiring you to create one) .